ASO Guide: How keywords work and how you can start optimizing them for free

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

Tim again - still working on my app screenshot design tool, LaunchMatic 😛

I noticed that a lot of IH app developers shared similar problems in the ASO feedback post I made regarding keyword research & implementation.

Instead of replying to each of you there I thought it would be better to spend a day writing out a blog post on how keywords work in the App Store and Google Play Store, with an emphasis on how to do your keyword research without spending $$$$.

I will be highlighting core points for each of the bullets below, but you can give the blog post a read if you want to go deeper.

I'm experimenting with a comment based format where I write a devoted comment for each of the bullet points

Click the links below to navigate:

🔤 How keywords work to form phrases

🏁 Setting goals for your keyword optimization

💸 How to identify & track keywords for free

🍏 How to form keyword phrases for the Apple App Store

🤖 How to form keyword phrases for the Google Play Store

Terminology glossary:

Keyword Phrase - A combination of multiple keywords
Popularity - An estimate of how many search queries happen per month for that keyword
Keyword Competition - How many other apps are trying to rank for a keyword
Long-tail Keywords - Niche search queries that typically have less search volume and less competition, meaning you have a better chance to rank higher in them
Keyword Distribution - How many different keywords and keyword phrases you're ranking for
Ranking - If you show up for a keyword and, if so, which position you rank as
Targeting a keyword - adding a keyword/phrase in a indexable keyword field (title, subtitle, short desc, etc) - Thanks @girishw for the feedback ;)

Any questions left unanswered or want me to focus on another ASO topic? Leave a comment here and I'll see what I can do :)