What ASO actually decides
Two things bring installs: being found, and being chosen. ASO work splits cleanly along that line, and most Indian app teams spend all their effort on the first half while the second half is where the gains are.
Being found is keywords, category and the store’s own relevance signals. Being chosen is the icon, the first two screenshots, the rating and the short description. If a hundred people see your listing and four install, fixing that four is worth more than doubling your impressions, because the store rewards listings that convert — a better install rate feeds back into better ranking.
The fields that are indexed, and their limits
Google Play and the Apple App Store work differently, and advice written for one is routinely applied to the other.
Google Play
- App title — 30 characters. Indexed, and the single strongest field. Brand plus one real keyword: “Khata Book — Udhar Ledger”.
- Short description — 80 characters. Indexed, and shown above the fold. This is the line that decides installs for most users, so write it as a promise, not a feature list.
- Full description — 4,000 characters. Indexed. Keywords must appear naturally; stuffing a list at the bottom is both ineffective and against policy.
- Developer name. Indexed, which is why some developers include a category word.
Apple App Store
- App name — 30 characters and subtitle — 30 characters, both indexed.
- Keyword field — 100 characters, never shown to users. Comma separated, no spaces, no repeats of words already in the name or subtitle, no plurals of words you already used.
- Description — not indexed. It sells; it does not rank. Teams that treat it like a Play description waste the effort.
Finding the right keywords for an Indian audience
The mistake is picking the words the team uses internally rather than the words customers type. Three sources that cost nothing:
- Play Store autocomplete. Type your category and read what it suggests. These are real queries, ordered roughly by volume, in the market you are actually selling to.
- Competitor titles and short descriptions. Not to copy, but to see which words the apps already ranking have decided matter.
- Your own support messages. How do customers describe what your app does when they write to you? That phrasing is usually closer to search behaviour than your marketing copy.
Then weigh each candidate on three things: does anyone search it, can you realistically rank for it, and does someone searching it actually want your app. A high-volume keyword you rank 90th for delivers nothing; a modest one you rank third for delivers installs.
For Indian apps specifically, include the Hinglish or vernacular term where that is what people type. Plenty of categories get searched in a mix of English and transliterated Hindi, and the app that includes both gets found twice.
The creatives, in the order they are seen
Store visitors decide in a couple of seconds, scrolling. Design for that, not for a presentation.
- Icon. One shape, one strong colour, legible at 48px. No text, because at real size nobody can read it. Compare yours against the category’s top ten at thumbnail size — if it disappears, that is your highest-value fix.
- First two screenshots. Almost all the work happens here, because most users never swipe. Each should carry a short caption stating a benefit, with the screen behind it. Captions in the user’s language.
- Screenshots three to eight. One feature each, in the order a new user would meet them.
- Feature graphic. Shown when you are featured or run a store campaign. Readable at small size, no critical text near the edges.
- Preview video. Worth it for games and for anything where the value is visual. Optional otherwise, and a bad one lowers installs.
India-specific detail that matters more than it should: show rupee pricing, familiar payment options, and names and photographs that look like your users. An app whose screenshots show dollar prices reads as foreign, and foreign reads as not-for-me.
Ratings and reviews, done without breaking policy
Rating is a ranking factor and a conversion factor at once. Moving from 3.8 to 4.4 changes install rate noticeably, because the number sits right next to the install button.
- Ask at the right moment — after the user has completed something successfully, never on first launch. Use the in-app review API so the prompt appears inside the app.
- Ask once. Repeated prompts produce one-star reviews about the prompts.
- Reply to negative reviews, specifically. A real reply often converts a one-star into an updated three or four, and it tells every future reader that somebody is home.
- Fix the top complaint, then ask again. Reviews cluster: usually two or three issues account for most of the bad ones.
- Never buy reviews or installs. It is detectable, and the penalty is removal from the store. The short-term lift is not worth the account.
The signals you do not control directly
Google weighs behaviour after the install, which is why ASO cannot be separated from the product:
- Install rate from your listing — the big one.
- Retention at day 1, 7 and 30. An app people delete quickly stops ranking, whatever the listing says.
- Uninstall rate and crash-free sessions. Crashes hurt ranking as well as reviews, which is why crash reporting belongs in the first release, not the third.
- Update cadence. A regularly updated app is treated as maintained. A year-old last update reads as abandoned to both the store and the user.
A first ASO pass you can do this week
- Rewrite the title to brand plus one researched keyword, inside 30 characters.
- Rewrite the short description as a single clear promise in 80 characters.
- Replace the first two screenshots with benefit captions in your users’ language and rupee pricing.
- Check the icon at thumbnail size against the category’s top ten.
- Turn on the in-app review prompt after a successful action, once per user.
- Reply to every review from the last three months, starting with the negative ones.
- Add a Hindi listing if a meaningful share of your users are Hindi-first.
- Change one thing at a time and give each change two weeks, or you will never know what worked.
That last point is the discipline most teams skip. Changing the icon, title and screenshots in one release means the result is uninterpretable.
Where ASO stops and the rest begins
ASO brings people who are already searching the store. It does not create demand. If your category has few searches, the installs have to come from somewhere else — Google Ads, a website that ranks, or WhatsApp to the customers you already have. Before you build the app at all, it is worth being certain the app is the right thing to build: that decision is laid out in mobile app or WhatsApp chatbot and PWA versus native app.
When you are ready to ship, the release process itself has its own traps — account setup, data safety declarations, testing tracks and review timelines are covered in our Play Store and App Store publishing guide for India.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most important ASO factor on the Play Store?
Install rate from your store listing, meaning the share of people who see your page and install. Google treats it as a vote of relevance, so improving the icon, first two screenshots and short description usually lifts rankings faster than adding keywords. Retention after install matters almost as much.
Where do keywords go on the Play Store?
There is no hidden keyword field on Google Play. Your title (30 characters), short description (80 characters) and full description (4,000 characters) are indexed, so keywords must read naturally inside them. The App Store works differently and has a separate 100-character keyword field that users never see, while its description is not indexed at all.
Do I need a different listing for Indian users?
If India is your main market, yes. Use India-specific screenshots showing rupee pricing and familiar payment methods, mention UPI if you support it, and add Hindi or regional-language listings for the states you care about. A localised listing usually converts noticeably better than a single English one.
How long does ASO take to show results?
Listing changes are usually reflected within a few days to two weeks, and ranking changes follow as install-rate data accumulates. Change one element at a time and give each change a fortnight, because shipping a new icon, title and screenshots together leaves you unable to tell which one moved the number.
Is it worth paying for installs to boost ranking?
No. Incentivised or bought installs produce users who never open the app again, which damages the retention signals that matter more than the install count, and buying reviews or installs can get the app removed from the store entirely. Spend the same money on fixing the first two screenshots.
Building or publishing an app and want the listing done properly before launch? Send us the app name and category on WhatsApp and we will tell you what we would change first.
Also read: plan the build with our mobile app development cost in India guide, budget the running spend with mobile app maintenance cost, and get the release right with the publishing guide.
