Since the last 2 years, there’s been huge growth in smartphone usage & mobile users. Whereas, there has been a decrease in the usage of the desktop. Which means people spend most of their time on Smartphones and less time on the desktop. This is the reason behind why companies are trying to reach their customers by making a mobile application.
Now, the problem starts after making the apps. There are more than 2.5 million apps in the apple app store & Google play store. Due to which, getting your app in your customer’s smartphone, is really challenging. But, there are various ways of increasing app visibility and the most effective technique amongst them is the App Store Optimization. Some of you might also know it as App SEO.
What is App Store Optimization?
Similar to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can also perform SEO for your mobile applications, which is known as App store optimization (ASO). ASO is a process of Improving visibility of your mobile application in App Stores. This technique will increase the ranking of mobile apps in the App Search engines like Google Play store and iTunes Apple App store. Getting your App Ranked in the top positions will increase the download possibility of the application. Properly optimizing your App listing in the App stores will increase the rank of your app.
Let’s learn more about it…
Why is ASO Important?
As you know, there are too many apps in the App Stores. If you are not doing ASO, then your app will stay buried under thousands of other Applications in these App stores. In this case, your mobile application will not be installed by your audience/customers. Your app is useless if it is not installed in your audience’s mobile. So, if you have a mobile application, then you must include App store optimization in your Mobile marketing strategy along with Mobile SEO.
Mobile App marketing is different from normal Search marketing, but the concepts are almost the same. Both Mobile Optimization and ASO are equally important strategies. Hence, you must give them enough time and weight-age in your overall Digital Marketing Strategy.
As we observed in 2015 and 2016, desktop use decreased and is still decreasing. So, if you are still giving more importance to the desktop website and optimizing only for desktop users, then you are missing a huge number of visitors which are mostly (or only) on a mobile device (smartphones, tablets, and smart-watches). Thus, if you have a mobile application, then you must start working on App store optimization and try to rank your application listing above your competitor’s app listing.
What should be your App Marketing Goals?
While making a strategy for ASO, you must start with setting your app marketing goals. After setting your goals, you have to start working hard (and smart) in order to achieve them.
But what can be your app marketing goals? Check these…
- Being found when People Search about your App in App Search Engine.
- Being found when People Search for your App in Google and another Search Engines.
- Staying closer to your customer by being in their mobile smartphone.
- Ranking above your competitors and Getting more download than them.
- Providing faster services to your audience via mobile apps.
- Generating business leads and revenue with from your mobile applications.
- Faster Advertisements of new services or products by sending notifications to your users.
Okay. So, now you know what should be your ASO goals.
Now, let’s check some of the ASO Ranking Factors…
App Store Ranking Factors:
Like SEO, there are some Ranking factors in ASO as well. But as you know that none of the app search engines will disclose their ranking factors. But according to my study and some experiments, it was easy to figure out some of the ranking factors used by the major App search engines. Some of the ranking factors have a direct & big impact on ranking. Whereas, some of these ranking factors have a low & indirect impact on your app ranking in app stores.
App Metadata – Title & Description
Include important keyword in your App Title and Description. If your app’s title and description are more relevant to user query compared to others, then you might rank higher. I strongly recommend you to properly optimize your app’s title and description. More relevant the metadata, higher would be the ranking.
Ranking Impact: High
Average Rating
If your Average App rating is higher than others, then there are chances of your app outranking your competitor’s app. Try to get more ratings. Aim for 4.5+ out of 5.
Ranking Impact: High
Rating & Review Volumes
Ask your current users to rate your app and write a review. Because, more rating and review count will increase the possibility of ranking higher.
Ranking Impact: High
Downloads & Active Installations
If you have a high number of downloads, then you can get higher app visibility in app stores. The number of active installations matters too.
Basically, the number of Active installations indicates how many people currently use your application. If 10 users have your application in their mobile then active installations is 10. But suppose someone uninstalled your app, then your number of active installations will drop to 9.
Number of downloads shows how many times the application is downloaded even though it is removed later.
