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The low-volume keyword quantity strategy (search score 5)

When score-30 keywords are out of reach, rank

Updated 2026-10-23·2 sources·asolong-tailkeyword-researchindie

The low-volume keyword quantity strategy (search score 5)

TL;DR

  • If the score-30 approach fails, target keywords with search score 5 (up to ~20) — far less competitive.1
  • It is a quantity game: you need many such keywords at #1, not one.2
  • Case: a client in a category with “really no search traffic” ranked #1 for 92 keywords, all score 5, and made ~$2–3K/month from App Store search.3
  • Steve’s own Paraphrase app ranks well for a handful of keywords (e.g. #1 for one, #4 “paraphrase” ~20, #6 “paraphrase tool” 23) and makes **$3K/month** almost entirely organically (a little Apple Ads spend).24
  • Expect a ceiling: pure-ASO apps in this mode are low four figures; scaling needs paid ads (How much to rely on ASO, and how it fits with Apple Ads and Meta).3

Details

Steve began betting on this approach in late 2025 because ASO had become “so hard”.3 How to run it:

  1. Add your app or a competitor in ASOMobile → App Keywords to list every indexed term (see Mining competitors' keywords and listing history (ASOMobile workflow)).2
  2. Pull the search score and complexity for each; keep low-complexity ones, aiming for top 5, ideally top 3 or #1.2
  3. Expand long-tail variants with Keyword Suggest: type a root (“calorie”) and the tool lists autocomplete-style continuations (“calorie a…”, “calorie b…”) that still contain your root.5
  4. Spread terms across title, subtitle, keyword field and the extra US localizations (Where to put keywords in App Store and Google Play metadata).
  5. Track rankings; keep adding terms — revenue comes from the sum.

App Masters builds its client keyword sheets from two data sources and filters to the terms the app is #1 for to see where revenue comes from.3

Disagreements / caveats

  • Clients earning six figures to ~$500K from organic search also had branded search demand; generic long-tail alone did not get them there.3
  • The 92-keyword case is one anonymised client; score-5 traffic varies by category and storefront.

See also

Footnotes

  1. App Store Optimization: The Proven ASO Framework for 2026 @ 08:50 — Steve P. Young ↩

  2. App Store Optimization: The Proven ASO Framework for 2026 @ 10:24 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. App Store Optimization: The Proven ASO Framework for 2026 @ 11:22 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. App Store Optimization: The Proven ASO Framework for 2026 @ 12:40 — Steve P. Young ↩

  5. The Most Important Element of App Store Optimization (ASO Keyword Research) @ 13:19 — Steve P. Young ↩