App Store Optimization (ASO) is a set of techniques that are used to rank your app in the top rankings of major app stores.
Just like search engine optimization (SEO), ASO involves the on-page and off-page optimization of your app page. However, the locus of the activities is on the App store, rather than in a search engine.
In 2013, Tech Crunch conducted a report that revealed that sixty-three percent of apps were found as a result of searches on app stores.
This information alone highlights the significant role of ASO in increasing the visibility of your app on app stores.
The growing app market has led many app developers to optimize their app page according to the rulebook of the app stores.
When the others are putting in so many efforts to make their app appear top in the search rankings of top app stores, you cannot afford to lag behind in the stifling competition.
So if you are a newbie app developer who wants to increase the visibility of his app on major app stores, here are some of the tips and techniques that come into play:
Perform Market Research
Just like any other marketing strategy, the success of your ASO is contingent upon your understanding of the dynamics of the app market and the preferences of your potential customers. To being with, you need to know:
- Who your target buyers are?
- Why they use the app that they are currently using?
- What edge does your app have over the other similar apps?
- How your app solves the problems of your target audience?
- What keywords are your potential buyers using on an app store?
Answering these questions will help you develop the right strategy that will likely to get more visitors on your page.
In the next step, you will need to drill down the ASO strategies of your competitor and learn about the best practices of the industry.
App Store Optimization: Conduct a Competitor Analysis
Your competitor is the other source you can use to glean the crucial information to implement an effective ASO strategy. Your primary concern should be the keywords that your potential buyers are using to target the market.
In addition, you can learn about the other technical elements, such as backlinks, tags, titles, and description that your competitor is using to increase the discoverability of your app.
All these things would provide you a solid foundation to jump into the app market. To streamline your process for keyword analysis, you can use a keyword Tool.
Select An ASO-Friendly App Name
The name of your app factors in ASO as much as the keyword. This is because the name of your app is mentioned in critical places on an app store including the “title” and “keyword field”.
A unique name with few characters will likely to benefit your ASO efforts than a name that lacks these attributes. The name of your is particularly influential in the title of your app.
Different app stores have different criterion in their rulebook for the length of the title.
Apple sets the parameters to 23 characters, while Google Play allows the character limit up to 30 characters. Therefore, your app name has to be short to befit the aforementioned criterion.
Add Screenshots In Your Page
The screenshots of your app are your pitch to convince the target audience to buy your app.
According to AppShot, the screenshots of an app increased its visibility by thirty percent than what it gets with only textual content. Therefore, it is important that you include the screenshots of your app on its page on an app store.
The screenshot of your app should feature its icon, interface, and the pages that the users will browse. Overall, the screenshots of your app should convey the user experience and how users will benefit from the app.
Reviews And Ratings
Let me begin this point with the hard data by Apptentive:
According to the available data, 98% of the top free apps have a minimum rating of 4 stars.
On the other hand, there were 92% of paid apps with a minimum rating of 4 stars followed by 99% of the top grossing apps with a minimum rating of 99%.
In the same survey, it is revealed that 13% of the users read more than seven reviews prior to downloading a free app, while 33% read the same number of reviews prior to downloading a paid app.
The aforementioned values authenticate the fact that reviews and ratings play an important role in generating the hype of your app and pushing it into the marker.
Although they don’t directly affect the ranking of your app on an app store, they do have an effect on the customer choice.
Create A Compelling Description
The description of your app is your value proposition to persuade the visitors to download your app. So it is your opportunity to make a case for your app and outline its distinctive features.
Apart from optimizing the right set of keywords, you will also need to describe in fewer words the main highlight of your app. You can even localize the description if your app serves a people from a particular geographical area.
However, you need to keep your description concise and brief. Don’t create a long description that sounds like a sales copy.
Instead, you need to make it more succinct by including the main points in the bullets. You have only a few minutes to grab the attention of the readers, so make sure that you do it with brevity in your writing.
Localize Your App To Get More Downloads
Make App Mag reveals that localizing your app can increase its download by 767%.
While it might take some more time and efforts to translate the app title, description, keywords, and screenshot into the native language of a particular audience, it results in more downloads of your app.
The majority of app stores offer the option to change the language of their page according to a local market.
Therefore, you too can change the language of your app title and description to let your target buyer find it easily on an app store.
Create An Appealing Icon
While the icon of your app does not directly affect the ASO of your page, it does have an effect on the visitor. Your app icon is the face of your app and it plays a big role in creating the visual identity of your product.
Therefore, it is important that you make it recognizable with a simple and appealing design.
A good app icon has the right combination of colors and design elements that make it look appealing to the eyes. It goes with the taste of its target audience as well as complements the main theme the app is based upon.
Things app is a good example of how an app icon can look both simple and appealing at the same time.
The designer of the app uses the sticky notes and a box to symbolize the functionality of the task, while the check sign gives a clean look to its design.
This app icon is a very apt example for anyone wants to design an elegant and eye-catching app icon.
Do The App Indexing
With over 3.1 billion apps, the gigantic market of app poses a stifling competition on Google ranking that you can survive only by indexing your app page.
Remember that SEO is very much part of the ASO process and indexing your app page on Google Webmaster can benefit its Google ranking.
In an interview, Sunder Pichai, the CEO of Google, revealed that 40% of searches on Google return app indexing results.
The information is important for the people who overlook the role of SEO in improving the discoverability of the app.
Creating backlinks, designing a mobile-friendly website, and making deep links are some of the ways you can increase the chances of your app page to rank higher in the search engine results page.
Wrap-Up…
With the aforementioned tips, you can improve the discoverability of your app on major app stores.
Remember that app market is a gigantic world and you can make your app show up higher in the ranking of app stores only with the help of ASO.
Author Bio
Katey Martin is a Digital Marketer, Educator, and a Tech Geek. Being a veteran educator, she is known for her exceptional essay writing services that he offers to students all over the world. She uses blogging to inform her readers about the latest technological trends, digital marketing practices, and upcoming technological gadgets. To know more about her, you can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
