Guides
ASO guides
How the App Store and Google Play read a listing, what their reports can and cannot tell you, and a routine to act on them. Each guide lists the Apple and Google pages its store facts come from, with the day each was checked.
Start here
- How to do ASO: a weekly routineA practical ASO routine for one app on the App Store and Google Play: what to read each week, how to choose one change, and how to read what followed.
- App Store keywords: how to fill the keyword fieldHow the App Store keyword field works: Apple's 100-byte and 100-character wording, commas, what Apple rejects, which fields search reads, and a worked example.
- ASO reporting: what each store tells you, and what it doesn'tWhat App Store Connect and Play Console report for ASO, how each number is defined, what neither store tells you, and a one-page weekly report built from them.
Foundations
How ASO works on each store, and a routine to run it.
- How to do ASO: a weekly routineA practical ASO routine for one app on the App Store and Google Play: what to read each week, how to choose one change, and how to read what followed.
- Google Play ASO: what changes from the App StoreHow ASO on Google Play differs from the App Store: the fields Play reads, what a title may not say, store listing experiments, and Play's new click reports.
- What an app's search rank really measuresWhat decides App Store and Google Play search results, why neither store reports your rank, and how to read a rank from an ASO tool without fooling yourself.
- ASO services, ASO software or doing it yourself: what each does and costsWhat app store optimization services, ASO software and doing it yourself each cover, what they cost in time and money, and what to ask before you pay.
Keywords and metadata
The words a listing carries, and how each store reads them.
- App Store keywords: how to fill the keyword fieldHow the App Store keyword field works: Apple's 100-byte and 100-character wording, commas, what Apple rejects, which fields search reads, and a worked example.
- How to write your App Store app name and subtitleThe App Store app name and subtitle: 30-character limits, what Guideline 2.3.7 rules out, how both show in search, and worked examples.
- App Store and Google Play localization: what each store shows and searchesApple's storefront language table, what a second localization adds to App Store search, and how Google Play picks and translates each language.
- Apple's search popularity score: what it measures and how to use itWhat Apple's search popularity numbers mean: the 1-5 score in Apple Ads, the 1-100 list in its API, which terms get listed, and how to choose words with it.
Creatives and conversion
What a searcher sees first, and what makes them open the page.
- App screenshots and video: each store's rules, and what to show firstScreenshot and video specs for the App Store and Google Play, checked on Apple's and Google's own pages, plus what to show first and how to test it.
- Apple custom product pages and Google Play custom store listings, in depthHow Apple's custom product pages and Google Play's custom store listings work: limits, what each can change, who sees them, how to measure and set them up.
Ratings and reviews
Asking for ratings, answering reviews, and reading both.
Testing and reporting
Store tests, before-and-after reads, and the numbers each store reports.
- How to A/B test your listing on the App Store and Google PlayHow product page optimization and Play store listing experiments work, how much traffic a test needs, with worked math, and the mistakes behind false winners.
- Before and after: how to read a listing change without a store testHow to read an App Store or Google Play listing change without a store test: whole-week windows, the right source, data delays, small-app math, honest wording.
- ASO reporting: what each store tells you, and what it doesn'tWhat App Store Connect and Play Console report for ASO, how each number is defined, what neither store tells you, and a one-page weekly report built from them.
Store updates
What Apple and Google changed, and what it means for a listing.
Reference
Short pages the guides link to: what a field or a number means, a problem to check, a free counter.