Practitioner pattern · Ariel Michaeli (Co-founder and CEO of Appfigures, which sells the ASO tools (Keyword Inspector, Competitors Keywords) he recommends)
Never repeat a keyword between your app name, subtitle and keyword list
Guest calls duplicates the worst ASO mistake: the word only counts at its weakest spot
Workedaso
What they did
Each keyword should appear once across name, subtitle and keyword list. Apple doesn't penalize duplication, but when a word appears twice it uses the last (lowest-weight) position, so a word from the start of the name repeated at the end of the keyword list loses its strong placement. Duplicating between different localization sets is fine.
What happened
Guest says duplication 'ruins everything in a way that's very hard to detect'.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Maximizing Organic Growth with App Store Optimization — Ariel Michaeli, Appfigures“So when you duplicate, they ignore the first dimensions of the keyword, and look for the last dimension of the keyword, and that's what happens. So you take your keyword from the beginning of the name, the first word in your name, and you duplicate it at the end of your keyword list, and you ruined everything.”
“One is duplication, and that's really the ultimate sin, because it ruins everything in a way that's very hard to detect.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Put your most important keywords first in the app name and subtitleGuest says early positions get the most ranking weight; seen weekly in teardowns
- Keep your app name to 26-27 characters if it has an ampersand or special dashAvoids the last word being cut; one recipe app ranked only for a half-word
- Promote an in-app purchase with your keyword in its name to boost search rankImmediate rank boost; keyword-in-name part works about half the time
- Count how many downloads competitors need per rating, then out-rate themGuest says more ratings beat more downloads in App Store search
- Pick keywords where your rating count matches the top 5, using competitors' keywords and reviewsGuest says new apps can reach top 5 on big keywords when rivals optimize badly
- If you're new to a crowded keyword, name the app around just that keywordGuest says fewer name keywords concentrate ranking weight; broaden once ratings grow
- Fill the Spanish (Mexico) listing with extra keywords to rank in the US storeDoubles keyword space; guest sees the same ranking weight as the main listing
- Show your target search words on your App Store screenshotsGuest says matching the searcher's words cuts 'is this for me?' doubt; no numbers
- Mirror: Name your app exactly the popular search word, like 'Mirror'4,000-5,000 downloads a day; guest says the exact-match boost still works, but weaker
- BBC: Check which words competitors rank for and use the phrasings you missedSaw results right away, per the guest; no numbers
- Dropbox: Put 'photo backup' words before a famous brand name in the app titleUndone after a few weeks; guest thinks that was a mistake. No numbers
- Pick launch keywords carefully, then try 4-5 keyword versions before judgingGuest says most who quit ASO stopped after 1-2 tries; results come later