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Arabic ASO Services for App Store and Google Play

If your app has no Arabic listing, Arabic search cannot find it, however good the English one is. We optimize both stores separately, because Apple and Google rank apps on different things, and we write in Arabic rather than translate into it.

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The Middle East Is Mobile First

The Middle East has some of the highest smartphone penetration in the world and a young population that reaches almost everything through an app. For a publisher entering the region, the store listing is the shop window and usually the only one.

The first thing we check is whether Arabic exists as a store locale at all. Without it, an app is effectively invisible to Arabic search in both the App Store and Google Play, and adding it is often the single largest gain available.

After that the two stores part company. Apple ranks on a hidden keyword field; Google Play has none and reads your descriptions instead. One translated listing pasted into both is always wrong for one of them.

  • Both stores: Apple App Store and Google Play, optimized separately
  • Native Arabic keyword research, not translated keyword lists
  • Screenshots and captions rebuilt for right-to-left reading
  • Arabic reviews answered, because ratings are a ranking factor
  • Monthly reporting in English on rankings, installs and conversion
Middle East
Mobile-First Market
Native
Arabic Localization
Organic
Download Growth

What Our Arabic ASO Services Include

Arabic Keyword Research - Arabic ASO service icon

Arabic Keyword Research

We identify high-volume, relevant Arabic search terms that your target audience uses when looking for apps in the App Store and Google Play, ensuring maximum visibility.

App Listing Localization - Arabic ASO service icon

App Listing Localization

We don't just translate; we localize. Our native Arabic copywriters craft compelling app titles, subtitles, and descriptions that resonate culturally and drive downloads.

Visual Asset Optimization - Arabic ASO service icon

Visual Asset Optimization

We design and optimize your app icon, screenshots, and preview videos for the Arabic market, ensuring they accommodate right-to-left (RTL) reading patterns and local aesthetics.

A/B Testing & CRO - Arabic ASO service icon

A/B Testing & CRO

We continuously test different variations of your app store assets (icons, screenshots, descriptions) to identify what converts best for Arabic-speaking users.

Review & Rating Management - Arabic ASO service icon

Review & Rating Management

We help you implement strategies to encourage positive reviews from Arab users and manage your app's reputation, which is a crucial ranking factor in app stores.

Performance Tracking - Arabic ASO service icon

Performance Tracking

We provide detailed monthly reports tracking your app's keyword rankings, organic downloads, conversion rates, and overall growth in targeted MENA countries.

Two Stores, Two Sets of Rules

Apple and Google rank apps on different signals, and Arabic changes both. Six things that decide whether your listing is found.

The two stores index differently

Apple ranks on the title, subtitle and a hidden keyword field. Google Play has no keyword field and reads the title, short description and long description instead. The same Arabic listing cannot be optimal for both, so we write them separately.

Arabic has to be added as a locale

An app with no Arabic locale is invisible to Arabic search in both stores, however good the English listing is. Adding Arabic as a store language is usually the single largest gain available, and it is often missing.

Keywords, not translated keywords

Arabic app searches use dialect, Modern Standard Arabic and Latin-letter spellings of the same word. A translated keyword list captures one of the three and reports the demand as small.

Right-to-left screenshots

Arabic reads right to left, so the first screenshot a user sees is the one on the right. Captions, arrows and app UI all have to mirror, and a flipped screenshot set converts very differently from a translated one.

Ratings and reviews in Arabic

Both stores treat ratings as a ranking factor, and both let you reply. Arabic reviews left unanswered read as an absent brand, and in the Gulf that shows up in the rating before it shows up anywhere else.

Android and iOS split by market

The device mix is not the same across the region. Optimizing one store because it is the one your team uses at home is how brands lose the larger half of a market.

App Markets Across the Middle East

Keyword competition, spend per install and the split between iOS and Android all change at the border, so each market gets its own keyword set.

United Arab Emirates

Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The most competitive app market in the region, with the highest spend per install and an audience split fairly evenly between iOS and Android.

Saudi Arabia

The largest app economy in the Gulf, with heavy spending and a young, mobile-first population. Arabic-language listings matter more here than anywhere.

Egypt

The largest audience in the region and the most price-sensitive. Volume markets where organic installs matter more than paid acquisition.

Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman

Small, wealthy and under-served. Low keyword competition makes them the cheapest place to prove an Arabic listing works before a Saudi push.

Jordan and Lebanon

Strong regional tech and app development scenes, and useful test markets for Levantine-dialect listings.

Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria

Arabic and French side by side. Both locales need their own listing, and skipping French here costs most of the market.

Thinking about Arabic ASO?

We localize both store listings, rebuild the Arabic keywords and screenshots, answer the reviews, and report on installs and store conversion rate.

Get Arabic ASO Services

How We Run an Arabic ASO Project

Six steps, in this order, and run separately for each store.

01

Store audit, both stores

We review your App Store and Google Play listings separately: locales, metadata, screenshots, ratings and what you currently rank for in Arabic. Most audits start by finding no Arabic locale at all.

02

Arabic keyword research

Native speakers build the keyword set per store and per market, covering dialect, Modern Standard Arabic and Latin-letter spellings, mapped against what competitors already rank for.

03

Listing localization

Title, subtitle, short and long description written in Arabic for each store's ranking mechanics rather than translated once and pasted twice.

04

Visual assets

Icon, screenshots and preview video rebuilt for right-to-left reading, with Arabic captions and the screenshot order reversed so the first thing seen is the first thing intended.

05

Testing and reviews

A/B testing where the store supports it, plus a routine for answering Arabic reviews, because ratings feed the ranking in both stores.

06

Reporting

Monthly reporting in English: keyword rankings by store and market, impressions, installs and store conversion rate, and what we changed and why.

Why a European-Based Arabic ASO Agency

GOTOMENA is the first European-based Arabic digital marketing agency. We work from Barcelona and London, and the people writing your listings and answering your Arabic reviews are native speakers from the markets the app is launching into.

For a publisher headquartered in Europe or North America, that removes the two usual problems. Release cycles and store submissions stay inside your working day, and nobody is guessing at Arabic keywords from a translation tool.

You brief in English and read reports in English. Everything the store shows a user is written in Arabic by people who search in it.

Arabic ASO Company for App Store and Google Play

Send us your app and the markets you are launching into. We will come back with what you currently rank for in Arabic on each store, what is missing, and what it costs to fix.

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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about our Arabic App Store Optimization services

Arabic ASO is the process of optimizing mobile apps to rank higher in an app store's search results within Arabic-speaking markets. It involves localizing app titles, descriptions, keywords, and visual assets to appeal to MENA users.

The MENA region has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates globally. However, direct translation of your app store listing isn't enough. You need culturally relevant keywords, right-to-left (RTL) optimized screenshots, and native Arabic copywriting to convert visitors into active users.

Yes, we provide comprehensive Arabic ASO services for both the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android), tailoring our strategies to the unique algorithms and user behaviors of each platform.

While some improvements in keyword rankings can be seen within a few weeks, significant increases in organic downloads and user acquisition typically take 2 to 3 months of continuous optimization and A/B testing.

They rank apps on different signals, so the same listing cannot be right for both. Apple reads the app title, the subtitle and a hidden 100-character keyword field, and repeating a word gains nothing. Google Play has no keyword field at all: it indexes the title, the short description and the long description, so the Arabic long description is doing real ranking work rather than just explaining the app. We write and test the two listings separately.

By adding Arabic as a store locale, in both stores. An app with no Arabic locale is effectively invisible to Arabic search however strong the English listing is, and adding it is usually the single largest gain available. After that comes keyword research, then the written listing, then the screenshots.

Yes. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are the two largest app markets in the Gulf and where most of our ASO work sits. We also cover Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon and North Africa. Keyword competition and device mix differ by market, so each one gets its own keyword set rather than a regional average.

Yes, and flipping them is not enough on its own. Arabic reads right to left, so the screenshot a user sees first is the one on the right, which means the order has to reverse as well as the layout. Captions are rewritten rather than translated, and any arrows, progress indicators or app UI inside the images have to mirror too.

Yes, and that is most of our work. GOTOMENA is European-based, so briefs, reporting and day-to-day communication run in English and in a working day that overlaps with yours. The Arabic listings, keywords and review responses are written by native speakers from the markets the app is launching into.