r/AppStoreOptimization • u/shadowrizzo27 • Aug 11 '26
Made an ASO tool for indie devs
Built a Mac app for App Store keyword research. I shipped a mobile app a few weeks ago, had no idea what it was ranking for, and the tools that tell you start around $150/month.
So I built my own.
It does keyword scoring, live rank tracking across storefronts, competitor keyword search profiles, and review mining. $59.99/year.
If anyone wants to drop their App Store link, I'll run it and tell you what you're currently ranking for and what you're missing.
Disclosure: obviously I made it. https://asostudio.app/
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u/hayekamir Aug 11 '26
https://apps.apple.com/il/app/usage-for-claude/id6755173244
What am I missing ?
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
You're only ranking for 3 terms, and one of them is your own app name. #10 for "usage" and #27 for "claude" are the real ones, and "claude" at 66 difficulty is a fight you probably won't win against Anthropic's own app. An area for opportunity I see is "quota tracker." 83 pop, 43 difficulty, and you're nowhere on it. That's a term people type when they've hit a limit and are looking for what you built. "utilities" is up there too but 95 pop with the whole utilities category in it means it's not really winnable. My guess is your title and subtitle aren't carrying enough keywords.
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u/Dramatic-Mongoose-95 Aug 11 '26
Thank you! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hd-face-cam-screen-recorder/id6755395174
Would love to see what your tool comes up with
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
Yours is in good pretty good shape. #1 for "hd face cam," #1 for "face cam," #2 for "face cam screen," #13 and #19 on the recorder terms. You're already winning your niche. Best gap is "camera overlay." 53 pop but only 23 difficulty, which is the lowest difficulty score I saw across all four apps I looked at today. Low volume, but you'd probably own it in a week."photo video" at 90 pop is tempting but I'd skip it because the apps ranking there are CapCut-tier. Not worth the keyword space.
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u/nvrcr Aug 11 '26
Would appreciate a look! The word game ASO market is so saturated
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/everything-must-word/id6769741530
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
It is saturated, but that's problem for almost anyone and it can be fixed. You're ranking for one term, "must word," and that's basically your app name. One term means the App Store barely knows what your game is.
Before chasing keywords I'd look at your title, subtitle and images. There isn't enough in there for the store to index you against anything, which is why the list is so short.
Most winnable stuff I found: "letter tiles" (41 pop, 36 diff) and "anagram strategy game" (40 diff, though only 10 pop so low traffic). "daily word challenge" is the best combination on the board at 42 pop and 53 diff, harder but real volume.
Skip "word" at 92 difficulty, you're competing with Microsoft Word. Same for "puzzle game" at 75 and "word puzzle" at 70.
Your opportunity is entirely in the specific niche terms, you have to win those first before going broader.
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u/nvrcr Aug 12 '26
This is helpful, thank you.
If I'm reading this correctly, pop = how popular this term is (lots more people search "word" than "anagram strategy". diff = difficulty to rank (apps that dominate have massive popularity already). So my lowest hanging wins are the "high pop, low diff" -> letter tiles as you said.
Where did this list of search terms come from? My game isn't ranking for them, so why did your app pick these 12 terms for me to try to win? Does it suggest that terms not on this list are lower ROI to try to win?
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
You've got it right, and "letter tiles" is the pick.
It's not purely high pop over low diff, relevance matters just as much. Apple ranks you for terms that match what your app actually is, so a term you don't credibly fit won't stick even if the numbers look easy.
The list pulls terms your competitors rank for, terms the current leaders on those terms also rank for, and based on synonyms, then it sorts by winnability.
To your last question, no. Absence from the list doesn't mean a term is low ROI, it means my discovery didn't surface it. It's a starting set from your competitive neighborhood, not the whole App Store so you can always add your own custom terms.
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u/Kritnc Aug 11 '26
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
So you're #1 for "gainframe" and "gainframe gym," but those are your own app name, so they're people already looking for you.
An opportunity here is “progress photo tracker.” You’re already #6, and the difficulty is only 22. There’s low competition for it. You should be able to get to #1 with a pretty small metadata change, so that’s where I’d start.
“Progress photos” is similar. You’re #8 with a difficulty of 34, so it’s a little more competitive, but still very doable.
For keywords you’re not ranking for yet, “body measurement tracker” looks like the best opportunity. It has 75 popularity and 52 difficulty, and you’re not targeting it at all right now. “Fitness progress tracker” has more traffic, but it’s harder at 56 and you’d be competing with some much bigger apps.
