ASO keyword research for games: step-by-step guide

ASO keyword research for games works differently from keyword research for a utility app. Players rarely search for your game’s name before they know it exists. They search for how a game feels to play: “merge games”, “idle tycoon”, “offline puzzle”, “2 player games”. In more than nine years of ASO, user acquisition and monetization work, I have used the same repeatable process to go from a blank sheet to metadata that ranks for the right terms. It works for a solo developer with no paid tools, and it scales when you do have them.

This guide walks through that process in seven steps, with a worked example for a fictional merge game you can copy.

Why ASO keyword research for games needs its own process

Three things make games different:

• Search intent is about play, not tasks. A budgeting app user searches “expense tracker”. A player searches for a genre, a mechanic, a theme or a context (“no wifi”, “for kids”, “relaxing”).
• Competition is concentrated. Head terms like “puzzle” or “racing” are dominated by titles with huge rating counts. A new game rarely wins those terms first.
• Space is tiny. On the App Store you have a 30-character app name, a 30-character subtitle and a 100-character keyword field. On Google Play you have a 30-character title, an 80-character short description and a 4,000-character full description. Every word has to earn its place.

Step 1: Build a seed list from five buckets

Open a spreadsheet and brainstorm terms in five buckets before you touch any tool. This stops you from copying whatever a tool suggests and forgetting what your game actually is.

Aim for a long list at this stage. Quantity first, filtering later.

Step 2: Expand with store search and competitor metadata

Now widen the list using sources that reflect what real players type.

1. Store autocomplete. Type each seed into the Google Play and App Store search bars and record the suggestions. Set your device to the target country and language, because suggestions change by market.
2. Competitor metadata. List 10 games in your sub-genre that already rank for your core term. Copy their names, subtitles, short descriptions and the first lines of their long descriptions into your sheet. Words that repeat across several competitors are usually words the stores associate with the genre.
3. Player reviews. Read reviews of those competitors. Players describe games in their own words (“like solitaire but with farming”), and those phrases often become long-tail terms nobody else targets.
4. Apple Ads keyword recommendations. If you run or plan Apple Ads, the keyword recommendations show a search popularity indicator. It is one of the few first-party signals of relative demand on iOS.

Step 3: Score each keyword on relevance, popularity and difficulty

Give every term three scores. Keep the scales simple so you can score quickly and stay consistent.

• Relevance (1–3): Would a player who searched this be happy to find your game? Be strict. If they would uninstall within a minute, it is a 1, however popular the term is.
• Popularity (1–5): Use Apple Ads popularity, an ASO tool’s estimate, or autocomplete as a proxy (a term that appears after two or three letters is usually searched more than one that needs the full word). Google Play does not publish search volume, so treat any Play number as an estimate.
• Difficulty (1–5): Search the term and look at the top 10. If every result is a household-name game with a very large rating count, score it high.

Then calculate a simple priority: Relevance × Popularity ÷ Difficulty. The table below uses illustrative scores for a fictional merge game called Bloomtown. These are not real market numbers; they show how the math sorts your list.

Notice how “farm games” drops to the bottom despite high popularity. That is the point of scoring relevance first.

Step 4: Pick primary, secondary and long-tail targets

Split your sorted list into three groups:

• Primary (1–2 terms): The terms that define your game. These go into the app name or title.
• Secondary (5–10 terms): Strong supporting terms for the subtitle, short description and keyword field.
• Long tail: Combinations and niche phrases. A new game with few ratings usually ranks here first, and early installs from long-tail terms help you climb toward the harder ones over time.

Step 5: Map keywords to metadata fields

App Store: name, subtitle and keyword field

Apple uses the app name, subtitle and keyword field for search, and words from these fields can combine into phrases. That means you should not repeat a word across fields. Here is the fictional Bloomtown example:

• App name (23 of 30 characters): Bloomtown: Merge Garden
• Subtitle (29 of 30): Cozy flower puzzle & decorate
• Keyword field (97 of 100): match,farm,idle,offline,design,home,makeover,relaxing,story,island,blossom,plant,casual,sim,quest

Rules I follow in the keyword field: separate with commas and no spaces, do not repeat words already in the name or subtitle, and do not add competitor names. Apple’s App Review Guidelines (section 2.3.7) say not to pack metadata with trademarked terms, popular app names or other irrelevant phrases, and apps can be rejected for it.

Google Play: title, short description and full description

Google Play reads natural language, so the approach changes:

• Title (30 characters): Brand plus primary keyword, for example “Bloomtown: Merge Garden Puzzle” (exactly 30).
• Short description (80 characters): One clear sentence with a secondary keyword, for example “Merge flowers, restore a cozy garden and relax with offline puzzle levels” (73).
• Full description (up to 4,000 characters): Use your primary and secondary terms naturally in readable sentences. Write for players first.

Google Play’s metadata policy does not allow terms like “best”, “#1”, “free” or other ranking and price claims in the title, icon or developer name. Keep those out of your keyword plan for those fields.

Step 6: Localize the research, not just the words

Translating your English keyword list is not keyword research. Players in each market use their own terms, and a direct translation can be grammatically right but rarely searched. For each priority market, repeat Steps 1 to 3 with a native speaker, using that store’s autocomplete and local competitors. Start with the markets where your game already gets installs or where you plan to spend on UA.

Step 7: Measure and iterate

Keyword research is not a one-time job. After an update goes live:

1. Track your rank for every primary and secondary term at least weekly.
2. Check search traffic in your store consoles. App Store Connect App Analytics shows installs from App Store search, and Google Play Console acquisition reports show traffic from search on your store listing.
3. Change one field at a time where you can, so you know what caused a movement.
4. Give changes a few weeks before you judge them. Rankings move slowly and fluctuate day to day.
5. If you run Apple Ads, review the search terms report. Terms that convert well in paid search are strong candidates for organic metadata.

Related reading

• What Is ASO and Why It Matters: Complete App Store Optimization Guide for iOS and Google Play (2026)
• Key Factors in 2025 for Game/App Visibility on Google Play
• A/B Testing for ASO: A Complete Guide

Common mistakes to avoid

• Chasing head terms with a brand-new game instead of winnable long-tail terms.
• Repeating the same word in the App Store name, subtitle and keyword field.
• Putting competitor game names in the keyword field.
• Stuffing the Google Play description until it reads like a list of keywords.
• Copying one English keyword set into every language.

Key takeaways

• Build seeds from genre, mechanic, theme, mode and feel before opening any tool.
• Expand with store autocomplete, competitor metadata, player reviews and Apple Ads recommendations.
• Score relevance first, then popularity and difficulty, and rank with a simple formula.
• New games should win long-tail terms before attacking head terms.
• Map keywords differently for the App Store (no repeats, 100-character keyword field) and Google Play (natural language across title, short and full description).
• Localize the research per market and review rankings and search traffic after every change.

Official sources: Apple App Review Guidelines, section 2.3.7 · Google Play metadata policy