The Language in the App Stores serves more than one purpose. We have to convey both what we want potential new users to understand about our app, and also to use language that matches what people are searching for in the Stores.

Key Words & Phrases

Google Play and the Apple App Store handle keywords a little differently. Google looks for keywords embedded in the App Name, Short Description and Long Description. Apple uses App Name, Subtitle and Description, but also has a 100 character, comma separated, keyword string. You may or may not see the keywords string, depending on your login type.

Simple Different and our translators have to walk a tricky line between accurately representing our apps, reflecting what people are searching for, and being aware of the different use of language in various countries and languages. In many cases English keywords are still used in non-English country stores, for example. Sometimes a keyword may be popular in English, but not popular in the target language, where another concept or way of describing something predominates.

To manage this area of translation, we have created a special section in Babel which handles translations for the App Stores differently than for our apps and websites. We also use some 3rd party tools, for example App Radar and App Follow, to help us understand which words and phrases are important in the different languages we serve, and how our apps perform in the country stores using those languages.