ASO for Small Countries: Using Apple's Language Table to Find Openings

Apple's localizations table gives each storefront a default language and additional supported languages. For the Nordic countries:

Ireland has English (U.K.) as default and no additional language, so one English listing covers it. Belgium has English (U.K.) as default plus Dutch and French, and the Netherlands has Dutch as default plus English (U.K.).

These rows tell you which listing the storefront shows. If no localization matches a user's language, the next most relevant localization is used, and in other countries the primary language is shown. Apple's example also says a localization displays in countries where the App Store supports that language, so a Dutch listing is not only for the Netherlands.

Each storefront has its own search results and its own summary rating. Apple says the summary rating is specific to each territory, and that ratings influence search. A new localization therefore starts with few ratings in a small country, while an English-language listing may also be competing with international apps.

There is no verified figure for how much easier a small storefront is, so measure it. LocalASO's own sample is on the small storefronts research page, but it covers 20 phrases, so use it as a prompt and not as proof:

1. Choose the language, not the country. Danish serves Denmark; Dutch serves the Netherlands and parts of Belgium. Group storefronts by language.
2. Search your top three concepts in that language in each storefront. Note how many relevant apps appear and the rating counts on the first ten.
3. Compare difficulty with your home market. Rating counts lag behind current popularity, but a top 10 full of apps with a few hundred ratings is a different fight from one with hundreds of thousands. LocalASO's difficulty uses the same rating-count signal, with 50,000 ratings as a threshold.
4. Write a minimal localized listing: name, subtitle, keywords. Add the description after you see rank.
5. Wait for propagation and check rank daily for a week.
6. Decide. If you rank on a few terms and conversion is acceptable, extend the localization. If not, stop at the minimum.

A hypothetical habit tracker, Streakly, looks at the Nordic storefronts. The table says the four countries need four local languages: Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. Swedish is the default language in Sweden, so it is the default experience there; the other three are additional languages beside English (U.K.). Streakly counts 4 localizations and starts with the one where its test search shows weakest competition, writing only name, subtitle and keyword field. If a localization leads to ranks in its first two weeks, it adds the other fields.

• Quality. A poor local listing hurts more in a small market where there is little else to compare.
• Assuming similarity. Norway and Denmark are not the same keyword set; do not copy lists across languages. See translating keywords.
• Over-reading small numbers. A rank change from 40 to 15 on a term with little search is hard to turn into downloads.

Check the storefronts you are considering on the country pages and with the localizations table. LocalASO checks keywords in 52 storefronts, each in its local language, with volume and difficulty as estimates from rating counts; see the localization docs.