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Practical Guide for App Store Optimization (ASO)
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In 2021 there are billions of smartphone users and more than 6 million mobile apps in the major app stores (according to Statista), numbers that steadily increase year after year, generating a huge market for the creation and purchasing of apps.
This has led companies all over the world to face today a dilemma which is not whether to invest in apps to engage with their audience, but how they can enable people to discover their apps in the first place. This is why understanding app store optimization (ASO) is so crucial.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
App Store Optimization (ASO) is known by a few names, including App Store Marketing and Mobile App SEO.
ASO is essentially the process of improving app visibility within the app stores with the objective of increasing organic app downloads and increasing app conversion rates. Apps are more visible when they rank highly on a wide variety of search terms, maintain a high position in the top charts, or get featured on the store.
The major app stores are App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android. A whopping 70% of mobile users utilize search to find new apps. Furthermore, 65% of all downloads occur directly after a search. Clearly, app store search is the most common method for discovering new apps. In addition to ranking high in the app store search results, ASO also focuses on click-through rate (CTR). This means you have to convince people to actually click into your app store listing once they find it.
The two major aspects of AOS are:
a). Keyword optimization and improving discoverability;
b). App store conversion rates and optimization;
a). Keyword optimization involves researching, analyzing, and selecting the right keywords to include in an app’s title, subtitle, keyword field, and long description.
App discoverability optimization has several factors that impact organic impressions for your app store page: namely, search impressions and browse impressions.
According to Business of Apps, of all users who install apps 65-70% are coming through app store search and 15-20% are coming through browsing the app store. Together, they make up the vast majority of installs in the stores so the practice of increasing your search and browse impressions is a crucial part of your growth. Don’t forget that an app that isn’t ranked in any chart, will get no browse installs at all, and for other apps, who have a lot of paid traffic, paid installs can reach up to 50% of all installs.
b). Conversion rate optimization is the systematic process of adjusting the textual and visual elements of an app’s product page to ensure that a higher percentage of users download the app after seeing it.
These two pillars work closely together – a solid keyword optimization strategy will result in higher rankings, while great conversion rate optimization procedures will make sure that increased visibility leads to more app downloads.
The truth is that App Store Optimization is key to your mobile business. Without working on an ASO strategy, it will be really hard to get the result you expect, both in terms of ranking and of discoverability (except if your app is Facebook, TikTok or one of these). ASO is crucial for your app to get more organic downloads and enable you to spend less money on paid downloads. The ASO strategy should be prepared and implemented hand in hand with the UA (user acquisition) strategy to get the best results.
Furthermore, ASO is constantly evolving so you need to keep an eye on the stores and how they change. App Store Optimisation is a long-term investment that could definitely change the results you get from your app.
In case you are just now finding out about ASO, it may be a more familiar approach to your business’s online marketing than you initially thought. Like I mentioned above, the initial phase of ASO closely mirrored SEO techniques and even though the ASO practice has evolved since then, there still are quite a few overlaps in approach between them.
Thus, lots of the traditional search engine optimization tactics that work for search engine performance, such as Google and Bing, can also be directly applied to ASO.
Examples of this include:
- App name, title, and URL optimization;
- Keyword research for ASO;
- App rating and reviews generation and handling;
- Deep linking within mobile apps;
- Indexation of Apps in Google SERPS (search engine results pages);
- Click-through rate (CTR) optimization.
App stores are, in effect, a closed site search engine, which in turn rely on: easy content (app content) discovery and indexation, while app ranking algorithms are tied to: perceived app quality, freshness, brand scale and user value signals (e.g., reviews, ratings, engagement). All these factors are also important organic search ranking signals as well.