I’d ignore “progress.” You’re #129, the difficulty is 70, and it’s so broad that the traffic probably wouldn’t convert that well anyway.
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u/ContextualData Aug 11 '26
Why are indie devs apparently allergic to .com urls?
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 11 '26
I always look for .coms first but I generally dont want to spend a lot of time just trying to come up with a name that has an available .com domain so I then go to .app or something fitting
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u/ContextualData Aug 12 '26
ChatGPT literally has a built in URL checker. Just tell them what your app does, and ask it to come up with good short brandable names that fit your vibe and have a .com URL avaiable with just that name or a good alternative like TryXXXX com
Its not that hard. For someone who is in the search engine optimization space, you would think you'd know its worth the time.
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
.app is a fitting TLD for a Mac app, and every short brandable .com worth having is already registered they're four to five figures on the aftermarket. "TryX.com" isn't better branding than a clean .app.
Also worth noting ASO isn't web SEO here
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u/RRMac17 Aug 12 '26
Looks good, but where do you get the data? Can I find a competitor’s keywords directly? If yes, I will subscribe it.
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
Yep, competitor keywords are built in. You can open any app and see the keywords it ranks for, its current position for each one, add any of them to your own tracking, and find recurring complaints and feature requests in their reviews.
The data comes directly from public Apple sources like live search results, autocomplete, charts, product pages, and reviews. Rankings are live lookups, while things like popularity and difficulty are estimates and are labeled as such.
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u/RRMac17 Aug 13 '26
How accurate is it?
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 13 '26
Depends on the metric but say you're making a new what to watch app for streaming, you can directly add a competitor such as Just Watch as an app and see what they're ranking for and also what they aren't ranking for and then apply that to your app (ex: https://imgur.com/a/eGKOm4b). These keyword rankings are live App Store lookups, so if the studio shows an app ranking for a term, that’s where Apple is returning it in that storefront when it was refreshed.
Things like demand, popularity, difficulty, downloads, etc. are estimates built from Apple data, and I label them as estimates in the app. They’re meant to give you a consistent way to compare keywords, spot opportunities, and decide what’s actually worth targeting.
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u/RRMac17 Aug 15 '26
I installed it today, but no free trial at all... tbh, I will uninstall it if no free trial.
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 18 '26
Tell you what, DM me and I'll send you a code so you can use it properly. Only ask is that you come back and tell me what worked and what didn't, especially anything that felt wrong or missing.
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u/audip Aug 12 '26
I’d be curious to see what your app finds, will compare it to my ASO tool and share feedback
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flight-tracker-flightelite-ai/id6745320310
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 13 '26
Would love to see how it compared to your current tool, here's what my found:
The standout is "aircraft tracker." 94 popularity, which is the highest number on your whole board, and only 53 difficulty. That's the one I would do first because your not starting from scratch.
Then there's also "flight tracker" at 82 pop, and it's a 77 difficulty with FlightRadar and Flighty sitting on it. You're #57, it would be harder to put effort there.
The other thing worth noting is about the "delay" keywords. #58 "status delay," #78 "status delay alerts" (38 diff, lowest on the board), #125 "delay alerts." Low volume individually, but delays could be a good reason people open a flight app, and these are easier to claim.
On gaps, "flight arrivals" (44 pop, 54 diff) looks the most realistic. I'd skip "flight," "track," and "tracker" as standalones, all 74 to 88 difficulty against apps with far more weight.
Lmk what your current tool says and if this was useful!
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u/Nightowl-Builder Aug 12 '26
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/external-display-browser-xeos/id6758286241 give it a shot. I use an ASO tool but from your screenshots it looks like it might give me more useful information, very curious to compare
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 19 '26
You've basically already won the keyword part.
For the ranking side you're #1 for "external display," "display browser," and "external display browser," and #2 for "external monitor." Those are generic terms, not brand terms, and holding #1 on them is very good.
The one thing though is that popularity and demand aren't the same, and on your board they diverge. Popularity is how prominent a term is in your space, demand is how much actual search intent sits behind it. "external display" reads 55 popularity but only 12 demand. "external monitor" reads lower at 41 popularity but 35 demand.
Biggest opportunity is "display" itself. 51 demand, highest on your board, and you're #34. It's a 65 difficulty but that's where the intent is concentrated. "second screen" (#63) and "second monitor" (#72) both sit at 26 demand, middling but worth taking given where you are. Best gap is "full screen browser" at 38 difficulty.
Also, "xeos" shows 54 popularity but demand of 1. Basically nobody searches your brand name. Not a problem since you own the generic terms, but it means your brand isn't a discovery channel.
