Most App Store keyword guides are written for ASO agencies optimizing apps that already have a million downloads. This one is for indie developers who haven't built the app yet — and who'd rather find a keyword they can actually rank for than discover, six months in, that they picked a saturated market.
What "low-competition" actually means on the App Store
Low-competition isn't the same as low-demand. A keyword can be low-competition because:
- The incumbents have gone quiet — top apps that haven't shipped an update in 1-3+ years. Their rankings hold by inertia, not by quality.
- The top apps have bad reviews — there's clear user demand, but the existing solutions are letting people down.
- The category is narrow enough that big ASO teams don't bother targeting it.
- The keyword has multiple words — "habit tracker" is brutal, but "habit tracker for adhd" or "morning routine tracker" might be wide open.
Low-demand + low-competition isn't useful. You want low-competition where demand is actually there.
Signals to look for
Three concrete signals matter more than the rest:
- Top app freshness. If the #1 ranking app hasn't updated in 18+ months, that's an opening. Apple's algorithm doesn't infinitely reward stale rankings — a well-built fresh app can leapfrog.
- Average rating of the top 5. Below 4.2 stars is a clear "users are unhappy" signal. Find the complaint pattern in reviews and you've found your differentiator.
- Top app revenue ceiling. If the leaders are pulling $50k–$500k/month, the keyword can support a real business. Below $5k and you may not have a market.
The three-keyword test
Before you build, find three keywords that pass all of:
- ≥40 search demand (Peekaso's scoring — roughly "this gets searched a meaningful amount")
- ≥50% estimated chance to rank in the top results
- At least one top-5 app with 1+ year since update OR <4.2 average rating
If you can name those three keywords, you have a starting positioning. If you can't, the idea probably needs a different angle.
Don't trust autocomplete blindly
App Store autocomplete shows suggestions — but it shows them to everyone, including the existing apps' developers, who often optimize for those exact terms. A keyword surfacing in autocomplete means demand exists; it does NOT mean ranking is achievable.
The cleanest way to read autocomplete signal: every visible suggestion is a competitive keyword. The opportunity is usually in the long-tail variants nobody is targeting yet.
Where to start
Look at Peekaso's best-odds explore tab — that's a daily-refreshed list of keywords with real demand and a beatable competitive landscape. Filter by category if you have one in mind. Bookmark anything that passes the three-keyword test and check back in a week to see if it holds.
If you'd rather start from a specific idea, search the keyword directly in Peekaso and look at the competitive-landscape panel. Stale top apps + unhappy reviews + decent demand is the indie sweet spot.