App Store Localization Checklist (Complete Guide)

Most developers who localize their App Store listing for the first time do it wrong — not because localization is hard, but because they skip steps that are easy to miss when you've never done it before.

They translate their English keywords instead of researching local ones. They forget to localize screenshot text. They submit and check rankings two weeks later, before Apple has even finished indexing. They don't track which keywords moved.

This checklist covers every step in the correct order: from selecting which markets to localize for, through building each metadata field, to tracking results correctly after submission. Work through it once per market and you'll catch everything.

Phase 1: Market Selection

Before writing a single keyword, confirm the market is worth prioritizing.

[ ] Check your app's current install countries in App Store Connect. Go to Analytics → App Store → Installs → by Country. Are there countries with downloads but no localized metadata? Those are your first targets — demand already exists.
[ ] Confirm the language has a separate locale in App Store Connect. German (de), French (fr), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR) — all separate fields. Spanish has two: Spain (es) and Mexico/Latin America (es-MX). Don't assume one covers the other.
[ ] Assess competition in this market for your category. Search your primary keyword in the App Store with region set to the target country. How many apps appear? What's the rating count of the top 3? If they have fewer than 1,000 ratings, competition is achievable.
[ ] Confirm there's keyword search volume in this market for your category. Use AppTweak, ASOdesk, or AppFollow set to the target country. If your category term has zero search volume in that country's language, the market may not be ready yet.

Priority order for most indie apps: Japan → Germany → France → South Korea → Australia → Brazil → Spain/Mexico

Phase 2: Keyword Research

This is the highest-leverage step and the most commonly skipped. Do not copy or translate your English keyword field.

[ ] Set your ASO research tool to the target country. AppTweak, ASOdesk, and AppFollow all support per-country data. Searching from US data gives you US search behavior — not German, Japanese, or French.
[ ] Search your app's core function in the local language. Start with the most direct term for what your app does (e.g., "Habit-Tracker" in German, "traceur d'habitudes" in French) and look at what related keywords the tool surfaces.
[ ] Build a keyword list of 20–30 candidates. For each, note: search volume, keyword difficulty, and how many apps are already ranking for it.
[ ] Check competitor keyword fields. Look at the top 3–5 apps in your category in this market. What terms appear in their titles and subtitles? What keywords do rank-tracking tools show them indexed for? Those are validated search terms.
[ ] Identify keyword gaps. Which terms do your competitors rank for that your app doesn't appear for at all? These are the highest-priority additions to your keyword field.
[ ] Flag compound word opportunities (for German and Korean). German compound nouns and Korean compound terms often have lower competition than their component words. "Schlaftracker" may have less competition than "Schlaf" + "Tracker" separately.
[ ] Separate high-volume/high-difficulty from low-volume/low-difficulty. Your title and subtitle should target the highest-volume achievable terms. Your keyword field should fill remaining character space with lower-competition long-tail terms.

Phase 3: Title (30 characters)

[ ] Lead with the primary keyword in the local language. The word order should reflect how users search — not a direct translation of your English title word order.
[ ] Put the keyword as early in the title as possible. Apple weights words earlier in the title more heavily.
[ ] Count characters precisely — no guesswork. Different scripts use characters differently. Japanese and Korean characters are single characters in Apple's count. Accented Latin characters (é, ü, ñ) count as one character. Confirm character count in App Store Connect's input field, not in a text editor.
[ ] Read the title out loud in the target language. If it sounds unnatural or machine-translated, a native speaker will notice. Bad title copy hurts conversion even when it's grammatically correct.
[ ] Confirm the title doesn't exceed 30 characters with the colon/dash pattern. Example: "Fokus Timer: Pomodoro & Arbeit" is 31 characters — one too many. Check before submitting.

Phase 4: Subtitle (30 characters)

[ ] Target a keyword that doesn't appear in the title. The subtitle is the second-highest weighted search field. Use it for your second-priority keyword, not a tagline.
[ ] Avoid filler phrases. "Deine Produktivitäts-App" (your productivity app) is a wasted subtitle. Use the space for a keyword with actual search volume.
[ ] Check the subtitle is in the correct locale. It's easy to accidentally leave the English subtitle in a non-English locale. Review every field in App Store Connect before submitting.
[ ] Confirm character count is at or near 30. Every unused character is unused ranking opportunity.

Phase 5: Keyword Field (100 characters)

[ ] Write keywords in the local language only. English keywords in a German keyword field produce zero German search visibility. Apple's indexing does not cross-language translate your keyword field.
[ ] Use commas as separators, not spaces. "fokus,timer,pomodoro" — correct. "fokus, timer, pomodoro" — the spaces eat into your 100-character budget.
[ ] Remove every word already used in the title or subtitle. Apple indexes each word once. Repeating "Timer" in the keyword field when it's in the title wastes those characters.
[ ] Fill to exactly 100 characters (or as close as possible). Count carefully. Every unused character is an unindexed keyword.
[ ] No keyword stuffing. Don't repeat the same word in different forms if Apple treats them as the same token. "Habit" and "Habits" are often treated identically — research confirms which form gets more volume, then use only that one.
[ ] Verify no English words crept in. Review the final field character by character. Autocorrect and copy-paste errors can insert English terms invisibly.
[ ] For Japanese: confirm kanji, hiragana, and katakana variants are correct. Japanese search behavior uses all three scripts. Research which form users type for your category.
[ ] For Korean: confirm Hangul spacing is correct. Korean compound terms may or may not have spaces depending on how users search — research the exact form.

