Keywords (ASO)
The Keywords tab inside the ASO hub shows every keyword where your app appears in Shopify App Store organic search results — not just the ones you've explicitly chosen to track. Use it to understand your full search footprint, spot traffic-driving terms, and decide which keywords to promote to your tracked list.
Accessing the Keywords tab
Go to ASO → Keywords in the sidebar. The tab is the second section of the ASO hub, after Tracked Keywords.
Difference between Keywords and Tracked Keywords
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Tracked | Keywords you've explicitly chosen to monitor — daily rank, movers, sparkline, 14d funnel |
| Keywords | All keywords your app appears in — full organic search footprint |
Use Keywords to discover terms you didn't know you were ranking for. Use Tracked to closely monitor the keywords you actively care about.
Overview metrics
The top of the page shows summary statistics:
- Total Keywords — all keywords where your app appears in search results
- In Top 10 — keywords where you hold positions 1–10 (prime visibility)
- In Top 50 — keywords where you rank 1–50 (your total search footprint)
- Average Rank — mean position across all keywords (lower is better)
Search performance chart
The chart shows two metrics on a shared timeline:
- Average rank (left axis, inverted — a rising line means improving rank)
- Search traffic events (right axis) — pageviews, clicks, and installs driven by organic search
Use the date picker to select your analysis window. Hover any point to see exact values. Look for correlation between rank movement and traffic changes — improvements typically surface within 24–48 hours.
Requires BigQuery to show traffic data. Rank data is available without BigQuery.
Keyword table
Each row represents one keyword your app appears for:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Keyword | The search term |
| Current Rank | Today's position |
| Change | Movement vs the previous period |
| Pageviews | Sessions that viewed your listing from this keyword |
| Clicks | "Add app" clicks from this keyword |
| Installs | Installations attributed to this keyword |
| Conversion Rate | Install rate from clicks |
Click any column header to sort. Use the search box to filter to a specific keyword.
Traffic columns (Pageviews, Clicks, Installs, Conversion Rate) require BigQuery. If BigQuery is not connected, those columns show dashes.
Expanding a keyword row
Click any row to see deeper breakdowns:
- Geographic breakdown — top countries searching this keyword, with sessions and conversions by region
- Device breakdown — Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet split
- Source breakdown — organic vs paid traffic for this keyword
- Daily trends — day-by-day sparkline
Tracking a keyword from this tab
Each row has a track button. Click it to add the keyword to your Tracked list. Tracked keywords get daily rank scraping, movers filtering, 14-day sparklines, and push into the Signal Brief if they move significantly.
Top keyword leaderboards
Below the main table, four leaderboards surface the highest-performing keywords by different measures:
- By Pageviews — visibility champions
- By Clicks — terms generating the most intent
- By Installs — your revenue-driving keywords
- By Conversion Rate — your most efficient keywords (quality over quantity)
Optimization tips
Focus on positions 11–20. These keywords are one push away from the top 10. Small listing improvements here produce the largest visibility gains.
High conversion rate + low pageviews means a keyword converts well but doesn't drive much traffic — worth targeting to improve rank.
High pageviews + low conversion rate suggests the keyword attracts clicks but your listing isn't resonating — review your title, description, and screenshots for relevance to that term.
FAQ
Q: How often does ranking data refresh? A: Once per day, overnight. The timestamp on the column header shows when the last scrape completed.
Q: Why are the traffic columns showing dashes? A: Traffic data requires an active BigQuery connection. Connect BigQuery via Settings → Integrations, then wait for the import to complete.
Q: My keyword suddenly dropped — what happened? A: Common causes: a competitor improved their listing, you gained or lost reviews, or Shopify adjusted its algorithm. Use the row's daily trend sparkline to see whether this is a one-day blip or a sustained drop.
Q: What's a good conversion rate from search? A: 2–5% install rate from clicks is typical. Above 5% is excellent.
Next steps
- Tracked Keywords (ASO) — explicitly monitor your priority keywords with movers filters and the Signal Brief
- AI Keyword Suggestions — AI-recommended keywords to add to your tracked list
- Competitors → Keyword Gaps — keywords where competitors rank but you don't
- Keyword Explorer (Explore) — browse any keyword in the App Store and see all ranking apps