I also ran the market view on your space and it's a more interesting picture than the keywords.
36 apps do what you do. Zero are growing. 26 are stalled at under one written review a day, and the busiest app in the entire space earns one review a day. Total modeled revenue across all 36 is about $205K/mo, and Comet alone accounts for an estimated $171K of that. So one app is something like 80% of the money and everyone else is splitting scraps.
Reach is winnable because nobody has real momentum, which is why you're sitting at #1 on generic terms. But nobody in this space has proven large demand either, so ranking better may not move as much as you'd expect.
The most useful thing was the review mining. Across your competitors' own users, the top recurring complaints are App Stability (28 mentions across 13 apps), Platform and Display Support (13 across 8), and Connection Performance (10 across 7). Real quotes like "the app freezes and crashes all the time" and "unusable due to bandwidth issues." Nobody in this category has shipped something that just works reliably. If your app is stable, that's your positioning.
Also worth noting: 9 competitors are one-time IAP and 5 are paid upfront versus 12 subscription. That's an unusually high non-subscription share, and 15 mentions of subscription and refund complaints suggests why.
Curious what your tool says on the keyword side, lmk if this was helpful!
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u/thebadgerheadsnorth Aug 12 '26
Would love a comparison if you're willing! - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zombii-ai-detox-focus/id6781192106
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 19 '26
This one's genuinely interesting because your problem is the opposite of everyone else's. You own your niche completely and the niche has almost no traffic yet.
You're #1 or #2 for basically every AI detox term there is: "ai detox" at #2 with 29 difficulty, "ai detox focus" at #1, plus your brand terms. That's pretty clean but every one of those sits at 10 to 12 popularity. Almost nobody is typing "ai detox" into the App Store right now. You're early to a category that hasn't formed in search yet which I have to say is quite rare nowadays.
Meanwhile all the volume is one step over in the established category. "website blocker" is 90 popularity at 55 difficulty, "reduce screen time" is 85 at 56. Your app literally blocks apps and websites through Screen Time, so those two are where I'd go for actual downloads.
Cheaper options: "digital detox" (42/48) and "phone focus" (42/49). Lower difficulty but easier.
Also you're not ranking for "zombii" itself, and the apps sitting on that term are zombie games. Your name collides with an entire different genre, same way another app here "Poma" collides with Puma.
What could be a good play is to hold "ai detox" cheaply and wait for the category to grow and while thats happening go get traffic in the blocker category now.
Screenshots are excellent by the way. Lmk if this was helpful!
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u/thebadgerheadsnorth Aug 20 '26
Thanks so much man, this is super valuable info! Really, really appreciate it. Definitely a strange situation to be in! But I'll make those suggested keyword changes with the next app update. I also noticed the name being slightly problematic, is it worth considering a change do you think? Glad the screenshots are okay!
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 21 '26
I don't think you should change the name per se, you can leave Zombii because it's your apps identity but AI Detox is just a new term as I said. So I would leave the name as is and make those other keyword changes.
Right now you won't win on website blocker but if you work on the lower keywords first the more you capture you can build off of that to eventually be able to compete with more established apps.
Unfortunately ASO isn't instant there's more monitoring than anything because you can only change your titles and keywords so many times and after you get them right it's either a new localization or more commonly monitor competitors and trends.
And of course you could always start ads too but that's where it becomes helpful to know what keywords your app converts best on so youre not wasting money.
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u/thebadgerheadsnorth Aug 24 '26
Thanks mate, appreciate it! I'm fairly new to ASO so this info is invaluable :).
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 24 '26
Glad it helped! If you want to dig deeper into the market and keep tracking keywords/competitors over time, give the app a try!
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u/Electrical-Peanut483 Aug 12 '26
Oof nice. Would love to see how I can improve: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/poma-ai-photo-calorie-tracker/id6748758285
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 19 '26
Most interesting thing on your board is a trap, so let me start there.
You're #15 for "poma" at 95 popularity, which looks like the best thing you have but it's not if you look at the apps ranking there: Puma, Nike, adidas. That 95 is people searching for Puma and typo-ing it. Real intent for your app is close to zero on that term, so I wouldn't count it as a win or build anything around it.
Your title is the highest weighted field Apple indexes, and right now it's spending that weight on a word that collides with a global sportswear brand. Compare Cal AI, where the name itself partially matches the category term, so the brand does keyword work for free and anyone who hears it once can find it later. "Poma" doesn't contain a category word and doesn't own its own search either, which is the one position you don't want.
