Fill the App Store keyword field with up to 100 characters of terms separated by commas and no spaces, using only words that are not already in your app name, subtitle, category or company name. Leave out plurals of words you already have, repeated words, filler such as "app" or "the", price words, and competitor or brand names, and put your strongest terms first.
The keyword field is the one place in App Store Connect where you tell search what your app is about without a user ever reading it. It is per language, and in our experience most first drafts spend half of it on words that are already counted somewhere else. Here is how to fill it.
What Apple indexes
Apple's App Store search page says results depend on "text relevance (matches for your app's title, subtitle, keywords, and primary category)" plus user behaviour such as downloads and ratings. App Store Connect Help adds that your app "is searchable by app name and company name". So the text fields that count are:
- Name (30 characters) and subtitle (30 characters).
- Keywords (100 characters, hidden from users).
- Category, primary and secondary.
- Company name.
Two fields that look useful but are not part of that list: Apple says promotional text "doesn't affect your app's search ranking", and it describes the description as used for web search engine results, not App Store search. Don't rely on either for App Store search.
The waste rules
A word earns its place in the keyword field only if search does not already have it. Apple's own guidance names the cases:
- A word already in the name, subtitle or category. Apple: "Don't repeat any words included in your app name, subtitle, or category." Apple's help says the same about your company name.
- A plural of a word you already have. Apple gives "climbs" and "climb" as an example and says they "are considered duplicates".
- The same word in two terms. "photo editor,photo filter" pays for "photo" twice.
- Generic and filler words. Apple lists "app" and "game" as too broad, and "the" and "to" as filler that adds nothing.
- Special characters such as # or @, unless they are part of your brand.
Two practical rules sit on top of those:
- No price words. "Free" or "sale" is price information, and Guideline 2.3.7 says not to pack metadata with it. See the price words guide.
- Strongest terms first. If you have to cut, you cut from the end, so the end should hold the terms you can live without.
A worked example
Take a made-up app:
- Name: Brightleaf: Plant Care Log
- Subtitle: Water reminders for houseplants
A typical first draft for the keyword field:
plant care,reminder,houseplant,plants,garden,succulent,fertilizer,log,free,water scheduleGoing through it term by term:
plant care: both words are in the name. Wasted.reminder: the subtitle has "reminders". Apple counts the singular and plural as duplicates. Wasted.houseplant: the subtitle has "houseplants". Wasted.plants: plural of "plant" from the name. Wasted.log: in the name. Wasted.free: a price word. Wasted, and a rejection risk.water schedule: "water" is in the subtitle. Keep onlyschedule.garden,succulent,fertilizer: new words. Keep.
About half of the 89 characters were doing nothing. The rewrite, strongest terms first:
succulent,cactus,orchid,fern,monstera,bonsai,repot,fertilizer,humidity,mist,garden,indoor,scheduleThat is 13 terms in 98 characters, and every word is one search could not get from the name or subtitle.
Commas, no spaces
Apple's format: "terms separated by commas and no spaces. You can use spaces to separate words within keyword phrases", with the example Property,House,Real Estate.
The space after a comma is a character. The rewrite above with ", " between terms would be 110 characters, over the limit, for no gain. Keep spaces only inside a phrase where the words belong together.
On the limit itself: Apple's search page says 100 characters, while App Store Connect Help describes the field as "up to 100 bytes". For English these are the same. For Chinese, Japanese or Korean, trust the counter App Store Connect shows when you save, not your own count.
Singular and plural
This is the one grammar rule Apple documents: a plural of a word you already have is a duplicate. So put one form in the field, and do not add the other form to the field if the name or subtitle already holds one of them. Apple says nothing about other word forms, such as "watering" against "water", or misspellings. Don't rely on search matching them in either direction; if a different form is a real search term, judge it on its own merits.
One field per language
The keyword field is localized, like the name and subtitle. Each language you add in App Store Connect has its own 100 characters, checked against that language's own name and subtitle. Three things follow:
- Do not translate the English list word by word. Write the terms people in that language actually search for.
- Apply the waste rules per language. A Chinese keyword that repeats the Chinese subtitle is wasted even if the English field is clean.
- Check every language for price words and brand names. The rules apply in every language Apple accepts metadata in.
Keywords are part of the version's information in App Store Connect. Promotional text is the field Apple lets you change "without requiring an updated submission", so plan keyword changes for your next version.
No competitor or brand names
App Store Connect Help says "Names of other apps or companies aren't allowed" in keywords. Apple's search page lists "Competing app names" and "Unauthorized use of trademarked terms" as things not to include, Guideline 2.3.7 warns against trademarked terms and popular app names, and Guideline 4.1(c) forbids using another developer's brand without approval. 2.3.7 also says Apple "may modify inappropriate keywords at any time". A competitor's name is the fastest way to lose the field and the submission. If a keyword has already drawn a rejection, paste your rejection message into the App Review rejection decoder to see which guideline it cites. More in brand names in metadata.
Checking afterwards
Once the version is live:
- Search for your terms on a device, in each storefront you care about. Apple also notes the trade-off between popular terms with heavy competition and less common terms that are easier to rank for.
- Watch App Analytics filtered by source type, to see how many downloads came from App Store search.
- Watch chart position by country with our App Store rank checker. It shows top-chart ranks, not keyword ranks, but a change in search traffic shows up there too.
FAQ
How many characters is the App Store keyword field?
100 characters per language. App Store Connect Help describes it as up to 100 bytes, so for Chinese, Japanese or Korean trust the counter App Store Connect shows when you save.
Should I put spaces after commas in App Store keywords?
No. Apple's format is terms separated by commas and no spaces; use spaces only to separate words inside a phrase. A space after a comma uses a character for no gain.
Should I repeat words from my app name in the keyword field?
No. Apple says not to repeat words included in your app name, subtitle or category, and its help says the same about your company name. Those words are already searchable.
Do I need both singular and plural keywords on the App Store?
No. Apple gives "climb" and "climbs" as an example and says they are considered duplicates, so one form is enough.
Can I use competitor names in App Store keywords?
No. App Store Connect Help says names of other apps or companies aren't allowed in keywords, and Guideline 2.3.7 says Apple may modify inappropriate keywords at any time.
One-minute check
Paste each language's name, subtitle and keywords into our App Store metadata checker. It marks every keyword word that is already in the name or subtitle or repeated across terms, flags price words, and counts the characters. The other release checks are in the pre-submit checklist.
These notes are from Obelisk Club's own submissions. Apple's search and its guidance change; check the current App Store search page and App Store Connect Help.