Strategies you can adopt for App Store Optimization (ASO), to improve the ease in which your app is discovered.
Research shows that over 60% of all app downloads are found through your basic app store search. This stat speaks volumes on the importance in making your app stand out from the other 2 million available and out there today. Keeping your app updated and its description detailed is key, but there are some additional important steps worth taking to boost your app’s visibility. This introduces us to the concept of “App Store Optimization,” otherwise referred to as ASO. The concept of App Store Optimization is to bring more people to your app page and tapping on download without hesitation. There are some great tips based on app marketing to get you educated on the ASO of your app.
Much alike SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the use of keywords is paramount. The keywords you pick to represent your app should give the user a precise idea as to how your app is used. For example, if your app searches for hairdressers who make house calls, you would not only use “hairdresser” as your keyword, as it doesn’t fully describe the service you provide. r keywords should be a careful curation that bring you to your target audience and yield a high rate of conversion. On one hand, as you use the exact term of the service provided, every single person searching those words will be looking for the exact service you cater, increasing exponentially the chances of having the app downloaded.
The success lies in the competitiveness of your keywords, as you don’t want to have many others sharing your keywords with you. To leverage your app on a competitive market, choosing a multi-word keyword is a well-used strategy, as you’ll certainly rank for your single-word keywords, and combinations can more easily get you noticed on the market. For new apps and developers, the use of long-tail keywords can be of huge help. A long-tail keyword is a keyword not among the most searched, but that still represents a big number of searches that can raise the number of downloads for your app.
The hunt for your keyword can start when creating the name of your app, since there is an interaction between having a keyword in the name of the app and how that keyword ranks. Almost 75% of apps ranking on 1st place for high traffic keywords have their keyword spotted in their names. The density of the keywords applied to the app title must be considered, as in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store it is counted for the ranking algorithm. There’s no doubt that in order to improve your rank position you should bet on using your keyword in the app name. The more space a keyword takes in a title, the higher it will rank. The interesting difference on Android apps is the description matters just as much as the title. My example, let’s say you create an app called “MTL Food – Canadian Cuisine Restaurants”. In this case, you’ll certainly rank for those 5 keywords, but if you want to increase the chances to rank with “Canadian”, you can consider removing “Cuisine” or “Restaurants”.
Last but not least, to catch attention on the app stores you need to cause a great first impression, and this means having a eye-catching icon. Testing variations is highly suggested, and for that you can resort to advertising networks such as Admob, Google Adwords, and Facebook. In putting variations out there, you can get a feeling of how possible users may react to each version of your icon you come up with. Another considerable tip is to leave out the title from displaying on the icon, and instead focus on making the concept visually appealing.
Working on making your app discoverable and downloadable is just as important as any other step when creating an app, and should be carefully planned.
In the end, the more downloads your app gets, the higher it ranks, improving gradually the popularity and chances of maintaining your app in the high position it deserves.
