Let’s learn about App Store Optimisation

Major app stores like iTunes, Google play, windows store, blackberry world, include more than 2 million mobile apps. It is easy to get your app get listed in app store. But discovering your app from 2 million lists by potential customers is the major challenge of mobile app publishers. App Store Optimization (ASO) is an effective process to push the the marketing of mobile app in app stores.

App Store Optimization process provides solution for improving the visibility of a mobile app in an app store. Optimizing a mobile app enables it to rank higher in an app store’s search results. Research says that, 63% of apps are discovered through app store searches. More visibility of your app will be based on the ranks in app store search results. This leads to more traffic to your apps in the app store. App store optimization is similar to SEO. Search Engine optimization is for websites and ASO is for mobile apps to increase top charts ranking. It is possible to have more downloads of your app from app store by ASO process by ranking higher in search results and top charts.

ASO involves certain processes to bring- up the mobile app in app store.

Target the audience – The base of successful ASO strategy is to identify your target audience and customers. It is important to do market research to figure out who exactly are the potential customers for your app. This enables you to find out the keyword they used to search the app in app store search result. This crucial market research enables you to improve your search rankings.
The keyword in title – Keyword plays a vital role to improve search ranking. It is important to know which keywords are relevant and used most often by your target audience. The keyword placed in the title should be the one with the heaviest search traffic. It should be stable. Changing the title can make it difficult for word to spread about your app. The studies reported that apps that used keywords in titles ranked 10.3% higher than apps with no keywords in title.
App description – Create a simple and influential description for your app. Writing a bullet list on apps features suits more. Stuffing app description with keywords improves search ranking.
App logo – Uniqueness in designing icon of your app is another major challenge. It should grab users’ attention immediately so that when users scroll and examine different options, the icon of your app is the first thing they notice.
App screenshots – In app store the screenshots make the exact feature list of the apps. Screenshots play a visual treat to potential users that make them decide whether to install or not. Make the most out of this space and look at it as another advertising platform for your app. Use screenshots to tell a story.
App trailer video – Trailer videos allow the users to simplify the product advantages and features. It is a visual selling point that allows users to see not only the product features, but also how creative the people behind it are. It is important to make the users both informed and entertained.
App language & translation – Making your app language English centric means, you neglect the huge potential market for your app. Research says 31% of the world’s total app revenue came from North America? 41% came from Asia, and 23% came from Europe, which means you are missing out on the majority of the world’s market for your app if you only make it English-centric. This can be easily fixed by focusing on localization, which is the process of marketing your app to non-English speaking people in their native languages.
Promoting and app indexing – To raise your apps visibility, it is practically smart to go beyond the app store. ASO also incorporates the objectivities of SEO to raise the apps views, downloads and purchase. For greater traffic you can use the basic tactics like Paid search, Social media, link building through news, press release and reviews, contributing your app features by influential blogs & articles, etc.
Another method to rank your app is App indexing, which enables your app to get into Google Search. If users have your app installed, they can launch your app and go directly to the content they searched for. It helps the app users to find both public and personal content right on their device that helps them more quickly to find what they need.
ASO monitoring – To reach the goal, it is important to constantly work on your app. As same as SEO with websites, ASO also requires frequent and constant monitoring to keep it optimized. Analyzing the ranking list of your own app and the competitors help the marketers to boost up the app. Every day more and more apps are being published in app store, which means new competitors are there in your category. Working with keywords is the best way to grab rank in search results. While releasing new version or updates for your app integrate the user feedback in order to improve app performance and user experience.
App reviews and ratings – The most frustrating issue for designers and developers will be the review and rating of the app by potential customers. Higher rated app will rank higher in the app store. The first thing the users examine will be the user experience with your app. In app stores like Play store, the reviews section is very visible and well-known. So highlight positive reviews and immediately respond to negative ones.