Lazy ASOHow to find keywords for an iOS app
Updated 14 November 2026
List what your app does, then check each phrase against Apple's official top-500 search list for your country. Keep searches that have real popularity and where no app in the top results is named with that phrase. Put the best one at the start of your app name, and fill the 100-byte keyword field with the rest.
Step by step
- Write 20 to 30 plain phrases a user would type to find your app. Use the words for the job, not your brand.
- Check demand. Look each phrase up in Apple's official list of top searches for the country you target. Found means real popularity from 1 to 100. Missing means below the cut-off, not zero.
- Check that you can get in. Open the live results. If apps in the top 10 are named with the phrase, your chance drops. If nobody is, the name is open.
- Rank what is left by demand and by how open the name is. Keep three to five.
- Place them. The strongest goes at the start of the app name. The rest go in the subtitle and the keyword field.
Where each tool fits
| Source | Use it for | Not for |
|---|---|---|
| Apple official top-500 searches | Real popularity and rank, per country | Searches below the cut-off |
| Apple Search Ads score | Sharpening a number | Ruling a search out: the floor of 5 hides demand |
| Autocomplete | Candidate phrases | Proof of demand |
| Your own ideas | Seeding the list | Choosing the final set |
Autocomplete and Search Ads together are still one weak angle, not two. A second angle is the live result page: who is in the top 10 and how many ratings they have.
Demand is half of it
A search with 90 popularity behind a wall of apps with tens of thousands of ratings gives you nothing. We scanned 350,712 searches in 87 countries and followed 82,818 new apps. 28% of those searches had a new app in the top 10. What decided it was the name: a name that starts with the search reached the top 10 in 5 to 10% of cases, "Brand: search" after a colon in 1 to 3%, and a name without the search in 2 to 3%. Read the full numbers in what gets a new app to the top.
The keyword field
Apple allows up to 100 bytes. It counts bytes, so non-Latin text uses more. Each keyword must be longer than two characters, and you should not repeat your app name or add names of other apps or companies. In one of our tests, a word placed only in the keyword field did not bring a partial-phrase match into the top results, so do not expect it to carry the phrase you care about most. See what to put in the keyword field and every character limit.
Turn the chosen phrase into a name with how to name an iOS app.
Lazy ASO does the first three steps for you: Apple's official top searches in 87 countries, and a free name check with a top-10 chance and a go, maybe or skip call. Try the name check.