App Store SEO: The Inbound Marketer's Guide to Mobile ASO part 2

The app ecosystem is still young. It may be hard to believe but the iOS Apple App Store was just launched in 2008. Over the past five years, iOS and Google Play are the main app stores. While others such as Amazon and Microsoft are looking to get into the action, iOS and Google Play are in the lead. Let's continue to learn about App Store SEO - App Store Optimization for iOS apps and Android apps together!!!

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1. An Overview of the App Store SEO

Both of these app stores have many downloads. Apple is at 50 billion while Google Play is at 48 billion. It is suggested that iOS makes more money than Google Play.

This can vary based on the country that you live in. In developing countries including China and India, Android devices are being used more often. There is some information on the international market when it comes to mobile devices.

An overview of the app ecosystem, Source: Proreviewsapp.com

The App market is continuing to grow at a fast pace. There are CPM banners and others that are used. There are also incentives to install additional apps. There are paid channels for advertisement as well. Marketing is getting better and there are now many places to find information and see new apps to download.

2. Where do users find App Store SEO?

There is not one specific area to determine where the downloads are coming from. People that work in-app marketing rely on information from studies, data from other marketers, and data from platform owners. They need to find out the most effective way to get the word out about new apps.

There is data from the platform owner but it is not fully complete. Ankit Jian who is the Head of Search and Discovery for Google Play has shared some information he and his team has found.

Percentage users search apps via different channels, Source: Nielsen.com and Forrester.com

Organic app store searches are only part of app marketing. The inbound search comes from differing thing things such as web to apps and charts. There is a difference between the web to the charts in the app store.

A word of caution. Apple does not like those that play their system and may find a way to remove them from the store. Top Charts can be used short term. They work with around 10,000 apps and marketers have already spent several million. If there are 100,000 apps this method is not effective.

3. How is app marketing different than web marketing in App Store SEO?

App marketing is very different than web marketing. Some skills will be needed for app marketing. The app ecosystem is only between iOS and Google Play. In the web world, there are many different search engines to work with. You should decide if you are going to focus on iOS or if you are going to want to use Google Play. There are different resources on each platform and they work very differently. You are going to need to focus on each one and the skills will not transfer.

Mobile Marketing, Source: Proreviewsapp.com

There are no attributions in the app ecosystem. The app stores make it hard to see where the installs are originating. This will also depend on the platform but both follow this. On the web, you will see where the traffic is coming from. Google makes this easy to manage. On the app store, you do not know where the traffic is originating. There are some ways to find this out but it is not going to be easy.

Web marketing

The ecosystem for the app stores is still new. There is a lot of growing to do. The long tail is still being developed. Algorithms are being created and money is focused on the publishers. This will allow those that were early in the process to profit. Most are still putting in the time to try to find out more about the app stores.

There is a graph to learn more about the app landscape. Some publishers have made a great deal of money while others make very little. There seems to be no middle ground. Compared to the web with a huge middle ground, the apps either make it or do not. It may take some years for the middle to build up.

4. Optimizing App Store SEO

There are some ways to search on each of the app store platforms.

You need to remember that they are still new. App stores have not developed the say way that Google has at this time. It is still in the beginning stages and will grow over the years.

These apps have on metadata and off metadata. With the metadata, you will be able to control your presence. With the off metadata, there are some features that you are not able to control but they can influence you. there are some important things you can use to set your performance. There are some features you can set to help track performance and here are some tips to get the most out of them. App developers can buy ASO services to save money and time.

5. On Metadata

Apps’ Title

The title of the app is the more important thing when it comes to ranking. It can be thought of as HTML and is a great way to get the word about the app. You will want to have a title and a description of the app online. Be sure to use some keywords and explain the app. You should have keywords but no spam. Your title and the phrases need to make sense.

Description

Patrick Haig the VP of Customer Success can break the description down into two sections. There is the above-the-fold and below-the-fold. The description should be a sentence or two long and it should describe the app and its use.

