# App Store Optimization

Improves visibility and conversion in the App Store and Google Play, metadata...

- Repository: https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount (2554 stars)
- Category: Mobile
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-18
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill app-store-optimization -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill app-store-optimization -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill app-store-optimization -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add cbrock84/headcount --skill app-store-optimization -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add cbrock84/headcount`

## Description

Improves visibility and conversion in the App Store and Google Play, metadata, keywords, screenshots, ratings, and the listing experience that turns an impression into an install. Use this to audit or optimize an app listing, plan a launch listing, diagnose poor install conversion, or improve store search visibility.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# App store optimization

Two levers, and they are separate problems: being **found**, and being **installed** once found.
Diagnose which is failing before changing anything.

## Being found

The stores index different fields, so the same metadata does not work on both.

- **App name / title**, the single heaviest field. Brand plus the primary descriptive term. Do not
  spend it on brand alone.
- **Subtitle and keyword field**, no repetition across fields; duplicated terms are wasted
  characters, not reinforcement.
- **Long description**, indexed on one store, effectively not on the other. Write it for the store
  that indexes it and for humans on the store that does not.
- **Category**, pick where you can rank, not where you technically belong.

Target terms with real intent. Ranking first for a term nobody searches is a vanity result.

## Being installed

Most visitors decide from the first screenshot and the rating, without scrolling or reading.

- **Screenshots**, the first two carry the decision. Lead with the outcome or the core screen, with
  a caption stating the benefit. Never lead with an onboarding or login screen.
- **Icon**, recognizable at actual size, distinct from category conventions. Test at real scale on
  a device.
- **Rating**, the strongest single conversion factor. Prompt for review after a success moment,
  never on launch or mid-task.
- **Video**, only if it demonstrates something a screenshot cannot. A weak one costs installs.

## Reviews

Respond to negative reviews specifically and without defensiveness, naming the fix and its version
where there is one. Prospects read the responses as much as the complaints, and a pattern of real
answers converts.

Watch review text for recurring themes, it is the cheapest continuous product research available.

## Testing

The rest: https://github.com/cbrock84/headcount/blob/HEAD/plugins/demand-generation/skills/app-store-optimization/SKILL.md