APP STORE OPTIMIZATION – LEARNING THE BASIC FACTS AND KEY FACTORS

App Store OptimizationIn the highly competitive digital world, businesses are constantly experimenting with new methods and strategies to attract the attention of their target audiences. In this respect creating and offering innovative apps that help in ensuring an enhanced user experience, has emerged as an effective tool. However, with countless apps being offered in a single business niche, digital marketing need to work towards enhancing the popularity and visibility of their client apps. This requires them to come up with the most effective app store optimization strategies for different platforms. However, before learning more about such strategies, it is important to understand some basic facts about app store optimization services as discussed below.

What Is App Store Optimization?

According to a report, more than 63% mobile apps are discovered by users through search conducted in app stores. With a countless number of apps to choose from, it is not surprising that most apps are never even viewed by the target audiences. App store optimization is the process of enhancing the visibility and ranking of the business app in app stores to ensure that they reach the target audiences. This might seem like an impossible objective to achieve, especially for a newly launched app However, with proper planning and optimization strategies, digital marketing professionals can make almost any app attain a high ranking and expand its reach to the masses. This is regardless of the app store on which the app is being sold.

Importance Of App Store Optimization

App store optimization has become a necessary digital marketing strategy for businesses seeking an increase in traffic volumes and downloads. It helps a business app to stand apart from the crowd of thousands of similar apps, striving equally hard to get a major share of the traffic. With the growing popularity of mobile apps, businesses need to pay special attention to ensuring that their apps are easily found in the app store for enhanced profitability. In addition, when implemented in a proper manner, app store optimization services can help in enhancing the brand value of a business by improving its credibility and reliability amongst the target audiences.

Key Factors That Influence App Optimization

In order to get the desired results in terms of visibility and rankings, it is important for the digital marketing experts to be aware of the key factors that influence optimization. This will help them to create an engaging and effective user experience ensuring greater traffic volume for the app. The most important of these factors are discussed in brief as follows.

1. Use of Keywords in Title & Description

Using keywords in the title and the description of the app can go a long way in enhancing its visibility and ranking within the app store. However, it is important to choose the right keywords to be incorporated in the title and description. These keywords should have a high search volume, low level of competition and high relevance. There are various tools available online that can help the users find the most appropriate keywords for an app.

2. Localization of App

In order to attract the attention of the local users, it is important for the digital marketers to focus on the localization of the app. This essentially means translating the app-name, keywords and screen-shots into multiple local languages. This simple process can enhance the traffic volume by a significant margin and enhancing the reach of the business across a specific geographical limit. Both Android and Apple app stores offer various tools to translate the app-name, keywords, screenshots into different languages.

3. Ratings & Reviews for App

Even though it is not possible for the professionals offering app store optimization services to control the reviews and ratings of an app, it can impact the visibility and ranking in a significant manner. The best thing that digital marketing experts can do is to try and reduce the impact of any negative reviews and ratings for the app. This can be done by asking the users to provide positive feedback and reviews from within the app itself. In addition to encouraging the satisfied users to provide positive reviews, this tactic also prevents any negative reviews from unsatisfied users by seeking their feedback.

4. Use of Icons & Screenshots

Icons and screenshots help the end users in learning about an app in an interesting manner. These visual representations of the app help in catching the attention of the users and this naturally helps in enhancing the ranking and visibility of the app. However, the digital marketing experts need to make sure that they use most appropriate images and screenshots that present the most appealing aspects of the app. They can make use the various tools available online for testing their shortlisted images and screenshots and comparing them with the industry benchmarks. Contrary to the popular belief this strategy proves effective not only for apps of big brands but also the ones designed for small and medium business organizations for a better user experience.