App Store Optimization Strategies
Today we will learn how to optimize your app store listing to have better visibility in search results. There is strategy involved in app store optimization to maximize the results of your efforts. With these quick tips, tricks, and techniques to follow you will have better conversion. These best practices offer a clear approach to getting the best rankings in the app stores. Feel free to share this free article with anyone you know who might be launching their app soon.
App Store Optimization ensures your app meets app store ranking criteria and will have the best search results. Below are 10 App Store Optimization Tips:
1. Understand your customer and your competition
It is important to strategize your App Store Optimization efforts. It is critical to understand how your customers use your app as well as who your competitors are. Here are some things you need to analyze:
- How would my customer describe my app?
- What are the reasons my customer would download and use my app?
- What is my user’s language?
- What differentiates my app from my competitors?
- What keywords do my competitors target?
- Should I focus on the obvious keywords or focus on less obvious keywords that highlight the differentiation of my app?
It is critical to improve search results in the app store by driving relevant traffic to your app page. It helps to research what search terms were used by people who downloaded your app. This is an essential task to refine who your ideal customer and your competition is.
2. Choose the right app name
A unique name for your app is not just for branding purposes. For optimal results with App Store Optimization, include relevant keywords within your title. Titles in the App store can be 255 characters, but try to shy away from using every possible keyword in the title. Focus on the top few keywords and keep the actual app name short.
3. Pick the right app category
Picking the right category for your new application is crucial to its success and where your customers will download it from. It is important to study the market you are entering and select a category that your ranking will increase over time. Study your app’s purpose and do your best to stand out from the competition.
4. Maximize your keywords
To improve your search rankings, you need to know which keywords are relevant and used most often by your target audience. The App Store and Google Play Store have different standards when it comes to App Store Optimization Keywords.
The App Store:
The App Store has a 100-character keyword limit. It is important to use the full allotted characters and carefully research your keywords to maximize your organic traffic.
Google Play:
There is a 4,000-character limit that is more geared for natural language when describing your app. Similar to SEO, bots scan the description for relevant keywords. Don’t be repetitive and try to limit mentioning a keyword no more than 5 times.
5. Create a captivating description
You should focus on your target market in the description versus target keywords. List the features and benefits of the app and keep it simple. The goal is to make the user want to download the app. Communicate effectively what the app does and whey the user should download it. When you release a new version of your app, make sure to document this in the product’s page description and screenshots.
6. Make sure you have a unique icon
With hundreds of thousands of app on the App Store and Google Play, make sure your icon stands out! Your icon should be a visual representation of what your app does.
For iOS, your icon should be 1024 x 1024 which will later be resized by the Apple OS for navigation icons, app icons, and tab bar icons.
For Google Play, your icon requires a 512 x 512 icon.
To get insights into what works be for icon design, browse the top-rated apps in your category or in the top picks section of the respective stores. You will see that simple, bright icons with distinctive shape are the most common.
7. Include videos and screenshots
Images are a very useful tool to help convey what using your app is like before they download it. These images help bring your descriptive text to life. You can upload up to 8 screenshots for an Android app, and up to five for an iOS app Keep in mind only the first 2 or 3 will show up on the gallery upon the page loading. Try to have the most compelling and descriptive screenshots as the first few to compel the user to download your app or view more of the screenshots. You can also utilize a graphic overlay to the screenshot to highlight certain feature or an updated version of your app. You can test different screen shots to see which garner the most downloads in a time period.
8. Focus on driving downloads
The more downloads your app receives, the higher the perceived buzz, demand, and user value is placed upon your app. Increasing the volume of downloads will support increased prominence with the app store organic ranking. Try to release press about your app and have influencers review your app to drive downloads.
9. Increase traffic with outside promotion
Google and Apple also factor in your app’s total page visits and product page backlinks when determining your search and overall ranks. SEO is critical to drive traffic to your app page. Social media exposure is also very important. App indexing is a new concept that is the process of making iOS or Android app content linkable and searchable for a web or mobile web search. App indexing allows you to drive app store traffic and downloads directly from a search engine results page.
10. Keep your app updated and encourage feedback
Finally, it is very important to review feedback from users and improve your app with regular updates. Analytics can provide insights into areas of the app that needs improvement in performance or usage. You can send a push notification or display a message on the app advertising the newest version of the app. Make sure to update the app description and “What’s New” field in the app stores when you do release a new version. It is also very important to keep the reviews of the app as high as possible as it has been found many users read reviews before installing an app. Make sure your app is optimized to load and perform as quickly as possible. Improving features and code optimizations are critical to long-term success.
We have just covered the Top 10 App Store Optimization Tips. By following the above steps, you can easily achieve a high aso rank. There has been major growth in the number of business apps on the market lately. Are you looking for a Mobile App Development company to build your app? We are pros at creating your app based off the scope of work in the provided development contract. Our developers use the latest tools and technologies when designing our clients’ apps. We can build iphone and android mobile apps written in native code and help you achieve millions of downloads. Feel free to fill out our questionnaire and then book a free discovery call. You can also contact us here to see how our experts at 5280 Software LLC can help turn your idea into a reality.
