How to Help Your App Get Ranked – The Basics of ASO
Did you know? There are more than 6 million mobile apps in the major stores. Therefore, discovering your app is one of your most difficult challenges. Thus, understanding app store optimization (ASO) is so much crucial. The question is, how can you make the most of it? Here is what you need to know to get your app to rank well and increase the number of downloads.
Factors to Pay Attention for App Store Optimization
- App name and title
- Description
- Keywords
- Subtitle
- Ratings & Reviews
- Total Number of Downloads
How to Get Your App Ranked? Everything About ASO
According to professional app store optimization agencies, there is a lot common between App Store Optimization and Search Engine Optimization; however, there are a few differences. Let us start by breaking down the different components that affect ASO.
The Crucial App Store Optimization (ASO) Factors
App Name/Title: The keyword in the title must have the highest search traffic. Therefore, you must research which keyword should go to the title. With the app getting ranked higher and gaining more reviews, your app’s news shall spread by word of mouth.
Keywords: To improve the search rankings, you must know which keywords are relevant and often used by the target audience. Monitor the competitors to know which keywords could work and compare them week to week.
Secondary App Store Optimization (ASO) Factors
The first impression matters! However, several other factors impact whether the users will tap on the download button.
Total Number of Downloads: The number of downloads is crucial to ASO, but you won’t have complete control over them.
Ratings & Reviews: These are also important and difficult to control. However, as per the professional app store optimization agencies, there are different ways to incentivize happy users for ratings and reviews.
Here is a detailed breakdown of all the factors to keep in mind while optimizing the app for better ratings.
1. App Title
The title of the app is the first impression online. This is what will get the users to check your app. Therefore, optimizing it with a keyword of high search volume increases the search ranking for the title by 10%.
Yes, there are certain limitations, like you get only 30 characters, and keyword stuffing is a surefire way to get banned. So, you must be smart about how to optimize. Pandora, for instance, does a great job.
2. App Description
This is where things get a bit murky. First, of course, the app store algorithm will ignore the description. However, for the users, it is a different story. According to professional app store optimization agencies, instead of optimizing for SEO, focus on sharing the product’s features and benefits.
It might seem that you have a lot of space to do this, but you don’t! Truncated snippets will be shown on the product page, and some readers will click on “more” to check beyond what they see. You shall have 252 characters to make the pitch and convince the readers that you are worth downloading.
Therefore, you must keep it short and simple. There is no space for fluff, and you shall need a lot of A/B testing to find out what works.
Keyword Metadata
Apple will offer 100 characters to enter keywords that you can separate by commas. According to the best app optimization agencies, this will help you get your app discovered through the search and other related content. You don’t need to duplicate the efforts here. Therefore, choose the keywords wisely. Use the ones you haven’t used already in the titles or descriptions. However, this feature is only available for iOS users, but it is an essential tool to list any project.
4. App Subtitle
You can put a subtitle below the title in the search results. However, this is also limited to 30 characters. This gives you another chance to use much more long-tail keywords. For instance, if you check the example of Typeshift, they use this space to add its main search word. This will give your app a cleaner look and send the user the message.
5. App Ratings and Reviews
Customer ratings and reviews are crucial for users, especially those unfamiliar with your brand. As per professional app optimization agencies, apps with great reviews and higher ratings also get ranked higher. Now, this presents a tricky dilemma. Of course, you would want more reviews, but not negative ones.
Therefore, you need to create a space for the users within the app to vent and talk directly to the developer. On the other hand, you would want your happy customers to leave positive feedback for you. The average rating of the best 100 apps in the App Store is 4 stars! Clearly, quality matters! Therefore, the lower your rating is, the fewer people will be interested in downloading your app.
6. App Downloads
Ultimately, it is the download that matters! According to the app store optimization agencies, if you can create an app preview video, add screenshots, and upload them, it will be great for conversion and increase the number of downloads.
App Store and Google Play Store check the number of times an app has been downloaded. The current download rate matters as well. This means an app can have a million downloads in a year, but a new app can beat it if it has more downloads this month. The preview video and screenshots play a vital role in this.
Some Final Words
Like SEO, ASO is a process that you need to monitor constantly and keep changing over time. To make the most of it, you must dedicate time and resources. If you can do that, rest assured that you shall have a consistent channel to get traffic to your app. We know that being found online is a challenge, but you can fix this problem with the tips mentioned above. Get in touch with an app store optimization agency today for the best results.
