---
title: How to pick ASO keywords (search score, difficulty, relevance)
slug: aso-keyword-selection-criteria
summary: Steve P. Young's thresholds for choosing ASO keywords — 6–10 relevant terms around search score 30 with low difficulty, no competitor brand terms — plus what search popularity scores actually mean.
domain: mobile-apps
tags: [aso, keyword-research, search-score, keyword-difficulty]
related: [aso-keyword-difficulty-manual-check, aso-low-volume-keyword-quantity-strategy, aso-competitor-keyword-mining, aso-metadata-fields-and-keyword-placement, app-idea-tentacle-strategy]
sources: [yt:ytAKZDh5eHU, yt:bV5_OwDB35o, yt:cq6KhOH6GAw]
updated: 2026-10-23
---

# How to pick ASO keywords (search score, difficulty, relevance)

## TL;DR
- Shortlist **6–10 relevant keywords** with an Apple search popularity ("search ads") score of **~30** (25–28 is fine; ≤20 is weak) and **low difficulty** (ASOMobile complexity **< 3**).[^1][^2]
- You only need 2–3 to win; the rest are plan B and C if the first picks fail.[^1]
- Prefer keyword **pairs** that rank together ("brown noise" + "brown noise free", both 35).[^3]
- **Don't target competitor brand names** in ASO — searchers tap the brand; bid on them in Apple Ads instead.[^4]
- New app with no paid channel → long-tail; if the 30-score plan fails, drop to **score-5** keywords and play quantity ([[aso-low-volume-keyword-quantity-strategy]]).[^4]
- Don't brainstorm keywords with ChatGPT — Steve found its suggestions often have zero App Store volume.[^5]

## Details
**What the scores mean.** Tools show Apple's search popularity score; Apple never says how many searches a score equals.[^4] ASOMobile adds a "traffic score", its estimate of users searching per day — useful as a barometer, not a count.[^6] (In late 2025 Apple's scores were briefly broken — many tools showed 5 for everything — and were fixed by November 2025.)[^7]

**Steve's calibration.** Bands: 20–30 = lower traffic but winnable; 40–60+ = competitive.[^8] Two keywords at score ~30 ranked #1 brought one app to ~100 downloads/day.[^9] A client launched in 2023 reached ~150 downloads/day and **$1,600 in sales in the first 22 days** purely from App Store search by ranking #1 for two ignored keywords.[^10]

**Selection procedure.**
1. Pull candidate keywords from competitors' indexed terms ([[aso-competitor-keyword-mining]]).
2. Filter: relevant to what the app does, score ≥ ~30 (or ≥20 when starting out), complexity < 3.[^1][^2][^8]
3. Verify difficulty manually in the App Store ([[aso-keyword-difficulty-manual-check]]) — tools are sometimes wrong.[^11]
4. Place winners in title/subtitle of US + Spanish (Mexico) ([[aso-metadata-fields-and-keyword-placement]]).[^12]
5. Start with lower-difficulty terms and work up to higher-traffic ones as the app gains authority.[^8]

**Dos and don'ts (Feb 2026).** Do: relevant, higher-traffic terms *if you can find them*, in title/subtitle; long-tail when you have no paid traffic. Don't: competitor brand terms — a Nike searcher downloads Nike.[^4]

## Disagreements / caveats
- Score thresholds are Steve's own calibration across his and client apps, and depend on category and storefront.
- Even at score 30 the hard part in 2026 is *finding* uncontested terms; vibe-coded apps crowd every obvious niche.[^13]

## See also
- [[aso-keyword-difficulty-manual-check]]
- [[aso-low-volume-keyword-quantity-strategy]]
- [[app-idea-tentacle-strategy]] — using the same filter to pick what app to build

[^1]: yt:cq6KhOH6GAw @ 07:33 — Steve P. Young
[^2]: yt:cq6KhOH6GAw @ 08:59 — Steve P. Young
[^3]: yt:cq6KhOH6GAw @ 08:59 — Steve P. Young
[^4]: yt:ytAKZDh5eHU @ 08:50 — Steve P. Young
[^5]: yt:bV5_OwDB35o @ 00:00 — Steve P. Young
[^6]: yt:bV5_OwDB35o @ 03:55 — Steve P. Young
[^7]: yt:bV5_OwDB35o @ 02:23 — Steve P. Young
[^8]: yt:bV5_OwDB35o @ 06:42 — Steve P. Young
[^9]: yt:ytAKZDh5eHU @ 06:43 — Steve P. Young
[^10]: yt:ytAKZDh5eHU @ 05:34 — Steve P. Young
[^11]: yt:cq6KhOH6GAw @ 14:59 — Steve P. Young
[^12]: yt:ytAKZDh5eHU @ 07:37 — Steve P. Young
[^13]: yt:ytAKZDh5eHU @ 00:00 — Steve P. Young