Short answer
ASO makes your app rank inside App Store and Google Play search. GEO makes ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude name your app when someone asks for a recommendation, often before they open a store. ASO works on your listing's metadata; GEO works on what the wider web says about you. You need both, and they share one foundation: a clear statement of what your app does.
The core difference
Someone who searches the App Store for “habit tracker” already decided to install something. Someone who asks ChatGPT “what’s a good habit tracker that works offline?” is still choosing, and the assistant narrows the list for them.
| ASO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Where discovery happens | App Store and Google Play search | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other assistants |
| Who decides the order | Store search algorithms | The assistant, from pages its search retrieves |
| What you edit | Name, subtitle, keywords, description, screenshots | Your website, plus pages others write about you |
| Main inputs | Metadata, ratings, downloads, conversion | Clear descriptions, third-party mentions, crawlability |
| How you measure it | Keyword ranks, impressions, installs | Visibility %, average rank, share of voice, citations |
ASO fields and their limits
| Field | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| App Store name | 30 chars | Simple, memorable, hints at what it does |
| App Store subtitle | 30 chars | Shown under the name; describe features or uses, not “best app” |
| App Store keywords | 100 chars | Comma-separated, no spaces after commas; not shown publicly |
| App Store promotional text | 170 chars | Editable anytime; Apple says it doesn't affect search ranking |
| Google Play title | 30 chars | |
| Google Play short description | 80 chars | |
| Google Play full description | 4,000 chars |
One GEO-relevant detail: the App Store keywords field isn’t on your public product page, so assistants can’t read it. The words that matter for GEO are the visible ones: name, subtitle, description, and your website.
Where ASO and GEO overlap
- Positioning. The phrase that makes a strong subtitle (“Offline habit tracker for iPhone”) is the same phrase you want assistants to repeat.
- Ratings and reviews. They drive store conversion and show up in the articles and lists assistants retrieve.
- Consistent naming. One name, one category, everywhere. Aliases and old names make matching harder for people and models.
- Your listing as a source. Store pages are public web pages and can be cited. Whether they are depends on the question.
What GEO needs that ASO doesn’t
- A website with a real text description, not just a store badge and screenshots.
- Coverage on third-party pages: lists, reviews, newsletters, community threads.
- Comparison and alternative pages for “A vs B” questions.
- Crawler access: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, plus Googlebot and Google-Extended for Gemini grounding, and Claude-SearchBot for Claude.
- Repeated measurement across assistants, because answers vary run to run.
A one-week plan for an indie app
- 01
Day 1: Write one positioning sentence
Category, platform, audience, top differentiator. Use it everywhere below.
- 02
Day 2: Update the visible store fields
Subtitle and Google Play short description first; they carry the most weight per character.
- 03
Day 3: Fix your website copy
Put the sentence and a short feature list in text at the top of your homepage.
- 04
Day 4: Get a baseline
Ask 15 real user questions in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, three runs each. How to track it, or let MentionReach run it (pricing).
- 05
Day 5: Work the cited pages
Pick the three most cited pages that don’t name you. Pitch, submit or comment honestly.
- 06
Day 6: Publish one comparison page
Your app vs the competitor assistants name most, with a fair table.
- 07
Day 7: Check crawler access
robots.txt and CDN bot settings. Then re-run the same questions weekly. See the crawler checklist.
Frequently asked questions
Does ASO still matter if people ask ChatGPT for apps?
Yes. Even when an assistant names your app, people still land on your store page to install, and plenty of people still search the store directly. GEO adds a channel; it doesn't replace ASO.
Can ChatGPT read my App Store keywords?
No. The App Store keywords field isn't shown on your public product page. Assistants only see visible text such as your name, subtitle and description, plus what other sites say about you.
Should I put competitor names in my App Store keywords?
No. App Review Guideline 2.3.7 says not to pack metadata with trademarked terms or popular app names, and Apple's product page guidance lists competitor app names among keyword uses that can get an app rejected. Put honest comparisons on your website instead, where they can also help with GEO.
Is GEO only for apps with a website?
You can start without one, but it's much harder. Assistants build recommendation answers from web pages, and a store listing alone gives them little to work with.
Sources
- Creating your product page · Apple Developer
- App Review Guidelines (2.3.7) · Apple Developer
- Add preview assets to showcase your app (store listing limits) · Play Console Help
- Overview of OpenAI crawlers · OpenAI
- Grounding with Google Search · Google AI for Developers
- Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler? · Anthropic Help Center
- GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024) · arXiv
