How App Store and Google Play search ranking works

Both stores rank apps in two passes. First they find the apps whose words match the search. Then they order those apps by how well each one performs: taps, installs, ratings, and how fresh it is. Your words get you into the list. Your results decide where in the list you land.

Definition

Ranking: the position your app holds in the results for one search term, in one country's store, at one moment. Position 1 is the top of the list.

Pass 1: do your words match?

When someone types "voice notes", the store does not consider every app. It pulls the apps whose listing text contains those words, or close variants. If "voice" and "notes" appear nowhere in the parts the store indexes, you are not in the race, even if your app is the best voice-notes app ever made.

This is why the first job in ASO is always the words, and why the words have to go in the right fields. Each store indexes different fields.

Pass 2: how well do you perform?

Among the apps that match, the store has to pick an order. It uses what it can measure. Nobody publishes the formula, but the stores name the inputs, and the inputs are the same kind of thing on both: evidence that people who searched this term were happy to find your app.

Notice what is not on the list: how long your description is, how many times a word appears, how many screenshots you uploaded. Those are things you do; the store scores what people do.

Why the same app ranks differently in every country

Each country storefront is its own search index with its own listing text (you can localise it), its own competitors and its own shoppers. An app can be #3 for "expense tracker" in India and #40 in the United States. When you track ranks, always say which term, which country and which store.

This also means the easiest wins are often in the storefronts you have ignored. A localised Hindi listing on Google Play competes in a far smaller field than the English one. ASO for Indian apps goes deeper on this.

Five myths that waste people's time

1. 1

   "Repeat the keyword and you rank higher."

   No. Apple says not to repeat words across name, subtitle and keywords; each counts once. Google Play's metadata policy calls repetitive keywords a violation. Say it once, in the right field.
2. 2

   "A long description helps ranking on the App Store."

   Apple does not index the description for search. Write it for people who open your page. On Google Play the description is indexed, but it still needs to read like a human wrote it.
3. 3

   "Buy installs to climb, then stop."

   Bought installs from people who never searched for your term do not teach the store anything useful, and both stores remove apps for manipulation. Installs that come from the search itself are the ones that count.
4. 4

   "Changing the icon will fix my ranking."

   The icon changes tap rate, which feeds ranking slowly. It does not change which searches you match. If you get no views at all, the problem is the words.
5. 5

   "There is one ranking."

   There are thousands: one per term per country per store. 'My app dropped' means nothing until you say for which search.

What this means for your listing, in order

1. Pick 10 to 20 real searches that describe the job your app does. Part 4, keyword research, shows how.
2. Put the top two in your name and subtitle (or short description). Part 3, the words that rank, has the formulas and the rules.
3. Put the rest in the keyword field (App Store) or the description (Google Play).
4. Make the first three screenshots answer the search. Someone who typed "voice notes" should see voice notes in screenshot one.
5. Get your rating above 4.3 and keep it there. Reply to every low review. Part 5 and the review templates cover this.
6. Wait two to four weeks, then look at the trend, not the daily number.