What Is App Store Optimization?

Do you have an app you’d like to see ranking near the top of the results in the Apple App Store or Google Play? Then it’s well worth learning about App Store Optimization, or ASO for short. In this article, the team at Topdog shares what App Store Optimization actually is, why it matters, how it works, how ASO differs from search engine optimization, how AI is reshaping the playing field, and much more.

What Is App Store Optimization?

App Store Optimization (ASO) is about taking steps to help an app get noticed and downloaded more often in an app store, sometimes described as an app store search engine. Think of ASO as the app-store equivalent of search engine optimization (SEO) for websites: the goal is the same in both cases, to rank higher in search results.

At its core, it’s about visibility in the Apple App Store and Google Play, since the vast majority of apps are built for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and Windows Phone.

Alongside paid app advertising, ASO is one of the key tools in digital marketing for mobile and tablet apps.

In English, this branch of search engine optimization goes by a few names: App Store Optimization, Mobile App SEO, and App Store Marketing.

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What Does App Store Optimization Involve?

App Store Optimization has a lot in common with traditional search engine optimization (SEO).

An app store is, in effect, a search engine of its own. Unlike, say, Google, it doesn’t index everything on the web. Instead, it’s a closed ecosystem made up of apps built for a particular type of device, whether that’s Apple or Android.

To understand what App Store Optimization is and how it works, it helps to look at its main components:

1. Content – the app itself, along with its description, images and so on
2. Indexing – how the search engine finds and registers the app
3. Ranking factors – how the search engine decides which order to show apps in, and for which search terms

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What Is an App Store? Apple App Store and Google Play

An app store is, in effect, a search engine of its own. Unlike Google, it doesn’t index everything on the web. It’s a closed ecosystem of apps built for a particular type of device, such as Apple or Android.

An app, short for application, is a piece of software installed on a phone or tablet, everything from banking services and fitness diaries to games. Apps are distributed almost exclusively through two major stores: the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad, and Google Play for Android devices.

For an app owner, these stores aren’t just a distribution channel; they’re the single most important discovery channel: most downloads start with a search directly inside the app store. That’s precisely why ASO has become a discipline in its own right within digital marketing.

Why Bother with App Store Optimization? The Benefits

If you have an app you’d like people to download or buy, there’s a good chance you’ll need App Store Optimization to reach your goals.

By mid-2026, there were roughly 2.4 million apps in the Apple App Store and a similar number on Google Play, over 4 million apps in total. With that much competition, optimisation isn’t optional if you want to stand out.

Here are five reasons to invest in App Store Optimization:

1. Better visibility – ASO helps your app climb higher in search results.
2. Reaching the right audience – Visibility alone isn’t enough; your app also needs to show up for the searches your actual target audience is running. Good App Store Optimization makes sure it appears for the right terms.
3. Lower costs – Advertising an app gets expensive over time. ASO brings the cost per download down.
4. Higher conversion rates – Whether you rely on advertising or organic results, App Store Optimization helps turn more of the people who read your description into people who actually hit download.
5. Reaching new markets – ASO also comes into play when you want to introduce your app to people in other countries, if you’ve released it in other languages. It’s a bit like local SEO, but for apps.

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How Do You Get an App to Rank?

There’s a fair amount you can do to help an app rank well, and for the right search terms, in Google Play or the Apple App Store.

The ranking factors within ASO can be split into primary and secondary:

Primary ASO ranking factors – the fundamentals typically needed to achieve strong visibility:

• App name (title)
• Subtitle
• Description
• Keywords & metadata

Secondary ASO ranking factors – factors that shape the overall experience and influence whether people actually choose to download:

• Number of downloads
• Ratings and reviews

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

App Name (Title)

The app’s title is the first thing searchers see, so it’s worth making a strong first impression. Working one of your keywords into the title can boost click-through by around 10%, according to some estimates.

Does the app already have a name that contains the keyword? Perfect, that’s the case for Booking.com, for instance.

Often, though, cramming a keyword into the name at all costs can come across as spammy. In that case, it’s better to place the keyword towards the end of the title instead. Momondo has taken this approach in an effort to rank for the terms “flights”, “hotels” and “car hire”:

Use keywords in the title, but use them with judgement so you don’t ruin the user experience. Bear in mind, too, that space is limited: both Google Play and the Apple App Store cap the title at 30 characters.

Subtitle

The line of text beneath the title is the app’s subtitle. It’s worth optimising as well, since it gives you a second shot at working in a few key keywords.

Wolt, for example, has used App Store Optimization by including the keywords “restaurants” and “shops” in its description:

Make the most of the opportunity to describe your app as well as possible in both the title and subtitle.

Description

The product description is a third chance to improve your app’s odds of ranking well. In the Apple App Store, you get 252 characters, which is genuinely quite tight, so think carefully about what you want to say and word it well. Google Play gives you a short description of 80 characters plus a long one of up to 4,000.

Contrary to what you might expect, the description doesn’t feed into the Apple App Store’s search algorithm. Users still read it, though, and that can influence ranking indirectly: apps that genuinely interest users tend to come out ahead.

In Google Play, on the other hand, the text is indexed, so keywords within the description can help the app rank better.

Keywords & Metadata

As mentioned, you should aim to work important keywords into the title, subtitle and description alike.

The Apple App Store also gives you one more place to add keywords, in the metadata field. There’s little point repeating the same keywords you’ve already used in the title and subtitle here; this is your chance to squeeze in keywords you haven’t managed to fit in elsewhere.

