What happens to my keywords if I rebrand my app name?
You lose whatever keyword equity was riding on the old app name, and your title field's contribution to indexed keywords resets to whatever terms are in the new name — existing rankings for terms unrelated to the name itself are generally preserved.
The app name (title) is one of the three indexed metadata fields, so a rebrand is effectively a rewrite of part of your keyword surface area. If the old name contained a valuable keyword, that term's weight from the title field disappears the moment the name changes.
Ratings, reviews, install history, and rankings tied to your keyword field and subtitle generally carry over since those aren't reset by a name change — but treat a rebrand as a full keyword-field and subtitle review, not just a cosmetic update, since the balance of what's indexed has shifted.
Go deeper
More quick answers
- Does keyword order matter in the App Store keyword field?No. Apple's search algorithm treats the 100-character keyword field as an unordered set of terms separated by commas, not a ranked or read left-to-right list.Read the answer
- How many keywords should I target in one App Store update?Most apps fit 10-20 distinct keyword terms across title, subtitle, and the 100-character keyword field once you account for character limits — there's no fixed 'right number' beyond what those three fields can physically hold.Read the answer
- Does changing my App Store keywords reset my ranking?No. There's no ranking 'reset' penalty for updating keywords — your app simply stops ranking for terms it no longer targets and becomes eligible to rank for the new ones once Apple re-indexes the update.Read the answer
- Can I use a competitor's app name as a keyword?Apple generally allows a competitor's name in your keyword field (not your title or subtitle), though Apple can and does reject specific cases, and it carries real trademark risk you should weigh before doing it.Read the answer
- Should I include both plural and singular versions of the same keyword?Usually no — Apple's search matches singular and plural forms of common English words to each other, so including both in a 100-character field just wastes characters you could spend on a different term.Read the answer
- Does running Apple Search Ads improve my organic App Store ranking?Indirectly, yes — a 2026 academic study found paid installs produce a real positive spillover to organic installs, estimated around 2.2 organic installs per $100 of ad spend, operating through a ranking mechanism rather than direct favoritism.Read the answer
Check it against your own keywords
Paste your candidate list and read real popularity, difficulty, and competing app count in seconds.
Get started