However, since the app stores and the web are two different ecosystems there are some important differences between ASO and SEO:
a). Search Intent: Search queries in the app stores are generally shorter than on the web. People tend to search for specific apps by their brand name or are looking for new apps that can serve an exact need. When searching the web, people often seek answers to specific questions or they make queries about buying a certain product or service. Therefore, search queries tend to be longer.
b). Keywords: In the app stores, keyword optimization is limited to the app title, subtitle, and keyword field or long description. Therefore, app marketers need to carefully select a handful of relevant keywords to increase their visibility. On the web, conversely, it is possible to optimize different web pages for different search queries.
c). Backlinks vs App Downloads: Search engines rely on the amount and quality of backlinks to determine the authority of a website. App stores rely on app download velocity to assess authority. The more downloads an app receives over an amount of time, the higher the ranking chances of the app.
d). Page Speed vs Uninstall Rate or Retention Rate: Both search engines and app stores want to provide users with the best user experience. Search engines, therefore, prioritize websites with fast page speeds in the search results. On the other hand, app stores rely on user metrics such as Uninstall Rate or Retention Rate to feed their algorithm.
e). CRO (and the click-through-rate) in Google is reliant on text elements, whereas for the App Store and Google Play, these are only one part of the potential impactful elements, and they are significantly less impactful when compared to the visual ones (screenshots, videos, etc.).
There are some known factors that influence the app optimization for iOS & Android applications:
a). Google Play vs Apple App Store
ASO is primarily focused on the world’s two leading app store platforms: the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android). According to Statista, in Q1 2021 there were around 3.5 million apps for users on Google Play, making it the app store with the biggest number of available apps. The Apple App Store was the second-largest app store with roughly 2.22 million available apps. Whereas the exact number of apps may fluctuate as Apple and Google regularly remove low quality content from their app stores, the number of apps has been steadily increasing over the years.
In the past few years, Google Play has been playing catch up successfully to Apple when it comes to the app stores, from auto-playing videos, emphasizing the screenshot gallery, to a cleaner design of the app store page. However, with the new iOS 15 changes, we can expect Google to be making some changes to the Play Store.
These two popular app stores have a lot of similarities. Each operates (from an end-user perspective) in the same way and serves the same purpose: to allow users to search for and install apps on either their iOS or Android device. However, each app store has its own system (or search algorithm, for those thinking as SEOs) that you need to optimize your app for. Certain factors are a priority in the Play Store, which aren’t necessarily important in the Apple App Store.
If you’re looking to have your app in both stores like most developers, you’ll need to understand these differences. This way, you’ll be able to optimize your app for the best results. The most notable differences are the following:
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- What is app store optimization?
- The differences and similarities between ASO and SEO
- Types of app stores to promote your app
- How to optimize and achieve higher rankings within Google and Apple app stores
What is App Store Optimization (ASO)
App Store Optimization (ASO) is known by a few names, including App Store Marketing and Mobile App SEO.
ASO is essentially the process of improving app visibility within the app stores with the objective of increasing organic app downloads and increasing app conversion rates. Apps are more visible when they rank highly on a wide variety of search terms, maintain a high position in the top charts, or get featured on the store.
The major app stores are App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android. A whopping 70% of mobile users utilize search to find new apps. Furthermore, 65% of all downloads occur directly after a search. Clearly, app store search is the most common method for discovering new apps. In addition to ranking high in the app store search results, ASO also focuses on click-through rate (CTR). This means you have to convince people to actually click into your app store listing once they find it.
The two major aspects of AOS are:
a). Keyword optimization and improving discoverability;
b). App store conversion rates and optimization;
a). Keyword optimization involves researching, analyzing, and selecting the right keywords to include in an app’s title, subtitle, keyword field, and long description.
App discoverability optimization has several factors that impact organic impressions for your app store page: namely, search impressions and browse impressions.
According to Business of Apps, of all users who install apps 65-70% are coming through app store search and 15-20% are coming through browsing the app store. Together, they make up the vast majority of installs in the stores so the practice of increasing your search and browse impressions is a crucial part of your growth. Don’t forget that an app that isn’t ranked in any chart, will get no browse installs at all, and for other apps, who have a lot of paid traffic, paid installs can reach up to 50% of all installs.
b). Conversion rate optimization is the systematic process of adjusting the textual and visual elements of an app’s product page to ensure that a higher percentage of users download the app after seeing it.
These two pillars work closely together – a solid keyword optimization strategy will result in higher rankings, while great conversion rate optimization procedures will make sure that increased visibility leads to more app downloads.
