ASO in the First Week After Launch: A Day-by-Day Plan

Day 0 (launch day).

• Record the baseline: rank for each tracked keyword in each target country, and the listing text as published.
• Check each localization on a device set to that language.
• Note the date and version in your change log.

Day 1.

• Allow for propagation. Apple says it may take up to 24 hours for changes to appear.
• Repeat the rank snapshot. Early rank is noisy, so look for gross problems, such as a keyword you expected to rank that does not.

Day 2 to 3.

• Open App Analytics in App Store Connect, which Apple describes as a way to measure user engagement, marketing campaigns and monetization, and note the first numbers.
• Reply to the first reviews; replies can take up to 24 hours to appear.
• Turn on the rating prompt for users who have shown engagement, not on first launch. See how to ask for ratings.

Day 4 to 5.

• Prepare product page optimization tests. They require the app to be Ready for Distribution, which is why they could not be set up before launch.
• Prepare custom product pages for the main keyword intents, and submit them: they must be approved by App Review before they are visible.

Day 6 to 7.

• Snapshot ranks again and compare with day 0.
• Review the first week's change log and decide the first change. One change only.

Almost nothing in the keyword field. Search position settles over days, and a change in the middle of the settling makes the data unreadable. Fix errors: a typo, a wrong claim, a missing localization. Use promotional text, which Apple says can be updated at any time without a new version, for news or an introductory offer.

Apple shows product page optimization results after five first-time downloads associated with the test, and custom product page metrics after at least five first-time downloads. Five is the minimum for a number to appear, not enough to decide anything. With a small launch you may have to wait several weeks.

A hypothetical habit tracker, Streakly, launches in 3 localizations and tracks 20 keywords in 3 countries: 60 ranks per snapshot. Day 0 shows it ranks for 4 of the 60. Day 1 shows 9. Day 7 shows 14. The pattern is movement, not a verdict: Apple says user behavior and ratings feed search, so ranks can keep shifting as downloads and ratings build. Streakly changes nothing in the keyword field, adds the rating prompt on day 3 and submits one custom product page on day 5. Its change log has three entries and no confusion about which change caused what.

• Rewriting the title after two days of data.
• Asking for a rating in onboarding.
• Ignoring non-English listings because the main market is English.
• Running three changes at once.
• Forgetting that ratings are per territory; check each storefront.

After week one, move to the monthly routine in the update checklist. LocalASO stores daily rank history locally and shows it as a chart per keyword, which suits a baseline; see the keyword research docs.