Short answer
Search your main keyword in the store and country you target, and list the top five apps. For each, read the 50 most recent reviews, starting with one and two stars. Tag every complaint and request with a short label, count the labels, and compare across apps. A label that repeats on every rival is a gap worth building for.
Steps
- 1Find the rivals for a keywordSearch the store in the country you target. Results differ by country.
- 2Check each app's rating spreadA 4.5 average can hide a large share of one-star ratings.
- 3Read the recent low-star reviewsStart with the last 50, one and two stars first. Old reviews describe old versions.
- 4Tag and countGive every complaint a short label, then count the labels per app.
- 5Compare across appsA complaint every rival shares is the gap. One that only one rival has is their bug.
What you will learn
You will read rival apps' store reviews in a way you can count, and end with a list of the problems users keep raising. The example is a team planning a habit tracker app for the United States.
Find the rivals for a keyword
Search your main keyword in the store, in the country you plan to launch in. Store results differ by country, so a search from Indonesia will not show you the US list.
For "habit tracker", write down the top five apps, their rating, their rating count, and the developer. Do this on both Google Play and the App Store if you plan to ship on both, since the lists rarely match.
Check the rating spread
An average hides a lot. A 4.5 can come from mostly five-star ratings with a long tail of one-star ratings from people who hit the same bug. On Google Play, look at the share of one- and two-star ratings next to the average.
Read the recent low-star reviews
Read the 50 most recent reviews for each app, one and two stars first. Recent matters because old reviews describe old versions. A complaint from two years ago may be fixed.
Tag and count
Give every complaint or request a short label, and reuse labels across apps.
| Label | App A | App B | App C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lost streak after an update | 9 | 2 | 0 |
| Wants a widget | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| Subscription price | 7 | 8 | 3 |
| Sync between phone and tablet | 1 | 5 | 6 |
Counting turns a pile of opinions into something you can compare.
Compare across apps
A label that shows up on every rival is a gap in the category. In the table, a widget and price come up everywhere, so they are worth building and pricing for. A label that shows up on one app only, like App A's lost streaks, is that app's bug. It tells you what to test before you ship, not what to build.
Look at the developer's other apps
List everything the developer of the leading app publishes. A developer with ten similar apps may be testing names and icons, and a one-app studio may be easier to outdo on support.
How to do it in RankMySEO
App store research starts on Starter.
- Run App search on Google Play or the App Store with your keyword and country.
- Open an app with App details for its rating and rating count. On Google Play you also get the share of one- and two-star ratings and the store rank.
- Run Product reviews on the app. Filter by star rating and search the text for a word like "widget".
- Run Developer's apps to see what else the developer publishes.
- On the App Store, run Top charts for the country's top free apps.
Every result is saved on your account and can be downloaded as Excel or CSV. See app store research for each store's lookups.
What this cannot tell you
You see the public store pages. Installs, revenue, and other numbers in Play Console or App Store Connect stay with the developer. The App Store chart is top free only.
