App Store keyword research is choosing the search terms your app should rank for by checking three things per term: do people type it (autocomplete), can you win it (the ten apps already ranking), and does it describe your app. The whole method works with the App Store itself; free tools only speed up the reading.

Step 1 · Write a seed list from the job your app does

Start with the words a stranger would type to find what your app does, not with your brand. Three places give you candidates without guessing:

Your own reviews. The words users choose to describe the app are often not the ones in your description.

Competitors' titles and subtitles. Those two fields are public and indexed, so they show which terms other apps are targeting on purpose. Read them for concepts; Apple's guidelines forbid using other apps' names as keywords.

Your category's vocabulary. Tasks, objects and outcomes ("split bill", "receipt", "expense"), not adjectives.

Keep single words and short phrases in the list.…