How to Track Google Play Keyword Rankings
On the App Store you fill a hidden keyword field. On Google Play there is none: Google reads your words and decides. That makes tracking where you rank for each phrase even more useful, because it is the only feedback you get.
How Google Play decides what you rank for
Google Play reads your title (30 characters), your short description (80 characters) and your full description (up to 4,000 characters). There is no separate keyword field, so the words you write in those three places are the words you can be found for.
Unlike the App Store, Google reads the whole long description. A phrase you use naturally a few times there counts. Stuffing the same phrase over and over does not help and makes the page worse to read.
Google does not publish how it orders results. Installs, ratings and how people use the app are widely believed to matter alongside the text, which is why a new app with the right words can still sit below an established one.
Pick the phrases to track
Start from what your app does in the words a stranger would type. Add the phrases your closest competitors use in their titles and short descriptions. Keep the list short enough to look at: 15 to 30 phrases is plenty for one app.
Google Play does not offer search suggestions the way the App Store does, so you cannot read demand from autocomplete. Judge a phrase by who ranks for it instead: if the top results are small apps, it is open; if they are apps with millions of installs, it is hard.
Rank is per country and per language
Rank on Google Play differs by country, and the phrases people use differ by language. Track each country you care about, and use the local phrases there, not a translation of your English list.
Check the same way every time
If you check by hand, search the phrase in the Play Store with the same country and language setting each time and count down to your app. Results can vary a little by device and account, so treat one check as a reading, not a fact. If you are not in the first couple of hundred results, write "not ranked".
A daily record matters more than any single reading. Put the date, phrase, country and position in a sheet. After a few weeks you can see what changed after each edit to your listing.
Read the numbers
- A move that holds for several days is real; a one-or-two-place wobble in a day is noise.
- Movement near the top (12 to 5) matters more than movement deep down (150 to 140).
- If many phrases move the same way at once, suspect your own listing change or an update to the competitors.
- Pair rank with how hard a phrase is. A rank of 20 on a phrase with weak competition is a quick win; a rank of 20 on a crowded phrase is a long climb.
Change one thing at a time
When you edit the title or the short description, note the date. Wait a week or two before judging it, and change one place at a time, so you know which edit moved the rank.
Doing it with MetricNudge
The Keywords tool tracks Google Play rank for each phrase and country every day, shows the top results and your competitors side by side, and judges difficulty from how established the top apps are. Because Google Play has no suggestions to read, ideas come from your competitors, the top apps for a seed phrase and your own listing. It also checks your title, short description and long description against your tracked phrases.
For the App Store version of this, read How to Track App Store Keyword Rankings; for writing the listing, the Google Play ASO guide.
Try it on your own app
MetricNudge tracks your keyword rankings in every storefront, shows your app's analytics, and writes a plain-words plan of what to do next. The free plan needs no card.