SlipwaySoonon the Mac App Store
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Optimize

Score your listing for App Store search, fix easy wins, track keyword rankings, get AI keyword ideas and preview the listing as customers see it.

The Optimize tab looks at the name, subtitle and keywords that App Store search indexes, scores them, and suggests fixes. Everything here works on your primary locale. Changes edit your draft in Slipway until you push them from the Metadata tab.

What you need#

  • An app open in the workspace, with metadata loaded for its primary locale.
  • For Suggest terms with AI and Rewrite with AI: an AI provider and model set up under Settings ▸ AI. See AI providers and models.
  • For Rewrite with AI: Slipway Pro.

The search score#

The card at the top shows a score out of 100 and a grade: Excellent (90+), Strong (75+), Good start (60+) or Needs work. The score is worked out on your Mac from your listing. It isn't Apple data, and it never goes above 95.

Check Points
Starting score 40
Keywords present and within 100 characters +15
Keywords use 80–100 characters of the budget +10
No keyword repeats a word from the name or subtitle +10
Subtitle is filled in +10
Every keyword is a single word or at most 20 characters +5
At least 8 keywords +5

A score of 75 or more ticks off Make it easy to find in the release checklist.

Fix the easy wins#

Easy wins lists one-click fixes when they apply:

  • Trim your keywords to fit: Trim keeps as many terms as fit in 100 characters, in their current order.
  • Remove "term" from your keywords: Remove deletes a keyword that's already in your name or subtitle. Apple indexes those words anyway.
  • Add a subtitle: Add takes you to the Metadata tab.

Below that, Name & subtitle grades each field and shows how many of its 30 characters you've used. Keywords shows each term as a chip with a count out of 100. Click the × on a chip to remove the term. Terms that duplicate the name or subtitle are outlined in orange.

Track keyword rankings#

Keyword rankings shows where the app ranks in App Store search for the terms you choose.

  1. Type a term in Track a search term… and click Track, or click Track my keywords to add every keyword in the field. You can also right-click a keyword chip and choose Track ranking.
  2. Pick a storefront from the menu (United States by default; 15 storefronts are available).
  3. Click Check now to check again later.

Each row shows the rank (#N, or 200+ if the app isn't in the top 200), how far it moved since the last check, and which app holds #1. Click the arrow on a row to see the top 10 apps for that term. Ranks come from Apple's public iTunes Search API, so no key is needed. Tracked terms and their history (the last 60 checks) are saved per app on this Mac.

Get keyword ideas with AI#

  1. Under Keyword ideas, click Suggest terms with AI.
  2. Slipway sends your listing to your AI provider and gets back 8 one- or two-word terms you don't already use, each with an estimated popularity from 5 to 100.
  3. Click Add to append a term to your keywords. The button reads Won't fit if the term would go past 100 characters.

Keyword ideas are free with your own AI key. The popularity bars are AI estimates, because Apple doesn't publish search volumes.

Rewrite with AI#

Rewrite with AI asks your AI provider to rewrite three fields in the primary locale for search and conversion: subtitle (up to 30 characters), keywords (up to 100) and promotional text (up to 170).

  1. Click Rewrite with AI on the score card.
  2. The new text replaces those three fields in your draft right away.
  3. Open the Metadata tab and click Diff to compare the draft with the live listing. Edit anything you don't like.
  4. Click Push (or use the toolbar sync button) to send it to App Store Connect.

Pro — Rewrite with AI needs Slipway Pro. Without it, the button opens the paywall, and so does See Pro in the inspector. During the beta the paywall unlocks locally. See Pricing & Pro.

Note — The rewrite overwrites your draft and there's no undo. If you want to keep your current wording, copy it first.

Preview the listing#

To see your draft the way customers will, click Preview on the Metadata tab (or Preview in App Store in the screenshot studio). The App Store preview sheet has these controls:

  • Language: any locale in the listing.
  • App Store: Product Page or Search Results.
  • Device: iPhone or iPad. Appearance: Light or Dark.
  • On Search Results, a Search term and Storefront. The other results are live App Store data for that term. Your row uses the draft and shows your real rank when you have one.

Ratings in the preview come from the App Store once the app is live.

Tips#

  • Screenshot tips lists locales with no screenshots. Click Open the studio to fix them.
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