Ranking Impact: Medium
Number Uninstallations
Having a large number of uninstallation indicates that your application is not liked or not helpful for the user. So, there is a possibility that app search engines will lower your rank for the search term which brought the searcher to your application.
Ranking Impact: Low
App Usage Statistics
App usage statistics indicates how frequently your app is being used by users. Apps with higher app usage can rank higher in App stores.
Ranking Impact: Low
Growth Trends (Change in number of daily downloads & Rating value)
App search engines compare your current and previews statistics and check what is the growth of your app. If it is growing faster, then you might rank higher. If the numbers are decreasing, then you might rank lower than others.
Ranking Impact: Medium (High – if the Growth Is Increasing Exponentially)
Keyword Density
App stores check the keyword density of the app listing and compare it with other apps. A perfectly optimized app listing, with proper keyword density will rank higher. But if you are over-optimizing by stuffing keywords, then app search engines might suppress your rankings.
Ranking Impact: Medium (But Can Negatively Impact If You Do Keyword Stuffing)
Number of Downloads per 1000 Impressions.
App search engines look on the impressions and download ratio as well. The app with higher impressions but lower download might have something which is not liked by the users. Hence these app search engines might decrease your visibility for certain queries to improve their own search experience. This issue can be because of not using visual assets, fewer ratings, negative reviews or listing in the wrong category.
Ranking Impact: Medium
Links to your App Listing Page (Link Building)
SEO’s know how important is backlinks for anything to rank in the world of Google. I don’t know about iOS App store, but Google certainly uses backlinks as one of the ranking factors in Google Play store rankings. So, I recommend you to link your apps to your website and include the links wherever you can. It will help in ranking as well as in getting more downloads.
Ranking Impact: Medium (High for Google Play Store)
Update Frequency
Again, you know google loves fresh content when it comes to SEO. Similarly, Google loves freshly updated applications in the store. Regularly updating application also suggests that the applications are well maintained. Your users will also like to see more products/features in your application.
Ranking Impact: Low
Social Proof
When it comes to marketing, it is important to have a social media presence. Social engagement is important to drive more traffic to your website as well as to your app listing page. Hence, increase your social proof and you might get higher downloads.
Ranking Impact: Medium
This was all about the ranking factors. But How to optimize for these ranking factors?
So, in order to help you optimize your app listing for better ranking in app stores, here are some app store optimization tips which I learned when I was doing ASO for my iOS & Android application. Follow these tips while working on ASO and get surpass your competitor’s listing in App stores. Moreover, these tips helped me to get better app ranking which resulted in over 85K downloads in 6 months.
App Store Optimization Checklist
- Competitor Research
- Learn About Your Customers
- Selecting Proper Keywords
- Smart Use of Keywords in App Listing
- Proper Category Selection
- Selecting Right App Name
- Adding a Descriptive Description
- Creating Unique App Icon
- Adding Attractive Screenshots
- Including Introduction Video
- Updating with New Features
- App Localization
- Asking Customers to Rate & Review Your App
- Regularly Checking Bugs
- Promoting Outside App Store
- Maintain Your ASO
Let’s check about each of the above points in depth…
Competitor Research in ASO
When you are about to start any type of marketing campaign, you must start with a competitive research. While working on competitive research, you must note everything that your competitor’s do with their app listing page as well as what they do outside App store. Check their backlinks along with their social media engagement and track their every activity regularly.
The first step of competitor research is to find who are your competitors. Please note that your competitors in ASO can be different than your competitors in SEO. Because there are many brands that are just focusing on the websites (these are your SEO competitors but not your ASO competitors). Whereas, there are many companies that have the only app and no website (these are your ASO competitors but not SEO competitors) and some companies having both website and app (these are your competitors in both ASO and SEO).
So, make a list of your Competitors and track them regularly while working on ASO.
Points to Note when doing ASO Competitor Research.
- Find Apps which ranks in the first 15 positions in App Stores for your primary keyword.
- Find other keywords on which your competitors are ranking and note them. From these keywords, find out which keywords are closely related to your business. These keywords are optimal keywords for your ASO process.
- Check their App listing page.
- Note their Title and Use of Keyword in their title.
