Long-Tail Keywords in the App Store: How to Find and Use Them

Apple states the trade-off directly: popular terms may drive a lot of traffic but are highly competitive, while less common terms drive lower traffic and are less competitive (Apple: product page). Apple also asks you to be specific about features and functionality. For a newer app, a top-10 spot for a specific phrase is a more realistic goal than a top-10 spot for a head term held by apps with huge rating counts. See choosing keywords you can rank for.

1. Search hints. Apple says hints appear once someone types into the search bar (Apple: App Store search). Type the head term, then add a space and each letter, and write the completions down.
2. Modifiers. Add who ("students", "adhd"), where ("for work"), what ("with widget") and when ("morning").
3. Competitor wording. Read the subtitles and descriptions of the apps in the top 10. Their phrasing shows what searchers say. See finding competitor keywords.
4. Reviews. Your own and your competitors' reviews contain the problem as users state it. Phrases like "keeps me from quitting" are not keywords, but they point to the words around them.

For a hypothetical habit tracker, expand "habit tracker":

Six candidates became four keeps, one test and one drop, based on who ranks, not on guesses.

• The name and subtitle have 30 characters each and are visible, so give them the phrases with the best match and the best top 10.
• The keyword field accepts 100 bytes, with commas between terms and spaces only inside a phrase (Apple). A phrase costs its bytes including the space between words, so a list of single words is cheaper than full phrases (see also singular or plural keywords); write adhd,widget,journal instead of three full phrases and test whether the words combine.

Apple does not document whether search combines a word from your name with a word from your keyword field into one phrase match. Do not assume it either way. Run this test: place the words in different fields, record your rank for the full phrase, then move one word and compare. If the rank holds, you can save bytes. If it drops, keep the phrase intact.

A phrase that is long tail in the US may be head in another country, and the language changes what people type. Check each storefront separately; the localization guide shows how to build local phrases.

Brainstorm turns a one-sentence description into candidate phrases and checks demand and difficulty in the countries you pick, and the board then tracks rank. Numbers are estimates from rating counts. See Suggestions and the app store search volume guide.