# Brand, generic and intent keywords: a vocabulary for ASO

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


Every search term on the App Store is one of three kinds. A brand term names an app or a company. A generic term names a category of app. An intent term names what the person wants to happen. Each kind is searched by a different person, won in a different place in the listing, and measured differently, and most keyword lists mix them up. Our own app [Escape](https://escapethegrip.com/) has all three: its own brand, the category phrase "content blocker", and intent phrases like "quit corn" and "temptation blocker". Here is how each behaves and where it goes.

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

## Brand terms

Yours, and other people's. Your own brand is the term you must hold at number one, and the only threat to it is a bigger thing with the same word; Escape's brand word is also a games genre, so we track a distinctive brand phrase as well as the bare name. Other apps' brands are off limits in your listing and sometimes worth bidding on in ads when the brand is weak or gone. [When that pays.](/blog/apple-ads-competitor-keywords/) A brand term's volume is a measure of the brand's pull, not of the category.

Where it goes: your brand in the name, first. Nothing else.

## Generic terms

The category phrases: "content blocker", "website blocker", "app blocker". High demand, held by the biggest apps in the category, and the terms most developers waste their characters chasing. A generic term is won through the name, because the store weighs the name heavily and the apps holding it have the phrase in theirs. For a small app, a generic term is a Long shot unless the top 10 has weak slots, and the real value is in the two-word phrases it forms with an intent word.

Where it goes: one category phrase in the name after the brand, and its second word in the subtitle so the combinations form.

## Intent terms

What the person wants: "quit corn", "block adult content", "temptation blocker", "stop gooning". Lower volume each, less competition, and the highest conversion, because the person has described their problem and your page answers it. Intent terms are the ones an indie app can own: Escape's number ones are intent phrases formed by its name and subtitle, and its best Go for it terms are intent phrases from the Gaps list and from reviewers' words. They also cluster: a few intent words in the field combine with the category word into a dozen phrases.

Where it goes: the outcome word in the subtitle, the rest of the intent vocabulary in the keyword field.

## Reading a list by kind

Sort your tracked terms into the three families and look at the shape. All generic: you are fighting giants everywhere and will lose slowly. All intent: you convert well and few people find you; add the category phrase to the name. Brand only: you are depending on people who already know you. A healthy indie list is one brand phrase, one or two generics held through the name, and twenty intent phrases, most of them Go for it or Climbable.

## Measuring each kind

A brand term is measured by whether it is number one. A generic term is measured by whether you are on the first screen at all, and by the two-word phrases it forms. An intent term is measured by its rank and by conversion, because the rank is cheap and the install is the point. RankASO tracks all three the same way, and the verdict reads differently for each because the top 10 looks different for each.

RankASO on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6830350753?ct=blog-en-44&mt=8 (Free to start. No account. Data Not Collected.)

## Questions

### What are the types of ASO keywords?

Brand terms (an app's or company's name), generic terms (the category) and intent terms (what the user wants to happen). Each is won in a different part of the listing.

### Should an indie app target generic keywords?

One, in the name, as the category phrase. The rest of the list should be intent phrases, which are lower volume, less contested and convert better.

### What are intent keywords in ASO?

Phrases that describe the outcome the searcher wants, such as "quit corn" or "block adult content". They combine with your category word into many phrases and are where small apps win.