Where is the keyword field in App Store Connect?

App Store Connect → your app → the version you are editing → App Information, under the localization you want. The field is labelled Keywords and holds 100 characters. It used to live in iTunes Connect, which is why the older name still turns up in search — it is the same field.

How do I separate keywords in the App Store keyword field?

Commas, with no spaces after them: coffee,espresso,brewing. Every space you type is a character you cannot use for a keyword, and Apple does not need the space to parse the list. There is no ranking difference between a comma and a comma-plus-space — only a character cost.

Should I repeat a keyword to rank better for it?

No. iOS indexes each term once; repeating it in the keyword field, or across the title and the keyword field, adds nothing and costs you characters. Keyword density is a web-SEO idea that does not carry over to the App Store.

What is keyword cannibalization on the App Store?

Two things, and only one of them is real. Repeating a word across your own title, subtitle and keyword field is simply wasted space — iOS treats all three as one pool. Two of YOUR OWN apps competing for the same term is the version that actually costs you, because Apple will generally rank only one of them well for it.

Do I need to include my app name or category in the keywords?

No. Your app name, subtitle and developer name are already indexed, and the category is not a keyword field at all. Anything you repeat there is 100 characters spent on nothing.

App Store Connect Keywords: The 100-Character Field Explained

The keyword field is the only part of your listing that searchers never see, and the part most often filled in badly. It holds 100 characters, it is indexed exactly once, and almost every common mistake comes down to spending those characters on words that were already working.

Where the field is

App Store Connect → your app → the version you are editing → App Information, under the localization you are editing. The field is called Keywords and it is per-locale, not per-app.

It was called iTunes Connect until 2018. The tool was renamed, the field was not, which is why "iTunes Connect keywords" is still what a lot of people search for. Same field, same 100 characters.

How the 100 characters actually work

Separate with commas and no spaces. coffee,espresso,brewing — not coffee, espresso, brewing. There is no ranking difference between the two; the second one just burns a character per keyword on a space Apple does not need. Over a full field that is easily five or six characters, which is another keyword.

Single words beat phrases. iOS builds search phrases by combining your terms with each other and with your title and subtitle. Putting coffee timer in the field wastes a character on the space and locks the two words together. Put coffee and timer in separately and you are eligible for both, plus the combination.

No plurals. Apple handles simple plural matching, so timer and timers is one of them wasted.

Skip the small words. Articles, prepositions and conjunctions — a, the, for, and, with — are ignored. So is punctuation beyond the separating commas.

What to leave out entirely

Everything in this list is already indexed or never indexed, so putting it in the keyword field is pure loss:

Your app name and subtitle. iOS indexes the title, the subtitle and the keyword field as one combined pool. A word in your title does not need to be in the field as well.
Your developer name. Also indexed already.
Your category name. Category is a browse dimension, not a keyword — you are already in it.
The words "app", "free" or "iPhone". Every app in the store is an app on iPhone; these terms are effectively noise.
Competitor and other brand names. Apple rejects them in review, and in most jurisdictions using someone else's trademark to attract their traffic is its own legal problem.

Keyword density does not exist here

Repeating a term does not strengthen it. iOS indexes each word once, from the union of your title, subtitle and keyword field. Writing coffee three times gives you exactly the ranking of writing it once and 12 characters less to work with.

This is the single biggest thing that carries over wrongly from web SEO. On a web page, repetition is a (weak) relevance signal. In the App Store keyword field it is a straight subtraction from your budget.

Cannibalization: the one that matters and the one that doesn't

Within one app — not really cannibalization, just waste. If tracker appears in your subtitle and again in your keyword field, you have not split any ranking power; you have spent 8 characters on a word that was already counted. Fix it by removing the duplicate, not by rebalancing anything.

Between two of your own apps — this is the real one. If you ship two apps that both target habit tracker, Apple will generally rank one of them well for it and leave the other far below. You are not doubling your presence, you are splitting your own catalogue against itself. Give each app a distinct primary term and let them cover different intent.

More fields than you think

The keyword field is per localization, and several locales are served to the same audience. An app in the US store is indexed against en-US and es-MX; an app in the UK store against en-GB. Filling the additional locale gives you another 100 characters that the same searcher can match against, without translating your listing.

That is usually the cheapest ranking win available to an app that has already tightened its primary field. See App Store localization for which locales pair with which storefront.

A workable routine

Write the title and subtitle first. They carry more weight and they are what a person reads. The keyword field is for what did not fit.
List every term you already used in the title, subtitle and developer name. None of them go in the field.
Fill the remainder with single words, comma-separated, no spaces, no plurals, no filler.
Count the characters. If you are under 100 you have unspent budget; if you are over, cut the term with the least opportunity.
Change one thing per release so the next version's ranks tell you something.

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