How do you run an App Store Optimization audit?

An App Store Optimization (ASO) audit is a review of every element of your app's store listing that affects whether people find it in store search and whether they install it once they see it. In practice you check five things in order: title and subtitle, keywords, screenshots and previews, ratings and reviews, and conversion from impression to download, each measured against Apple's and Google's official limits and your own store analytics.

Most listings we review do not need a rebuild. They need a title that wastes fewer characters, a keyword field with no duplicates, first screenshots that state the benefit, and a plan for ratings. This guide gives you the checks, the official limits and a scorecard you can reuse every quarter.

What do you need before you start an ASO audit?

Open your store analytics before you open the listing. App Store Connect and Google Play Console both report how many people saw your app, how many visited the product page and how many installed. Export at least the last 90 days and split by traffic source (search, browse, referral, ads) and by country.

Signal	What it suggests	Where to focus
Low impressions from search	Discovery problem: you do not rank for the terms people use	Title, subtitle or short description, keywords
Healthy impressions, low page views	Your search result does not earn the tap	Icon, name, first screenshots, rating
Page views but low installs	The product page does not convince	Screenshots, preview video, description, reviews
Good overall rate, weak in one country	Localization gap	Localized metadata and screenshots

Also list your top five competitors for your main search terms and screenshot their listings. An audit is relative: your listing competes on the same results screen as theirs.

How do you audit the app title and subtitle?

Your name is the strongest text field for store search on both platforms, and the one users read first. Check it against the official limits:

Field	App Store	Google Play
App name	Up to 30 characters	Up to 30 characters
Subtitle or short description	Subtitle, up to 30 characters	Short description, up to 80 characters
Keywords	Keyword field, 100 characters	No separate keyword field
Promotional text	Up to 170 characters, above the description	Not applicable
Full description	Long description	Up to 4,000 characters

Limits from Apple Developer "Creating your product page" and Play Console Help, checked November 10, 2026. Apple's product page guide states the keyword limit in characters; App Store Connect Help describes it in bytes, which matters for non-Latin scripts.

Audit questions:

• Does the name combine your brand with the one phrase that best describes what the app does, such as "Brand: Habit Tracker"?
• Is the subtitle a benefit, not a repeat of the name? "Build routines in 2 minutes a day" says more than "Habit tracker app."
• On Google Play, does the short description state the main benefit and a reason to choose you, in plain words?
• Is anything in the name purely decorative, such as a slogan, that could be replaced by a descriptive term?

Writing for a 30 character limit is close to writing a search result title. Our guide to writing meta titles and descriptions uses the same principles. If the audit shows the name and subtitle need new terms, our guide to choosing App Store title and subtitle keywords covers research and scoring.

How do you audit App Store keywords?

Apple's product page guide says keywords "are limited to 100 characters total, with terms separated by commas and no spaces." Because the name and subtitle are already searchable, every character spent repeating them in the keyword field is wasted.

1. Remove duplicates. Delete any word that already appears in your name or subtitle, and any word repeated within the field.
2. Remove spaces after commas. They cost characters and add nothing.
3. Prefer single words that combine. "budget,planner,expense" covers more combinations than one long phrase.
4. Drop terms you cannot win. If the top results for a term are household names with millions of ratings, a more specific term is a better use of space.
5. Check relevance honestly. Terms that describe something your app does not do bring installs that churn and reviews that hurt.

On Google Play there is no keyword field, so your search terms need to appear naturally in the name, short description and full description. Write the full description for people first, with the main terms in the opening lines, not repeated lists. For finding the terms themselves, the methods in our guide to keyword research with zero authority work for apps too: look for specific, lower competition phrases you can realistically rank for.

How do you audit screenshots and preview videos?

Apple lets you feature up to 10 screenshots and up to three app previews of up to 30 seconds on a product page. Most people never swipe to the end, so the audit focuses on the first few images.

• Does the first screenshot state the core benefit in a short caption a person can read on a phone in one glance?
• Does each screenshot show one idea, in the order a new user would care about them, rather than a tour of every menu?
• Are captions large and high contrast, and do they still read well in the small search result view?
• Is the app shown as it really looks today? Outdated interfaces erode trust and can lead to reviews about bait and switch.
• Does the preview video show the product in the first seconds, using real footage, rather than a logo intro?
• Are screenshots localized for your biggest non-English markets, including captions?

How do you audit ratings and reviews?

Ratings appear in search results and on the product page, so they affect both taps and installs. Apple's guidance says you can prompt for ratings "up to three times in a 365-day period," which makes timing important.

1. Check your average and its trend by country and by app version. A drop after a release usually points to a bug, not a marketing problem.
2. Read the last 100 reviews and tag them by theme: bugs, missing features, pricing, praise. The top negative theme is your highest leverage fix.
3. Review your prompt moment. Ask after a success, such as completing a task, not at launch or mid-task.
4. Reply to reviews, especially negative ones that describe fixed problems. Replies show active support to future visitors.
5. Never incentivize or fake reviews. Both stores prohibit manipulating ratings, and it puts the listing at risk.

How do you check store conversion?

Conversion is where the audit pays off. Compare product page conversion rate (installs divided by product page views) across traffic sources and countries. Then test changes rather than guessing.

• A/B test the listing. Apple offers product page optimization tests and Google Play offers store listing experiments, so you can test icons, screenshots and copy against your current version.
• Match ads to pages. If you run app install ads, Apple's custom product pages and Google Play's custom store listings let a campaign land on screenshots that match its message, the same idea as a landing page for paid ads.
• Change one thing at a time and let tests run long enough to cover weekdays and weekends.

What policy checks belong in an ASO audit?

A listing that breaks store rules can be rejected or removed, which costs more than any ranking gain. Google Play's metadata policy summary says not to use emojis, emoticons or repeated special characters in metadata, to avoid ALL CAPS unless it is part of your brand name, and not to use text in the title, icon or developer name that indicates store performance or ranking, price or promotional information. Titles such as "#1 Best Free Budget App" fail that check. Apple reviews metadata as part of app review too, so keep claims accurate on both stores.

What does a complete ASO audit scorecard look like?

Area	Check	Status
Data	90 days of impressions, page views, installs by source and country	Pass / Fix
Name	Brand plus one descriptive phrase, within 30 characters	Pass / Fix
Subtitle / short description	States a benefit, no repetition	Pass / Fix
Keywords (App Store)	No duplicates, no spaces, relevant and winnable	Pass / Fix
Description	Main terms early, written for people	Pass / Fix
Screenshots	First image states the benefit; current UI; localized	Pass / Fix
Preview video	Product visible in the first seconds	Pass / Fix
Ratings	Stable or rising; prompt after a success; replies to reviews	Pass / Fix
Conversion	Tests running; ads land on matching pages	Pass / Fix
Policy	No ranking claims, emojis or promo text in metadata	Pass / Fix

Run the full audit each quarter and a quick check after every major release. ASO sits beside SEO and GEO rather than replacing them; our explainer on SEO vs GEO vs ASO shows how they overlap. If you want help, our solutions, expertise page and case studies explain how we work.

Sources

• Apple Developer, "Creating your product page", accessed November 10, 2026. developer.apple.com
• Play Console Help, "Create and set up your app" (store listing character limits), accessed November 10, 2026. support.google.com
• Play Console Help, "Metadata" policy, accessed November 10, 2026. support.google.com

Frequently asked questions