App Store bug: more than 90 «broken» keywords
Hi everyone! It’s David, Head of ASO at Checkaso. Let’s talk about a keyword bug that we’ve found in the App Store. There are no search results for more than 90 popular keywords in different locales. In the article, I explain how we explored the bug, which keywords are «broken», and what to do about it.
How did we find the bug?
As an analytical platform, we collect search results by thousands of keywords every day. Sometimes there can be crashes, but only with one app at a time, if it’s new. At some moment, the system went into a loop, trying in vain to collect positions. We started checking the keywords in a different way and faced a 404 error (which means the problem is on the store side). We found out there are no search results for more than 90 popular keywords in different locales.
List of the «broken» keywords
We’re monitoring the situation. The list is being updated. We’ll strike out words as soon as the App Store fixes the bug.
UPD. All keywords are working now. According to our observations, this bug is common in the App Store, but unstable and quickly disappears. So it’s not always noticeable. We found out that many are constantly faced with similar problems. Most likely, this is just a bug in the system, but we will try to find patterns to predict this in the future.
| KEYWORD | LOCALE |
| ball | US |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| FI | |
| UK | |
| RU | |
| UA | |
| US | |
| UK | |
| RU | |
| collection | US |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| driver | US |
| driver | VN |
| BY | |
| MX | |
| followers | TR |
| US | |
| food delivery | US |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| lab | AU |
| lab | RU |
| lab | TR |
| lab | US |
| learning | AU |
| CH | |
| learning | UK |
| learning | RU |
| learning | US |
| life simulator | DE |
| life simulator | US |
| management | AZ |
| management | BY |
| monday | CL |
| monday | PE |
| UK | |
| CL | |
| US | |
| UK | |
| FR | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| ES | |
| MX | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| preview | BY |
| preview | FR |
| preview | GR |
| preview | SK |
| preview | UA |
| UK | |
| puzzle game | CZ |
| puzzle game | FR |
| puzzle game | UK |
| puzzle game | RU |
| puzzle game | US |
| puzzle games | AZ |
| puzzle games | BY |
| puzzle games | DE |
| puzzle games | UK |
| puzzle games | RU |
| puzzle games | SK |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| simplenote | PE |
| sports | CA |
| sports | NZ |
| sports | US |
| sticker | DE |
| sticker | ES |
| sticker | US |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| tool | RU |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| word game | AU |
| word game | FR |
| UK | |
| UK | |
| work | FR |
| work | UK |
| work | US |
What to do now?
This bug may explain the drop in impressions and installs. The thing is that in Search Ads, campaigns can be launched using these keywords. But if there is no search result, there are no ads then. When launching campaigns, we recommend you to add these ones to the Negative Keywords to revise the text elements in favor of other keywords until the situation changes.
If you’re indexing for any of these keywords, it may be worth correcting the text ASO for now. Just a thought. This can be risky. It depends on how fast the App Store will fix this bug.
What dynamics?
The keyword problems started from Wednesday to Thursday. Some keywords gradually came to life. We will monitor the situation and update the post. You can check it or follow our social media to get new information.
P.S.
If you notice a drop in any of the keys or non-standard data in the ASA – please share it with us. Send your cases to [email protected]
