What's the Best Way to Update My App Store Page?

A puzzle game called Merge Kingdom sat at number forty-seven in the App Store's puzzle category for months, pulling in around three hundred downloads per day with the same screenshots and description the developers had written at launch... but when the team finally updated their app store page with new seasonal screenshots and rewrote their description to focus on the social features players actually loved, they jumped to position twelve within three weeks and saw downloads triple to nearly a thousand per day.

Regular updates to your app store page can drive more downloads than minor feature additions to the app itself, because most users never get past your screenshots before deciding whether to install

After working in mobile app development for over ten years, I've watched hundreds of apps succeed or struggle based on how they present themselves in the app stores, and the difference between a well-maintained listing and a neglected one often determines whether an app grows or slowly fades away. Your app store page works for you every single hour of every single day, converting browsers into users while you sleep, and treating it like a static billboard instead of a living sales tool means leaving money on the table. The good news is that you can make meaningful changes to your listing without going through the lengthy app review process each time, which means you can test, learn, and improve your conversion rates much faster than most developers realise.

Why Your App Store Page Needs Regular Updates

The app stores have changed how they rank and display apps more than twenty times over the years, and what worked for app store optimisation three months ago might be less effective today because Apple and Google constantly adjust their algorithms based on user behaviour patterns. When you leave your app store page untouched for six months or more, you're competing with newer apps that have fresh screenshots showing current design trends and descriptions written to match how people search today. The average app loses about fifteen to twenty percent of its organic visibility each year if the listing stays the same, not because the app gets worse but because everything around it gets better.

Users scroll through app store search results incredibly quickly, spending less than seven seconds deciding whether to tap on your listing or move to the next one, which means your visual presentation matters more than almost anything else. This is particularly important if you're building your first mobile app and want to understand how app store dynamics differ from traditional web marketing. Here's what happens when you don't update your page regularly:

• Screenshots start looking dated compared to competitors who've refreshed their visual style
• Your keyword rankings slowly drop as newer apps claim positions you once held
• Seasonal opportunities pass by without your listing reflecting current user interests
• User reviews mention features that aren't highlighted anywhere in your description
• Your conversion rate gradually declines as the gap between your page and current best practices widens

Understanding What You Can Change Without Resubmission

Both Apple and Google let you modify certain elements of your app store page immediately without going through app review, which gives you the freedom to test different approaches and respond to market changes quickly. On the App Store, you can change your screenshots, preview videos, promotional text (that short section at the top of your description), description, keywords field, support URL, and marketing URL anytime you want... these changes go live within a few hours and don't require a new version of your app. The only things that trigger review are changes to your app name, subtitle, category, or privacy information, along with uploading a new app binary of course.

Create a spreadsheet tracking every change you make to your app store page, including the date, what you changed, and why you changed it... this helps you understand what actually moves the needle when you look back at your analytics.

Google Play gives you similar flexibility but with a slightly different structure, allowing you to update your short description, full description, screenshots, feature graphic, and promotional video without review. The process works differently though, as Google tends to review metadata changes faster than Apple but sometimes flags updates that seem suspicious or violate their policies in ways that aren't immediately obvious. Understanding these platform differences is crucial whether you're planning iOS vs Android development.

Testing Different Screenshots and Preview Videos

Your first screenshot matters more than all the others combined because it's the only one guaranteed to show in search results, and changing it can increase or decrease your conversion rate by thirty to fifty percent depending on what you show and how you show it. I worked with a fitness app that was using a screenshot of their home screen as the first image (which most apps do because it seems logical), but when we switched to showing an actual transformation photo with before-and-after results, their install rate from impressions jumped from 3.1% to 4.8% in less than a week... that might sound like a small change but it meant an extra two thousand downloads per month with zero additional marketing spend.

The best approach is to create multiple sets of screenshots and rotate them every four to six weeks, tracking your conversion rate for each set to find patterns in what works. This is particularly important for luxury app design where visual consistency and premium presentation can significantly impact conversion rates. You need at least two weeks of data before drawing conclusions because weekends perform differently than weekdays, and random fluctuations can make you think something worked when it was just normal variation.

What to Show in Your Screenshots

Stop showing empty interface screens with perfect placeholder content and instead show the app being used by real people with real results, because users want to understand the value they'll get rather than admire your button design. Your screenshots should tell a story from left to right, starting with the main benefit or result, then showing how the app delivers that benefit, and finishing with social proof or additional features that might interest someone who's already convinced. This storytelling approach is becoming increasingly important as mobile app storytelling evolves to meet user expectations.

Writing App Descriptions That Actually Convert

Most people don't read your full description, they scan it for about four seconds looking for specific information that matters to them, which means the first three lines (the part visible before users tap "more") need to explain exactly what your app does and why someone should care right now. I see so many apps waste this space with generic statements like "Welcome to the future of productivity" or "Join millions of users worldwide," when they could be answering the actual question in every potential user's mind, which is simply "what will this app do for me today?"

