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App Store Optimization for Indie Apps: A Product Owner's Playbook

By William Souef · 2026-10-13 · 8 min read

When I looked at where Histia's downloads came from, the answer was clear: most people found it by searching the App Store. No ad budget, no viral moment, just people typing what they wanted. That turns App Store Optimization from a marketing chore into a core product decision.

Why ASO is product work

The words people search tell you how they describe their problem. For Histia, "world history" mattered far more than the clever phrasing I would have chosen. That insight shaped not just the metadata but the product itself: what stories to prioritise, how to name categories, what the onboarding promises.

Keyword research that respects reality

Every keyword has two numbers that matter: how many people search it (popularity) and how hard it is to rank for (difficulty). Indie apps can't win the broadest, most competitive terms on day one. The play is to find phrases with real demand and beatable competition, rank there, then climb.

• Start with how users describe the problem, not how you describe the product.
• Check who ranks in the top results for each phrase and how many ratings they have.
• Prefer phrases where the top apps are weak, old or off-topic.
• Track your rankings over time; a keyword is a hypothesis, not a decision.

Name, subtitle and keyword field

On iOS, the app name and subtitle carry the most weight, followed by the hidden keyword field. A few rules I follow:

• Put the single most important phrase in the name, but keep a brand people can remember.
• Use the subtitle for a second phrase and a clear benefit.
• Don't repeat words across name, subtitle and keyword field; Apple combines them.
• Use the keyword field for single words, separated by commas, without spaces.

Localise per storefront

English isn't one market. The US, UK, Canadian and Australian storefronts each have their own metadata, and people search differently in each. Histia even uses a slightly different name in the UK store. Localising metadata for every storefront you care about multiplies the keywords you can rank for at almost no cost.

Screenshots and previews convert the click

Ranking gets you seen. Screenshots get you installed. The first two screenshots appear in search results, so they need to sell the core promise in one glance: a big, readable caption, the product's best moment, and a consistent visual style. An app preview video can help if it shows the product working within the first seconds.

Don't forget app size

Above 200 MB, the App Store warns people downloading over cellular. For a content-heavy app, that's a real conversion lever. Compressing narration and images carefully, after listening and looking at the results, kept Histia's bundle smaller without users noticing a quality drop.

Make it a loop

1. Pick keywords from data.
2. Ship metadata and visuals.
3. Wait long enough for rankings to settle.
4. Read rankings, impressions and conversion rate.
5. Keep what works, swap what doesn't.

Pair it with search engine content on your website, and the two channels feed each other: people who find an answer on Google can install the app that teaches the rest.