ASO keyword research, free — straight from Apple's autocomplete
Paid ASO tools sell "search volume" estimates. Their raw material is public: Apple's search suggestions, ranked by what users actually type. You can mine it yourself.
1. Expand your seed keyword
Type your seed into App Store search and record the suggestions. Then repeat with each letter appended ("invoice a", "invoice b"…). Earlier suggestion = more real searches. Thirty minutes gives you a demand-ranked keyword universe.
2. Score the competition per keyword
Search each candidate keyword and look at the top results: how many apps carry the keyword in their name, and how strong are they (rating counts)? A keyword owned by a 500k-rating giant is unwinnable; one whose top app has 800 ratings is open territory.
3. Place keywords where ranking weight lives
Title (30 chars) carries the most weight: brand + strongest keyword. Subtitle (30) takes the second vector. The keyword field (100 chars, comma-separated, no spaces) takes the long tail — never repeat title words there. The App Store description is not indexed; write it to convert humans. Google Play indexes short + long descriptions — weave keywords naturally there.
4. The cheapest win: localize
Each locale gets its own 100-char keyword field, and most indie devs never fill them. Localizing metadata by search intent (not literal translation) widens your net at zero ranking cost.
Before you commit to a name: check store collisions and the .com — see the idea-mining guide, step 5.
ShipClaude runs this entire method inside Claude Code — mining, validation, build, launch.
See the factory — from $59