App Store Optimization - SMX Munich - Emily Grossman

Growth in Smartphone Ownership

http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/27/apple-q1-2015/
Hardware
Sales

http://moz.com/blog/top-three-inbound-marketing-strategies-for-mobile-apps
Cumulative App Downloads from the Apple
App Store in Billions (June ‘08 – ’14)

Smartphone Users FREQUENTLY Download Apps

Most
Users
Find
Apps in
the App
Stores

Most Users Find Apps in the App StoresMost
Users
Find
Apps in
the App
Stores

App Store Optimization vs. App Search Optimization

“What makes an app rank well in
the App Store (iOS) or Google
Play Store (Android)?”

2 Components To App Store Optimization:
Meta Data
• Title
• Category
• Description (Google Play)
• Keywords (App Store)
[TEXT]
35%
Performance & Engagement
• Downloads (Volume and Velocity)
• Star Ratings and Reviews
• Freshness
65%

App Title
App Bundle Display
Name (“Label
Attribute” on Android)
iTunes Connect
Title (matches
App Bundle
Name)

Important Keywords in the App Title
(App Store Especially)

Rankings
Increase
with
Keywords
in the
Title

Kayak is installed on this
device
Spotlight for iOS will Crawl App Titles
- Even On Installed Apps -

Google’s New “Apps” Universal Highly
Correlated with Exact Match Keywords in Title
Google Play Store Titles
App Store Titles

Categories
Provide
Keyword
Value
(Especially
the Primary
Category)

Pandora ranks
#1 in the
Music
category, but
only #8 in the
US store.
Categories
Provide A Less
Competitive
Ranking
Environment

With a
Well
Chosen
Category,
We Get
These
Users, Too

1. Identify
Categories
2. Collect Data
3. Graph Results
4. Repeat

1. Identify
Categories
2. Collect Data
3. Graph Results
4. Repeat
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1 2 3 4
OverallStoreRank
Category Rank
Social
Networking
Music
Most
competitive
Least
competitive

Categories
1 category 2 categories:
- 1 primary
- 1 secondary

Keyword Research
• Competitor Research
(SensorTower, MobileDevHQ)
• Google Keyword Tool
• Your Google Analytics Data
• “Related searches” on iOS 8
• Translations
(http://bit.ly/localized-
keywords)

Picking Keywords: Traffic vs. Competition

Traffic vs. Competition
YIKES!

Remember:
On Mobile,
a Higher
Ranking is
Even MORE
Important

“The App Store
equivalent to
the second page
of Google is any
app ranked
greater than 15”
-MobileDevHQ

Keyword Research
• Competitor Research
(SensorTower,
MobileDevHQ)
• Google Keyword Tool
• Your Google Analytics Data
• “Related searches” on iOS 8

100 Characters of Comma-Separated Keywords
Don’t do this:
the, quick, brown, fox,
jumped, over, the, lazy,
dog
Do this:
the,quick,brown,fox,jump
ed,over,the,lazy,dog

Don’t…
…add extra spaces after commas
…repeat keywords in the Title
…repeat keywords in the Categories
…repeat keywords in the Developer Name

Description crawled for
keywords
Description NOT crawled
for keywords in App Store
search
Descriptions – App Store vs. Google Play

Descriptions
ALSO
Crawled in
Google Web
Search
Note that the descriptive title contributes
to the App Store listing ranking in Google!

These are Web Pages, So Avoid Duplicate
Content!

Include Google Search Terms in Description
• APP NAME
• APP DESCRIPTION
• iOS/ iPad/ iPhone
• Android/ Android
Phone/ Android Tablet
• Relevant search terms
• Relevant brand
variations
• List content in the app
+ “app”
or
“game”

Apps With
More
Downloads
Rank Higher

Use Paid + Organic Together to Drive Downloads
“For every 2 PAID
downloads, your app will
generate on average
3 ORGANIC downloads.”
Ian Sefferman (@iseff)

Use Paid + Organic Together to Drive Downloads
“For every 2 PAID
downloads, your app will
generate on average
3 ORGANIC downloads.”
Ian Sefferman (@iseff)
*
*downloads acquired from paid channels,
not download bots or install farms

75% of the
top 1000
apps have 4+
star rating

The higher
you move
up the
rankings
ladder, the
more app
star ratings
matter.
When Apple started factoring
ratings & reviews in the search
algorithm. High rated apps got a
ranking boost, low rating apps
suffered a ranking loss.

Volume
of
Ratings/
Reviews
Also
Important

Google’s New “Apps” Universal Highly
Correlated with Star Ratings in App Stores
3.5 +

Start Getting More 5-Star Reviews!

Technical & UX Improvements
Tech/ User Experience
Change Goes Live
App Changed Rank from
1,112 to 262 Very Quickly
App Moved into US Over-
All Ranking Instead of Just
Category Rankings
57

Asking for
Reviews
Music App Day One App iTV App

If a user selects
this option,
Tinder does not
ask them to
review the app
Preventing
Users from
Leaving
Negative
Reviews

Even BETTER: Let Unhappy Users Seek Help
Anywhere BUT the App Store
Source: http://dancounsell.com/articles/prompting-for-app-reviews

Pick the Right Moment
• Never ask on launch
• Pick a moment when the
user has completed their
primary task with the app
• Pick a moment when the
user feels accomplished

Update Apps Frequently to Maintain Your
“Freshness” Booster

Right now, Google is Pulling the App Meta
Data for the Apps Universal
Google Play Store Titles
App Store Titles

Most
Users
Find
Apps in
the App
Stores
in Google

Google is Indexing Android Apps
(with Deep Linking)

And Google May Be Gearing up to Index iOS
Apps with Deep Links Soon
Justin Briggs (@JustinRBriggs)

The Future of App Search May Look More Like
a Mobile Web Search with Deep Links…

Best Plan for Success…
Optimize for App Stores
Optimize for Apps Universal
Optimize Mobile Web
Add Deep Linking
Today’s Talk
Store Titles & Ratings
Mobile SEO
bit.ly/app-indexed

Danke schön!
Emily Grossman, Mobile Marketing Specialist, MobileMoxie
Twitter: @goutaste Email: emily@mobilemoxie.com
facebook.com/mobilemoxie

App Store Optimization - SMX Munich - Emily Grossman

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