- Note their Description and frequency of targeted keyword in their description.
- Check if they have a Featured Video or not.
- Check their Screenshots and App icon.
- Check their Active installs, Reviews and Ratings.
- Note their update frequency as well.
These are the basic things you should have when you start working on App Store Optimization. This data will be very useful and can reduce a lot of initial hard work as well.
Please note that this work is just for the initial purpose to a get a good start. But in order to perform better than your competitors, you must work harder and uniquely. You should find new keyword opportunities and provide more features and services to your app users. Also, you must work hard to improve the in-app experience. Check the reviews of your competitors. Note down what are the issues users are facing in their apps and compare it to your app.
Pro Tip: If you have an email database of your customers, then you can send an email conducting a survey. Ask your current customers about the app they use now which provides same services and products which you offer. This will help you in finding more competitors.
Learn about your Customers
Learning about your customers is very important in ASO. Most of you also have a desktop website and hence you might be knowing about your customers. Hence, I listed this point in the 2nd place. But don’t forget about your customers, their mindset, and their behavior. If you don’t know about it, then do research on them.
To know about your Customers / Audience, you must know about these things:
- Know your primary target location
- Learn about the language of people in that targeted location
- Know which words they are using and guess which words they can use to search for your App.
- Note the alternative words and queries which should show your app listing.
- Check the Competition on that alternative language search query as well.
- Get knowledge about the App they are using currently which provides them the same services as yours.
- Try to find what is the frequency of purchasing product or opting for your services
These are the basic knowledge you must have when it comes to “knowing your Customers.”
Selecting Proper Keywords
Keywords are important. And selecting good & important keywords is a very crucial task. But you can easily find some of the important keywords when you are doing competitor research. You should also focus on some other keywords with good search volume & low/medium competition and then try to rank them. Working on all these keywords will certainly increase your App visibility in the App store and in return you will get a good number of App downloads. You should also focus on the language of your target audience. This will help you to precisely target only your ideal customers.
Moreover, you might not want to work on keywords searched by very few people which almost leads to a situation where no one downloads your app. Wasting time on these low search volume keywords is not going to help in ASO. In SEO, you can target those long tail keywords with fewer search volumes but in ASO you don’t have enough space to add these long-tail low search volume keywords in App title or description.
Hence, you must find only the best performing keywords with good search volume and try to get ranked for those keywords. As you don’t have enough space in App title and description, make sure that you are smartly using the available space.
Using your Keywords Smartly in your App Listing
Just by using the right keywords at the right place, it can give a boost to your Current App Ranking. By now you know that keywords play an important role in ASO. But now you might be thinking about the best way to use the selected important keywords in your App listing. You should also know about the frequency of keywords in your app listing. Because you can’t fill your title and description with just keywords. This is called as keyword stuffing and it would do more harm than good.
The first thing is to find the opportunities where you can use keywords. Let’s check about the opportunities you have in the major 2 app stores, which are Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play store.
The most important place to use the keyword is the App name / App title. The user will first read the App title while searching for any query in the App store. So, the title is the place where you must use your main keyword along with your brand name. Having keyword in the title is one of the important ranking factors in ASO.
Not just the title, but you must also include the keyword in the app description. Make sure you don’t just stuff keywords in the description because there is not much space there to explain your app. But instead smartly create your app’s description in such a way that it explains clearly about your services & features as well as includes all (or few important) keywords.
Proper Category Selection
Selecting proper category is a must. Choosing an incorrect or irrelevant category for your app listing might hurt your ASO. Not just ASO, but there is a high chance that your App is being downloaded by someone who doesn’t need it. And most importantly, you don’t want random people to download your app. Your app should be download only by your ideal customers who are intending to use your app. It is because your ideal customers will bring business unlike others who accidently installed your mobile application as they found it in the wrong category.
Also, if someone installs your app and later removes it (uninstall it), then there is a possibility that app search engines will decrease your ranking potential. Because major app search engines are using machine learning in their algorithm. They can identify that if people are downloading your app but removing it within some time or some days, then it means your app was not good for that search. So, app stores will reduce your ranking for those searches.
So, selecting proper category plays an important part in ASO.
