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What if we told you that there is a way to optimize your app in the app stores, making it appear in front of competitors for a penny more? With ASO (or App Store Optimization), this is possible!

If you are an app operator, this is a very interesting topic, as many people decide to download an app by its relevance, i.e. the order in which it appears in searches.

Do you want to know how to optimize apps with ASO and boost your app’s success?

ASO is a term used for the technique of optimizing smartphone apps in search engines such as Google Play Store or Apple Store.

Its goal is to optimize apps to improve their performance,and make it easier for the audience to perform a specific action: download the app and use it (either consume its content or make purchases through it).

However, for this strategy to work and the app’s download rate to increase, it is important that the team responsible understands the pillars and techniques of SEO optimizations for ASO.

Overall, the visibility of an app increases with the use of this SEO strategy for apps. Now, let’s go a little deeper to understand the main advantages of ASO for businesses:

Organic Download Growth

With a well-implemented ASO strategy, the range of searches that indicate your app as a result organically increases.

This is important because it is a cheaper way to promote your work and serves as an alternative to investing in ads.

And the most interesting thing is that this is a long-term strategy. In other words, it can bring very positive results after a long time of its application.

Improves the Conversion Rate

When a user downloads your application and the service offered is of quality, there are many chances to increase the conversion rate. This is because you can work on better customer loyalty by slowly becoming a reference in your niche.

In addition, there are other interesting ways to monetize your app, such as including third-party ads, offering rewards or discounts for those who refer to your app, and more.

Positioning factors

Just like Google, app platforms have their guidelines for ranking results. In their case, the key factors for an app to be among the highly competitive first places in the SERP (lists results of Internet searches) are:

Logo;
Images;
Video;
Keywords;
Title;
App Description;
Category;
Number of downloads;
User ratings;
Number of uninstalls.

How to make ASO of my app?

Now, let’s analyze each of the points mentioned in the topic above and understand how to make ASO for apps. Here you go:

Logo

Recognized as the face of your brand, the logo (or icon) will be the customer’s first contact with your app. Therefore, it is important that it is clean, contains your brand’s colors, and that it is short, with no text inserted inside. Also, if there is an update to the brand or product logo, it is essential to be adjusted in the app as well.

Images and Videos

After the logo, images and videos are the first things which catch the of customer’s attention.. More often than not, they are the deciding factor for a download. Therefore, it is important to use images that summarize the app and its features well, as well as videos that are self-explanatory and show the app’s interface.

For both features, try to show what differentiates your app from competitors and why the user should choose it.

Keywords

Just as it works in SEO, the use of keywords is also an important factor in the success of your ASO strategy. Therefore, it is necessary to make a detailed mapping of the search volume, relevance and difficulty of positioning of each keyword chosen. The ideal is to choose keywords whose search volume is higher, but competition is low.

App title and Description

Talking about the title, it is essential that you position it as far to the left as possible, since the display limit for the title in the SERP (lists results of Internet searches) of stores is only 10 characters. Remember that Google Play allows 50 characters in the title, while the Apple Store allows only 30.

When it comes to description, there are two classifications: short and long.

In the short description, try to define succinctly, in a single sentence, what your app is about and for what it is used for. In the long description, explain the app’s features, insert keywords that you want to work with, use lists, emojis, and bold to draw the user’s attention.

Category

Research indicates that half of all app downloads come from searching the categories page of the store.

So it is essential that you select the category that matches the purpose and functionality of your app. To be most effective, it is worth analyzing the competitors and how they position them. .

Audience Perception

The perception of the public who have downloaded your app is directly related to ASO relevant points such as number of downloads, user ratings, and uninstall rate.

To ensure that your app is well rated and to increase the number of downloads , it is important to respond to all comments (whether positive or negative), to solve reported app problems quickly, and to encourage the users to rate the app and leave a comments.

All this helps to leverage the application in search engines and, consequently, reduce the number of uninstallations .

Did you discover how important it is to work on ASO optimization of your app?  Even though  it is a technique with long-term results, it is important to apply each of the above issues to ensure your app ranks ands rates well  in the major app stores.

Sources: Neilpatel