App Store Keyword Research: United Kingdom
UK keyword difficulty typically runs 5–12 points below the US for identical terms, making it a useful secondary target when US rankings are blocked.
Market overview
- Storefront code
- GB
- Market tier
- Major market
- Primary search language
- English
- Storefronts this metadata reaches
- 25 storefronts
What to know about this market
UK keyword difficulty typically runs 5–12 points below the US for identical terms, making it a useful secondary target when US rankings are blocked.
British spelling variations (e.g. 'colour', 'organise') rarely rank differently from American spellings — search intent is the same, algorithm handles both.
How to research keywords in United Kingdom
English metadata is indexed here, so this is a research pass rather than a localisation project.
United Kingdom is one of the storefronts where difficulty does the deciding. Demand is deep enough that almost any sensible term returns volume, and the question is which of them you can realistically reach.
- Build the candidate list in English. Start from your existing English list, then add the terms competitors use in their United Kingdom subtitle. Regional word choice matters more than spelling: the algorithm treats British and American spellings alike, but it will not connect two different words for the same thing.
- Score for popularity in this storefront specifically. Popularity is calibrated per storefront, so a term that scores 60 here is genuinely deep demand. Above 25 is the floor worth spending characters on.
- Check difficulty. Filter to difficulty below 60 for an established app and below 45 for a new one. In a market this size the top slots are held by apps with years of install history behind them.
- Write the metadata for United Kingdom. The same English metadata is indexed in 25 storefronts, so a term you add here is working in all of them. Score your list in the largest of those before you commit the 100 characters.
Metadata allocation for the United Kingdom storefront
Three indexable fields, 160 characters between them, and the writing system decides how far they stretch.
- App Name, 30 characters. Your brand plus the single highest-demand term you can defend in United Kingdom. This field carries the most ranking weight of the three, so it takes the term you most want and can plausibly reach, not the one with the biggest popularity score.
- Subtitle, 30 characters. Two or three secondary terms in English. It is indexed and it is also the line a searcher reads before deciding to tap, so it has to survive being read as a sentence.
- Keyword field, 100 characters. Latin script, so the 100-character keyword field holds roughly 12 to 16 single words. Drop plurals and stop words: the algorithm matches word stems and builds phrases from the terms you supply, so every repeated word is a wasted character. Never repeat a word already used in the name or subtitle; those are indexed already, and the field is the one place where a wasted character is a term you could have had.
Where your English metadata also ranks
Apple indexes metadata by language, not by country. One English keyword field is live in 25 storefronts.
Writing English metadata for United Kingdom is not a single-market decision. The same 100 characters are indexed in 24 other storefronts, where the same terms carry different demand and, more usefully, different difficulty. A term that is closed in United Kingdom is frequently open in the smaller markets on this list, and it costs nothing extra to rank there.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇧🇼 Botswana
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇫🇲 Federated States of Micronesia
- 🇫🇯 Fiji
- 🇬🇭 Ghana
- 🇬🇩 Grenada
- 🇬🇾 Guyana
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇰🇪 Kenya
- 🇲🇾 Malaysia
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇵🇰 Pakistan
- 🇵🇭 Philippines
- 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago
- 🇸🇬 Singapore
- 🇿🇦 South Africa
- 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
- 🇸🇿 Swaziland
- 🇹🇿 Tanzania
- 🇹🇨 Turks and Caicos Islands
- 🇺🇬 Uganda
- 🇺🇸 United States
Frequently asked questions
- What language should I use for App Store keywords in United Kingdom?
- The primary search language in United Kingdom is English. English metadata works well without additional localisation.
- Is the United Kingdom App Store worth targeting?
- Yes — United Kingdom is one of the highest-volume App Store markets and worth treating as a primary target. Expect higher keyword difficulty than smaller markets.
- How does United Kingdom keyword difficulty compare to the US?
- United Kingdom typically runs 5–20 points lower difficulty than the US for the same keyword categories, despite similar or meaningful search volume. It is often a more accessible target.
- How many storefronts does one English keyword field cover?
- 25. Apple indexes App Store metadata by language rather than by country, so a single English keyword field is live in United Kingdom and 24 other storefronts. Score your candidate list in each of them before committing the 100 characters, because difficulty varies between them even though the metadata does not.
Storefronts to compare with United Kingdom
Markets that search in English come first, then neighbours in the same region.
- 🇺🇸 United StatesAlso searches in English
- 🇨🇦 CanadaAlso searches in English
- 🇦🇺 AustraliaAlso searches in English
- 🇮🇳 IndiaAlso searches in English
- 🇮🇪 IrelandAlso searches in English
- 🇲🇾 MalaysiaAlso searches in English
- 🇳🇿 New ZealandAlso searches in English
- 🇵🇰 PakistanAlso searches in English
Research United Kingdom App Store keywords now
Score keywords in the United Kingdom storefront — popularity, difficulty, and competing apps count — across 109 markets in one workspace.
Start researching