The truth is that App Store Optimization is key to your mobile business. Without working on an ASO strategy, it will be really hard to get the result you expect, both in terms of ranking and of discoverability (except if your app is Facebook, TikTok or one of these). ASO is crucial for your app to get more organic downloads and enable you to spend less money on paid downloads. The ASO strategy should be prepared and implemented hand in hand with the UA (user acquisition) strategy to get the best results.
Furthermore, ASO is constantly evolving so you need to keep an eye on the stores and how they change. App Store Optimisation is a long-term investment that could definitely change the results you get from your app.
Short history of ASO
On July 10 2008 Apple released the IOS App Store with around 500 initial applications. The number of apps grew exponentially and today there are around 2.22 million available applications. Google Play (then called Android Market) was introduced on October 22nd 2008, trailing Apple by only a few months. As of Q1 2021, Android users were able to choose between 3.48 million apps, making Google Play the app store with the biggest number of available apps. Both app marketplaces offered a new business model and attracted millions of mobile app developers. Similar to the start of search engines in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the competition was fierce. In order to get users to install your app, developers and companies had to get them to find your app amongst the myriad of options, then hope they’ll actually choose to download it. This lead to the birth of ASO in an effort to increase app discoverability and app conversions. In 2009, shortly after the stores started to grow, a few early adopters started to spread the term ASO. The initial era of ASO was characterized mostly by focusing on keywords in the most simplistic way, taking inspiration from SEO at the time. Thus, the ASO process at the time could be summarized in two steps:- Add keywords to your app title;
- Fill in your app keyword field.
- Search: Success today involves an organic keyword strategy amplified by a paid search.
- Browse: Improving browse performance involves a partnership between the paid user acquisition (UA) strategy and metadata improvements, as well as a good strategy to achieve featuring in the right placements.
- Referral: Analyzing and learning different user audience segments coming in through various channels and figuring out what is the most effective messaging and creative strategy to use with each in order to maximize quality users in the app.
ASO vs SEO
In case you are just now finding out about ASO, it may be a more familiar approach to your business’s online marketing than you initially thought. Like I mentioned above, the initial phase of ASO closely mirrored SEO techniques and even though the ASO practice has evolved since then, there still are quite a few overlaps in approach between them.
Thus, lots of the traditional search engine optimization tactics that work for search engine performance, such as Google and Bing, can also be directly applied to ASO.
Examples of this include:
- App name, title, and URL optimization;
- Keyword research for ASO;
- App rating and reviews generation and handling;
- Deep linking within mobile apps;
- Indexation of Apps in Google SERPS (search engine results pages);
- Click-through rate (CTR) optimization.
App stores are, in effect, a closed site search engine, which in turn rely on: easy content (app content) discovery and indexation, while app ranking algorithms are tied to: perceived app quality, freshness, brand scale and user value signals (e.g., reviews, ratings, engagement). All these factors are also important organic search ranking signals as well.
However, since the app stores and the web are two different ecosystems there are some important differences between ASO and SEO:
a). Search Intent: Search queries in the app stores are generally shorter than on the web. People tend to search for specific apps by their brand name or are looking for new apps that can serve an exact need. When searching the web, people often seek answers to specific questions or they make queries about buying a certain product or service. Therefore, search queries tend to be longer.
b). Keywords: In the app stores, keyword optimization is limited to the app title, subtitle, and keyword field or long description. Therefore, app marketers need to carefully select a handful of relevant keywords to increase their visibility. On the web, conversely, it is possible to optimize different web pages for different search queries.
c). Backlinks vs App Downloads: Search engines rely on the amount and quality of backlinks to determine the authority of a website. App stores rely on app download velocity to assess authority. The more downloads an app receives over an amount of time, the higher the ranking chances of the app.
d). Page Speed vs Uninstall Rate or Retention Rate: Both search engines and app stores want to provide users with the best user experience. Search engines, therefore, prioritize websites with fast page speeds in the search results. On the other hand, app stores rely on user metrics such as Uninstall Rate or Retention Rate to feed their algorithm.
e). CRO (and the click-through-rate) in Google is reliant on text elements, whereas for the App Store and Google Play, these are only one part of the potential impactful elements, and they are significantly less impactful when compared to the visual ones (screenshots, videos, etc.).