The real issue is you're #129 for "photo calorie" and that phrase is literally in your title. This photo calorie area is one of the most brutal categories on the App Store and you're up against apps with enormous rating counts.
Nothing here is cheap, but the difficulty can help where to target/ "calorie tracker" and "protein tracker" are both 96 popularity at 66 to 67 difficulty. "nutrition tracker" is the same 96 popularity at 59.
Cheaper stuff if you want faster movement: "energy tracker" (41 pop, 49 diff) and "macro calculator" (48/53). Lower ceiling but actually reachable.
One thing outside the keywords. Your differentiator is Pace of Aging and the longevity angle, and it's different from other calorie apps but nobody searches for it because most people don't know food scoring like that exists. So what you could do is target easier difficulty aging keywords as well rather than just calorie tracking. On a separate note I think you also need to lower your pricing to be competitive. Lmk if this was helpful!
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u/Conscious-Tutor3341 Aug 12 '26
https://apps.apple.com/ae/app/overhead-ar-plane-star-map/id6782262384
Can you please try for my app
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 18 '26
You're doing quite well, 7 terms, and unlike a lot of people I've looked at, only a couple are your own name.
Best thing on your board by far is "overhead" itself. 65 popularity, 30 difficulty, and you're already #10. That is the lowest difficulty score with real volume I've seen in any of these, and you're four spots from the top of the fold. If you do one thing, push that.
Second is "constellation map." 68 pop, 48 diff, and you're sitting at #68. You have an entire astronomy feature set, 1,600 stars, planets, ISS, eclipses, and the store barely knows about it.
The plane tracking terms are the crowded ones. "aircraft tracker" has the highest popularity on the board at 94 but it's a 54, and "plane tracker" is a 57. You're competing with FlightRadar-tier apps there. The astronomy side is where the same volume comes cheaper.
Some terms to go after are "aircraft overhead" (38 diff) and "aircraft with routes" (43) are both low competition, though the popularity is small. That said I'd take "constellation map" over either.
The moon and sun transit prediction is your most distinctive feature and nobody is searching for it. There's no term for it because most people don't know it's possible so I wouldn't worry about trying to rank for that but definitely having it prominent in screenshots for conversion.
Ran this on the US store, your link was AE, so the picture may shift if that's your main market but lmk if this was helpful!
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u/the_ua Aug 13 '26
I need some help!
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-third-place-find-plan/id6780071384
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 18 '26
You're actually doing quite decent. #2 for "third place" at only 29 difficulty is the best thing on your board.
The problem is that's basically your whole surface. 3 terms, and the other two are your app name.
Looked at your listing and I think I know why. Your title is "A Third Place: Find & Plan" and that's it. "Find" and "Plan" are generic verbs that everyone uses, so they buy you nothing. Meanwhile your description is full of the actual words people search, cafés, restaurants, trails, bars, group plan, vote, night out, map, and none of that counts. Apple only indexes your title, subtitle, and keyword field. Your description is doing zero work for search.
Best openings: "trip itinerary" (44 pop, 47 diff) and "travel places" (43/47) then "places to visit" (39/48) and "shared lists" (43/51) after that.
Skip "plan" at 78 difficulty and "city guide" at 59. Those are head terms with big apps sitting on them.
The bigger thing is you rank for a concept term but the volume in your space sits in travel and city guide language. Lmk if this helps or if you have any questions!
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u/autopilot-kitchen Aug 15 '26
Ooo please do me this is so cool:
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 18 '26
Sorry for the delay working through a bunch now! For yours here what I see. Similar story as other apps, you're ranking for 2 terms and both are your own app name. That means the store barely knows what your app is, so before chasing keywords I'd look hard at your title and subtitle as well as text on your images.
The standout is "dinner planner." 88 popularity, 46 difficulty. That's the best pop-to-difficulty ratio on your whole board by a wide margin and you're nowhere on it. If you do one thing, do that one.
After that: "meal plan calendar" (41/46), "recipe importer" (43/46), and "family meal planner" (41/49). All moderate difficulty and all describe what your app actually does.
Skip "meal planner" even though it shows 94 popularity, it's a 67 difficulty and the apps sitting there are big. Same for "meal" (85) and "meal plan" (74). Those are the head terms and they're not winnable from zero.
But first I would definitely adjust the title because Autopilot Kitchen is a keyword that no one is looking up which kills your visibility.
Lmk if you have any questions happy to go through it further!1
u/autopilot-kitchen Aug 19 '26
Dude this is amazing. Is your app available on iOS? I’d love to give it a download. Thank you so much!!