Your description should be written for humans first and search algorithms second, because a description that ranks well but doesn't convert visitors into users has failed at its only job

The structure that works best starts with a clear one-sentence explanation of what the app does, followed by the three main benefits users get from it, then a list of key features (actual bulleted lists work well here), and finally any trust signals like awards, press mentions, or user statistics that matter. Keep sentences short and focused on outcomes rather than features, because users care about what they can achieve rather than what buttons they can press.

Common Description Mistakes to Avoid

Don't keyword-stuff your description by repeating the same terms over and over in unnatural ways, because Google and Apple have both confirmed their algorithms can detect this and may actually rank you lower for it. Write naturally using terms people actually use when talking about your app's category, and the algorithms will find the relevant keywords without you needing to force them in awkwardly.

Managing Your Keyword Strategy Over Time

The keywords you chose at launch probably aren't the best keywords to target six months later because search trends change, competitors appear and disappear, and your app evolves to serve users in ways you didn't initially expect. I worked with an e-commerce app that started targeting generic shopping terms but discovered through customer interviews that most users were actually using it specifically for finding sustainable fashion brands... when we shifted their keyword strategy to focus on ethical shopping, sustainable clothing, and eco-friendly fashion, their organic traffic increased by forty percent even though these were lower-volume terms.

Check your keyword rankings at least once per month using any of the app store optimisation tools available (I won't recommend specific ones because the best tools change over time and what works for a five-hundred-quid-per-month budget differs from what makes sense at five grand per month). Look for keywords where you're ranking between position ten and thirty, because these are your opportunities... you're already getting some visibility but small improvements could push you onto the first page of results where most users actually look. If you're working with limited resources and need to manage your app development budget effectively, focusing on these mid-range keywords often provides the best return on investment.

Finding New Keyword Opportunities

Your user reviews contain gold for keyword research because people naturally describe your app using the terms they searched for to find it, and they mention use cases you might not have thought about. Read through fifty to a hundred recent reviews every month and note down any phrases that appear repeatedly, then check if you're ranking for those terms... if you're not, work them into your description and keyword field naturally.

When to Update Your App Icon and Name

Changing your app icon is risky because it requires submitting a new version through review and you might confuse existing users who've learned to recognise your current icon on their home screens, but sometimes it's necessary when your current icon looks dated or doesn't stand out in search results anymore. The safe approach is to test icon variations with small paid user acquisition campaigns before committing to a full change, because you can see which icons get better tap-through rates in ads before risking your organic traffic. If you're deciding between building your app in-house or working with an agency, having design resources available for these ongoing optimisations is worth considering.

If you're considering a name change, make it gradual by first adjusting your subtitle or short description to introduce the new positioning, then changing the full name only after users have seen the new messaging for a few weeks.

Your app name affects your rankings more than any other single factor because the app stores give heavy weight to terms that appear in your title, but changing it means going through review and potentially losing the ranking equity you've built up over time. The only times I recommend name changes are when your current name is too generic to rank for anything specific, when you've pivoted your app's purpose significantly, or when you're getting consistent feedback that users don't understand what your app does from the name alone.

1. Run surveys with current users asking if they'd still recognise your app with the new name
2. Test the new name in paid ads to see if it improves or hurts conversion rates
3. Check if you can rank for valuable new keywords with the proposed name
4. Time the change to coincide with a major feature release so you have a story to tell

Monitoring Performance After Making Changes

You can't improve what you don't measure, and most developers don't look at their app store analytics closely enough to understand which changes actually made a difference versus which ones did nothing. Apple's App Analytics and Google Play Console both provide detailed breakdowns of impressions, page views, and installs, showing you the exact conversion rate from each step of the user journey... but the numbers only help if you review them regularly and connect changes in performance to specific updates you made.

Set up a simple routine where you check your key metrics every Monday morning, comparing the past seven days to the previous period and looking for any significant changes. The numbers you need to watch are impressions (how many people saw your app in search or browse), product page views (how many tapped through to your full listing), and installs (how many actually downloaded), because the ratios between these tell you where your listing is failing. This kind of systematic approach to measurement becomes even more critical when you consider lessons from apps that experienced rapid growth, like the Draw Something scalability challenges.

When you make a change to your listing, give it at least two weeks before judging the results, because you need enough data to filter out normal fluctuations and because the app stores take time to recrawl and reindex your page. If you change multiple things at once (like new screenshots and a rewritten description), you won't know which change caused any improvement or decline, so test one element at a time when possible. This becomes particularly important if you're building a community around your app and need to coordinate store updates with other marketing efforts, such as building an email list before launch.

Conclusion

Your app store page deserves the same attention you give to building new features because it's the gateway through which every new user must pass, and small improvements to conversion rates compound over time into thousands of additional downloads. The apps that succeed long-term are the ones that treat their store listing as a living thing that needs regular care and feeding, not a task you complete once at launch and then forget about. Start with your screenshots if you haven't touched them in more than three months, because that's usually the quickest win, then move on to testing description variations and refining your keyword targeting over time... the work never really ends, but neither do the benefits of doing it well.

If you need help reviewing your app store page or want a second pair of eyes on your ASO strategy, get in touch with us and we can walk through what's working and what could be better.

Frequently Asked Questions