There are some known factors that influence the app optimization for iOS & Android applications:
- On-metadata factors: These factors are the elements that can be edited / modified by developers or marketers directly from App Store Connect and Google Play Console. These include: URL / Package, Developer name (only Google Play), App Name / Title, description, short description, subtitle, promo text and keywords field (only Apple), category, icon, screenshots and video.
- Off-metadata factors: As it happens in SEO with off-page factors, the off-metadata factors are those external factors that are not under the control of the developer: volume and speed of installs, ratings + reviews and, maybe, user engagement.
- App Store Optimization (ASO) = on-metadata + off-metadata.
App Stores
a). Google Play vs Apple App Store
ASO is primarily focused on the world’s two leading app store platforms: the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android). According to Statista, in Q1 2021 there were around 3.5 million apps for users on Google Play, making it the app store with the biggest number of available apps. The Apple App Store was the second-largest app store with roughly 2.22 million available apps. Whereas the exact number of apps may fluctuate as Apple and Google regularly remove low quality content from their app stores, the number of apps has been steadily increasing over the years.
In the past few years, Google Play has been playing catch up successfully to Apple when it comes to the app stores, from auto-playing videos, emphasizing the screenshot gallery, to a cleaner design of the app store page. However, with the new iOS 15 changes, we can expect Google to be making some changes to the Play Store.
These two popular app stores have a lot of similarities. Each operates (from an end-user perspective) in the same way and serves the same purpose: to allow users to search for and install apps on either their iOS or Android device. However, each app store has its own system (or search algorithm, for those thinking as SEOs) that you need to optimize your app for. Certain factors are a priority in the Play Store, which aren’t necessarily important in the Apple App Store.
If you’re looking to have your app in both stores like most developers, you’ll need to understand these differences. This way, you’ll be able to optimize your app for the best results. The most notable differences are the following:
- Keyword Searching Algorithm: The requirements of efficient keyword optimization vary from Apple to Google. While both consider the developer’s name and app title, the app description text doesn’t impact Apple’s algorithm.
- Indexing: The indexing process for Google Play works similarly to that of Google Search’s. This means Google considers all textual elements when indexing keywords for your app. You’ll also want to repeat keywords 3-5 times across all fields in order to rank for them. The Apple App Store, on the other hand, provides a specific field for your keywords. In some cases, it even gets them from your competitors and category name. In contrast to Google Play, you should not repeat keywords across any fields for iOS apps.
- Search Results Display: When it comes to search results, Apple cuts app titles to 18 characters (of the 30 characters allowed). The user also gets to see 3 portrait screenshots (or 1 landscape). In the Play Store, search results are displayed dynamically. Google cuts the title character length based on device, and screenshots do not appear for generic keyword searches. Keep that in mind when you come up with your titles and accompanying materials.
- App Page Listing: Google allows only one preview video, while Apple lets you have three 30-second videos. This will of course affect the amount of information you can put in each of those videos.
- Audience: Apple and Google users behave differently. In general, Apple phone owners are known to be more open to paying for their apps than Android users. As a result, they make app download decisions less quickly. They often get to check all your screenshots and look at all the available information. Android users, on the other hand, simply rely on feature graphics, app ratings, etc.
- App Updates: Android developers can easily submit changes to the app. Conversely, Apple contributors require approval from the app review team.
- Review Process: Both Apple and Google have implemented an app review process to ensure that they have high quality apps in their stores. However, Apple’s review process tends to take longer than Google’s. You should always take into account a 3 day buffer when you’re releasing a new app or update. Once your app is approved it will be live in App Store and Google Play within 24 hours.
- Screenshots: In the App Store, screenshots get displayed, but since iOS 15, screenshots don’t show anymore if you have already downloaded the app. On the other hand, in Google Play, screenshots will only show for branded searches.