Guide for Category Selection (Google Play): Selecting a Category in Google Play
Importance of Selecting Right App Name
Choosing the right name for your App is also important. It is also one of the biggest challenges of ASO. Don’t just keep any random fun-sounding name for your App. Right App name plays a significant role in ASO.
Okay. Let’s see how to set a good name for your app.
Remember we did competitor research and keyword research earlier? Now is the perfect time to make use of that early keyword research and competitive research here. Select a proper App name which includes your primary keyword. But the problem here is that you don’t have enough space to use more than 2 or 3 keywords with a unique name. So, while you are deciding a name, use small name along with short-tail primary keyword and make smart use of the word limitations.
Also, your app name should be easy to remember and easy to speak. It should be something that no one says “umm its Deas… something” when asked. It should be easy to speak, remember and type (because they will search by typing). So, in search of a small unique name, don’t select something which is tough to speak and becomes hard to remember for your users.
Moreover, looking at the future of voice search, keep in mind about the pronunciation of your App name. We can see the increasing numbers of voice queries and we try to optimize for voice search in SEO. I strongly feel that it will also play an important role in ASO as well. So, when deciding the name, select something which is easy to speak and easy to identify by the machine learning programs. Avoid name with silent letters in it.
Use this format for your App Name: “Brand Name – Keywords” or “Unique App Name – Keywords”
Learn from these big brands:
- Amazon.in – Amazon India Online Shopping
- UC Browser – UC Browser – Fast Download
- Alibaba – com B2B Trade App
- Google Maps – Maps – Navigation & Transit
Explaining App & Service with proper description
Writing a descriptive and persuasive app description is very important. But what’s the best format of writing your app’s description? Use bullet lists! Yes, Bullet lists. When I was working on ASO for my clients, I found that the apps which use bullet lists in their description were performing better (getting more downloads). Because your customers will read 10 points if it is in bullet form but won’t read a paragraph of 10 lines.
Now, when it comes to creating content for description, don’t forget to add important keywords in it. Adding Keywords in the Description is a very important ranking factor in ASO. You read in “Using keyword smartly” section about how to use keywords in description. Follow it and you will surely observe ranking improvement of your app listing.
No one likes keyword stuffing. Your users might find it weird when they read a keyword stuffed paragraph or bullet lists which use the same word in all the points. Even the App stores dislike app listing with keyword stuffed description. So, avoid it or else App stores might decrease your ranking probability.
Use your smartness and create a good-to-read description which includes your important keywords as well as explains your services. Make sure that you do not over-optimize it.
Check this App Description of UC Browser:
Adding Unique App Icon
App icon and screenshots are the first visual of your app. Don’t miss out on the first look. This is the perfect opportunity to showcase your team’s creativity. You know that app icon is what your audience see when they surf their mobile’s app menu as well as the app stores. Your App Icon should be something which tells everything about your app just by looking at it.
Designing a perfect app icon is time consuming and difficult task. To make it easy for you here are some points to consider when you are making your app icon. Your App icon should be:
- Unique Design
- Self-Describing
- Attractive in Looks
- Using Vibrant Colours
- Proper in Size
- Stay Away from Extra Ornamentation
- Avoid Distracting Text and Images in Icon
Here are some Icons of Known Apps:
Let’s talk a bit about the screenshots and their importance in detail…
Adding Customized Screenshots
Like Icons, screenshots will not increase the rankings directly. But it will help in getting more app installs. And, more downloads will help you in gaining higher ranking in app search engines. As you know, the image speaks. But, don’t just speak, shout loud. Use your app’s best screenshots in your app listing page and increase the chances of earning those few more downloads.
Your app’s screenshots can explain many things about your app. Your customers can understand how your app looks like from the inside. You can also customize app screenshots to give them more attractive looks. Many big publishers do this by adding additional graphics to their screenshot and they admit that this technique helps them in getting few extra downloads.
You can upload 8 screenshots in Google Play store and 5 screenshots for your iOS App. But, you just have 3 screenshots to impress your viewers as only 3 screenshots are visible on the loading screen of your app listing page. Arrange your best screenshots in the initial positions.
