So you’ve finally got your head around the Google Keyword Planner and worked out how to track your rankings and traffic via Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools – you know how to get your webpage ranking and converting. Great! But now you want to put your game/application online via Google Play or the iOS App Store, only there are no official tools to help you optimize. Sure, there are a few app store keyword tools out there, but where do they get their data from and how reliable are they? Until Google Play or the iOS App Store comes out with its own keyword tool, users are flying in the dark without any navigational equipment.

1. App Store Keyword Optimization: Optimizing
Your App Description with the Right Keywords
So you’ve finally got your head around the Google Keyword Planner and worked out how to track your
rankings and traffic via Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools – you know how to get your
webpage ranking and converting. Great! But now you want to put your game/application online via
Google Play or the iOS App Store, only there are no official tools to help you optimize. Sure, there are a
few app store keyword tools out there, but where do they get their data from and how reliable are they?
Until Google Play or the iOS App Store comes out with its own keyword tool, users are flying in the dark
without any navigational equipment.
At MO Group International, we’ve been helping clients achieve top rankings in the app stores for years.
The truth is that choosing the right keywords for your app, as important as this may be, is only a fraction
of the battle. More so than traditional webpage optimization, mobile app optimization relies on visual
elements such as graphics and layout, as well as user recommendations, but let’s take a step back and
focus on the keywords for now.
Some Differences Between Google Play and the iOS App Store
In order to optimize our app descriptions for each of the respective app stores, we first need to
understand how each app store works, and how they process the app descriptions. One of the main
differences between Google Play and the iOS App Store is that app descriptions for Google Play are
crawlable. This means that optimizing the descriptions with your keyword(s) will have a direct impact on
your ranking. iOS app descriptions on the other hand, are not crawlable, and so optimizing them with
keyword variations is not quite so necessary.
iTunes returns results based on your app title, your app keywords, and your company name. This may
seem like a fairly primitive algorithm compared to that of Google Play, but let’s not forget that Google Play
is owned by (the hint is in the name) Google – the most sophisticated search engine in the world.
Let’s Take an Example…
Try comparing the search results of ‘guitar’ and ‘guitars’ on iTunes and Google Play.* What you should
notice is that the top results in iTunes are dramatically different for each search query, while the top
results in Google Play are almost identical for each query. This demonstrates Google Play’s enhanced
ability to recognize similar search terms. Let’s zoom in a little and take a look at the role of keywords
here…
At the time of writing, for the search query ‘guitar’, we can see that the top two results in Google Play are
Real Guitar and Real Guitar Free respectively.

2. Now, when we search for ‘guitars’, you notice that those top two results change.
Even though Real Guitar has the higher rating and a far greater number of installs (at the time of writing,
Real Guitar has 5-10 million, while Real Guitar Free has 1-5 million), Real Guitar Free has suddenly
claimed that top spot. Although Google Play is good at recognizing similar keywords, there are some
things we can do in order to improve rankings on specific keyword variations. Let’s take a look at the
description for Real Guitar:
Notice that the keyword ‘guitars’ does not appear once within the app description. Now let’s look at the
description for Real Guitar Free:

3. Simply by placing the keyword once within the text, Real Guitar Free has managed to claim the top spot
over Real Guitar. This demonstrates the impact that using relevant keywords and keyword variations
within your text can have.
Now let’s switch to iTunes, where the top two results for ‘guitar’ are Guitar! and our old friend Real Guitar
Free:
While for ‘guitars’ we have Guitartuna and Guitar Tuner:
Why are these results so drastically different? In order to answer this, we need to take a look at the way
that the apps have been named. Here are the app titles for the two apps ranking on ‘guitar’:
Now here are the app titles for the two apps ranking on ‘guitars’:

4. Notice how the app titles for these products are much more strategic, containing a range of keywords,
including ‘guitars’. This demonstrates the importance and impact of optimizing your app title with
keywords for the iOS App Store.
However, this point is not exclusive to iTunes, but also applicable to Google Play. Including your keyword
within the app title can improve your Google Play ranking by as much as 100 positions. This means that,
when naming your app, you should take keywords into consideration. If you’ve created a game, the aim of
which is to collect coins, you might want to consider naming it ‘Coin Collector’. Or, if you’ve created an
app that allows forgetful motorists to find where they’ve put their keys, you might want to call it ‘Lost Key
Finder’. Sure, these aren’t the most inventive or exciting app names, but choosing a keyword-rich name
will immediately increase the chances of potential users finding your page.
Now that we have seen how drastically app rankings can differ when taking singular and plural variations
into account, let’s consider regional differences. For example, in UK English, a large vehicle that has
wings and carries passengers from destination to destination would probably be called an ‘aeroplane’,
while in US English it would be called an ‘airplane’. In France, if you were thirsty you would want a
‘boisson’, whereas if you were in Quebec you’d be looking for a ‘breuvage’. An Austrian would put their
grocery shopping in a ‘Sackerl’, while a German would prefer to use a ‘Tüte’. Unfortunately, the only way
to effectively target each of your markets is to use professional native speakers with marketing,
copywriting and optimization experience. If you want to reach a global audience, then it is necessary to
seek the services of an experienced agency.
Google Play and the iOS App Store: Two Different Beasts
What is important to take from this article is the fact that optimization (and not just keyword optimization)
differs from store to store. In order to achieve the highest possible level of success for each store, you
need to understand how their algorithms work, and approach your description-writing process individually
for each. Of course, keyword selection and optimization is such a small part of the process and you will
need to take into account much more than this in order to get your app into those top ranking positions.
At MO Group International our app store optimization service allows our clients to gain increased
exposure with their apps. Using only native speakers, we optimize separately for each market, drawing on
years of online marketing experience. On top of keyword research and optimization, we offer a range of
services including multilingual copywriting and graphical creation.
Our app store optimization service does not stop at getting your app ranking. We ensure that you
getclicks and that all copywriting, graphical and other optimization elements burst with life and combine in
order to fuel downloads. We do this in up to as many as 40 different languages so that you can maximize
the potential of each of your markets. Contact us today for a free quote!
*All data and rankings used within this article are relative to the time of writing. These may change over
time.