App Store Optimization (ASO): The Complete Guide to Ranking and Converting in Both Stores

Marketing guide · Last reviewed 28 September 2026 · 12 min read

App store optimization (ASO) is the work of making an app easier to find and more likely to be installed in the App Store and Google Play. It covers the app’s name, keywords and descriptions, its screenshots and ratings, and how all of these are localized for each country. This guide explains how ASO works on both stores, the official limits for every metadata field, how to research ASO keywords and measure results, and where mobile proxies help teams check listings, reviews and campaigns market by market.

What Is App Store Optimization (ASO)?

Most installs start with a search inside the store or a browse through its charts and features. App store optimization is the practice of improving an app’s store listing so that it appears for more relevant searches, and so that more of the people who see it tap “Get” or “Install”.

ASO has the same logic as search engine optimization, with three important differences:

• Metadata is short and strictly limited. You have a few dozen characters in the fields that matter most, so every word counts.
• Each store works differently. Apple has a hidden keyword field; Google Play reads your full description instead.
• Every country is a separate market. Listings, rankings, charts and reviews are all per storefront.

What the App Store and Google Play Rank On

Neither store publishes its ranking formula, but both describe the inputs in their developer documentation. In broad terms:

• Text relevance. The words in your app name, subtitle and keyword field (App Store) or name, short and full description (Google Play) decide which searches you can appear for.
• Ratings and reviews. Average rating, volume and recency of reviews influence both ranking and the decision to install.
• Engagement and quality. Download velocity, retention, uninstalls and technical quality such as crashes all feed the stores’ view of your app.
• Conversion. How often people who see your listing install it. A listing that converts well tends to be shown more.

App Store and Google Play Metadata Limits

Google warns that repetitive or irrelevant keywords in the name or descriptions can get an app suspended, and Apple’s guidelines treat keyword stuffing and trademark misuse in metadata as grounds for rejection. Write for people first.

ASO Keyword Research

1. Start from the job the app does. List the problems it solves in the words users would use, not your internal feature names.
2. Collect store suggestions. The search autocomplete in each store shows popular queries. Check it in every language you target.
3. Look at competitors. Note the terms in the names, subtitles and short descriptions of the apps that rank for your main ideas.
4. Balance volume and competition. Apple’s own advice: popular terms bring traffic but are highly competitive; less common terms bring less traffic but are easier to rank for. New apps usually win on specific, longer phrases first.
5. Place the best terms carefully. On the App Store, put the strongest term in the name, the next in the subtitle, and single words in the keyword field without repeating words already in the name. On Google Play, use the terms naturally in the short and full description.
6. Track and iterate. Record your position for each keyword by country over time, and change one thing at a time.

Conversion: Turning Store Views into Installs

• Icon. Simple, recognisable at small sizes, and distinct from competitors in the same results.
• Screenshots and previews. The first two or three do most of the work. Show the main benefit, with a short caption, and localize the text.
• Ratings and reviews. Ask for ratings at a good moment using the stores’ official in-app review prompts, reply to reviews, and fix what people complain about.
• Tailored pages. Apple’s custom product pages let you show different screenshots and text to different audiences, for example to people arriving from a particular ad campaign. Google Play offers custom store listings, including by country.

Localization and Country Rankings

An app can rank first in one country and nowhere in another. Each storefront has its own search index, charts, featured content, languages and reviews. Localization is therefore one of the highest-return ASO tasks:

• Translate and adapt the name, subtitle, keywords and screenshots for each market, not only the app itself.
• Research keywords in the local language; direct translations often miss what people search for.
• Watch local competitors, which can differ completely from the global leaders.
• Read reviews country by country: a bug on one carrier or a missing payment method shows up in one market only.

One important detail: the store you see on a phone is decided by your account’s country, not by your IP address. Apple ties the App Store storefront to the Apple Account’s country or region, and Google Play’s country decides the content you find and needs a payment method from that country to change. A proxy alone does not switch the storefront inside the store app.

Where Proxies Help in App Store Optimization

Because the in-app storefront follows the account, ASO teams use proxies for the public, web-based side of their work, where location is set by the IP:

• Public store pages by country. Collect your own and competitors’ public listing pages, ratings and review counts from each country’s web version of the stores, day by day, to build a history of metadata changes. The App Store’s web pages carry the country in the URL; proxies spread thousands of daily requests over many IPs and show each page as a local visitor sees it.
• Reviews at scale. Gather public reviews for your apps across many countries and languages for analysis, including sentiment analysis of what users like and dislike.
• Web search and landing pages. Check how your app and competitors appear in web search results, app packs and your own landing pages in each market.
• Ads and deep links. Verify that app-install ads, smart banners, deep links and store redirects work correctly for users in each country. See our ad verification guide.
• In-app regional content. Test how your own app’s region-based features, prices and content behave from real carrier networks in each market.

Rotating mobile proxies use 4G and 5G carrier IPs, the same kind of addresses real phone users have, with targeting by country, region, city and carrier at no extra charge. For collecting many public pages, rotating residential proxies spread requests over millions of home IPs. Choose a sticky session when a check needs several requests from the same IP, and a new IP per request for bulk collection.

import requests

# Country is set in the ProxyEmpire dashboard for this username
PROXY = "http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@v2.proxyempire.io:5000"
proxies = {"http": PROXY, "https": PROXY}

url = "https://apps.apple.com/de/app/id000000000"   # public App Store web page, German storefront
r = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies, timeout=30,
                 headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0", "Accept-Language": "de-DE"})
print(r.status_code, len(r.text))

Testing and Measuring ASO Results

• App Store Connect shows impressions, product page views, conversion rate and downloads by source and territory. Product page optimization lets you test alternative icons, screenshots and previews against your original.
• Google Play Console reports store listing visitors, acquisitions and conversion by country and traffic source. Store listing experiments run A/B tests on graphics and text.
• Your own tracking fills the gaps: keyword positions by country over time, competitor changes, and review trends collected from public pages.

Change one element at a time, run tests long enough to reach meaningful numbers, and keep a changelog so you can tie ranking moves to specific updates.

What Not to Do: Fake Installs, Reviews and Rankings

Both stores ban manipulation outright. Apple’s App Review Guidelines say that apps whose developers manipulate reviews or inflate chart rankings with paid, incentivized, filtered or fake feedback, or use third-party services to do so, face removal from the store and expulsion from the developer program. Google Play prohibits manipulating ratings, reviews or install counts, including fraudulent or incentivized reviews.

Never use proxies, devices or services to fake installs, ratings, reviews or searches. ProxyEmpire proxies are for research, testing and verification of real, public information.

App Store Optimization FAQ

References

1. Apple: Creating your product pageApp name and subtitle 30 characters, keywords 100, promotional text 170
2. Play Console Help: Create and set up your appApp name 30, short description 80, full description 4,000 characters
3. Apple: App Review GuidelinesManipulation of ratings, reviews and chart rankings
4. Play Console Help: User Ratings, Reviews, and Installs policyNo manipulation of ratings, reviews or install counts
5. Apple: Custom product pagesAlternative product pages for different audiences
6. Apple: Product page optimizationTesting icons, screenshots and previews
7. Play Console Help: Run A/B tests on your store listingStore listing experiments
8. Apple Support: Change your Apple Account country or regionThe storefront follows the account’s country
9. Google Play Help: How to change your Google Play countryPlay country decides store content; change needs local payment method