Below the fold should be clear and engaging. There is some additional information that will be coming.

Keywords

The keyword field for iOS is around 100 characters. You need to use your character wisely:

Focus on relevant words that are easy to spell

Do not use phrases, break them into words

Do not repeat words that are already in the title

Separate them using commas

Icon

Customers can be picked. They want a great app that is easy to use. The icon should give information about the brand and how useful the app is.

Icon and screenshot of the app PubG mobile 3-rd anniversary, Source: Proreviewsapp.com

Screenshot

When looking at screenshots the trick is to make them not look like screenshots. They need to be interesting or you can add some graphics.

When using iOS there are ways to improve your screenshot and people can search and download the app to view them.

The best app uses promotional graphics to try to tell a story. Each graphic can help people learn about the apps.

Here are some examples of how screenshots can help.

6. Off Metadata

Rating & Reviews

Every app will be given a rating. As a marketer, you need to make sure the app gets a good rating. The rating is tied to performance in the app store.

5-star rating, Source: pixabay.com

You want to make sure that the app has positive reviews. This will encourage people to download it.

You can check out Apptentive for help with this. You can buy iOS app ratings for your iOS games and apps from Proreviewsapp.com. We always guarantee the result for your app.

7. How iOS and Google Play Differ When it Comes to App Store SEO

There is a difference in these platforms and they are independent of each other.

Google has some technology that will help a marketer make decisions. Apple does not have this.

There are some examples

Description and keywords

With iOS, it is important to enter keywords to describe the app. There should be the title, developer, and some keywords that will describe the app. They do not use the description alone but focus on the keywords.

Description of the app game world of pet multiplayer, Source: Proreviewsapp.com

In Google Play there is no place to enter keywords. There is a field to enter a description. This description is all Google uses. You need to write a good description without it sounding like spam.

Ranking in Google Play

The Pagerank in Google Play will show the inbound links and it will show the search that people are performing. Apple does not have this feature.

8. How to be successful with in-app marketing App Store SEO

It is more difficult to measure success on the app than it is on the web.

Mobile marketing banner, Source: Proreviewsapp.com

This is true when working with inbound links. Things are getting better and there is the addition of more tools. There are some ways to look and see if the app is successful.

Ranking

You can check the ranking on the app to help determine success. You need to understand how it works and look at the ASO.

Rating and Review

Ratings and reviews will help you see how the app is doing and if users like it. The ratings can tell you if they are enjoying the app. You will need to see how it is performing and if people are interested in using the app.

Downloads

You should look at how many times the app has been downloaded. This will show you how the app relates to a keyword and is users are liking it. If no one is downloading it this will give you a clue that changes may need to be made. You can buy Android app downloads for your Android games and apps. This is a great way to improve the app rankings for Android games and apps

9. Tools to Help With App Marketing

There are some tools and resources to help you market the app.

Sylvian has some great content on how to market apps.

App-Marketing-tools, Source: dotcominfoway.com

You can have some great free in-app products such as Flurry Analytics to look at the app and you will see if there is an increase in paid advertising. Flurry offers some data about how your app is doing and if people are finding it.

If you are looking to see if your paid advertising is working you should go to Mobile App Tracking. You will understand the different channels for marketing the app and find one that is the best based on the metrics. With this site, you will only pay for what you are using.

10. Conclusion

Now it is your turn to try out these tips and see if you are successful at marketing an app. There is still a lot happening in the app ecosystems and there are always changes. New opportunities are coming which will allow you to look at your app and determine if your marketing efforts are paying off.

This guide was meant to help you become familiar with the process. Hopefully, you have learned something about app marketing and the way that app ecosystems work.

Related posts

https://proreviewsapp.com/mac-os-app-reviews

https://proreviewsapp.com/android-app-reviews

We hope this article can help you quickly improve your rankings and significantly increase the number of users using your app. We are happy to help you solve the tricky part of developing a new app. Let's comment or feedback on us your ideas about this subject.

Source: Buy app reviews