Why Competitor Analysis Is the Fastest Way to Find Keywords
You could spend hours brainstorming keywords, testing autocomplete suggestions, and guessing what users search for. Or you could look at what's already working for apps similar to yours.
Competitor keyword analysis shortcuts the entire discovery process. If a competing app ranks in the top 10 for a keyword, that keyword has proven demand. If you don't rank for it and your app is relevant, that's a gap worth closing.
Step 1: Choose the Right Competitors
Not every app in your category is a useful competitor to analyze. You want apps that are:
Similar in function — they solve roughly the same problem yours does. A budget tracker and an investment portfolio app are in the same category but serve different search intents.
Similar in scale (or slightly larger) — analyzing apps with 10 million downloads when you have 500 won't surface achievable keywords. Look at apps 2-10x your size for the most actionable data.
Actively maintained — an app that hasn't been updated in 2 years might rank for legacy keywords that are no longer representative of current search behavior.
Pick 3-5 competitors that meet these criteria. More than 5 creates noise without proportional insight.
Step 2: Extract Their Keyword Footprint
For each competitor, you want to know every keyword they appear in search results for. There are two approaches:
The Manual Approach (Free)
- Read their metadata. Look at the competitor's title, subtitle, and description. Every word in their title and subtitle is a keyword they're targeting.
- Search for those keywords. Go to the App Store or Google Play, search for each keyword you extracted, and note the competitor's rank. If they rank in the top 10, the keyword is relevant.
- Check autocomplete. Type the competitor's name in the search bar. The autocomplete suggestions that appear alongside it (e.g., "CompetitorApp alternatives," "CompetitorApp vs") reveal what users associate with that app.
- Look at their "Similar Apps" section. The apps listed as similar share keyword overlap. Check their metadata too.
This works but is time-consuming for more than a handful of keywords.
The Tool-Assisted Approach
ASO tools (including ours) automate this by:
- Taking a competitor's app ID as input
- Running searches for thousands of keywords
- Recording which keywords the competitor appears in results for
- Scoring each keyword by volume and difficulty
This gives you a complete keyword footprint in minutes instead of hours.
Step 3: Identify Keyword Gaps
A keyword gap is a keyword that a competitor ranks for but you don't. This is the most valuable output of competitor analysis.
Organize gaps into three buckets:
Quick Wins
- Your competitor ranks in the top 10
- You don't rank at all (or rank 50+)
- Difficulty is below 35
- The keyword is relevant to your app
These are keywords you can likely start ranking for just by adding them to your metadata. If the competitor ranks with a description mention and you add it to your keyword field, you may outrank them quickly.
Stretch Goals
- Multiple competitors rank in the top 10
- Difficulty is 35-55
- Volume is medium or higher (SP 40+)
These require more effort — you'll need the keyword in your title or subtitle and solid ratings/reviews to compete. Worth targeting if the volume justifies it.
Monitor Only
- Difficulty is above 55
- Or the keyword has borderline relevance to your app
Track these for changes in difficulty but don't invest metadata space in them right now.
Step 4: Analyze Competitor Metadata Strategy
Beyond just finding their keywords, understand how competitors use them:
Title keywords — what keyword did they choose for their most valuable real estate? This tells you what they consider their highest-opportunity term.
Subtitle keywords — what's their secondary focus? Are they targeting a different user intent (e.g., title targets "meditation app" while subtitle targets "sleep sounds")?
Description keyword density (Google Play) — which keywords appear most frequently in their description? Higher density = higher priority in their strategy.
Keyword field (iOS) — you can't see this directly, but you can infer it. If a competitor ranks for a keyword that doesn't appear in their visible title, subtitle, or description, it's almost certainly in their keyword field.
Step 5: Build Your Keyword Strategy From Gaps
Take your gap analysis and use it to prioritize your metadata updates:
- Title change — if the highest-opportunity gap keyword is better than your current title keyword, consider swapping. This is the biggest lever but also the most visible change.
- Subtitle update — incorporate the next best gap keyword here.
- Keyword field refresh (iOS) — add all quick-win gap keywords. Remove any keywords you currently target that have zero ranking movement after 2+ months.
- Description rewrite (Google Play) — weave gap keywords into your description naturally. Don't force them — write useful feature descriptions that happen to include the target terms.
Real-World Example
Say you have a habit tracking app and you analyze three competitors. Here's what the gap analysis might reveal:
| Keyword | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C | Your App | Difficulty | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| habit tracker | #3 | #7 | #12 | #5 | 52 | 58 |
| daily routine | #8 | #15 | #4 | Not ranked | 28 | 42 |
| streak counter | #6 | Not ranked | #9 | Not ranked | 19 | 35 |
| goal setting | #12 | #5 | #8 | #22 | 45 | 55 |
| self improvement | #20 | #11 | Not ranked | Not ranked | 38 | 48 |
The clear quick wins are "daily routine" (difficulty 28, you're not ranking) and "streak counter" (difficulty 19, you're not ranking). Adding these to your keyword field or subtitle could generate rankings within a week.
"Self improvement" is a stretch goal — medium difficulty, good volume, but you'll need it in a prominent metadata position.
"Habit tracker" you already rank for — this is about defending, not gaining. "Goal setting" is worth monitoring but probably requires more reviews to move from #22 to top 10.
Cross-Store Competitor Analysis
If your app is on both iOS and Google Play, compare competitor keyword performance across stores. Frequently:
- A keyword that's highly competitive on iOS is less competitive on Android (or vice versa)
- Competitors optimize differently per store, creating platform-specific gaps
- Install count data on Google Play (which is public) helps calibrate iOS difficulty estimates
Run separate analyses for each store. Your metadata strategy should differ between platforms because the competitive landscape differs.
How Often to Run Competitor Analysis
- Full analysis (new competitor set, complete keyword extraction): every 3 months
- Gap refresh (re-check rankings for known gap keywords): monthly
- Metadata response (update your keywords based on findings): every 4-6 weeks
The keyword landscape shifts constantly. New apps launch, existing apps update metadata, search trends evolve. Quarterly competitor analysis catches these shifts before you fall behind.
Key Takeaways
- Competitor keyword analysis is the fastest way to find proven, high-value keywords
- Pick 3-5 competitors similar in function and scale to your app
- Classify gap keywords as quick wins, stretch goals, or monitor only
- Quick wins (low difficulty, not currently ranking) can often be captured with a metadata update alone
- Run competitor analysis quarterly and refresh gap data monthly
- Analyze each store separately — competitive landscapes differ between iOS and Google Play