Practice: your own store listing and keyword set
This is the branch's practice stage. There is no new theory here — you apply what you learned in the previous five stages to your own app, and end up with real, usable material.
The output of this topic: a complete metadata set and keyword set for both stores, justified by competitor analysis.
The work splits into five sessions. Each takes 45-90 minutes and uses the output of the one before — do not break the order.
| Session | What you do | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Competitor analysis (90 min) | Five search terms, top three results for each | A competitor table plus a list of recurring words |
| 2 — Review mining (60 min) | Read the 1-2 star reviews of three competitors | Users' own words plus the top three complaints |
| 3 — Keyword set (45 min) | Collect 20 words, score them for relevance | A keyword string that fits 100 characters |
| 4 — Metadata (60 min) | Write separate copy for each store | A complete metadata set, within the limits |
| 5 — Screenshot plan (60 min) | Decide the copy of the first three screenshots | A screenshot plan that passed the three-second test |
Why sessions 1 and 2 come first. Starting straight into writing metadata is tempting, but the result is always the same: text written in your own words, from your own imagination. Competitor analysis and review mining give you the user's vocabulary — and metadata written without that vocabulary sits outside the market's language.
The check for session 5. When the screenshot plan is ready, run the three-second test: show the first three screenshots on a phone for three seconds, hide them, and ask — "what does this app do?" Two out of three people must answer correctly. If they do not, the plan is not ready.
When you can call it done. This topic is complete when you hold one document containing: the competitor table, the keyword string (with its character count), metadata for both stores (limits verified), and the copy for three screenshots. That document must be in a state where you could paste it straight into the store consoles.
You can — and probably should — do this exercise even when the app is not finished. Writing metadata forces clear thinking about the product: if you cannot say what it does in one sentence, the problem is not the copy but the positioning — and learning that before launch is far cheaper.
Practice (this topic itself). Work through the five sessions and gather the outputs into one document. Done means: the document is ready to paste into the store consoles, the keyword string is under 100 characters, the iOS and Play copy are different, and the screenshot plan passed the three-second test.
📚 Sources and documentation
- Creating your App Store product pageofficialdeveloper.apple.com
The limits for session 4: name 30, subtitle 30, promotional text 170.
- App Store searchofficialdeveloper.apple.com
For session 3: the 100-character rule and what to avoid.
- Get discovered on Google Play searchofficialsupport.google.com
Official guidance for the Play side of session 4.
- Add preview assets to showcase your appofficialsupport.google.com
For session 5: the 80-character short description, eight screenshots, the 512×512 icon.