Phase 6: Description

The description doesn't affect keyword ranking — Apple doesn't index it for search. But it affects conversion once a user visits your listing.

[ ] Write or review with a native speaker. Machine-translated descriptions read as machine-translated. Users in every market lose trust immediately. At minimum, have a native speaker read the description and flag unnatural phrasing.
[ ] Lead with the core benefit in the first two lines. These lines are visible before the user taps "more." The conversion decision often happens here.
[ ] Match the cultural register. German descriptions tend to be more direct and feature-specific. Japanese descriptions often include more formal honorifics. French lifestyle app copy is more conversational. Match the local norm for your category.
[ ] Don't copy-paste the English description and translate it. Restructure for the market. A US-optimized description structure often doesn't fit French or Japanese user expectations.

Phase 7: Screenshots

Screenshot text overlays are not indexed for search, but they drive conversion from search — which indirectly affects ranking through behavioral signals.

[ ] Translate or rewrite screenshot text overlays into the local language. English overlay text on a Japanese App Store listing signals the app wasn't built for Japanese users. Conversion suffers.
[ ] Check that translated text fits the overlay design. German text is often 30–40% longer than English equivalents. French text runs long too. Your design may need adjustment to avoid text overflow.
[ ] Screenshot 1 is your highest-priority conversion asset. It appears in search results. Make sure it communicates the core benefit clearly in the local language.
[ ] For right-to-left languages (Arabic): confirm text direction in overlays is correct. Left-to-right text in an Arabic screenshot looks wrong and reduces trust.

Phase 8: Pre-Submission Review

[ ] Review every field in App Store Connect before hitting Submit. Open each locale's metadata page and read through title, subtitle, keyword field, and description. It's easy to accidentally leave a field blank or in the wrong language.
[ ] Confirm all character limits are respected. App Store Connect will flag fields that exceed limits, but check manually — it won't warn you about fields that are significantly under limit.
[ ] Check the app is distributed in the target country. Under Pricing and Availability, confirm the country is included. A localized listing for a country you're not distributing in produces nothing.
[ ] Save a copy of your metadata before submitting. Keep the title, subtitle, and keyword field for each locale in a spreadsheet. This is your baseline for tracking what changed after results come in.

Phase 9: Post-Submission Tracking

Most localization mistakes happen here: developers check results too early, see nothing, and assume it didn't work.

[ ] Wait 2 weeks minimum before checking keyword positions. Apple's indexing takes 1–2 weeks after submission. Keyword positions during this window are unreliable.
[ ] Set up per-country keyword tracking before you check. Use Astro, AppFollow, or ASOdesk. Set the country to the locale you just localized. Track your target keywords, not just your overall ranking.
[ ] Check positions at the 4-week and 8-week marks. 4 weeks: confirm keywords are indexed and initial positions are visible. 8 weeks: evaluate whether positions are stable or still moving.
[ ] Watch App Store Connect install source data by country. Go to Analytics → App Store → Installs → filter by the target country. Organic search installs from that country should increase 6–10 weeks after submission.
[ ] Flag keywords that haven't moved after 6 weeks. If a keyword shows no position change after 6 weeks, replace it. Either competition is too high, the keyword isn't relevant enough to your app, or the specific form you used isn't what users search.
[ ] Schedule a keyword review at the 3-month mark. Search behavior evolves, competitors update their metadata, and new keyword opportunities emerge. Localization isn't one-and-done.

Checklist Summary

Market selection: demand confirmed, locale identified, competition assessed
Keyword research: local language data, competitor gap analysis, 20–30 candidates
Title: primary keyword early, 30 chars, natural phrasing
Subtitle: second keyword, near 30 chars, no filler
Keyword field: local language only, commas not spaces, no dupes, 100 chars
Description: native-reviewed, benefit-led, culturally appropriate
Screenshots: overlays translated, first screenshot localized
Pre-submission: all fields reviewed, character counts confirmed, distribution checked
Tracking: per-country keyword tracking set up, check at 4 and 8 weeks

The research bottleneck

The checklist above is complete. The bottleneck is Phase 2 — keyword research in a language you may not speak, using tools that require a subscription and hours of analysis per market.

LocalizeRank handles Phase 2 through Phase 6 as a done-for-you service: keyword research from local App Store data, competitor gap analysis, and a ready-to-paste Google Sheet with title, subtitle, keyword field, and description for each locale. Starting at $49 for 5 markets.

App Store Localization Checklist: Everything to Do Before You Submit