So, Learn from bigger brands. Use their idea, add your creativity in designing good App icons and Adding customizations in your App screenshots. Set the best 3 screenshots in the beginning.
Here are some Customized Screenshot from Google Maps:
Including Video
Videos can also attract your customer’s attention similar to app icons and screenshots. You can upload videos in app search engines. Including video will bring life to your app listings and help your customer to better understand your App.
Google Play store allows you to add a preview video of 30 seconds to 2 minutes published on YouTube. While iOS app store allows you to upload a video of around 30 seconds. Generally, people won’t watch video for a long duration. So, try to make a video which previews most important features in the initial 10 seconds. You have 10 seconds to grab your customer attention and showcase importance of your App.
As of now, you know that visual assets are very important in ASO. Though they are not a direct ranking factor, but they help in increasing number of downloads. So, work hard on your Visual elements such as App icon, App screenshots, and Promotional Video.
Check This Preview Video of Candy Crush
Updating with new features
Updating your app with new features and services is very important. Though it is not a ranking factor, but by doing this you reduce the probability of uninstallations. Suppose you have a gaming app, then updating your app with new levels and new powers is a must. Adding these sorts of updates in your app will not bore your customers and hence they will keep on playing. Thus, improving the chance of getting more in-app purchases.
Also, another reason behind doing updates is to stay ahead of your competitors. Your app must have something more than what your competitors have. This something extra can improve the number of your app downloads. So, keep checking your competitor’s app, make better services and add better features than them.
But keep in mind that your updates are not too frequent. Otherwise, users will get frustrated by these frequent updates and might remove the application from his/her mobile. This uninstallation of your app would impact negatively in your ASO process.
App Localization
Increase your App reach by using App localization feature. Reaching more audience means you can get more downloads. But, creating an app in different languages is a big task. Moreover, you need to spend more money & time for creating content in many different languages. So, I recommend that you should start with localizing your app listing at first and check how it is performing. If your app listing in a different location is working good, then you can create a whole application in different languages.
Before starting localization, check which countries can give you more business. Also, list the countries with more app usages and then prioritize targeting countries accordingly. Start with the country where you can get the maximum business and high downloads. Keep an eye on your competitors and find which countries they are targeting. Also collect the information about the location from where they are getting the most business.
To localize your app listing, start with changing app title and description. I would also recommend changing your App icon (if there is any word or letter in it) and App screenshot’s text in different languages. By making these changes, you can initiate your app listing in different zones. Carefully translate your keywords and text in different languages.
App localization can increase your app downloads by 200%. Imagine how much revenue you are missing if you are just focusing on English US market.
Asking Customers to Review & Rate your App
Reviews and feedback are important for any type of marketing. May it be traditional marketing or Digital marketing, your customer’s feedback on your service and products plays an important role in understanding their views on your business. You can find any issues they faced when using your services through customer feedbacks. This will help you in making necessary changes in the Application (in this case) and also help you solve the issues they faced. Reviews also help you in planning for future updates which can increase user experience.
In ASO, your app listing has a section where your users can rate and review your mobile application. As a marketer, you must be active in this review section, especially if you are new in the market. Because you will find many valuable insights in this section when your application user writes his/her review about your app. They might also share their experience and even they will share the issues they are facing while using your app in that review section itself.
Similarly, there is another section for ratings. Where users can rate your application from 0-5. If you manage to get more rating, then there is a higher possibility that your application will get a high number of downloads. Having good reviews and ratings will increase the chance of ranking because app stores like google do give higher weight-age to apps with good ratings.
So, ranking above your competitor will just give your app more visibility. But if you don’t have good review and ratings then you might not receive expected the number of app installations. Hence, ask your customers to give higher ratings and positive review on the app search engines. This way you can earn some extra downloads even if you are ranking below your competitors.
Regularly checking bugs
Checking bugs at regular interval is again very important. Because as your audience grows you will face some challenging bugs which need to be solved. Especially if you have in-app purchases then you need to check the payment system regularly. Because if that system fails even once, then your customer will never ever spend his/her money for using your app and thus you will lose some business.
