Validate an idea from search before you build
An hour with the explorer tells you whether anyone searches for the thing, who already owns the results, and what it would take.
An app idea has a search behind it or it does not. "Peptide tracker", "poop tracker" and "GLP-1 tracker" are each typed by real people every month, sit at popularity 55 or more in the US store, and their top 10 is held by apps with a few hundred to a few thousand ratings. "AI wellness companion" is typed by nobody. The first is a market with a door; the second is a slogan.
The test is three numbers per term, and the explorer gives all three in one row: popularity (is it searched), difficulty (can a new listing get into the top 10), and the top 10 itself (who you would be next to). A term is worth building for when popularity is 25 or more and the typical top-10 app has under about 4,000 ratings, which is difficulty under 60. Two or three such terms around one idea is a product; one is a feature.
Read the top 10 as a list of what already exists. If every app there does the same thing with the same words in its name, the search is served and you would be the eleventh; if the names promise different things or the ratings are low and old, the search is underserved. The difficulty inputs on each row say how many of the ten shipped an update in six months.
Save the terms as an idea. They are checked every night from then on, so by the time the app is built you have months of demand per term and know whether the top 10 moved. The idea becomes the app's keyword list on launch day, with the history intact.
In order
- 01Write down 10 to 15 things a person would type to find the app, without the app's name. Include the long forms ("daily habit tracker", "habit tracker with reminders").
- 02Analyze them in the explorer for the store you would launch in first. Sort by popularity.
- 03Cut everything under popularity 25 unless the whole category sits lower. Cut everything over difficulty 60 unless you can name why your listing would earn ratings faster than the incumbents.
- 04Open the top 10 of what is left. Note the words their names share; those are the words your name will need.
- 05Save the survivors as an idea. If fewer than three survive, change the idea, not the terms.
In the US store, read October 4
- 126 searches for a kind of app in the US store are at popularity 25 or more with a top 10 a new listing can pass this week. 90% of searched terms have an app with over 100,000 ratings in their top 10; those are the ones to build around, not on.