How do you choose keywords for an App Store title and subtitle?

On the App Store, a few dozen characters of metadata decide most of where your app can appear in search. Apple gives you an app name and a subtitle of up to 30 characters each, plus a hidden keyword field of 100 characters. Choosing what goes into those fields is the core of keyword work in app store optimization (ASO).

This guide covers the Apple App Store specifically, using Apple's own developer guidance for the limits and rules. Google Play handles metadata differently, so check its own policies before reusing a plan there.

Which App Store fields affect search?

Apple's guidance on creating a product page describes how each element is used. The ones that matter for keyword choice are:

Field	Limit	Visible to users?	Role in search, per Apple
App name	30 characters	Yes	"Plays a critical role in how users discover it"
Subtitle	30 characters	Yes, below the name throughout the App Store	Summarizes the app's value in a concise phrase
Keywords	100 characters	No	"Help determine where your app displays in search results"
Promotional text	170 characters	Yes	Apple says it "doesn't affect your app's search ranking"
Description	Long form	Yes	Apple says not to add unnecessary keywords to it
Ratings and reviews	n/a	Yes	Apple says they "influence how your app ranks in search"

That leaves three fields where keyword choice is decisive: the name, the subtitle and the keyword field. Ratings matter too, but you earn them through the product, not through wording.

What are the App Store character limits?

• App name: up to 30 characters. Apple asks for a "simple, memorable name that is easy to spell and hints at what your app does," and warns against generic terms or names too similar to existing apps.
• Subtitle: up to 30 characters. Apple suggests using it, rather than the name, to explain the app's value, and says to avoid generic descriptions such as "world's best app."
• Keyword field: 100 characters total, terms separated by commas with no spaces after the commas. Spaces are allowed inside a phrase, for example "Property,House,Real Estate".

Thirty characters is short. "Budget Planner: Expense Tracker" is already 31. Every word in the name has to earn its place, which is why the name and subtitle are best planned together.

How do you build an App Store keyword list?

Start wide, then cut. A practical process:

1. Describe the app in your users' words. List the jobs it does and the problems it solves, as a user would type them: "split bills", "track spending", "shared budget".
2. Mine your own data. Support emails, reviews and onboarding answers show the words real users use. App Store Connect analytics shows how many of your visitors already come from App Store search.
3. Check competitors. Note the words used in the names and subtitles of apps that rank for your main terms. You cannot use their brand names, but you can learn which generic terms the category rewards.
4. Check search popularity. Apple Ads shows a search popularity indicator for keywords, which gives a relative sense of how often a term is searched on the App Store. Third-party ASO tools estimate volume and difficulty as well; treat all of these as estimates.
5. Add variations. Synonyms, common misspellings that real users make and regional terms for localized storefronts.

The same discipline applies to web keyword research. If you also run a website for the app, our guides to keyword research for a new website and long-tail keywords cover the overlap.

How do you balance search volume, relevance and competition?

Apple states the trade-off directly: "Consider the trade-off between ranking well for less common terms versus ranking lower for popular terms." Popular functional terms "may drive a lot of traffic, but are highly competitive." A simple scoring sheet makes the decision explicit:

Criterion	Question to ask	Score 1 to 3
Relevance	Would someone searching this be satisfied by your app today?	3 = core feature, 1 = loosely related
Popularity	How often is it searched, relative to other terms?	3 = high, 1 = low
Competition	How strong are the apps that rank for it now?	3 = beatable, 1 = dominated by category leaders
Conversion intent	Does the searcher want to download something now?	3 = clear intent, 1 = research only

Treat relevance as a gate, not a score to trade away. A high popularity term that does not describe your app brings visitors who leave, and Apple lists "terms that are not relevant to the app" among keywords you must not use. For a new app with few ratings, mid popularity terms with beatable competition usually beat chasing the head term.

How do you place keywords across the name, subtitle and keyword field?

1. Name: brand plus your single most important relevant phrase, if it fits naturally. Keep the brand readable; Apple wants a distinctive name, not a list.
2. Subtitle: the main benefit or use case, using the second most important phrase. Write it for people first, since it shows everywhere your app appears.
3. Keyword field: the remaining relevant single words, separated by commas with no spaces. Do not repeat words already in the name or subtitle.

Apple's advice for fitting more into 100 characters is to avoid plurals of words you already have in singular form, names of categories or the word "app", duplicate words, and special characters such as # or @ unless they are part of your brand. ASO practitioners generally assume that words across the name, subtitle and keyword field can combine into longer search phrases. Apple does not document how matching works in detail, so treat that as a working assumption to test, not a rule.

A worked example

Imagine a fictional shared expenses app called "Tally". Research shows strong relevance for "split bills", "expense tracker", "shared budget" and "roommates".

Field	Draft	Characters	Reasoning
Name	Tally: Split Bills	18	Brand plus the most relevant, high intent phrase
Subtitle	Shared Expense Tracker	22	Benefit phrase, adds "shared", "expense" and "tracker"
Keywords	roommate,couple,trip,group,budget,owe,iou,rent,household,friends,settle,splitwise	n/a	Draft only: "splitwise" is a competitor brand and must be removed

The last keyword shows the most common mistake. Competitor app names are on Apple's list of terms you must not use, so the final field would drop it and use the space for another relevant generic word such as "travel". Count characters with a tool before you submit; commas count toward the 100.

Which keyword mistakes get apps rejected or waste space?

Apple says "improper use of keywords is a common reason for App Store rejections." Do not use:

• Unauthorized trademarked terms, celebrity names and other protected words.
• Terms that are not relevant to the app.
• Competing app names.
• Irrelevant, inappropriate, offensive or objectionable terms.

Space wasters that do not cause rejection but cost reach: plurals of words you already use, repeated words across fields, the word "app", category names, spaces after commas and special characters. Putting keywords in promotional text is also wasted effort, because Apple says it does not affect ranking.

How do you test and iterate?

• Change one field at a time. Apple says the subtitle can be updated when you submit a new version of your app, so plan metadata changes around releases, stagger them and note the date of each one.
• Measure impressions and downloads from search in App Store Connect before and after each change, over the same number of weeks.
• Use product page optimization to test icons, screenshots and app previews, which Apple supports with randomly assigned audiences. Apple's product page optimization covers those visual assets, not the name or keyword field.
• Localize. Apple recommends localizing the description, keywords, previews and screenshots for each market, and you can translate the name. Separate localizations give you separate keyword space.

For a full review of a listing, follow our ASO audit guide, and see SEO vs GEO vs ASO for how app store work fits with web and AI search. Our expertise page and case studies show how Klepha approaches it, and For individuals covers solo founders.

Sources

• Apple Developer, "Creating your product page", accessed November 12, 2026. developer.apple.com
• Apple Ads, "Recommendations: Best Practices", for the search popularity indicator, accessed November 12, 2026. ads.apple.com

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