Also, you need to check the compatibility of your app on all the devices. Sometimes you will see that your app is compatible with all the smartphones but there might be some sections which are not compatible. This can decrease the user experience and increase the chances of uninstallations.
Many times, when updating versions, there is the possibility of some newer bugs and hence you should make sure that your team worked properly while creating and test the newer version of the app.
Help your ASO effort by promoting outside App Store
All the things we learned and included in the checklist was the “on-page Optimization in ASO” and as we all know on-page is just one side of Optimization. The second half of Optimization process is Off-Page Optimization.
You should also focus on marketing your applications outside App stores. Increase your app ranking by creating backlinks and improving social presence of your application. Links are an important ranking factor in App SEO. Getting more links from good sources will increase ranking capabilities of your app inside the App stores. Write quality content featuring your application and promote it like we do in Content marketing. Exactly same as off-page SEO, just your website links will be replaced with your Application links.
Include your app listing link wherever possible. Add App store buttons on your website and Social media pages which link to the app store. Create discussion forum where you can discuss related to the latest features of your app and help your users by providing important information via your forum.
Other than links, you can also work on Paid marketing side (PPC). There are various ways you can promote your app by paid mediums. Many ad networks like Google & Facebook allows you to run an app install ads which can drastically increase the number of App Downloads.
Another section where you can work is App indexing. App Indexing can increase your App Reach and Downloads by 45%. It can also drive traffic to your app listing directly from google organic search result pages. This is a relatively new concept in which your app pages are indexed by google search engine bots and can appear in web results especially on mobile web results only on related queries. This will increase your app visibility as well as the possibility of app downloads.
Check this article on App Indexing by Bridget Randolph – How to get your App Content Indexed by Google
Combine everything and Create a Well-planned Off-Page ASO strategy which will help your Application rank higher than your Competitors and get more app installs & engagement.
Don’t Forget to Maintain your ASO
Like SEO for Website, ASO for Application is not a onetime process. You have to work on it as long as your app is listed in the app store. Because, as time passes, your competition will also increase and hence you have to work to maintain your rank if you are above them. But if you are not in any of the first 3 spot then you need to work very hard on your ASO. Build more links as well as improve your Review and Ratings. Try to get more and more downloads and work on increasing engagement.
Monitor your ASO and its effect regularly. You have to keep tweaking it to keep your listing optimized and up-to-the new standards. Also, keep the track of your competitors rank and compare their growth with your growth as well. Check what helped them in growing with time and imply that technique in your ASO process and outgrow them.
The most important tip to maintain your App store optimization is to keep playing around your keywords and find new keyword opportunities. Work around your keywords and try to stay on top on your keywords. Update your app regularly and improve your service and performance. Ask your app users to give ratings and share their positive review on app listing page. Keep building links to your application listing page. Improve social promotion and social media engagement. Work on PPC and get more downloads by increasing reach.
Some Generic Tips for ASO
Other than the above, tips there are some other basic things to consider when you are working on App SEO. Check out these tips which can (somewhat) be helpful in your ASO process. These tips indirectly impact your app ranking.
- App Size Matters
Make sure your application is light weight and small. Your app should not be more than 100MB because for downloading app more than 100MB you need a WiFi or 4G connection. Moreover, if someone is using 2G mobile data on his/her device, then they might not download your app. They might check other’s (your competitors) app. So, you can lose your customer in this case.
The study says that applications less than 25MB are not uninstalled by users. But, applications more than 25MB is generally removed by users whenever they are downloading a new app (You might be familiar with the Storage issue most of us face). So, try to make your app as small as possible. App size also depends on how much optimized is the app code. Properly coded apps are generally smaller in size. Also, try to perform lossless compression on the images you include in your application. This will also decrease your app size.
- App Compatibility
Your app should be compatible with every device. If you have an iOS application, then you must check its compatibility with Apple Watch. Your Android app should be compatible with Android TV. Not just compatible, but it should also provide good user experience when used on all Apple watch or Android TV.
Another note for iOS developers, make sure your app is compatible with iMessage. This will help your app to grow within app’s contacts. Also, make sure your iOS app supports family sharing as well.
