Travel
Travel apps are shifting from single bookings to full-trip support, so keywords reflect planning, discovery, and managing the journey end to end.
Keywords like “travel” and “trip” are used more because users aren’t just searching for flights or hotels anymore. They’re looking for apps that support the entire journey. That’s why top Travel apps like Airbnb and Expedia frame themselves around trip context, places to stay, things to do, transportation, and planning, rather than one transaction.
The rise of “plan” is one of the most important changes. Apps now position themselves earlier in the travel process, helping users organize itineraries and manage trips before anything is booked. TripIt is a clear example: its App Store metadata repeatedly focuses on travel plans, itineraries, and keeping everything in one place.
“Map,” “location,” and “explore” are still strong, but they’re used less for navigation alone and more for discovering places. Keywords like “book” and “flight” still matter, but they’re no longer the main hook. Apps such as Booking.com include booking features as part of a broader, all-in-one trip flow.
Finally, “stay” appears more often because travel apps increasingly focus on where users spend time, supporting longer stays and more intentional trip planning.
Shopping
Shopping metadata is optimized for low-friction purchasing, so keywords highlight broad browsing plus delivery speed, deals, and trust signals like brands.
At the top, “shopping”, “products”, and “online” act as category terms. They’re used so often because they match the most common discovery behaviour: people searching broadly and quickly. In practice, this creates semantic saturation; many apps share the same baseline language just to stay competitive across wide queries.
From there, “delivery” is the most strategically meaningful keyword in the set. Its position in the top four tells us something simple: fulfillment is being presented as a core promise, not a secondary feature.
The keywords “items”, “store”, and “brands” help users quickly understand what kind of shopping experience to expect. “Items” suggests a wide selection to browse. “Store” frames the app as a clear place to buy, not just explore. “Brands” reassures users that they’ll find familiar or recognizable products, important in a category where comparison and trust matter.
Value languages like “deals” and “offers” remain a core acquisition lever, but they are used with a different intent. “Deals” tends to pull in bargain-first intent (users actively hunting discounts), while “offers” often reads more like “promotions you can benefit from” (campaigns, perks, seasonal promos). Temu is a clean example of the deal-led approach: its positioning naturally leans into “deals” / “offers” language to set expectations that price advantage is the main reason to choose the app.
In Shopping, broad category terms get you into the results, but clarity around value and fulfillment is what convinces users to tap. Metadata that highlights selection, delivery speed, and real savings is more likely to convert than generic “shopping” language alone.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle is a broad category, so metadata relies on routine language and personalization terms that frame the app as part of everyday life.
Words like “time, “daily,” and “day” dominate because most Lifestyle apps only work through repeated usage. We can give the Fabulous: Daily Habit Tracker app as an example; its App Store description explicitly positions the product around coming back each day, building daily routines, and following a guided journey toward self-improvement, exactly the keyword pattern we see across Lifestyle metadata.
“Life” stays high because it’s the safest umbrella in a category that’s intentionally broad, allowing apps to imply scope without locking themselves into a narrow niche.
“Personal” reflects the category’s core promise: not just customization, but relevance. Lifestyle apps compete on how well they adapt to the user’s habits, preferences, and identity. “AI” accelerates this further, acting less as a technical label and more as shorthand for automation, smarter suggestions, and experiences that learn what users like across journaling, home, self-care, and beyond.
“Home” remains strong because lifestyle is also about how people live, organize their space, and manage everyday environments. “Love” ranks high largely because many dating and relationship apps sit in the Lifestyle category, reflecting a strong connection-focused intent. It also appears in some wellbeing apps through “self-love” messaging, giving the term a broader emotional meaning beyond dating. Meanwhile, “real” signals credibility and immediacy in a category full of promises, and journey offers progress-oriented framing without making hard outcome claims.
High-frequency keywords help users quickly understand how the app fits into their day, but differentiation comes from specificity. Don’t just say “daily” or “personal.” Show what kind of daily habit you support, what your personalization actually does, and why your experience feels real.