You get up to 100 characters in total, with words or phrases separated by commas.

Google Play has no equivalent feature.

Ratings and Reviews

Ratings and reviews sit among the secondary ranking factors in App Store Optimization. As a rule, the better an app’s rating, the higher it appears in the rankings.

Think about it: how often do you download a one-star app? Like most people, you probably stick to apps with at least three stars.

That’s why earning solid user ratings matters so much for a successful ASO strategy.

First and foremost, the app itself needs to be high quality and bug-free. Beyond that, it’s about encouraging happy users to leave a rating while looking after unhappy ones before they get the chance to leave a rock-bottom review.

This becomes a product question. One way to tackle it is to prompt users to leave a rating at a well-chosen moment, say, after they’ve completed the first level of a game or reached a particular milestone in the app.

To look after users who aren’t satisfied, it’s essential to make it easy for them to reach support or the developer so their issue gets resolved.

Finally, it always pays to respond to user comments, especially the negative ones. Show them you’re listening and that you take their feedback seriously.

Number of Downloads

Last but not least, there’s download volume as a ranking factor. It’s secondary too, but still hugely important: both Google Play and the Apple App Store use download numbers to help rank apps.

What actually counts isn’t the total number of downloads an app has ever had, but how many it’s picked up recently. In other words, a brand-new app that’s been downloaded heavily over the past month can outrank an older app with several million downloads to its name overall.

Beyond simply offering an app people want, this side of optimisation is largely about conversion optimisation: getting the visitor who’s found your app to actually tap “download”.

Strong screenshots and a well-made preview video usually help win people over, though the title, subtitle and description all contribute to the overall impression too.

One systematic way to boost conversion is to A/B test your store listing. Apple offers this through Product Page Optimization in the App Store, and Google through Store Listing Experiments in Google Play. Both let you test different icons, screenshots and copy against each other and keep whichever performs best.

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How Is AI Changing App Store Optimization?

More and more people are discovering apps without ever searching inside an app store. Users ask ChatGPT, Gemini or their voice assistant which app is best for a given task, and AI agents are starting to choose which services they connect to and recommend on their own. That shifts what App Store Optimization needs to cover: your app’s visibility is no longer decided by the app store’s algorithm alone, but also by how AI systems perceive your brand.

Brand Trust Beyond the App (the Mentions Economy)

Even if an agent can connect to your app, it still needs to trust that your service is the best option out there. AI systems assess apps and software by scanning various third-party platforms for reviews and feedback. That’s why a strong presence, good reviews and high-quality mentions on knowledge ecosystems such as Reddit, G2, GitHub and Capterra can be the deciding factor in whether an AI recommends or integrates your app.

In practice, this means modern ASO doesn’t stop at the store listing. Ratings and reviews in the app store remain a ranking factor, but the same logic now extends to an app’s entire digital footprint. You can read more about how this all fits together in our guides to AI SEO and GEO.

Similarities and Differences Between ASO and SEO

ASO is sometimes referred to as app store SEO, and it’s easy to see why: ASO and search engine optimization actually have a great deal in common. The Apple App Store and Google Play are, in effect, two search engines, not unlike Google and Bing, just limited to apps.

The similarities run deep.

In both cases, you need good, user-focused content to deliver the best possible experience. A webpage has to answer the user’s question in an engaging way; an app in an app store has to match what the user is looking for and be described in an appealing way.

Both ASO and SEO rely on keywords to drive ranking. In SEO, keywords appear in body text, subheadings, alt text, URLs, and in the meta title and description. In ASO, keywords are used chiefly in the title and subtitle, and also in the description; in the Apple App Store, they’re used in the dedicated keyword list as well.

Both search engine optimization and App Store Optimization track how users respond to content. Google does this partly by measuring bounce rate; an app store does it through ratings, reviews and downloads.

Differences Between ASO and SEO

App stores differ from “regular” search engines in that they’re closed ecosystems. An app listed on Google Play, for example, can’t turn up in the Apple App Store, and vice versa. On top of that, an app store will only ever surface results related to apps.

Links, too, play no central role in ASO. A link doesn’t directly improve ranking the way it does in SEO. It can, however, help the app get found in Google search, which may indirectly contribute to a higher ranking.

Read more about what SEO means.

Key Differences Between the Apple App Store and Google Play

At their core, Google Play and the Apple App Store work in much the same way: both are platforms where users find and download apps, and both aim to show users the best possible app for a given task. Still, they differ on several important points:

ASO Tools

Every ASO project starts with keyword research: knowing what users are actually searching for before you optimise anything. The tools below can help with that, and plenty more besides.

There’s no shortage of tools built for ASO. An App Store Optimization tool can tell you which keywords are relevant and surface useful market trends. Many of these web applications can also help with the paid advertising side of promoting an app.

Here are a few of the most popular ASO tools:

• App Radar: An all-in-one tool for optimising both organic visibility and advertising for apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store.
• MobileAction: One of the most widely used ASO tools for finding and tracking keywords and spotting trends. It can also show app updates over time.
• ASOTools: One of the leading App Store Optimization tools, available in both free and paid versions.
• AppTweak: An ASO platform used by companies including Uber. Compare and discover keywords, keep tabs on competing apps, and more.
• AppFollow: A tool focused on app ratings and reviews, helping you understand how users experience your app.

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