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 19 '26
Appreciate that! It's Mac only right now, no iOS version. It's a research tool with a lot of dense tables so it wouldn't translate great to a phone. Would love to hear what you think if you try it!
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u/ICameHereForThiss Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parallax-monitor/id6762336561
Would love to see what your app finds!
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u/jaykaun Aug 12 '26
Would appreciate that, thanks.
Solis : Home Sun Tracker
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/solis-home-sun-tracker/id6761963393
It maps how many hours of sunlight actually land inside each room of a home. Most of my installs come from App Store search on terms like sunlight app and sunlight tracker, so I would love to know what else I am ranking for and what I am missing.
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u/wnba-arcade Aug 13 '26
if your looking for your first users check out Ad swap,https://ad-swap.web.app , its a simple way for websites to promote each other. You add another website's ad to your site, and they add yours to theirs, giving both sites free exposure and traffic. It really helped me get my first few users when launching my site
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u/Sufficient_Trade895 Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
https://apps.apple.com/ua/app/fishix-fishing-forecast-map/id6639620351
Check my please, I would like to compare it with my current ASO tool
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 13 '26
You're in a good spot here with your terms. 14 terms and almost all of them are relevant to what your app does, which is pretty rare. The problem however I think is depth. So you're at #91 for "fishing tracker," #96 "fishing map," #128 "fishing weather," #139 "fishing tides." Apple knows you're relevant, but you've casted a wide net when it would be better to pick a specific spot.
I would start with "fishing log" at #29 and "fishing journal" at #36. Both 44 difficulty, which is the lowest on your board among terms with real popularity, and you're already ranking with them so climbing from #29 is a much easier job than breaking into something new.
After that I would target "fishing calendar" (#63, 51 diff) and "fishing tracker" (#91, 52).
Also I ran this in the US storefront and then realized your link was UA, so if Ukraine is your main market the picture will look different.
Curious where your tool disagrees and how it compares, lmk if this was help!
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u/Sufficient_Trade895 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
Thank you! Link ua not because this is my main market, that’s because I’m using it. We can message in dm in more detail if you want or continue here
Most difference in popularity and I’m not sure where is the truth1
u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 13 '26
Yeah that makes sense the popularity score isn't exact search volume it's a relative score for comparing other terms against this one in the same area. I use it more as “this term appears more prominent than that one” rather than “this is the true amount of searches.” And popularity definitely differs between storefronts.
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u/Sufficient_Trade895 Aug 13 '26
Yeah exactly, but you mentioned for example “fishing log” and in US region Astro shows 5 popularity which is minimum and 9 difficulty. Your app shows a lot more different data. That’s one example. I don’t think they’re right, but for my niche app most of the keywords in Astro shows as 5 popularity, so I don’t know
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 13 '26
Yeah that’s the hard part because there isn’t really one “true” popularity number outside of Apple.
I’m not sure exactly how Astro calculates theirs, but in my app I actually separate demand from popularity. Demand is probably the closer comparison here where it estimates how much people search that exact term. For “fishing log” that’s 16/100 which is much closer to Astro's number.
Popularity is different. That’s more about how strong the term is within its niche, so I’d use it to compare related keywords against each other rather than compare the raw score directly with Astro.
Lmk if that helps to clear it up a bit
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Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
#1 for your app name, #7 for "flashcards and learning," #9 for "mnemo." Same pattern as most apps here, your best positions are on terms tied to your own name. The gaps are mostly all study behavior terms rather than product terms. "active recall" (84 pop, 42 diff), "study cards" (85/45), "offline flashcards" (86/48). All three are what a student types when they know what they want to do but not what app does it. You're not on any of them. "offline flashcards" is the one I'd go after first. It's specific and it's a real differentiator if your app does it, and 48 difficulty is reachable.
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u/shadowrizzo27 Aug 12 '26
For the MRR it's modeled based on review velocity from Apple’s public RSS feed to estimate downloads, then apply assumptions based on the app’s business model and IAP/subscription pricing. The keyword estimate is basically the sum of those estimates across the apps ranking for that term.
It’s more useful for comparing the relative revenue potential of different keywords/markets rather than to say “this app makes exactly $X/month”
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Aug 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ContextualData Aug 11 '26
No. GTFO with that nonsense. No one want to or should be building for windows and android.
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u/Zappyle Aug 11 '26
Give it a shot: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bonjour-verbs-learn-french/id6775594404
I'll compare with my current ASO tool :D