App Store Localization for Spanish (Mexico): Storefronts, Bytes, Keywords

Apple's localizations table names Spanish (Mexico) as the default language of 16 storefronts: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. Each of them also lists English (U.K.) in 16. It appears as an additional language in 3 more: Belize, United States and Uruguay. The default language listed next to it is English (U.K.) in 2 and English (US) in one.

Apple's keyword reference allows 100 bytes, not 100 characters. Counted as UTF-8, the example below contains 61 one-byte and 2 two-byte characters (separators excluded). Only the accented letters cost two bytes, so the field holds between 50 and 100 letters depending on how many accents you use. 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:

hábitos,rutina,metas,recordatorio,motivación,productividad,constancia

That is 69 characters and 71 bytes: 65 bytes of keywords plus 6 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.

Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela all default to Spanish (Mexico) in the table, and all of them list English (U.K.) as the additional language. There is no separate Argentinian, Chilean or Colombian Spanish locale to choose, so one es-MX keyword field has to serve all of them.

The field is shared even where words differ by country. Apple's search example is French, not Spanish, so whether an es-MX keyword reaches a user in another storefront is something to test, not assume. Run the checks on the country pages for Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

Spanish (Mexico) is an additional language in Belize and Uruguay, where English (U.K.) is the default, and in the United States, where it is one of nine extra languages. In Spain, by contrast, the default is Spanish (Spain). If you add both Spanish locales, give each a different list rather than copying one into the other, because duplicated keywords waste bytes that could carry new words.

The broader choice between translating and rewriting is covered in translate or transcreate keywords. Portuguese has the same regional split, described on Portuguese (Brazil).

LocalASO checks keywords in 52 App Store storefronts, each in the storefront's local language, so you can compare your Spanish (Mexico) 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. Related languages: Spanish (Spain), English (U.S.), Portuguese (Brazil).