Why I Can't find my Application in the App Store Search

Question

I just got an Email this morning saying my Application (Fuel+) is Ready for Sale. So I "Rushed" to my iPhone and typed Fuel+ in the App Store Search to not find my Application not there. Why is my App in iTunes Connect Preview but not in the App Store Search Menu. (This is my first App in the App Store.)

Answer 1

It takes a while (less than a day) for the App Store to index your application in the search engine.

Also, app listings on the app store are ranked based on popularity (number of downloads, number of ratings, etc.)

Seeing that you are using a very common term "fuel" in your app name, and that yours is a new application, your app could possibly be appearing at the end of the list, and there are 900 applications in that list in total.

It would be a good idea to use a name that isn't a common dictionary term to improve the visiblity of your application. Otherwise, you would always lose out in search results to over 100 applications that have been in the market for a while and has acquired a high number of downloads.

Answer 2

UPDATE My app is searchable aka findable in the app store now, I am sorry but I am not sure of the amount of time it took, it seemed to take a month for my app to become findable via search in the Apple App store.

It has been two weeks and I have had two versions "published" to the app store and still my app, by its very specific and unique name is not returned in search results using iTunes on my Macbook Pro. People have even installed my app through the direct link I provided them in an email and yet it is not found in search results:

I share this as an answer because it is informative. I will follow up with my resolutions. I am guessing, at this point, the only thing I can do is contact Apple Customer Support.

Answer 3

I believe, it takes time to update Apple's servers' caches. Stay calm :) It will appear in about 24 hours (in my case it took 8 hours or so).

App ready for sale, I can view it, but no one else can

http://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=42367CD77D30FB8D552702B&currentPage=395

Answer 4

There could be many reasons for not showing up into the search results. Here are few explained :

May be the ASO changes you have done are not reflected yet so it will not appear in to search. In that case you should wait for 24-48 hours to let things go & settle

Another major & important reason is if App name you are using is very common or already is too much use in other similar apps which already are in the market before your release than also it will put your app far back into the search results that even don't show in limited search results

ASO factor will also effect your app to not appear into the search results. May be you should use more strong keywords which can help your app to compete with other similar apps. You can try & use ASO tools for that. Last but not the least some times apple has some inner maintenance works which they do silently also affects sometimes to the search results

So from above points the solution is :

Wait for the few hours at least 48 hours to let crawl your ASO keywords & lets get effect in to search result improvements If it not works since 48 hours you should appeal to apple review team for the same.

Hope it will work to everyone.