Play Store ASO Keywords
Play has no separate "keyword" field. Entire listing is indexed.
Fields and their weight
| Field | Chars | Index weight |
|---|---|---|
| App name + subtitle | 30 + 30 | Highest |
| Short description | 80 | Very high (indexed for search) |
| Long description | 4000 | High (NLP-indexed for semantic) |
| App category | - | Medium |
| Developer name | - | Low |
| Screenshots | - | NOT OCR-indexed (unlike Apple) |
Strategy
App name + subtitle
Fit primary keyword in title. Example: "RupeeTrack - UPI Budget App"
- Primary: "rupee track"
- Secondary: "UPI budget"
Short description (80 chars)
The MOST important field for ranking. Should contain:
- 2-3 primary keywords naturally woven
- Action verb
- Specific outcome
Example: "Auto-track every UPI payment. Budget on autopilot for Indian students."
Keywords: "track", "UPI", "payment", "budget", "Indian students"
Long description (4000 chars)
- Repeat primary keywords 3-5 times naturally
- Include long-tail variants
- Use customer language (from
mine-play-reviews) - Bullet feature list
- Social proof (download count, ratings)
Structure:
- Hook paragraph (problem framing, customer language)
- Solution overview
- Feature bullets (each =keyword variant)
- Use cases (where to fit niche keywords)
- Social proof
- CTA + community
Keyword research
Free
- Google search "best [keyword] app" — see what comes up
- Play Store search → autocomplete (Google's search index)
- Reddit subreddit search
Paid
- AppTweak Play Keywords
- Mobile Action
- Sensor Tower
Free DIY
bash# Use Apify keyword scraper # Or Apify "Play Store Search Scraper" actor
Common gotchas
- Keyword stuffing → algorithmic penalty
- Generic title ("Budget App") → no brand search
- Different keywords per language (don't translate, localize)
- Forgetting to update after launch — review every 6 weeks
Test
After 4 weeks of any change, check rankings in AppTweak. If didn't move, iterate copy.
Pair with
position-pitch-android(positioning informs keyword)localize-figs-j-android(per-locale keywords)play-listing-experiments(A/B test variants)


