rshankras/keyword-optimizer
Optimize app title, subtitle, and keywords for maximum App Store discoverability. Use when launching a new app, improving search rankings, entering new markets/languages, or safely optimizing ASO for an app with existing traffic.
npx skills add https://github.com/rshankras/claude-code-apple-skills --skill keyword-optimizerOptimize app title, subtitle, and keywords for maximum App Store discoverability.
Before optimizing, load these reference materials:
| File | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| keyword-criteria.md | Popularity/Difficulty sweet spots, opportunity scoring |
| advanced-tactics.md | Cross-localization, screenshot indexing, velocity boost |
| existing-app-strategy.md | Safe optimization for apps with existing traffic |
Before optimizing, ask about:
| Field | Limit | Weight | Notes |
|-------|-------|--------|-------|
| App Name | 30 chars | Highest | Most valuable real estate |
| Subtitle | 30 chars | High | Visible in search, below name |
| Keywords | 100 chars | Medium | Not visible to users |
| Description | 4000 chars | Low* | *Apple says indexed, debated |
Generate Initial List:
1. Brainstorm 50+ keywords
2. What would YOU search for this app?
3. Check competitor names/subtitles
4. Use autocomplete suggestions
5. Consider misspellings users make
Research Tools:
Rate each keyword on:
| Factor | Question |
|--------|----------|
| Relevance | Does it accurately describe your app? |
| Volume | Do people actually search this? |
| Difficulty | Can you realistically rank? |
| Intent | Will searchers want your app? |
Priority Matrix:
High Volume + Low Difficulty = 🎯 Target First
High Volume + High Difficulty = 💪 Long-term Goal
Low Volume + Low Difficulty = ✅ Easy Wins
Low Volume + High Difficulty = ❌ Skip
App Name (30 characters):
[Brand Name] - [Top Keyword Phrase]
or
[Brand Name]: [Value Proposition]
Examples:
"Notion - Notes & Docs"
"Calm: Sleep & Meditation"
"Fantastical - Calendar & Tasks"
Subtitle (30 characters):
[Second Priority Keywords] / [Unique Value]
Examples:
"Focus Timer & Daily Planner"
"Simple Habit Building"
"Weather Radar & Forecasts"
Keywords Field (100 characters):
Rules:
- Comma-separated, NO spaces after commas
- No plurals (Apple handles it)
- No duplicates from name/subtitle
- No category name (already indexed)
- Single words perform better than phrases
Example:
"timer,pomodoro,focus,concentration,study,productivity,work,session,break,technique"
Bad (wastes characters):
task manager, todo list, productivity app, reminder app, checklist
Good (efficient):
task,todo,productivity,reminder,checklist,planner,organize,gtd,schedule,daily
Savings:
Apple combines words from all fields:
Name: "Focus Timer"
Subtitle: "Pomodoro Technique"
Keywords: "study,productivity,work,session"
Searchable combinations:
- "focus timer"
- "pomodoro timer"
- "focus productivity"
- "study timer"
- "work focus"
(and more...)
Apple indexes words from all three fields for the same locale — a word only needs to appear once. If a word appears in Title, don't repeat it in Subtitle or Keywords; if it appears in Subtitle, don't repeat it in Keywords.
❌ BEFORE (duplicated words waste ~38 characters):
Title: "Focus Timer - Stay Productive"
Subtitle: "Pomodoro Timer & Focus Sessions"
Keywords: "timer,focus,pomodoro,productive,study,work,session,break"
✅ AFTER (zero duplication, 5 new keywords gained):
Title: "Focus Timer - Stay Productive"
Subtitle: "Pomodoro Technique & Deep Work"
Keywords: "study,concentration,interval,tomato,distraction,block,exam,revision,flowstate,desk"
| Check | Rule |
|-------|------|
| Title word in Subtitle or Keywords? | Remove from the lower field |
| Subtitle word in Keywords? | Remove from Keywords |
| Plural/singular variant across fields? | Keep only in highest field |
| Stop words (a, the, and, for)? | Don't include anywhere — auto-indexed |
❌ Don't Do This:
✅ Do This:
APP NAME STRATEGY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current: [existing name or blank]
Proposed: [Brand] - [Keywords]
Characters: [X/30]
Primary keywords: [list]
SUBTITLE STRATEGY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current: [existing subtitle or blank]
Proposed: [keyword-rich subtitle]
Characters: [X/30]
Secondary keywords: [list]
KEYWORDS FIELD (100 chars)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Proposed: keyword1,keyword2,keyword3,...
Characters: [X/100]
EXPECTED COMBINATIONS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• [combination 1]
• [combination 2]
• [combination 3]
...
10. 🇧🇷 Brazil (Portuguese)
App Store Connect allows testing:
Use Product Page Optimization to test different approaches.
App Name: 30 characters
Subtitle: 30 characters
Keywords: 100 characters
Description: 4000 characters (low SEO value)
For building apps that generate $200-2,000/month:
Target keywords where:
- Popularity > 20 (enough traffic)
- Difficulty < 60 (beatable competition)
Ideal: Popularity 25-50, Difficulty < 45
See keyword-criteria.md for detailed scoring and evaluation.
Add Spanish (Mexico) locale with English keywords for US market.
See advanced-tactics.md for all locales.
Apple OCR reads screenshot captions for keyword ranking.
Put keywords in top/bottom of screenshots.
Never change what's working. Use phased rollout.
See existing-app-strategy.md for safe optimization.
Take rshankras/keyword-optimizer from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.