LocalASOOriginal research
Local-language vs English keywords: what 753 pairs showed
Searching in the local language returned more apps than the English phrase in 57.1% of 753 pairs, but the local phrase scored a lower volume estimate in 59% of them (mean 30.5 versus 35.3). So the first hypothesis held and the second did not, in a sample taken on 2026-11-01 across 41 non-English storefronts.
Read this first: the local-language phrases are candidate translations written by the research author. They were not checked by native speakers. A weak or unnatural phrase would lower local volume and result counts, so the volume result in particular could reflect translation quality and not real search behavior.
Source: LocalASO analysis of Apple's iTunes Search API, 2026-11-01. CSV reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.
Updated
The two hypotheses
| Hypothesis | Verdict in this sample | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Local phrases return more apps than English phrases | Supported | More results in 57.1% of pairs, fewer in 25.6%, same in 17.3% |
| Local phrases show higher volume estimates than English phrases | Not supported | Higher in 34.8% of pairs, lower in 59%, equal in 6.2%; mean 30.5 local versus 35.3 English |
Mean difficulty was also lower for the local phrases (16.5 versus 18.8). Result counts are capped at 25 by the request limit, so the difference in result counts is probably understated for popular terms.
By storefront
Pairs are one English phrase and its candidate local equivalent in the same storefront. "Results" and "Volume" show how many pairs the local phrase won, lost or tied, in that order. Sorted by the local-minus-English gap in mean volume.
| Storefront | Pairs | Results (more / fewer / equal) | Volume (higher / lower / equal) | Mean volume EN | Mean volume local | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan (JP) | 19 | 6/8/5 | 18/0/1 | 46.3 | 61.6 | +15.3 |
| Taiwan (TW) | 19 | 14/5/0 | 13/5/1 | 36.9 | 43.1 | +6.2 |
| South Korea (KR) | 19 | 10/4/5 | 13/5/1 | 37.6 | 42.2 | +4.6 |
| Austria (AT) | 15 | 7/5/3 | 10/5/0 | 30.7 | 33.5 | +2.8 |
| Germany (DE) | 15 | 6/3/6 | 10/4/1 | 52.1 | 54.8 | +2.7 |
| Brazil (BR) | 18 | 9/6/3 | 11/6/1 | 48 | 49.4 | +1.4 |
| Switzerland (CH) | 15 | 6/5/4 | 6/9/0 | 35.2 | 36.3 | +1.1 |
| Italy (IT) | 19 | 9/7/3 | 10/9/0 | 46.2 | 46.8 | +0.6 |
| Turkey (TR) | 19 | 12/5/2 | 9/10/0 | 40.3 | 40.6 | +0.3 |
| Mexico (MX) | 19 | 10/5/4 | 9/9/1 | 43.9 | 43.8 | -0.1 |
| France (FR) | 19 | 10/6/3 | 10/7/2 | 51.8 | 51.5 | -0.3 |
| Peru (PE) | 19 | 9/8/2 | 9/10/0 | 25.7 | 24.9 | -0.8 |
| Portugal (PT) | 18 | 7/9/2 | 7/10/1 | 34.2 | 31.8 | -2.4 |
| Argentina (AR) | 19 | 10/5/4 | 10/8/1 | 32.9 | 30.4 | -2.5 |
| Poland (PL) | 19 | 8/8/3 | 6/12/1 | 38.8 | 35.4 | -3.4 |
| Chile (CL) | 19 | 9/6/4 | 9/9/1 | 33.9 | 30.4 | -3.5 |
| Netherlands (NL) | 15 | 10/3/2 | 4/9/2 | 40.7 | 37.1 | -3.6 |
| Colombia (CO) | 19 | 11/4/4 | 8/10/1 | 35.2 | 31.6 | -3.6 |
| Spain (ES) | 19 | 9/5/5 | 9/10/0 | 46.2 | 42.5 | -3.7 |
| Hong Kong (HK) | 19 | 6/7/6 | 6/12/1 | 32.2 | 27.6 | -4.6 |
