An App Store Localization Workflow for Multilingual Metadata
Store Connect Management ·
Localized metadata can lift your visibility in non-English regions, but maintaining copy for a dozen languages by hand quickly gets out of control. Here is a sustainable workflow: draft once in your source language, translate and review, then sync through the App Store Connect API instead of pasting into browser tabs.
Why localized metadata earns more visibility
App Store search and charts behave somewhat independently per region. When users search in their own language, your English keywords carry little weight. Localized names, subtitles and keywords are what let you appear in those results at all.
Localization is not only about translation — it drives conversion. In one glance at your subtitle and screenshots, a user decides whether the app is for them. Copy that speaks their language converts better.
Which fields you need to translate
A localization covers the app name, subtitle, keyword field, description, promotional text and screenshots (including their captions). All of these appear on the product page for that region, and each is worth polishing per language.
A sensible order: start with the name and keywords (they affect search directly), then the subtitle and screenshot captions (they affect taps and conversion), and finish with the description and promotional text.
Keywords are not literal translations
Keywords should follow how people actually search in the target language, not a one-to-one mapping of your English terms. The same feature may be called something entirely different across markets; what local competitors use and what users type is the real guide.
The keyword field is also length-limited, and stuffing synonyms dilutes their weight. Rather than cramming in words, pick a few highly relevant ones and keep it lean.
A sustainable sync workflow
First finalize the source-language version once, as your single source of truth. Then translate, and have someone who knows the product review it — machine output is fine for a first draft, but shipping it unedited is risky.
Finally, push copy and screenshots per language through the App Store Connect API. That keeps changes in one place instead of pasting field by field in a browser, and when translation runs on-device your copy never leaves your Mac.
FAQ
Do all dozen languages really need human translation?
Not all of them. Machine translation can draft the rest, but fields that affect search and conversion — name, keywords, subtitle — are worth human or native review.
Can I just translate keywords from English?
Better not. Re-choosing terms based on how the target language is searched works far better; literal translation rarely matches what users actually type.
Does on-device translation send my copy anywhere?
No. On-device translation runs locally, so your copy is not uploaded to a third-party server — well suited to unpublished metadata.
Keep multilingual metadata in one place
Store Connect Management offers multilingual editing with on-device translation, then syncs to App Store Connect per language in one click — no pasting field by field in the browser.