How to Localize for English (U.S.) in the App Store

Apple's keyword reference allows 100 bytes, not 100 characters. Counted as UTF-8, the example below contains 64 one-byte characters (separators excluded). Every letter costs one byte, so the field holds up to 100 characters, commas included. The words below are a hypothetical keyword list for a habit tracker called Streakly; they are illustrations, not validated search terms, and each has at least three characters.

Joined with commas and no spaces after them, the field is:

habit tracker,routine,goals,daily,reminder,organizer,planner,motivation

That is 71 characters and 71 bytes: 64 bytes of keywords plus 7 commas, leaving 29 of the 100 bytes free. The byte counts assume UTF-8; confirm the final count in App Store Connect before you save.

The U.S. storefront lists nine additional languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Mexico) and Vietnamese. That is a map of what Apple lets you localize for a single storefront. Each one has its own page here: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Mexico) and Vietnamese.

The list is permission, not advice. Every extra locale needs its own name, subtitle, keywords and description, so add one only when you can write and maintain it.

Apple's table reads these rows as follows: English (U.S.) is the default in 1 and an additional language in 1. None of the default storefronts lists it alone.

Outside the United States the table defaults to English (U.K.), with English (Australia) for New Zealand and an English (Canada) default for Canada. A listing written only in English (U.S.) still works through the fallback, because Apple uses the next most relevant localization when none matches. What it cannot do is use a different keyword field for those storefronts.

Japan is the opposite case. Its default is Japanese and English (U.S.) is the additional language, so the Japanese listing comes first there and the English one is a supplement. Compare the single-storefront facts on the United States country page.

LocalASO checks keywords in 52 App Store storefronts, each in the storefront's local language, so you can compare your English (U.S.) candidates with the English ones in one place. Keywords, ranks and listings stay in a database on your Mac. LocalASO is a one-time $29 purchase and the app needs a license key to run; the setup is in the localization docs and the price is on the pricing page. To test the field you just built, use the keyword field checker, or browse every language page. Neighboring languages: English (U.K.), Japanese, Spanish (Mexico), Korean, French (Canada), Italian.