ASO guides

Short, practical guides on Google Play search, keywords and listings.

• How Google Play search ranks apps, as far as it can be observed

  Play does not publish its ranking rules. This is what consistent measurement shows, and what it does not.

• Choosing the first 50 keywords for a new app

  A new listing ranks for nothing. Here is how to build a pool worth measuring in an afternoon.

• Reading popularity and difficulty without fooling yourself

  Both numbers are estimates. This is what they are made of and when to distrust them.

• Competitor analysis on Google Play: what to copy and what not

  Competitors are the cheapest research you have. They also mislead if you copy the wrong things.

• One app, several markets: why store and language are separate axes

  The same package is a different listing in every store and language pair. Treating it as one thing is the most common localisation mistake.

• Reading a listing audit (ASO score) and acting on it

  A 0-100 score is only useful if you know which points are cheap to recover. This is how the checks weigh and where to start.

• Long-tail keywords on Google Play: why longer is not more popular

  Long phrases are easier to rank for and searched less. A tool that scores them above their head term is measuring its own method.

• Where to spend your effort: page two and dead weight

  Moving from 14 to 9 is usually worth more than chasing 40 to 1. And some keywords in your pool only cost you attention.

• Not ranked at all: how far away the first page really is

  "Not in the top 50" is the most common state for a tracked keyword. It is also the least informative — until you compare your weight with the apps that are there.

• Daily rank changes: which moves mean something

  Most day-to-day movement on Google Play is noise. Reacting to it wastes edits; the moves that matter are thresholds, not deltas.

• Keyword gap: terms your competitors rank for and you do not

  The most direct list of missed opportunities you can build — once you filter out the terms that belong to someone else's product.

• Finding keywords in your reviews without collecting chatter

  Reviews use the words people search with — and many more that nobody searches. Most of the work is filtering.