The four text fields Apple’s App Store search reads

Apple’s page on App Store search says that what search shows depends on text relevance, meaning matches for your app’s title, subtitle, keywords and primary category, and on user behavior, such as downloads, ratings and reviews. Here is what Apple’s own pages say about the four text fields.

App name. Up to 30 characters. Apple asks for a simple, memorable name that is easy to spell and hints at what the app does, and warns against generic terms and names too close to existing apps.

Subtitle. Up to 30 characters, shown under the name throughout the App Store. Apple asks you to avoid generic lines like “world’s best app” and to describe features or typical uses instead.

Keywords. A hidden field. Apple’s search page says it holds 100 characters in total, with terms separated by commas and no spaces between them (spaces inside a phrase are fine). It also says:

• Don’t repeat words that are already in your app name, subtitle or category.
• Avoid plurals of words you have already included.
• Your app is already searchable by its app name and company name, so don’t spend keywords on those.
• Names of other apps or companies aren’t allowed.

Primary category. Apple lists it among the text matches, so choose it as carefully as the words.

One detail we noticed while reading: Apple’s search page gives the keyword limit as 100 characters, while the App Store Connect reference gives it as 100 bytes. If the limit is counted in bytes, letters outside basic Latin take more than one byte each in UTF-8, so the field would fill sooner in some languages. We have not tested how App Store Connect counts.

Apple also lets you assign keywords to custom product pages, so a different page can appear for those searches instead of your default one.

What we do with it

• Write the name and subtitle first, from the words people search for, not from a slogan.
• Fill the keyword field only with words that are not already in the name, subtitle or category.
• Leave out competitor names. Apple doesn’t allow them.