The fastest way to find keywords worth targeting isn't brainstorming — it's reading your competitors' listings. Every app that already ranks in your category is a solved keyword puzzle: someone researched, tested, and validated those terms with real downloads. This guide shows you how to reverse-engineer which keywords your competitors rank for, extract the ones worth stealing, and turn them into a prioritized target list.
This is a focused companion to our complete app store keyword research guide — start there for the full process, come here for the competitor-specific tactics.
Why Analyze Competitor Keywords at All?
Competitor keyword analysis works because it replaces guesswork with validated demand. When a competitor ranks in the top 5 for a term, that term has proven it drives installs in your exact category — you're copying a tested answer instead of gambling on an untested one.[1]
Two advantages make it the highest-ROI research method:
- Validated traffic. If a competitor ranks #1 for a keyword, you already know it converts for apps like yours — no speculation required.
- Hidden long-tail gems. Competitors surface niche, specific phrases you'd never brainstorm on your own. A single competitor's metadata typically yields 100 to 300 candidate keywords depending on how keyword-dense it is.[1]
How Do You Find Which Keywords a Competitor Ranks For?
There are two directions of analysis, and you need both. Metadata extraction reads the keywords a competitor put into their listing; rank reverse-engineering reveals the keywords they actually rank for — which is often broader than what they deliberately targeted.
Direction 1: Read Their Metadata
A competitor's title, subtitle, and description openly declare the keywords they've decided matter. This is free and instant:
- Title (30 chars): their single most valuable keyword lives here, usually right after the brand name.
- Subtitle (30 chars, iOS): their second-priority keyword cluster.
- Description first two lines: on Google Play the full description is indexed, so the opening lines carry their highest-intent terms.
Pull every meaningful noun and phrase from these fields across your top 5–10 competitors. That raw list is your starting pool. The character-limit mechanics behind each field are in our character limits reference.
Direction 2: Reverse-Engineer Their Rankings
Reading metadata tells you what a competitor intended to rank for. Checking their actual rankings tells you what they achieved — including accidental wins on terms they never explicitly targeted. By looking at which keywords a competitor ranks for, you can infer what's in their title, subtitle, and keyword field even though the iOS 100-character keyword field is hidden from public view.[1] This is where an app intelligence tool earns its keep — it surfaces the ranked-keyword list for any app in seconds.
Which Competitors Should You Actually Copy?
This is where most teams go wrong. Do not copy keywords from Uber, Instagram, or any category giant — their rankings come from brand power and massive download velocity, not keyword optimization you can replicate.[1] Targeting their head terms lands you at position #200 with zero traffic.
Instead, build your competitor set from mid-tier apps — apps 2–5× your size, not 500×. They're close enough that their winning keywords are winnable for you too. A practical mix:
- 3–4 direct competitors your size or slightly larger (same core function).
- 2–3 aspirational apps one tier up (where you want to be in 6 months).
- 1–2 adjacent apps that share your audience but solve a different problem (they surface cross-over keywords).
How Do You Turn Competitor Keywords Into a Target List?
Raw competitor keywords are noise until you filter them. Run every candidate through three gates:
- Relevance gate. Would a user searching this term be happy to find your app? If not, discard it no matter how much traffic it has — irrelevant installs tank your conversion rate, which is now a ranking signal.
- Difficulty gate. Skip anything with a difficulty score of 80+. Those terms are owned by the giants; you'll rank around #200 and get nothing.[1] Target the mid-difficulty band where mid-tier competitors rank but the field isn't saturated.
- Gap gate. The gold is keywords multiple competitors rank for that you don't. Those are proven, in-category, and currently leaving you invisible. This keyword-gap list is your priority queue.
The Keyword-Gap Method, Step by Step
Here's the repeatable workflow that turns competitor listings into ranked opportunities:
- List 5–10 mid-tier competitors using the mix above.
- Extract each one's ranked keywords (metadata reading + rank reverse-engineering).
- Build a frequency table: count how many competitors rank for each keyword. Terms 3+ competitors share are validated category keywords.
- Subtract your own rankings: remove terms you already rank top-10 for. What remains is your gap.
- Score the gap by relevance × search volume ÷ difficulty. Sort descending.
- Map the top terms to your title, subtitle, and keyword field — see the mapping rules in our title optimization guide.
- Track and iterate. Re-run monthly; competitor metadata changes and so does the gap.
Doing this by hand across 10 apps is a spreadsheet marathon. AppDrift's metadata generation and app intelligence automate the extraction and gap-scoring, so the marathon becomes a five-minute review.
What About Search Volume and Difficulty Scores?
Every keyword decision comes down to two numbers: how many people search a term (volume) and how hard it is to rank (difficulty). Competitor analysis gives you a shortcut on both — a keyword that three mid-tier competitors rank for has demonstrated enough volume to be worth their metadata space, and their ability to rank proves the difficulty is beatable at your tier.
Still, validate the raw numbers. Apple Search Ads' popularity data and third-party volume estimates keep you from chasing a term that looks popular in a competitor's listing but has quietly died. Cross-referencing organic gaps against paid-keyword data from Apple Ads intelligence also shows which terms are worth defending with budget versus winning organically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you see a competitor's exact App Store keywords?
Not directly — the iOS 100-character keyword field is hidden. But you can reverse-engineer it: read their public title, subtitle, and description, then check which keywords they actually rank for. Together these reveal the vast majority of a competitor's keyword strategy without seeing the raw field.
How many competitor keywords should I collect?
Extract everything first — a single keyword-dense competitor yields 100 to 300 candidate terms, so 10 competitors can produce a pool of over 1,000. Then filter hard: relevance, difficulty under 80, and the keyword gap usually leave you with 20–40 genuinely worth targeting.
Which competitors' keywords are safe to copy?
Mid-tier apps 2–5× your size. Avoid category giants like Instagram or Uber — they rank on brand power and download velocity you can't replicate, so their head terms will leave you at position #200 with no traffic.
What is a keyword gap?
A keyword gap is a term that multiple competitors rank for but you don't. Because it's already validated in your category and you're currently invisible for it, closing keyword gaps is the highest-ROI move in ASO keyword research.
How often should I redo competitor keyword analysis?
Monthly. Competitor metadata changes, new apps enter your category, and search demand shifts seasonally. A monthly re-run keeps your gap list current and catches competitors' new keyword bets early.
Key Takeaways
- Competitor keywords are validated demand — copy tested answers, don't guess.
- Use both directions: read their metadata AND reverse-engineer their rankings.
- Copy mid-tier competitors, never category giants (difficulty 80+ = zero traffic).
- The keyword gap — terms competitors rank for and you don't — is your priority queue.
- Re-run monthly; the gap moves as competitors and demand change.
Reverse-engineering ten competitors by hand is real work. AppDrift extracts ranked keywords, builds the frequency table, and scores your gap automatically — so you spend your time choosing targets, not assembling spreadsheets. Start with a free ASO audit to see where your listing stands today.