What is ASO? And how to rank app on the App Store

More than 5 million apps are available on leading app stores that makes every app publisher hard to make their app visible on top of the app store that is why App Store Optimization or ASO is so important. In today’s topic, we will be going to see what is ASO? What are its benefits? How to apply it for our app visibility? And many more.

Definition of App Store Optimization (ASO)

what is ASO

Source: GoodBarber

App Store Optimization or ASO is the process of optimizing the app to rank higher on the app stores like google play for android and the app store for iOS. The higher your app will rank on the app store the better visibility and higher traffic you will get.

ASO doesn’t just end after ranking your app on the app store you have to make sure that visitors click on your app and also download your app or purchase it.

Why App Store Optimization is important?

The primary reason for App Store Optimization is that you need good visibility on the app store, as I mentioned earlier there are more than 5 million apps on app stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store, so you will have to make sure that your app will not be lost in the store.

If your app gets good visibility then the chances of visitors clicking on your app and downloading or purchasing your app becomes higher and for all this, you will have to optimize your app.

How do users find an app?

According to a report, more than 65% of users find and download an app through search and mostly through app store search. So it is highly recommended to optimize your app for app stores for more downloads and purchase of your app.

Benefits of App Store Optimization

High visibility on the app store: Now you know that most of the users download the app through the app store and ASO helps your app to rank on the app store and make your app visible in front of people. If your audience doesn’t find your app then they will not download or purchase it. So ASO helps to make sure that your app gets visibility and downloads.

Relevant audience: With the help of ASO your app will be visible in front of the relevant audience. App Store makes sure that your app must be visible to a relevant audience who are actually looking for your app. With the help of ASO, App stores find your most relevant audience.

Organic downloads: With of help of a good strategy of App Store Optimization, the audience will get to know about your app and that will lead to free download of your app. If you optimize your app well then you will not have to pay anything for ads.

Global audience: As most app stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store have a wide audience throughout the world. If you optimize your app you will have a better chance of delivering your app worldwide.

SEO VS ASO

 

                                                                                  SEO vs ASO

 

Source: AppRadar
ASO is also known as App Store SEO, because both the processes have similarities like keywords, links, and descriptions, etc. The main difference between ASO and SEO is the search engines, ASO is for search engines like App Store and Google Play while SEO is for search engines like Google and Yahoo.

App store ranking factors

Factors that help an app to rank on the app store are below:

Keywords: Keywords play an important role in App Store Optimization, if you don’t know what your targeted audiences are searching for on the app store then it will be very hard to understand for the app store to rank your app.

First, you will have to search the most relevant keywords for ASO, so that you can add them to the description, metadata, and title of the app. To find the most relevant keyword you can research your competitor’s keywords and their strategy. You can also keyword research tools like App Radar ASO tools.

App name: Keywords placed in the app name can be very beneficial as this can be the best strategy to rank your app with that keyword. So it is better to find the most relevant keyword with high search volume and low competition.

Also, make sure that your app name with keyword can fit within 30 characters as the Apple app store allows only 30 characters for app title while Google Play allows up to 50 characters. So keep your app name short and your logo clean so that audience gets attracted toward your app.

Keyword metadata: After researching for relevant keywords and after adding them to app name/title, you will have to add your keyword on keyword metadata. On Apple’s App Store you can use up to 100 keywords, so make sure that all the keywords that you enter are most relevant and have high search volume. Also, this feature is only available in Apple’s App Store not on Google Play.

Subtitle: This feature is also available only on Apple’s App Store. You can write up to 30 characters here so make sure that optimize it well for better ranking.

Description: Apple’s App Store doesn’t index your description but Google play index it, also Google has short and full description feature, so it is recommended to write beautiful, easy to understand and optimized content on the description on both the app store because description can encourage users to download your app.

App reviews: Reviews are also very important for any user who visits the app page for the first time. Also, an app with good ratings ranks better than an app with low ratings. So make sure you have designed your app very well if any user is facing any issue, you should have some feature to guide them. Also, encourage users to write reviews from the app.

App screenshots and videos: App screenshots and videos are also very important even though they don’t directly help in ranking your app on the app store but they encourage users to download your app and help to increase the conversion rate. To upload screenshots and videos that explain the features and functionality of your app.

App localization: If you are thinking that all your global users know English then you might be wrong. If you want to take your app globally, then you will have to change the language of keywords, descriptions, and screenshots or videos.

By adding localization you can increase your chances to be visible in front of those audiences who are searching in their native language on app stores.

App performance and optimization tools

There are many tools that can help you in ranking your app on the app store. Tools like Appsflyer, App Radar, SplitsMetric, etc. These tools can be used for A/B testing, App performance, and for optimization.

What to do after optimizing your app.

The first thing that you will do is to analyze your app performance and its visibility. To see how visible your app is you can search your keywords on the app store to see where your app is ranking. You can also check it with tools like App Radar

The second step is optimization because optimizing an app is not one time process, it is an ongoing process you have to see all the numbers, trends and then you optimize accordingly. You can also use many tools like App Radar for better optimizations.

If you want to earn money, you can also start monetizing your app to earn money. You can go with any ad platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. for monetization. Make sure that you have enough audience so that you can start earning from your app.

Summary

App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of optimizing your app so that it can be visible in front of app store visitors hence helping in more app downloads. Apple’s App Store and Google Play are generally most used for mobile app and the optimization factors on both stores are almost the same except for some factors that I have mentioned above.

ASO is the same as SEO, but the difference is their search engine. We apply SEO for search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and etc. while ASO is applied on app store search engines like Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

To rank your app on the app store you have to research relevant keywords (only for App Store), add keywords on the app title, its description, and Meta keywords. You also have to add graphics like photos and videos on the app store to attract users. Also, make sure that you add review forms on the app so that the user can be redirected to the app store to give reviews about your app.

If you need any help on App Store Optimization (ASO) then feel free to contact us, we would be happy to assist you, we are specialized in Web Design, SEO, PPC, ASO, SMM, and many more marketing fields.

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