To find competitor App Store keywords, search your category in the App Store, list the top 3–5 competing apps, inspect their titles and subtitles, then check which terms they rank for using manual App Store searches or an ASO tool like AppFollow, ASOdesk, or AppTweak.
Finding competitor keywords is the fastest way to build an App Store keyword strategy. Instead of guessing what users search for, you reverse-engineer what's already working — then fill the gaps.
This guide covers two methods: a free manual approach using only the App Store, and a faster approach using tools. Both produce real keyword intelligence. The tool method is faster; the manual method costs nothing.
If you already have a candidate keyword list, review your title, subtitle, and keyword field for duplicate words and character waste before submitting — every duplicate you remove is space for a new indexed term.
What You're Actually Looking For
Before the steps, be clear on what "competitor keywords" means in practice:
Keywords they rank for that you don't. If the #1 app in your category ranks for "focus timer pomodoro" and your app doesn't appear in the top 100 for that term, it's a gap — a keyword that converts in this category that you're missing.
Keywords they rank for with low difficulty. Established apps rank for some terms by default, not because they optimized for them. Those terms often have moderate volume and low-to-medium difficulty — easier for a new app to target than primary category keywords with hundreds of competing apps.
Terms users search that no one has properly targeted. The rarest find, but the most valuable. Use autocomplete to surface query variations that top competitors haven't put in their titles or subtitles yet.
Method 1: Free — Using the App Store Directly (30–45 min)
No tools, no subscription. This uses the App Store on your phone and a notes app.
Step 1: Pick your main App Store category keyword
Start with the broad term that describes what your app does: habit tracker, focus timer, budget planner, sleep sounds, workout tracker, language learning, photo editor, or whatever category users would naturally search.
This seed keyword is not always the keyword you should target in your title. It is the starting point for finding competitors and related search terms.
Step 2: Find the top competing apps
On iPhone, search your primary category keyword in the App Store. Write down the top 3 apps in search results. These are the apps Apple considers most relevant — your baseline competitors.
Also check: the "You Might Also Like" section at the bottom of your own app's listing. Apple surfaces apps it considers similar to yours. Any overlap with your top-3 search results is a strong competitor signal.
Step 3: Extract title and subtitle keywords
Open each competitor app listing. Read the title (30 chars) and subtitle (30 chars) slowly.
Every word there is a deliberate keyword choice. Developers have limited characters — they don't waste them. Write down every distinct keyword you see across all three competitors' titles and subtitles.
Example: If your competitor's title is "Focus Timer: Deep Work" and subtitle is "Pomodoro Productivity App", your list includes: focus, timer, deep, work, pomodoro, productivity.
Step 4: Check whether each competitor keyword ranks
For each keyword from Step 3, search it in the App Store. For each search, note:
- Does your competitor appear in the top 5? (Validates the keyword works in this category)
- Does your app appear at all? (If not, it's a gap)
- How many well-optimized apps appear in results? (Fewer = lower difficulty)
- What autocomplete suggestions show up? (These are related queries users actually type)
Write a simple table: keyword / competitor rank / your rank / competition level (low/medium/high based on results quality).
Step 5: Mine autocomplete for variations
As you type each keyword, watch the autocomplete dropdown before hitting search. These suggestions are real queries. Some will be variations with lower competition than the exact term.
For "focus timer" you might see: "focus timer for work", "focus timer pomodoro", "focus timer study", "focus timer no ads". Each variation is a separate keyword with its own volume and difficulty.
Search the most relevant variations. Note any where top results are weaker (fewer ratings, less-optimized titles) — those are low-difficulty opportunities.
Step 6: Find the keyword gaps your app is missing
A keyword gap is a term a competitor ranks for but your app does not. These gaps matter because they prove two things at once: users search the term, and Apple already considers apps like yours relevant for that term.
Mark every competitor keyword where your app does not appear in the top 50. Then mark every term where your app appears below position 50 but the competitor appears in the top 10. Those are the easiest opportunities to prioritize.
Step 7: Build and prioritize your list
By the end, you have a list with:
- The keyword
- Whether a competitor ranks well for it
- Whether you rank at all
- Rough difficulty assessment from search results
Priority order for your keyword field:
- Competitor ranks top 10 + you don't appear + low/medium difficulty
- Competitor ranks top 10 + you rank 50+ + low difficulty
- Autocomplete variation + no strong competition in results
The top 5 on this prioritized list belong in your title (1st), subtitle (2nd), and keyword field (3rd–5th+). If you need a refresher on field limits, read how Apple's keyword field works.
Method 2: With Tools (15 min)
ASO tools reverse-engineer competitor keyword rankings automatically. Instead of manually searching each term, you get a full list with volume and difficulty scores in one export.
Tools that have this feature:
- AppFollow — free tier with limited daily queries; "Keywords" tab on any app
- ASOdesk — free trial; "Keyword Explorer" shows what any app ranks for
- AppTweak — paid; deepest data, best for serious research
- Sensor Tower — enterprise tier; best for cross-market research
- MobileAction — mid-tier; good UI for gap analysis
If you're weighing tool costs against hiring someone to do this for you, see how much App Store optimization actually costs — it breaks down DIY vs. done-for-you pricing.
Step 1: Enter competitor app name or URL
In your tool of choice, search for your competitor app. You can usually enter the App Store URL directly or just the app name.
Step 2: Go to "Keywords" or "Keyword Rankings"
Every major ASO tool has a section showing every keyword a specific app ranks for, with position, volume, and difficulty. This is the list you want.
