App Store localization: how to localize your App Store and Google Play listing to rank in more countries

App Store localization is the cheapest ranking lever most indie developers never pull. Every language you add to App Store Connect gets its own name, subtitle and 100-character keyword field, and Apple's documentation confirms that "users can search for your app using localized keywords in all countries or regions where the App Store supports" that language. On Google Play, a translated listing is what Play search reads in each language. Done well, localization puts your app in front of searches you cannot reach today, without changing a line of code.

This guide explains how the App Store decides which localization a person sees and which ones it searches, how to choose markets, how to research keywords per language instead of translating them, and how to do the same on Google Play.

Why app store localization moves rankings#

Ranking in a store search starts with being indexed for the words people type. If your listing only exists in English, a person in Mexico searching in Spanish, or a Spanish speaker in the US, has to guess your English terms to find you. Localization fixes three things at once:

• More indexed keywords. Each App Store localization adds a name, subtitle and keyword field, which is new searchable text.
• Higher conversion. A product page in the reader's language, with screenshots they can read, converts better than a translated-in-their-head English page, and conversion feeds back into ranking.
• More markets that count. Apple's App Store runs 175 storefronts, and most of them are not English-first.

Apple also expanded what you can localize this year. On March 31, 2026, App Store Connect added 11 new languages, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Slovenian, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, "bringing the total number of supported localizations to 50", with a stated focus on India.

How the App Store picks and searches localizations#

Apple's localization help page explains the display rule with French as the example. A French localization "displays to users whose language setting is in French", and also "to users in countries or regions where the App Store supports French but not English." Everyone else sees your primary language.

The search rule is the one that matters for ASO: "Users can search for your app using localized keywords in all countries or regions where the App Store supports French."

To know which languages a storefront supports, use Apple's App Store localizations reference. Each storefront has a default language and, often, additional supported languages. A few examples from that table:

Put the two rules together and you get the practical strategy ASO practitioners call cross-localization. If you sell mainly in the US, adding a Spanish (Mexico) localization gives you a second name, subtitle and keyword field that the US storefront can search, and that Spanish-speaking iPhone users in the US will read. The same Spanish (Mexico) localization also serves Mexico and much of Latin America, where Spanish (Mexico) is the default.

Two cautions. First, Apple documents which localizations are searchable, not how much each one weighs, so measure your own results rather than assuming. Second, the name and subtitle in a localization are shown to real people who read that language. Filling a Spanish name with English keywords will rank for little and convert badly for the users who actually see it.

One sign, three scripts. A storefront can search more than one localization of your listing. Photo: khezez / Pexels

Step 1: Choose markets with data, not a language list#

Do not start with "the top ten languages". Start with where you already have signal:

1. Look at downloads and impressions by territory. In App Store Connect Analytics and Play Console's statistics, sort by country. Countries with downloads but weak conversion are usually telling you the page is not in their language.
2. Check search demand. For iOS, Apple Ads shows a search popularity score for keywords in each storefront. Our guide to free ASO keyword research shows how to pull that data, plus Play Console search terms, without paid tools.
3. Check the storefront table. Prefer languages that unlock more than one storefront: Spanish (Mexico) is the default across much of Latin America and an additional language in the US; Portuguese (Brazil) covers Brazil and the US; French covers France and is an additional language in the US and Switzerland.
4. Be honest about support. If you cannot answer reviews or support emails in a language, start with the listing only and say so in the description, or wait.

A sensible first wave for an English app is two or three languages, not twenty.

Step 2: Research keywords per language, do not translate them#

A literal translation of your English keywords is the most common localization mistake. People in different markets describe the same need with different words, and many use English loan words for tech terms. For each new locale:

1. List the job your app does in plain words, then ask a native speaker how they would search for it.
2. Check the terms in the store. Search each candidate on that storefront and look at the apps that rank. If the top results are not apps like yours, the word means something else there.
3. Check popularity for each candidate in that storefront with Apple Ads.
4. Keep English terms where locals use them. In many markets, words like "VPN", "PDF" or "app" are searched in English.

Then fill the fields. On the App Store, the main localizable text fields and their limits are below. Apple's product page guide says keywords "determine where your app displays in search results" and that "promotional text doesn't affect your app's search ranking".

Apple's help page notes that when you add a language, "description and keywords remain empty", while screenshots default to the primary language. So every new localization needs its own keyword field written from scratch.

A quick way to keep keyword fields honest across locales is a small script that reads them from a JSON file before you paste them into App Store Connect:

// check-keywords.mjs: node check-keywords.mjs keywords.json
import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';

const fields = JSON.parse(readFileSync(process.argv[2], 'utf8'));
// { "en-US": { "name": "...", "subtitle": "...", "keywords": "a,b,c" }, "es-MX": { ... } }

for (const [locale, f] of Object.entries(fields)) {
  const words = f.keywords.split(',').map((w) => w.trim().toLowerCase());
  const inTitle = `${f.name} ${f.subtitle}`.toLowerCase();
  const repeated = words.filter((w) => inTitle.includes(w));
  const dupes = words.filter((w, i) => words.indexOf(w) !== i);
  console.log(locale, {
    name: `${[...f.name].length}/30`,
    subtitle: `${[...f.subtitle].length}/30`,
    keywords: `${[...f.keywords].length}/100`,
    spaceAfterComma: /, /.test(f.keywords),
    repeatedFromNameOrSubtitle: repeated,
    duplicates: dupes,
  });
}

Repeating a word that is already in your name or subtitle, adding spaces after commas, and listing the same word twice all waste characters you could spend on new terms.

