# App Store keyword ideas: five sources that are free

Sam · Published November 4, 2026 · Canonical: https://rankaso.app/blog/app-store-keyword-ideas/


Keyword ideas for an App Store listing come from five places, all free: the phrases the store completes when you type your niche's first word, the terms your rivals rank for, the words your reviewers use, the combinations of words already in your own listing, and the terms you rank for without meaning to. Each one produces a different kind of term, and a good list has all five. RankASO's Discover, Rivals and field report cover the first, second, fourth and fifth from the phone; the third takes an evening with your reviews.

![A keyword's detail in RankASO with the top 10 apps and the verdict](https://rankaso.app/assets/device-02.png)

## 1. What the store completes

Type the first word of your niche into the App Store search field and read the list. These are phrases people type often enough for the store to offer them, ordered by the store, different per country. It is the single best source because every entry is a real search. In RankASO, Discover does this for the seeds you give it, scores each completion for popularity and difficulty, and gives it a verdict, so the list arrives sorted by what you can win.

Seed it three ways: your category word ("blocker"), your outcome word ("quit"), and your user's problem in their words. The three lists overlap less than you would expect.

## 2. What your rivals rank for

A rival's ranks are public, their field is not, and the ranks are the better list anyway. Add three to five apps a user would consider instead of yours, and the Gaps list shows the terms they hold that you do not, with the top 10 and a verdict on each. [The method in full.](/blog/find-competitors-app-store-keywords/)

## 3. What your reviewers say

Read the last fifty reviews and list every noun and verb that describes what the app does for them. Reviewers use the vocabulary of the people who have not found you yet. For our own app [Escape](https://escapethegrip.com/), reviewers wrote "temptation", "urge" and "relapse" long before those words were in the keyword field; they are now, and "temptation blocker" sits at number two in the US.

## 4. Combinations of your own words

The store matches any combination of the words in your name, subtitle and keyword field. A listing with fifteen words covers dozens of two-word phrases you never typed. Escape's name and subtitle alone produce "adult content blocker", "content blocker", "corn blocker" and "block corn", all at number one, with no field characters spent. RankASO's coverage simulator lists every tracked phrase a listing covers, so you can see which combinations you already own and which one new word would unlock.

## 5. The terms you rank for by accident

Track a broad word from your listing on its own and the top 10 shows what the store thinks the word means. Sometimes you are ranking for a phrase you never targeted because two of your words sit next to each other. The field report in Studio shows, per word, which tracked terms it earns; a word earning a rank on a term you did not expect is a keyword idea that has already proven itself.

## Turning ideas into a list

Thirty terms per storefront is the right size. Put every candidate through the three numbers: popularity, difficulty read from the top 10, and your current rank. Keep the Go for it and Climbable terms, track the Long shots for information, and drop the Skips. [How to read the three numbers.](/blog/app-store-keyword-research/) Then one change per version, a baseline, and a review at two weeks.

RankASO on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6830350753?ct=blog-en-18&mt=8 (Free to start. No account. Data Not Collected.)

## Questions

### What is the best free source of App Store keyword ideas?

The store's own search completions, per country. Every entry is a phrase people actually type. RankASO's Discover reads them for the seeds you give it and scores each one.

### How many keyword ideas should I track?

Twenty to forty per storefront. Enough to cover your listing's words, the store's completions and your rivals' gaps, few enough to read every morning.

### Should I use a keyword database?

For a category you know nothing about, one month of a large database, exported and cancelled, builds the first list. For a niche you are already in, the five free sources above find the same terms.