As of May 2024, Google Play hosted 3.2 million apps, while the Apple App Store offered over 1.9 million apps. With more than 5 million apps collectively available on these two major platforms, attaining and maintaining high app rankings has become increasingly challenging. As a result, understanding the various techniques for enhancing your app’s visibility and increasing downloads on both app stores has become more critical than ever.
What is App Store Optimization 📱 (ASO)?
App Store Optimization (ASO) is a powerful technique for increasing the visibility and discoverability of your mobile application in the Google Play Store. The primary goal of ASO is to increase the likelihood of users finding and downloading your app, leading to more user engagement, revenue, and success for your business. Utilizing effective ASO techniques can maximize your app’s potential and boost its visibility in the app store.
You must first understand how people search for and find apps to boost your organic growth in app stores. The first step in maximizing your downloads is to make your app easily discoverable by the right users.
How do People Find and Download Mobile Apps 📱?
In app stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store, users primarily discover and download mobile apps through direct searches. Data from Apple Search Ads indicates that 70% of mobile users search to find new apps, and 65% of all downloads occur immediately after a search.
This highlights the importance of increasing visibility as the first aspect of ASO. The search ranking position of an app directly correlates with the number of downloads. The higher your app ranks in the search results, the more visibility it will get. Higher-ranking apps also get more downloads since users usually don’t scroll through every search result. They typically look at the top 10 or so. That’s why achieving a top rank is crucial to app success. You miss the most effective mobile app and game marketing channel without app store optimization.
The steep dropoff in tap-through rates with descending search results shows how important asset optimization is as the second aspect of ASO. Reaching the first position for all keywords will be impossible, but a great app title, subtitle, and icon will help an app take the most out of its organic rankings.
Your secret weapon for app growth is learning about ASO and investing time in it. It sustainably brings long-term results.
The Distinctions Between ASO and SEO 🌍
ASO focuses on enhancing the visibility and performance of mobile apps within app stores, whereas SEO aims to improve website rankings on search engines like Google. Google’s search algorithm considers hundreds of ranking factors, each with varying levels of importance. In contrast, ASO’s list of ranking factors is considerably shorter and more clearly defined.
The following checklist highlights the key differences and similarities between ASO and SEO.
Significance of ASO for app developers and business owners 💼
Most new mobile applications are discovered and downloaded through app store searches. According to research, almost half of iOS users found an app through Apple’s App Store’s search system, while 53% of Android users did so on Google Play. Also, 65% of iOS downloads and most Android installs result from keyword searches in both app stores. So, if you don’t have a secure ASO strategy when creating your app, you would be at risk of little-to-no discovery for your app.
Apple App Store and Google Play Store Ranking 🚀 Factors
Now, we will delve deeper into the factors that can influence your ASO to help you better understand the key elements that can impact your app’s visibility and success in the app store.
1. Understand your target audience 👨👨👦 and competitors
To optimize your app’s ASO, it’s essential to understand the language and terminology used by your target audience. What keywords or phrases do they use when searching for apps like yours?
Take the time to analyze how your customers would describe your app and what makes it unique. This can help you identify your app’s USP and differentiate it from competitors in the market.
Understanding what motivates your customers to download and use your app is important. By identifying your app’s key features and benefits, you can create messaging and marketing materials that resonate with your target audience.
Knowing what your competitors are doing can also help you identify any gaps in the market and find ways to differentiate your app and stand out from the crowd.
2. Select the best keywords #️⃣ for your app 📱
A crucial part of ASO is conducting keyword research to identify the most relevant and high-traffic keywords in your target market. You can increase your app’s visibility and downloads by targeting these keywords in your app’s title, description, and other metadata.
Find the highly searched keywords, particularly the competitive ones. Doing so can improve your app’s search rankings and visibility in the app store. There are many keyword suggestion tools available nowadays.
3. Choose a suitable app📱 name
Your app’s name is one of the most critical ASO factors because it is the first thing users see when searching for an app. It’s essential to choose a catchy and descriptive name, including relevant keywords that will help your app rank higher in the app store search results. The app name is also a key factor in improving click-through rates, so choose a name that will stand out and grab users’ attention.
4. App description 📄
When writing descriptions for your app, there are two types to consider: a short description with a character limit of 80 and a long description with a maximum of 4000 characters. In the short description, it’s crucial to include all relevant keywords and describe the core functionality of your app within the set limit. The long description should also include keywords, but avoid repeating them more than five times. It’s essential to make the introductory lines of your long description interesting and catchy, as most users only read that part. Be sure to include all relevant information in the first few lines, and take the time to craft an engaging lead for your description.
5. App ratings 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
A strong app rating can significantly impact your app’s visibility and success. You must extensively develop your app in a way that it can serve a vast user base without any quality/performance-related issues. Some important points to prevent bad reviews on your app are:
- Have an email address where users can reach for their complaints and queries.
- Have frequent upgrades in your app with the rectification of the bugs.
- Always ask for feedback after you have solved their issues.
- By focusing on app quality and user satisfaction, you can boost your ratings and ultimately increase your app’s visibility and success in the app store.
6. App Assets: Screenshots and promo video 🎥
While screenshots and videos may not directly affect your app’s search ranking, they can significantly impact the conversion rate from views to downloads. Your screenshots should be visually appealing, accurately represent your app’s functionality, and showcase its unique features. By providing engaging visual content, you can present complex technical information in a more ingestible format, increasing the likelihood of potential users downloading your app, and improving your app’s overall performance in the app store.
7. Increase app’s traffic 🚀 with promotion
One of the most effective ways to improve your app’s visibility and ranking is to boost user engagement. To drive more traffic to your application, you must have a worldwide presence to be easily recognizable among your competitors. You can achieve this by implementing various marketing and promotional strategies such as social media campaigns, content marketing, and influencer marketing.
8. Regular 🔁 updates
Freshness is an integral part of optimization as the Apple App Store and Google Play both consider app freshness and update regularity as ranking factors. This is because app stores and users alike want to see continually improving and evolving apps.
An app last updated five years ago doesn’t seem very appealing, does it? Updates allow you to improve your app based on user feedback, bugs, and new features.
You can use the “What’s New in This Version?” field in the App Store or the “Release notes” field on Google Play to inform users of the latest changes. And incorporate keywords and notable features that users may be searching for.
Consider updating your app once or twice per month—even if it’s just for bug fixes.
Conclusion 📖
Optimizing your app for the App Store is a continuous process that demands ongoing attention and effort. The tips outlined here represent just a few of the many strategies available to enhance your app’s visibility and reach a broader audience. By implementing these recommendations and consistently refining your approach, you can position your app for success in a competitive market, and Sortd by Mediology helps you to achieve the same. Adopting the above shared best practices will give you a significant advantage over many other app developers. However, it is crucial to keep experimenting and iterating to maintain your competitive edge.