- App Pricing
Set your App price very reasonable. Don’t overprice it otherwise, no one will buy it. If you ask me what is the best price for an App, then my answer will be “Zero”. Yes! Zero. What can be the best price for a user other than free? Let your user download your application for free and monetize by in-app purchase or by selling your product/service. Some of the publishers make 2 apps. One of the two apps is free for users and the 2nd app is for premium users only which is a paid app. Still I would recommend that it is better to keep your pricing reasonable or keep the App absolutely Free.
- In-App Purchase Costs
Don’t set a high price for your app’s in-app purchase features. Setting a high price for your in-app purchase, then there is a high possibility that user might remove your app soon. Also, make sure that only some of the features are paid otherwise people will uninstall your application. Smartly decide the in-app purchase costs for better user experience. You don’t want your app to be uninstalled by the users. And as you know that the high number of uninstalls can negatively impact your rankings.
IAP is where you can earn good revenue. In-App purchase accounts for around 75% app revenue. Make use of it with smartness. Take examples from the Best Apps in the Market.
- Use App Analytics
Use App analytics to check your application performance. App analytics can help you better understand the search words or terms which trigger your application in the search. You can use those keywords and optimize on them. There are many other benefits of using App analytics such as you can track your customer lifecycle with event-based analytics. You can check the heat maps as well to understand what your users are clicking, etc.
- Improve your Conversion rates
Work on improving your conversion rates. When it comes to ASO, you have to check the number of downloads per 1000 impressions. Check why you have high impressions but low download. Check the reason behind why people are searching for your app but not downloading it. Find the issues they facing. Work on all these points and improve the number of downloads per 1000 impressions. This can be solved by using the proper title and good app icon. This will increase your CRT and can increase your number of installations.
Why are Conversion Rates important in ASO?
It indicates the effectiveness of your ASO Campaign. Simply ranking above everyone is just not your motto. You are doing ASO for getting more business and to generate more revenue. So, you have to work harder on improving your conversion rates. Moreover, apps with good conversion rates are more likely to get ranked. Because better conversions mean that users are looking for this apps and they are liking it more than others. So, app search engines will give more importance & rank to apps with better conversion rate.
- Don’t fill your app with too many ads
You might be using ads inside your application to monetize a bit. But make sure that your app is not filled with too many ads, otherwise, it will spoil the user experience and thus users will uninstall your application from their device. And as you know, more uninstalls will negatively impact your rankings. So, smartly place your ads inside your app which can give you good results without spoiling the user experience.
Putting Everything Together… (Quick Guide)
- Start your ASO with Competitor research and finding the keywords they use.
- Try to understand your customers and check which is their primary language and location.
- Use your Keywords in App Title and App Description. But don’t over-optimize by keyword stuffing.
- Use a well-designed App icon. Add video and screenshots too.
- Use App localization for getting more downloads and business.
- Try to earn higher ratings and positive reviews in large volume.
- Work on Conversion rates and high engagement.
- Frequently update your application. Add more new features and remove old bugs.
- Smartly set App price and in-app purchase costs. Don’t give any reason to uninstall your application.
- Work on off-page App SEO by making links as well as promote using social media channels. Also, try to invest some time and money in Paid marketing.
- Keep your app size small. Make an app with minimal code. Check its compatibility. Don’t add too many ads.
- Work on App Indexing to get more traffic directly from a search
- Last but not the least, Keep Doing it!
Let me show you perfectly optimized App Listing Page. Follow this and you will get very good results.
- Google Play Store Listing of Google Maps:
- iTunes Listing of Google Maps:
- Image Source : Google Play & iTunes
I hope this Guide on App Store Optimization Techniques will help you get higher Ranking in App Search engines and app stores. If you are doing ASO, Share your tips in the comment section.
Also, let me know about:
- How many Apps are above your App in the App Store and what are your plans to improve its ranking?
- How much time you spend on doing ASO?
- How many App installations till now?
- Do you use App Indexing?
Comment your Answers below & share this article with your friends.
Good Luck with ASO. Work Hard!
