# What is App Store Optimization? The indie version

Sam · Published November 4, 2026 · Canonical: https://rankaso.app/blog/what-is-app-store-optimization/


App Store Optimization, ASO, is the work of choosing the words in your app's name, subtitle and keyword field so that the App Store shows your app when someone searches for what it does, and then measuring whether it worked. That is the whole thing. Everything else written about it is detail on three questions: which words, where do you rank for them today, and did the last change help. For an indie developer the loop is small enough to run from a phone in ten minutes a week, which is what RankASO is for.

![The Today screen in RankASO with the visibility score and what moved](https://rankaso.app/assets/device-05.png)

## The three questions

**Which words.** The store matches searches against the words in your name, subtitle and keyword field, in combination. The right words are the ones people actually type, that describe your app, and that you can win against the apps already ranking. The first two come from the store's own search completions and your reviewers' vocabulary; the third comes from reading the top 10 on each term.

**Where you rank today.** For each term, in each country's storefront, your position in the search result, read daily at the same hour. Not from your own phone's App Store, which personalises, but from the neutral result a new user sees. This is the number every other decision depends on, and the one most developers only ever guess at.

**Did the change help.** One listing change per version, a baseline recorded the day you submit, and the before-and-after read two weeks later. ASO without the measurement is rewriting the listing on instinct, which is what most apps do and why most keyword fields are a quarter dead.

## What ASO is not

It is not stuffing. The store ignores words it considers filler and matches singulars to plurals, so repetition and padding cost characters and earn nothing. It is not a one-time task at launch; ranks move as rivals change their listings and as terms rise and fade. And it is not separate from the product page: a rank gets you seen, and the screenshots and the first line of the description decide whether the view becomes a download.

## What it looks like for one app

Our own app [Escape](https://escapethegrip.com/) holds number one in the US store on its core terms through the words in its name and subtitle alone, and ranks in Canada on eighteen of twenty tracked terms. None of that came from a budget. It came from tracking thirty terms in two storefronts, reading which words earned ranks, and changing one thing per version. [The weekly loop.](/blog/aso-one-person-studio/)

## Where to start

1. Add your app and paste the words from your name and subtitle as terms, plus the phrases the store completes for your category word. [The ten-minute setup.](/blog/aso-for-indie-app/)
2. Let the first daily check give every term a rank and a verdict.
3. Pick the two or three terms where you rank 11 to 50 and the top 10 is beatable.
4. Put their words in the listing with the next version. Record the baseline. Review at two weeks.

RankASO does the checking, the verdicts, the baseline and the review on your iPhone, with no account. The free plan covers one app, which is the one you have.

RankASO on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6830350753?ct=blog-en-36&mt=8 (Free to start. No account. Data Not Collected.)

## Questions

### What does ASO mean?

App Store Optimization: choosing the words in your listing so the store shows your app for the right searches, and measuring your rank for those searches over time.

### Is ASO the same as SEO?

Same idea, smaller field. The store indexes only your name, subtitle and keyword field, ranks per country, and weighs installs and ratings heavily. There are no backlinks and no content to publish.

### How long does ASO take to show results?

A listing change re-indexes within days and settles in about two weeks. Judging a change before then reads noise; after then it is a comparison against the baseline.