Step 3: Localize screenshots, not just text#

The first two or three screenshots carry most of a product page's persuasion, and English captions on a Japanese page tell the reader the app was not made for them. Translate the caption text in every screenshot, and where it matters, the in-app content shown in them: currency, dates, names and units. Our App Store screenshot sizes guide lists the exact sizes per device, which stay the same in every localization.

Watch text length. German and Finnish captions often run longer than English, and Japanese and Chinese often run shorter. Design caption areas with room to grow rather than shrinking type until it is unreadable.

The same message in three languages, each written for its own reader. Write each localization for the people who will read it. Photo: Vadim Timayev / Pexels

Step 4: Localize your Google Play listing#

Google Play has no keyword field. Its search reads your title (30 characters), short description (80 characters) and full description (4,000 characters), so a translated listing is how you become searchable in another language. Play Console gives you three tools, according to its translation help page:

• Free machine translation of your store listing into Arabic, French (France), German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain) and Thai.
• Paid human translation from third-party vendors, which "costs as little as USD 0.07 per word", with translations "completed within seven days".
• Gemini translation of app strings, where "your app strings are automatically translated using Gemini models at no cost", with a preview before you publish.

If you do nothing, Play still lets visitors "choose to view an automated translation" of an untranslated listing, with a notice that it was machine translated. That is better than nothing for conversion, but it is not a listing you control or optimize. Use machine translation as a first draft, then have a native speaker rewrite the title and short description around the terms people actually search, as in Step 2. Our Google Play ASO in 2026 guide covers how Play's newer search features read that text.

Use custom store listings for country-specific pages#

Language and country are not the same thing. Portuguese speakers in Brazil and Portugal search differently, and pricing, payment methods or features can differ by country. Play's custom store listings let you create up to 50 listings per app, targeted by country, search keywords, pre-registration or ad traffic. Two rules to know: "you can only target a country with one custom store listing at a time", and custom listings are not translated automatically, so add the translations you need to each one.

Step 5: Localize the app, at least the first screens#

A localized listing that opens into an English-only app earns downloads and then one-star reviews that say "not in my language". You do not need to translate everything on day one, but the onboarding, paywall and main screens should match the listing language. On iOS, Xcode String Catalogs keep translations in one file; on Android, values-es/strings.xml and friends do the same job, and Play's Gemini string translation can produce a first draft.

When you add support for a language in the binary, say so in the listing. When you only localize the listing, do not imply the app is translated.

Step 6: Measure each locale separately#

Give each change two to four weeks, then compare by territory:

• Impressions from App Store search and Play search, before and after.
• Conversion rate from product page views to downloads.
• Keyword ranks for the terms you added, checked from the right storefront.
• Ratings and reviews in that language, which tell you whether the app experience matched the promise.

If a locale shows no movement after a month, revisit the keywords first, not the translation quality. Most flat results come from targeting words nobody searches. To test captions or screenshots per market, Play supports up to five localized experiments at once; our guide to App Store A/B testing walks through setup on both stores.

Localization works best with other traffic#

Localization raises the ceiling on search, but new apps still need a first wave of installs to earn rank in any language. Pair a new locale with a push in that market: a post in a local community, a local newsletter, or a listing on AppRanker, the pay-to-rank board for apps and extensions where your position is set by what you pay rather than by an algorithm. The guide on what a paid leaderboard listing buys explains the trade-off. Reviews in the new language matter too, and our guide on how to respond to app reviews covers replying well when they arrive.

App store localization checklist#

• Markets chosen from territory data and keyword popularity.
• Storefront table checked for languages that unlock more than one market.
• Keywords researched per language with native input, not translated.
• Name, subtitle and keyword field filled for every App Store localization.
• No words repeated between name, subtitle and keyword field.
• Screenshot captions and in-app content translated.
• Play listing title and short description rewritten by a native speaker.
• Country-specific Play custom store listings where offers differ.
• Onboarding and main screens localized in the app.
• Impressions, conversion and ranks tracked per territory.

Frequently asked questions#

How many languages can I localize on the App Store?#

App Store Connect supports 50 localizations since Apple added 11 languages on March 31, 2026. Each one has its own name, subtitle, keywords, description, promotional text and screenshots.

Does adding Spanish (Mexico) help my app rank in the US?#

Apple's reference lists Spanish (Mexico) as an additional supported language on the US storefront, and its help page says users can search with localized keywords wherever the App Store supports that language. So Spanish (Mexico) keywords are searchable in the US. Apple does not say how they are weighted against English (US), so track the result.

Should I translate my keywords with Google Translate?#

Use translation for ideas only. Keywords should come from what people in that market search, which you confirm with store searches and popularity data. Literal translations often miss the common term or pick a word with another meaning.

Do I need to localize the app itself before the listing?#

No, but be clear about it. Localizing the listing alone can lift visibility, yet users who expect a translated app will leave bad reviews if it is English only. Localize at least onboarding and the main screens as soon as you can.

Does Google Play have a keyword field?#

No. Google Play builds search from your title, short description and full description, so those texts need to contain the terms people search in each language.

Image credits#

• Cover, push pins on a world map: photo by Aksonsat Uanthoeng on Pexels, Pexels License. Cropped to 1200x630.
• Embassy of Japan sign in three scripts: photo by khezez on Pexels, Pexels License. Resized.
• Multilingual directional sign: photo by Vadim Timayev on Pexels, Pexels License. Resized.