Secondary Localizations: Which Ones Count in Every Country

Your app has more keyword space than you think. Here's which localizations each App Store country searches, and how to use them without hurting your listing.

Search "calendario" in the US App Store and Apple's Calendar comes up first, under its Spanish name. Search "presupuesto" and you'll find budgeting apps whose English names say "Budget" and whose Spanish names say "Presupuesto".

That's because the US store doesn't only search your English listing. It also searches your Spanish (Mexico) one, your French one, and seven more. Each of those has its own name, subtitle and 100-character keyword list.

Most apps fill in one set and leave the rest empty. In this guide you'll see exactly which localizations count in each country, using Apple's own list for all 175 storefronts. You'll also see how to use them without hurting your listing elsewhere, and how to check that they work for your app.

Which Localizations Count in Each Country

Apple publishes this in the App Store Connect reference: a default language for every storefront, plus its "additional supported languages" (Apple). Here are the countries most apps care about. The full list is at the end.

One thing to know: Apple calls these the languages a storefront supports. It doesn't say outright that each one is searched. That part comes from testing. Moritz Daan at Phiture first mapped it in 2016 (Phiture). Phiture and AppTweak later repeated the test for their book, putting made-up words like "enuk1201" into one localization and searching for them in every country (AppTweak). What they found matches Apple's lists.

Why the Tables in ASO Blogs Are Wrong

A lot of the tables shared around predate Apple's current one. If you're using one, check these:

• The UK. Popular tables say the UK also searches English (Australia), for example MobileAction's. Apple lists nothing extra for the UK. It's Australia that searches English (U.K.), not the other way round.
• English (U.K.) is now the default in many countries. Thailand, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Norway, Poland and Indonesia, among others, list English (U.K.) as the default and the national language as additional.
• India and Pakistan. India now lists eleven Indian languages and Pakistan lists Urdu. They came with the languages Apple added when App Store Connect grew to 50.

The Spanish (Mexico) Trick and What It Costs

The best-known use of all this: if you aren't targeting Latin America, write a second set of English keywords into your Spanish (Mexico) localization. The US store searches it, so you get another 160 characters for US searches. The testing supports it and lots of ASO people use it.

Before you do, know what it costs:

1. It's a real listing in 19 countries. Spanish (Mexico) is the default in 16 storefronts, including Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Peru, and counts in three more. People there see what you write. English keywords dressed up as a Spanish listing won't convert.
2. Some US users see it too. Apple says the language a customer sees depends partly on their device language, so a US customer with a Spanish iPhone may get your Spanish (Mexico) page.
3. Phrases don't cross over. Apple only builds phrases from words in the same localization (Phiture and AppTweak both found this). "Budget" in your English keywords and "planner" in Spanish (Mexico) won't rank you for "budget planner". Keep each phrase together.

The alternative is to do it properly. A real Spanish listing with Spanish keywords uses the same slot to reach people in the US who search in Spanish, and it doesn't break your page for anyone.

What Happened When We Searched in Other Languages

We wanted to see this in the wild. On 30 October 2026 we searched the US App Store for everyday words in four languages. For each top-ten app, we read its name in English (U.S.) and in that language.

Spanish and French are what Apple's list predicts. Japanese and German were the surprise. Neither is on the US list. Still, searching "家計簿" (household budget), "einkaufsliste" (shopping list) or "wetter" (weather) in the US brings up apps that have the word only in their Japanese or German names.

We can't tell why from the outside. Those developers may also have put the words in their English keyword list, which is hidden. Apple may also be matching more languages than it lists, or translating the search. The made-up-word test below is the only way to tell for sure.

What you can take from it: people in the US do search in other languages, and apps with real listings in those languages rank for them.

How to Test a Localization in 4 Steps

1. Pick a made-up word nobody else uses, like zqvorbe, and add it to the keyword list of one localization.
2. Ship the update and give it a few days after release.
3. Search for the word in each country you care about. Wherever your app shows up, that localization counts.
4. Remove the word in your next update.

It costs eight characters for one release, and you get the answer for your own app.

Your Localization Checklist

• Start with where your users are. Use the table to see which localizations count in each of your countries, then decide which you'd be happy to show a customer.
• Fill the ones you'd publish anyway first. For an app in the US, UK and Australia, English (U.S.) covers the US. English (U.K.) covers the UK and also counts in Australia and 170 other countries. English (Australia) covers Australia and New Zealand.
• Don't repeat words across localizations that count in the same country. A word ranks once, so a second copy is wasted characters. It's the same rule as across your name, subtitle and keyword list (App Store metadata, field by field).
• Keep each phrase in one localization.
• Track every country separately. Rankings, popularity and competition differ by storefront. ASOTool tracks keywords per storefront, in all 175. For example, compare who ranks for budget planner in the US with the "presupuesto" results above.

All 175 Storefronts

Apple's full table, as published in the App Store Connect reference on 30 October 2026.

Keywords with the most room left

98 keywords read from the App Store

highest opportunity first

21 questions

21 Questions - Card Games

64~ popularity 49 opportunity

24difficulty

level tool

Bubble Level for iPhone

62 popularity 42 opportunity

32difficulty

bedtime routine

Roost Bedtime Routines

45~ popularity 39 opportunity

14difficulty

stress watch

StressWatch: AI Stress Monitor

55 popularity 39 opportunity

29difficulty

clean camera roll

Photo Cleaner ®

48~ popularity 38 opportunity

22difficulty

jawline

Jawline Exercises, MewingCoach

55~ popularity 38 opportunity

30difficulty

Every one of them is on the keyword index.