What is App Store Optimization what is the importance to using it

ASO is short for App Store Optimization. It is some kind of process of improving the mobile apps’ visibility in an App Store. Just like Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is for websites, app store optimization is for mobile apps. To be specific, it includes the process of ranking apps via keyword search in an app store and pushes the app into top charts. With this method, apps will rank higher in search results and get into top charts, which will drive more installs.

Importance of ASO

Apparently, it is driving one important point here: ASO is extremely significant, because not only apps are big business, but also customers are willing to search for those apps. Some research reports that more than 63% of app customers prefer browsing in the app store to discover new apps.

As we know, there are many different ways for customers to find new apps – media, websites, friends, etc. But far and away, customers are searching for new apps. This leads ASO to get more and more significant for app developers.

Another reason why ASO is getting more important – apps can benefit from it a lot. See what benefits ASO can bring to apps in the following parts.

• In the app store lists, an app will get improved on app search results and immediate app comprehension.
• An app will get opportunities to increase app ranking through recommendations in category and sub-category.
• With suitable icon & screenshot suggestion, it will help brand recall, increase conversion and rapid app comprehension.
• ASO will increase app sales and search discovery.

Factors Affecting ASO

When app owners promote an app, there are many factors affecting the results. If your business is building an app, you have likely put quite a bit of work into it. Once the product is finished, your success depends on whether customers can find it. Let’s look at how you can make sure your hard work doesn’t waste.

To perform app store optimization, you need to look to your competitors, your users and employ the use of some key app tools. In this series, we will break down the steps to perform app store optimization to improve the performance of your app name, icon, screenshot and your product description. Take iOS apps, for example, users have about 1.2 million apps to choose from, so app developers have to work hard to make their apps stand out. While, learning about the following affecting factor of ASO can help you achieve this goal easily:

• Title and subtitle
• Icon
• Description
• Screenshots
• Reviews and ratings
• Preview video
• Keywords
• The volume of downloads
• The retention rate
• Uninstalls

How To Optimize App via ASO

Content optimization has become a popular marketing topic in recent years, helping companies rank at the top of search engine results for a variety of keywords. This type of content marketing extends to iTunes, where an app’s description helps customers find and download it.

In addition, after you learned about the details of affecting factor of ASO, here are more useful tips to help your app to get discovered and installed, such as:

1. Choose a Right Title

The title is the first impression for users to learn about your app. Thus, it is essential to add the keywords in title to increase the exposure rate of your app. If you have limited space in the title, you can add the keywords in the subtitle to introduce to function and feature of your app.

2. Choose a Right Icon

If one install an app via searching a relevant keyword in app stores, he will focus on the title firstly. But then he will move his sight to your app icon. If you have a unengaging or normal icon, you will lose this potential user even though your app has a high-quality content. Therefore, before upload your app in app stores, you have to design an attractive and creative icon to drive more app traffic and downloads.

3. Create a Compelling Description

The description is the only access for users to learn about your app’s function and features carefully. So, you have to realize the importance of description of your app. The first three lines are very crucial to attract users to click “read more” button. You can add the main keywords in this part, but should control the times of keywords appears about 8-12 times.

4. Maximize Keywords

As we all know that the keywords characters are limited in 100, so you have to think twice before you choose your app targeted keywords. The keywords position also can affect your app ranking, so you can put the most important keywords in the top of keywords period. Also, the long tail keywords are the most useful for you to optimize with the low competition. You can analyze your competitors and use some relevant keywords tools to help you get more appropriate keywords for your app.

5. Reviews and ratings

85% users would like to install an app has more positive reviews and high ratings. Also, reviews can show the feedback of users and problems of your app. You can optimize your app according to these reviews and satisfy the users’ needs. Indeed, if you have enough budget, you can buy app reviews from real users to improve the quality of your app and get a higher rank in app stores.

6. Go Global

App localization is necessary. It has a huge impact on the users’ experience and the volume of app installs. Indeed, if you localize your app, you will get more potential users and millions of downloads from all over the world. This also can help you build the brand and increase the exposure rate of your app. What’s more, localizing app is also an effective method to maximize your app keywords.

7. Incorporate Socialization

In other words, this method is equal to the process of app marketing. Popularizing your app in some popular social media, like Facebook, Instagram. Also, you can put your app link in some relevant forums to drive more downloads. 

8. Update Regularly

When you find some problems and bugs of your app, you have to update your app in time to improve the users’ experience. This method also can help you increase the retention rate and boost your app ranking in app stores.

9. cooperate with a reliable ASO company

If you have enough budget but limited time and effort, this method is very suitable for you. ASOTop1 is a company that aims at helping apps rank top in app store search results. All the traffic is organic from real users who will enter keywords in the search bar in app stores to find your app and then install it. After installing, they will play your app and make longer retention on the devices. Therefore, your app will rank top in a longer period, which is useful for making your app popular and known by more and more app users.

What are the mechanics of ASO?

Let’s start by breaking down the various components that can affect your ASO:

Main Factors:

• Title – The keyword placed in the title should be the one with the heaviest search traffic. Spend time researching which keyword that is, because changing your title often to include different keywords can be detrimental. As your app begins to rank higher and gain more reviews, news of your app will begin to spread by word of mouth. Changing the title can make it difficult for word to spread about your app.
• Keywords – To improve your search rankings, you need to know which keywords are relevant and used most often by your target audience. It is helpful to monitor competitors in order to realize how you compare week to week.

In addition to being the most important factors for ASO, the fact that the title and keywords can be modified easily means that you can regularly optimize them.

Secondary Factors:

• Total # of Downloads – Your number of downloads are extremely important to ASO, but you don’t have complete control over them.
• Ratings and Reviews – Also important and difficult to control. However, there are ways to incentivize happy users to rate and review.

ASO is a process that needs to be monitored and constantly tweaked over a period of time. Your optimal set of keywords rarely is the set that you first opt to put in the app store.

Today, the most common approach to ASO is no approach at all. Developers often pick keywords and write descriptions at the last second during an app’s submission process. In most cases, little or no research on keyword searches occurs before the app submission, leaving most apps hidden and the likelihood of discovery quite low.

We had a moment to sit down with Ian Sefferman, the CEO of MobileDevHQ, and he told us how investing time in ASO has affected their customers. He said:

“ASO is having dramatic effects on our client apps. For those who put the time in to understand, iterate, and test, we’ve seen many apps increase their downloads by a factor of 2x-10x, and an increase of revenue by a similar, or bigger, rate due to the increase in engagement of users earned by ASO. ASO is not a simple process, and you might not see the impact overnight, but if you’re willing to invest in it, the outcome can be incredibly worthwhile.”

App developers need to consistently track their own rankings and the rankings of their competitors over time. More apps are published every day, and the constant stream of new ratings, reviews, and downloads can affect your search rankings. Keep testing and experimenting with your keywords in order to consistently rank well and drive more traffic to your download page.