Keyword field

What is the App Store keyword field?

The keyword field is a 100-character text input in App Store Connect (under App Information per locale) that contributes to App Store search indexing. Unlike the app name and subtitle, the keyword field is invisible to users on the App Store; it exists only as a search signal.

Keywords go in comma-separated without spaces (per Apple's own guidance: "soccer,football,sports" not "soccer, football, sports"). Including spaces wastes characters. The 100-character limit is strict; submissions over the limit get rejected.

What's the right keyword field strategy?

The strongest keyword field strategies focus on terms NOT already in the app name and subtitle. Apple already indexes those for search; duplicating them in the keyword field wastes the 100 characters. The keyword field is the place for adjacent or long-tail terms that wouldn't fit naturally in the name or subtitle.

Tools like AppTweak and MobileAction help with keyword research: search volume estimates per term, ranking difficulty scores, competitor keyword analysis. Most teams iterate the keyword field over the first 90 days post-launch as real ranking data surfaces which terms drive installs.

How does the keyword field interact with Apple OCR?

Apple's OCR also indexes text inside screenshots (caption headlines, embedded labels), so keyword footprint isn't limited to the 100-character field alone. Reverse-engineered ASO studies suggest screenshot text terms carry roughly 50-70 percent the weight of keyword field terms. This means the 100-character field plus screenshot captions plus app name plus subtitle together form the app's full keyword footprint, not the keyword field alone.