All you need to know about app store optimization for iOS mobile apps
The mobile app business is booming and everyone wants a piece of the tasty mobile pie. The competition is constantly growing with thousands of new apps added to the App Store every month. Gone are the times when offering an awesome mobile app was enough to succeed. Today, your app needs to be discovered and chosen from a sea of apps.
The first and most basic step in reaching your potential users is optimizing your presence in the App Store – ASO.
What is ASO?
App Store Optimization is the process of improving the app download page in the App Store to increase organic download volumes. It’s somewhat similar to SEO and landing-page optimization for websites.
The first and primary goal of ASO is reaching ranks high enough to be visible in results for relevant search queries. The second goal is converting the app page visitors to users by using compelling text and visual components in the download page content.
Why do I need ASO?
Optimizing your App Store page is probably the most cost-effective way to reach potential users browsing for an app. This traffic is not only free and organic, but is also very high quality traffic: users looking to download an app, specifically one that answer a search query they entered.
Source: MobileDevHQ Survey, Q2 2014, U.S
What are the components of ASO?
The App Store search engine indexes only the keywords in the app title and in the keyword field, which is limited to 100 characters. This means you have to be very precise in your selection and choose not only relevant keywords, but also ones that have a relatively high volume of traffic and low competition. You can use tools like SensorTower, MobileDevHQ and of course your own iOS device to conduct the keyword research.
Once you’ve attracted the user to your app’s page on the App Store, it’s up to the page content to convince the user to click “Install”. This content includes the app description, screenshot images and a preview video.
If you have positive press reviews, awesome user feedback or quotes from trendsetters about your app, make sure these are prominently present in your app’s description. Use the screenshot images to display primary features and be sure to include a call to action. It’s crucial that your preview video looks professional, and includes actual screen-captures of your app at work.
What else affects my app’s rank in search results?
Of course, simply having the keywords “free” and “game” in your app name or keyword list will not make your app the top result for the term “free game”. Search result ranks depend heavily also on app popularity (download volumes) and the app’s rank compared to others.
How often do I need to update my app listing on the app store?
Since the only chance you get to update your app store page content is when publishing a new app version, it’s important to coordinate your development and marketing efforts to ensure optimized content is ready to be published with the new version. Although this gives little room for A/B testing, it does provide a sufficiently long time between versions to research, analyze and create the best new content for the name, keywords, app description and other App Store page components.
Should I localize my app store page?
If your app is relevant to an international audience, then you should add localized versions of the app page content and a keyword list that is optimal for that specific audience, in its native language. It’s important to note that although users may sometimes search for an app using English search terms, a well-written description in their own language will encourage them to download your app over others.
Conclusion
Publishing an app on the App Store without optimizing the metadata and content of the app download page is simply a waste. Not only because this is a proven method of reaching high-quality organic traffic, but also because users are getting used to seeing professionally written app descriptions, quality graphics and entertaining preview videos in the App Store. In our experience, properly conducted ASO can increase an app’s daily organic download volume by hundreds of percent.
