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How to make an iOS App Store listing

Your product page does two jobs at once. Some fields decide which searches you appear in, and different fields decide whether the people who arrive install anything. Confusing the two is the most common reason a good app stays invisible.

GETS YOU FOUNDGETS YOU INSTALLEDApp name30 chars · weighted mostSubtitle30 chars · weighted secondKeyword field100 chars · never shownIconThe first thing seenScreenshotsFirst two do the workDescriptionThree lines above MorebothPromotional text · 170 charactersThe only field you can change without submitting a new version for review.

The fields Apple indexes for search are on the left. The ones that decide whether a visitor installs are on the right. Only one field does both.

The short version

If you read nothing else.

  1. 01

    Pick the searches first

    Everything else on the page follows from them.

  2. 02

    Name and subtitle read as English

    They are seen. A keyword list in the title costs you installs.

  3. 03

    Keyword field takes the leftovers

    Nobody reads it. Waste nothing on it.

  4. 04

    First two screenshots carry the promise

    Most visitors never scroll past them.

  5. 05

    Promotional text for anything urgent

    It is the only field you can change without a review.

Two jobs, different fields

The name, the subtitle and the keyword field are what Apple reads to decide which searches you can appear in. A visitor barely notices the keyword field, because it is not shown to them at all.

The icon, the screenshots and the first lines of the description are what decides whether somebody who found you taps Get. They carry almost no search weight.

Write them as two separate jobs. A title stuffed with search terms that reads like a keyword list wins the search and loses the install, and you cannot tell which happened from a downloads number alone.

Name, subtitle and keywords get you found. Icon, screenshots and description get you installed.

The order to write them in

Start with the searches you want to win, because everything else follows from them. Then write the name and subtitle to carry the most important of those words while still reading like English. Then fill the keyword field with everything that did not fit.

Only then do the screenshots and the description, because now you know which promise brought the visitor here and the first screenshot can answer exactly that.

What you cannot change quickly

The name, subtitle, keyword field and screenshots are tied to a version submission, so changing them means a review. That is a real constraint on how fast you can iterate, and it is the reason to get the search terms right before you submit rather than after.

Promotional text is the exception. It sits above the description, is 170 characters, and can be changed at any time without submitting a new build. It is the one part of the page you can rewrite the day you think of something better.

Promotional text changes without a review. Everything else waits for one.

Localization multiplies the space

Each localization you add gets its own name, subtitle and keyword field, and Apple indexes them separately. Adding a second English localization is the most common way developers effectively double the keyword space they have, because the App Store treats the two sets as additive for a user in the right storefront.

This is worth doing carefully rather than quickly. A localization you fill with a machine translation reads badly to the people who speak that language, and they are the only people who will ever see it.

What people ask

Questions.

What is the most important part of an App Store listing?

The name and subtitle, because they decide which searches you can appear in at all.

Apple weights the app name most heavily, then the subtitle, then the keyword field. Nothing else on the page can compensate for those being wrong, because a visitor who never sees you in search cannot be converted by a good screenshot. Once you are appearing, the icon and the first two screenshots decide the install.

How often can I change my App Store listing?

The name, subtitle, keyword field and screenshots change with a version submission, so they go through review. Promotional text, at 170 characters above the description, can be changed any time without submitting a build. The description itself is also tied to a submission.

Does the description affect App Store search?

Not on the App Store. Apple does not index the description for search the way Google Play indexes its long description, so writing keywords into it does nothing for ranking. Write it for the person deciding whether to install.

How many localizations should I add?

Start with the storefronts where you already have users, plus a second English localization if one is available to you, since each gets its own indexed name, subtitle and keyword field. Add languages you can write properly rather than every language available.

The rest of it

Everything else on the listing.

When you want the numbers

Check your listing against your category.

The App Rating checker scores any App Store app out of 100 against the leaders in its own category. Free, no account, no card.

Score your app freeThe free listing tools