Keyword Difficulty for Apps: How to Judge If You Can Win
App keyword difficulty is a judgement about how hard it is to rank for a phrase. Learn the signals, how to interpret a score, and when to walk away.
**Keyword difficulty for apps** answers one question: how much work would it take to appear for this phrase? Unlike web SEO, there are no backlinks to count. Store difficulty comes from the strength and relevance of the apps already ranking, plus the query's competition for attention.
A difficulty score is a shortcut for a judgement you should still make yourself. This guide explains the signals behind it and the cases where the number is misleading.
Key takeaways
- Difficulty is about the strength of the current results, not the number of words.
- A high-volume phrase is often high difficulty; that is not a coincidence.
- Low difficulty can mean an opening or simply no demand.
- Check whether the top results are relevant, maintained, and well-rated.
- Use difficulty with relevance and volume; never alone.
What difficulty is trying to measure
If ten apps already target a phrase and all of them have strong ratings, complete listings, and years of installs, displacing them is hard. If the top results are loosely relevant or poorly maintained, the phrase may be winnable even if it is popular. Difficulty tries to compress those observations into a comparable number.
The number is not official. Apple and Google do not publish a difficulty metric. Tools derive it from public signals, and the exact formula varies.
The signals that matter
| Signal | Harder | Easier |
|---|---|---|
| Top-result relevance | Every result is a direct match | Results are adjacent or generic |
| Ratings | High ratings with many reviews | Few reviews or mixed ratings |
| Listing quality | Complete, localised, well-designed | Thin or stale listings |
| Brand strength | Household names | Unknown indie apps |
| Phrase specificity | Broad category term | Specific use case or constraint |
| Update cadence | Frequently maintained | Abandoned or rarely updated |
You can inspect all of these manually. A tool speeds up the collection, but the interpretation is yours.
How to read a 0–100 difficulty score
Exact bands vary by tool, so treat these as a starting vocabulary rather than a universal standard:
- 0–30: often winnable for a relevant app with a solid listing, but check that demand exists.
- 31–55: competitive; you need a clear relevance advantage or a better-converting page.
- 56–75: hard for a new app unless the phrase is central to your product and you can support it with installs.
- 76–100: usually defended by strong incumbents; consider a narrower phrase instead.
Difficulty vs competition
Some tools separate competition from difficulty. Competition might measure how many apps target the phrase or how dense the results are. Difficulty might weigh the strength of the top results. The distinction is useful, but do not overfit to two numbers that are both estimates. What matters is whether you can produce a more relevant, more credible result than the apps already there.
When to walk away
Walk away when the phrase is dominated by apps with a fundamentally different product, when ranking would require a claim you cannot make, or when the phrase is so broad that the installs would be low quality. Also walk away when the only reason to target it is the volume number.
A smaller phrase with a clear job can produce better retention and reviews, which then help the next phrase. Difficulty is not just a gate; it is a guide to where your effort compounds.
Where NewASO fits
NewASO computes competition and difficulty from live store search results and shows them beside volume, relevance, and opportunity. Every score carries a confidence label. The recommendation bands — Focus, Primary, Secondary, Maybe, Skip — are there to stop you from treating difficulty in isolation.
For the broader research process, read app keyword research. For the volume question, read app keyword search volume.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good keyword difficulty for a new app?
There is no universal number. A new app should generally favour lower-difficulty phrases with clear relevance, but low difficulty without demand is not useful. Check the actual results and the intent.
Do Apple and Google publish keyword difficulty?
No. Difficulty is a third-party estimate based on public signals such as the strength and relevance of the apps ranking for the phrase.
Is keyword difficulty the same as competition?
They are related but not identical. Competition often describes how many apps target a phrase; difficulty describes how hard it is to outperform the current results. Different tools define them differently.