App Store Optimisation: a checklist for a first launch

Teams spend months on an app and an afternoon on the listing. Then installs disappoint, and the conclusion is that the product needs more features. Usually the product is fine and nobody could find it, or those who found it were not persuaded to tap Install.

The two stores index different things

This trips up almost every first launch.

Apple indexes your app name (30 characters), subtitle (30 characters), and a keyword field (100 characters) that users never see. It does not index your description. Words placed in the description do nothing for App Store search.

Google indexes your title (30 characters), short description (80 characters), and full description (4,000 characters). There is no keyword field. Your long description is genuinely read by the algorithm.

So the same copy cannot serve both stores. On Apple, put search terms in the keyword field — comma-separated, no spaces, no repeats of words already in your name, no plurals of terms you already have. On Google, write a description that reads naturally and includes the terms people search, without stuffing.

Screenshots do the converting

Most users decide from the first two screenshots without scrolling and without reading anything. Yet the default instinct is to show clean captures of the interface, which communicate nothing to someone who does not yet know what the app does.

Caption every screenshot with the benefit, not the feature name. Lead with the strongest single reason to install. Use the first two frames to answer "what is this and why would I care", then use later frames for detail.

Portrait screenshots outperform landscape for most categories. If you have a video, remember it autoplays without sound — it has to work silently.

The fields people forget

Apple's subtitle is indexed and sits directly under your name. Leaving it generic wastes one of only three indexed fields you get.

Google's short description is the expandable line at the top of your listing and is heavily weighted. Write it as a sentence a person would say, not a keyword list.

Category choice affects which charts you can rank in. A slightly less obvious category with less competition sometimes produces more visibility than the crowded one.

Localisation is the cheapest win most teams skip. Translating the listing — not the app — into the languages of your target markets frequently lifts installs more than any keyword change, because the stores index localised metadata separately.

Ratings gate everything

Rating is both a ranking factor and the single strongest conversion signal on the page. Below about 4.0, install rates fall sharply regardless of how good your listing is.

Prompt for reviews using the native in-app review APIs, and prompt after a moment of success — a completed task, a saved result — never on launch or mid-flow. Respond to negative reviews; on Play Store, users are notified and often revise. Never incentivise ratings, which violates both stores' policies and is detectable.

Rejections that delay launches

Budget for at least one review cycle. The recurring causes we see:

• Incomplete information — no demo account for a login-gated app, or credentials that expired
• Privacy labels that do not match what the app actually collects, including what third-party SDKs collect on your behalf
• Missing or unreachable privacy policy, or one that does not cover the data actually processed
• Sign in with Apple missing where another third-party login is offered
• Payments routed outside the store for digital goods
• Placeholder content left in a build

Submit several days before any date you have announced publicly. A rejection is normally days, not weeks — but only if you are not also debugging.

After launch

Change one thing at a time. Both stores support experiments — Play Store natively, Apple through product page optimisation — and running them properly is the only way to know whether a change helped. Test screenshots first; they usually have the largest effect on conversion.

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We build and launch mobile apps across iOS and Android, and treat the store listing as part of the delivery rather than an afterthought. See our mobile app development work, or talk to us about a launch.