How Long Do App Store Keyword Changes Take to Take Effect?

Apple states that after updating app information, changes may take up to 24 hours to appear on the App Store or when users install the app (Apple: view and edit app information). That sentence is about visibility. It does not describe ranking.

Apple documents only a few cases:

• Promotional text can be updated at any time without submitting a new app version, and it does not affect search (answer).
• The subtitle is described by Apple in the context of submitting a new version.
• Name, keywords and description: Apple does not state in the pages we checked which of these can be changed without a new version. Do not assume. Look at what App Store Connect lets you edit for your app's current status.

See promotional text without an update for the documented case, and the promotional text glossary entry for what it does.

Apple lists text relevance and user behavior as search factors (Apple: App Store search). New text changes relevance as soon as it appears. User behavior, such as downloads and ratings for the new phrase, builds over days or weeks. Apple does not give a figure, and any figure from a blog is an observation. The result for your app depends on competition for the phrase.

1. Pick three keywords you will add, and two control keywords you will not touch.
2. Record rank for all five, daily, for a week before the change.
3. Make the change and note the date and time it goes live.
4. Record rank daily for at least two weeks. Note the first day each new keyword enters the top 200, and the day the rank stops moving.
5. The gap between the first and second dates is the delay for that keyword and country, for your app.

Repeat with the next release. After two or three tests you have a reliable range, for example "the first move is within 2 days, settled within 10". The tracking routine covers the log.

• Change one field at a time so a move has one possible cause.
• Do not change the same field again until the rank has been stable for several days.
• Localized keyword fields are separate. Keywords are required and can be localized (Apple), so each language has its own delay.

If rank dropped, rule out other causes first; see why your ranking dropped.

The hypothetical habit tracker Streakly adds adhd to its keyword field on 3 November and the update goes live that day. Its log shows rank 200+ on 3 and 4 November, 71 on 5 November, 44 on 8 November and 41 to 46 through the 15th. The first move came two days after the change and the rank settled after about five days. The control keywords stayed within three places the whole time. The numbers are invented; the method is what to copy. Your own delay may be longer for a competitive phrase and shorter for a specific one.

The board stores daily ranks locally, so the five-keyword test above is a chart on your Mac. Checks use public search results and are cached for 6 hours, so a result may be up to 6 hours old. See the keyword research docs and measuring changes in App Analytics.