ASO keywords: How to trump your competition with superior timing

Let’s take a pragmatic approach on optimizing ASO keywords timing for an app that is currently in the App Store. Jamie Oliver’s app “20 Minute Meals – Jamie Oliver” which is a bestseller, has this list of ASO keywords:

The ASO keywords meals and jamie are a part of the title of the app, so they should be replaced with other keywords. Using the same word in both title and keyword fields will not give your app an advantage, instead it puts your app at a disadvantage against the competition. Redundant keywords like these could instead be replaced with time-sensitive keywords, which can leverage your chance of winning the ASO battle.

Finding the right ASO keywords

If you are not familiar with Google Trends, don’t despair, this amazing tool is as easy to use as google’s search engine. So, what are we looking for? ASO Keywords that are seasonal, rank higher and help your user find an app that can solve the specific problem they may have. For example, during the holiday season, searches for specific recipes such as “Thanksgiving turkey recipe,” are time-sensitive searches. Finding keywords that fit these criteria takes a bit of creativity and online searching. Here is an example of 4 keywords that are clearly dependent on timing.

The 4 keywords are: Turkey, Pumpkin, Eggnog and BBQ. It’s interesting to note when these keywords peak. BBQ peaks in June, Turkey and Pumpkin Pie in November and Eggnog peaks in December.

Implementation of ASO keywords

Now that we have a very broad way to “seasonalize” the keywords, we will set up an excel sheet with the periods, “Summer,” “Thanksgiving,” and 2 different “Christmas” options. We’ve added the respective dates of the periods and inserted the base keywords along with the seasonal keywords. For dates outside these time periods we use a generic string of words.

Since we developed this around keywords that are seasonal, we can use it for years to come. Developing a list of seasonal keywords for your app is a great way to trump your competitors app, and could be that something that lifts your app into the charts.