Export it as CSV if possible, or note the top 30–50 keywords sorted by volume.
Step 3: Find keywords you don't rank for
Look up your own app in the same tool. Compare your keyword list against each competitor's. The keywords they rank for in positions 1–20 that you don't appear in the top 100 for are your gap list.
Some tools have a dedicated "Keyword Gap" or "Competitor Comparison" view that does this automatically.
Step 4: Filter by opportunity
From your gap list, keep only keywords that meet these criteria:
- Relevant to your app's actual functionality
- Volume above 20 on Apple's 0–100 scale (below 20 is very low traffic)
- Difficulty below 50 if you're a small app with fewer than 500 ratings
Sort the remaining keywords by (Volume × (100 − Difficulty)). The top 10 are your candidates.
Mapping Keywords to the Right Fields
Once you have your prioritized list, place keywords correctly:
Title (30 chars): Your single highest-volume, highest-relevance keyword. Put it as early as possible — Apple weights the start of the title more heavily.
Subtitle (30 chars): Your second-priority keyword. Should complement, not repeat, the title. If title = "Focus Timer: Deep Work", subtitle might = "Study & Productivity Sessions" — new keywords, not repeats.
Keyword field (100 chars): All remaining candidates, comma-separated, no spaces after commas. Never repeat a word already in your title or subtitle — Apple indexes each word once across all three fields. Duplicate words waste characters.
Check for duplicates before submitting. Read your title, subtitle, and keyword field together — any word that appears more than once is wasted character budget. Remove duplicates and replace with new indexed terms.
If your best keyword gaps are in another language or country, read the guide to App Store keyword research for international markets before translating anything.
Tracking Results After the Update
After submitting new metadata, ranking changes take 2–4 weeks to fully appear. Track these things:
- Your position for each targeted keyword (check weekly in your tool or manually)
- Any keywords where you moved from "not ranking" to top 50 — those are working
- Any keywords where you moved to top 10 — double down (add to title or subtitle if relevant)
- Any keywords where position didn't change after 4 weeks — candidates for replacement
Set a 4-week calendar reminder to review. ASO is not set-and-forget — the optimal keyword mix changes as your ratings grow and as competitors update their metadata.
Doing This for International Markets
The competitor landscape and keyword vocabulary are completely different per market.
Your top 3 competitors in the US App Store are not the same apps that dominate in Japan or Germany. The keywords driving downloads in English don't translate — users in each market search in their own language using different terminology, phrasing, and conventions.
What changes per market:
- Which apps dominate search results (local apps often rank higher than global ones)
- What search terms users type (Japanese users search in hiragana/katakana, German users use compound nouns)
- Which keywords are high-volume vs. low-volume (volume patterns differ dramatically between markets)
To research competitor keywords in a foreign market, you need to either: switch your App Store region to that country and run the manual process, or use an ASO tool with multi-country support (AppFollow, ASOdesk, AppTweak all support filtering by country).
The time investment multiplies fast. 15 minutes per market × 10 markets = 2.5 hours of competitor research before writing a word of metadata. Add keyword field writing, character-limit fitting, and copy review, and a full international localization project is 20–40 hours.
LocalizeRank does this per-market research for you — competitor keyword gap analysis in each target language, using AppFollow and ASOdesk data, delivered as a paste-ready Google Sheet per locale. Starting at $149 for 5 markets.
If you want the research handled for you, start with the App Store localization service or go directly to LocalizeRank pricing.
FAQ
How do I find what keywords my App Store competitors are ranking for?
Open the App Store and search your main category keyword. Note the top 3–5 apps. Read every word in their title and subtitle — those are deliberate keyword choices. Then search each term individually to see how they rank. With a tool like AppFollow or ASOdesk, you can pull every keyword a competitor ranks for automatically, with volume and difficulty scores, without doing this manually.
Can I find competitor App Store keywords for free?
Yes. The free method uses only the App Store: search your category keyword, read competitor titles and subtitles, then search each term to observe the competitive landscape. It takes 30–45 minutes and reveals most high-value keywords. Paid tools (AppFollow, ASOdesk) automate this and add volume and difficulty data, but the free manual method produces a solid starting list at no cost.
What tool shows what keywords an app ranks for?
AppFollow, ASOdesk, AppTweak, and Sensor Tower all have a "keywords this app ranks for" feature. Enter a competitor's App Store URL or name, and the tool returns every keyword they rank for — with volume and difficulty. AppFollow has a free tier with limited daily queries.
What are iTunes keywords and how do I find competitors' keyword fields?
iTunes keywords (now called App Store keywords) are the 100-character keyword field in App Store Connect. Competitors' keyword fields aren't public. But you can reverse-engineer them: the keywords they rank for that don't appear in their title or subtitle are almost certainly in their keyword field. ASO tools that show full keyword rankings effectively expose this.
How do I find competitor keywords in Japan, Germany, or other international markets?
The same process applies per market, but in the local language with local competitors. Switch your App Store region (Settings → [your name] → Media & Purchases → View Account → Country/Region) or use an ASO tool's country filter to run searches in the target market. The apps that dominate Japan's App Store are often different from US leaders — and their keywords are entirely in Japanese.
Check Your Keyword Field
Once you've built your competitor keyword list, review your title, subtitle, and keyword field together to catch duplicates and confirm you're using the full 100-character budget before you submit.
If you want me to find the keyword gaps for your app across multiple countries, see what LocalizeRank delivers — competitor keyword research, localized metadata, and a ready-to-paste Google Sheet.