| Vietnam (VN) | 19 | 11/6/2 | 8/11/0 | 38.6 | 33.6 | -5.0 |
| Thailand (TH) | 19 | 14/3/2 | 9/10/0 | 38.3 | 33 | -5.3 |
| Hungary (HU) | 19 | 12/4/3 | 6/13/0 | 29.7 | 23.4 | -6.3 |
| Israel (IL) | 19 | 12/3/4 | 5/13/1 | 29.3 | 23 | -6.3 |
| Ukraine (UA) | 19 | 13/3/3 | 7/10/2 | 37.5 | 31 | -6.5 |
| Croatia (HR) | 19 | 13/1/5 | 1/13/5 | 20.9 | 12.9 | -8.0 |
| Bulgaria (BG) | 19 | 8/9/2 | 4/14/1 | 22.2 | 14.2 | -8.0 |
| Sweden (SE) | 18 | 9/5/4 | 3/14/1 | 34.2 | 26 | -8.2 |
| Finland (FI) | 19 | 9/6/4 | 1/13/5 | 23.9 | 14.8 | -9.1 |
| Denmark (DK) | 16 | 11/4/1 | 5/11/0 | 31.6 | 22.5 | -9.1 |
| Belgium (BE) | 15 | 6/3/6 | 2/12/1 | 37.2 | 28.1 | -9.1 |
| Czechia (CZ) | 19 | 14/1/4 | 7/11/1 | 32.2 | 22.9 | -9.3 |
| Indonesia (ID) | 19 | 12/4/3 | 4/15/0 | 36.1 | 26.7 | -9.4 |
| Slovakia (SK) | 19 | 12/6/1 | 1/15/3 | 22.8 | 13.3 | -9.5 |
| Saudi Arabia (SA) | 19 | 14/2/3 | 3/15/1 | 39.4 | 29.8 | -9.6 |
| Norway (NO) | 19 | 11/3/5 | 4/13/2 | 28.7 | 18.4 | -10.3 |
| Egypt (EG) | 19 | 16/2/1 | 1/16/2 | 32.2 | 20.8 | -11.4 |
| United Arab Emirates (AE) | 19 | 14/4/1 | 2/17/0 | 34 | 21.7 | -12.3 |
| Greece (GR) | 19 | 12/4/3 | 1/16/2 | 26.8 | 14.1 | -12.7 |
| Romania (RO) | 19 | 15/4/0 | 1/14/4 | 32.7 | 18.8 | -13.9 |
| Malaysia (MY) | 19 | 14/2/3 | 0/19/0 | 35.4 | 15.1 | -20.3 |
Local volume beat English volume in 9 of 41 storefronts (DE, JP, IT, CH, AT, BR, KR, TR, TW) and fell below it in 32. Japan stands out: the local phrase won on volume in 18 of 19 pairs. In Malaysia it lost in all 19, which is the pattern a poor translation set would also produce.
What this means for your keywords
Do not read this as "local keywords are weaker". It says that, for these candidate phrases and this estimate, the local phrase usually showed fewer established rating counts in the top 10, which can mean less competition or less demand. The study cannot tell which. Where local phrases returned more apps (57.1% of pairs), the field is at least populated in that language. Japan and Taiwan show that the opposite can also hold. Check phrases in a storefront with native-speaker input, as the guide on translating or transcreating keywords suggests, and see keyword localization for the term. Volume and difficulty are LocalASO estimates from rating counts, not Apple search counts.
Method and limits
753 pairs in 41 storefronts, 15 to 19 per storefront, one snapshot on 2026-11-01; Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic phrase sets are shared across storefronts of the same language. Details on the methodology page. How much the two top 10s overlap is covered in the overlap study.
In LocalASO
LocalASO checks each keyword in the storefront's own language across 52 storefronts and works with the AI you bring (Claude Code, an Anthropic API key, Ollama, Codex or Gemini CLI). A one-time $29 Mac app; it needs a license key to run. See pricing.
Sources
- localaso.com/data/app-store-s1-local-vs-english-pairs.csv (checked November 1, 2026)
- localaso.com/data/app-store-s1-local-vs-english-by-storefront.csv (checked November 1, 2026)
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