The world has gone mobile, and we do almost everything on our phones. Be it ordering food from your favorite restaurant, getting a cab, studying online, and much more. For this reason, the major app stores in the world collectively host about 6 million apps.
What does this mean? It is a competition for app developers. For your application to stand out, you need to put in the work. Note that one of the biggest challenges developers face today is getting their applications noticed and downloaded by users.
If you have a gaming app, note that there are millions of others online. The same goes for every other type of app. This reality is what makes app store optimization critical. It involves optimizing your mobile applications so that they rank high in the app stores.
Increased visibility means increased traffic for your application and downloads, which can also be improved by collaborating with an SEO company. Remember that a significant percentage of the applications are usually discovered through searches on the app stores. Here are app store optimization strategies that increase the visibility of your application, downloads, and usage.
1. Know your target audience
Remember that app store optimization is a digital marketing technique. Like other marketing types, you need to understand your target audience to devise an effective strategy to reach them.
Knowing your audience should be the first step, lest your efforts will be futile along the way. Create a profile of users and work with it. Look at gender, purchasing power, age, and even education. Why is this critical? It will give you guidance on the factors that will determine if the users will download your app.
Understanding their interests in applications will inform how you approach them. With knowledge of their preferences, you will know how to create your initial strategies. For instance, you will know what to include in your meta title and meta description.
2. Do keyword research
Remember that it is the keywords that help users find you. There is a need to be deliberate about the phrases you use in your content. Luckily for you, there are SEO tools you can use for this. You can also collaborate with an SEO company to help you with keyword research.
Keyword research is often considered the most critical component of app store optimization. Note that the visibility of search results on the stores is based on keywords. The tools will go a long way in helping you with keyword ideas and implement them in your strategy.
Being in touch with the different ASO keyword categories would be a great place to start. You will be looking at problem keywords, location keywords, feature keywords, action keywords, and user keywords. Look for keywords being used by competitors and those in high competition and use them to derive your keywords.
After you have identified your keyword set and implemented them, it does not stop there. There is a need to monitor them to see how they are constantly performing. See how they are ranking and also be on the lookout for emerging keywords. You have to be on top of your keywords game for your ASO efforts to pay off.
3. Optimize the title and description
As earlier mentioned, it is vital to understand your target audience to know what to include in the description. This is a clear indicator that the title and description are essential components for ASO. Remember that they play a huge role in motivating downloads.
How do you optimize your title and description? It starts with ensuring the title is visible to the users as they scroll down the screen. This is possible if you keep the characters at a maximum of 25. Also, it would be a smart move if you include your company name and a primary keyword in the title. This will make it easy for users to find your app.
You can also test the effectiveness and creativity of your title by searching it in the store. If too many results are popping up, something is missing and an indicator that you were not very specific.
The ideal description consists of about 250 characters. Just like the title, make sure that the primary keywords have been included. Make the description readable and avoid keyword stuffing. The description should also be compelling enough to make the user want to click and get more information on the app.
You can also add snippets that include ratings or product information to add to the description's appeal.
4. Build backlinks
One of the sure ways to drive traffic to your applications in the stores is by creating backlinks. All you need to do is start shopping for websites with authority and are relevant to your website. Backlinks could be anything from text to images. You can create backlinks with images using the ALT tag (News - Alert).
Backlinks will come in handy in building your keyword ranking. You can start building backlinks using your website. If you have a website, include links and images that will lead visitors to the app. Social media is also an excellent platform for this.
Most people build backlinks by guest posting. If you can make quality content, reach out to web owners and ask them to allow you to post on their websites. Relevance is critical when it comes to guest posting. You cannot write for just any website. It has to be relevant to your niche.
Create exciting content and include a link to your app or website at the end of it. If users find the content helpful, they will click on the link to get more information about you.
Conclusion
If you do not leverage app store optimization, it might take a lot of time before people notice your app, regardless of how good it may be. A good ASO strategy will increase traffic and consequently grow your app.
Start with understanding who your audience is. Embark on keyword research and optimize your title and description to pique the interest of the users. Backlinks will also go a long way in driving traffic to your app.
