Choosing The Right Keywords For Your App
We all know how important keywords are on the internet and Amazon have published a new article to their Amazon Appstore Developer Blog, to help you ensure you understand the process.
Keywords are not visible to customers in the Amazon Appstore, instead they are used (in addition to the content in your detail page and the name of your app), by Amazon’s search engine to match products with search phrases on Amazon.com. Keywords can be a maximum of 500 characters per app submission and they must be relevant to the app they’re associated with. Keywords should be separated by a comma and you can submit multiple keywords with your app submission. Finally, keywords should help match the features, applied uses, and the primary audience for the App.
Do include
• Keywords specific to your app
• If there is an acronym of a keyword, put both the acronym and the full word as follows: “service oriented architecture,” “SOA app”
• Number of players as follows: “multi-player game” or “2-player game” or “single-player and multi-player”
Examples of keywords for a hypothetical finance app
Expense Tracking, Currency Conversion, Expense Report, VAT, Calculator, Business, Travel, Spreadsheet Exportt.
Example keywords for other apps
• MP3 or music app: ID3 Tagging, ID3 Tag Lookup, Look-up, Collection Sorting, Library Organize
• Syllable counter: creative writing, Poetry, haiku, sonnet, iambic pentameter
• Sound editor: Sample Recorder, Pitch Bending, Podcast, soundboard
• Wind calculator: Golf, Golfing, Sailing, Boating, Hunting, windage, wind chill
Do not include
• “Free” or “Free app” – even if your app is always free, please do not use this term / phrase
• App title – this will be picked up organically from your detail page
• App category – this will be picked up organically from your detail page
• Vendor or developer name – this will be picked up organically from your detail page
• Other app names in your keywords (e.g. “Angry Birds” if your app is really “Amazon MP3”)
• Trademarks or other Intellectual Property you do not have rights to
• Vague keywords that aren’t relevant to your app
• All caps, exclamation marks, question marks and other symbols
Using a music app as an example, here are examples of keywords that are too vague to help the search-ability of the app:
• MP3
• Classical
• The National
• Really Cool App! Really Cool App!!
Keywords can be updated when you are releasing a new version of an app, but not for an existing, published version.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photography journalist, editor, curator, and the founder of *TheAppWhisperer.com*, one of the world’s leading platforms dedicated to mobile photography and art. Since its launch in 2009, TheAppWhisperer has become an international hub for artists of all levels to discover, learn, exhibit, and engage with contemporary photographic practice.Built on principles of inclusivity, accessibility, and artistic excellence, Joanne has spent almost two decades championing mobile photography as a serious artistic medium. Through interviews, critical essays, exhibitions, competitions, and education, she has helped shape and document the evolution of mobile art on a global scale.Her work has taken her internationally, lecturing on photography and mobile art at institutions and events including the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, alongside appearances in the UK and Europe. She has served as a juror for international photography and mobile art awards across Portugal, Canada, the United States, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.Joanne is also the founder of *TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com*, one of the first online galleries dedicated exclusively to collectible mobile art, connecting artists with collectors across Europe, the United States, and Asia.Before founding TheAppWhisperer, Joanne worked extensively in print journalism and photographic publishing, including roles at a paparazzi photo agency and as deputy editor of a leading photography magazine. Her freelance journalism, criticism, and commentary have been published widely in both the UK and the US, with bylines in *The Times*, *The Sunday Times*, *The Guardian*, *Popular Photography*, *NikonPro*, *DPReview*, *Which?*, *Vogue Italia*, *LensCulture*, the *BBC*, and more recently, the *Financial Times*, where her published letters on photography continue to contribute to wider conversations around the medium.Alongside her editorial and curatorial work, Joanne’s own photographic practice has been exhibited internationally across the UK, Europe, South Korea, and the United States. Her work increasingly explores themes of grief, loss, death, memory, and the body.Her current research interests centre on grief, death, and poverty, with forthcoming postgraduate study leading towards doctoral research in these areas.Joanne is currently developing new long-form writing and photographic projects and is available for commissions, editorial projects, speaking engagements, and collaborations.Contact: joannetheappwhisperer@gmail.com)
