A complete analysis of App Store ASO - Collector's Edition

ASO , which is the abbreviation of App Store Optimization, plays a vital role in the search ranking, download volume and user reviews of applications and games in the app store. This article integrates the essence of several online articles about ASO, hoping to give readers a detailed interpretation of ASO.

1. The Importance of ASO

1.75% of users obtain apps through search

From 2011 to 2013, users chose their favorite apps based on recommendations from rankings, but by 2014, the influence of rankings had gradually declined, especially after the paid rankings were ruined. More users are obtaining their target apps through search; at the same time, Apple has also increased the influence of search on rankings. Therefore, search optimization has become an indispensable part of App Store promotion.

2. The top three hot words account for 70% of the traffic

According to the database of the third-party organization App Radar, there are currently 310,000 hot words included in the App Store on iPhone, and as many as 460,000 for iPad. The top three search results for each hot word account for 70% of the traffic of this hot word, which shows the importance of doing ASO well.

3. For small and medium-sized teams, search optimization is the best opportunity for brand exposure

According to incomplete statistics, there are now more than 1.5 million apps and games on the App Store, but only the top 145 can be shown on the list. Therefore, for small and medium-sized development teams, those with higher search rankings naturally have more exposure opportunities, which is helpful for the team to carry out the next project or raise funds.

2. Main factors affecting ASO

1. APP Title

The impact of the APP title on the app ranking is just like the impact of the "Title" tag on the website. There is no doubt that this is one of the factors that has the greatest impact on the APP ranking. When setting the title, take into account the keywords that users most often use when searching for this type of app. For example, if the content of your game is Chinese chess, but the name is "Chu-Han Contention", then it will be difficult for your game to rank high when users search for "chess".

2. Keywords or tags

The keywords/words or tags you fill in when uploading an APP are just like the "key words" tags you fill in when making a web page. Although the "keywords" tag has no effect on SEO now, it is undeniable that it was once very important. The development of App Store ranking rules is obviously not mature enough to ignore keywords, so you must think about the keywords you want to set for your app.

A comprehensive analysis of App Store ASO - Collector's Edition

3. APP Icon

An icon is to an app what appearance is to a person. If you want others to have a good first impression of your app, you must first start by designing a beautiful icon. Moreover, beautiful icons may bring you other unexpected benefits.

4. APP screenshots and video previews

There is no doubt that the screenshots and videos on the APP details page will really affect the performance of the application in the rankings. The App Store also has to consider user experience. If your game screenshots are terrible, will users download it?

A comprehensive analysis of App Store ASO - Collector's Edition

5. User Reviews

In addition, user reviews account for a large proportion in the App Store, although most of the reviews are now occupied by water armies. So when it comes to user reviews in China, it’s always a bit awkward…

6. Downloads

This is the factor used in the most popular method of ranking manipulation last year, which was to make the APP obtain a high ranking in terms of download volume, and then use the ranking effect to bring in a large number of downloads. Although Apple has now conducted strict scrutiny on ranking manipulation, it is certain that the number of app installations is still a very important factor in ASO.

7. Number of active users, proportion of active users and short-term user retention, etc.

As Apple improves its ranking algorithm, it will ultimately return to the goal of "apps with the best user experience will get the best ranking." Therefore, for any application developer, the most important thing is to maintain product quality, increase the number of active users, the proportion of active users and short-term user retention.

8. Social sharing data

There is no need to explain how powerful social networks are. In the face of the upcoming era of online society, there is no doubt that the App Store's ranking algorithm will inevitably include the influence of social media sharing data.

3. How to do ASO well

The following are the responses to the above eight points:

1. The longer the title, the better

According to statistics, all the top-ranked apps have short titles, while the lower-ranked apps have more long titles. Apps with long titles account for about 20% of the top 100. It is obvious that there are not too many apps with long titles.

Suggestion: The APP title should contain keywords and the number of characters for the keywords should be within 12. It should also describe the application scenarios of the APP in detail. The first purpose of keywords is to make them easier for users to remember when searching.

2. Keywords or tags

1) What are good keywords?

① Take a close look at the App Store, type in some keywords and look closely at the search results. When you look at the top apps, you can see if they were accidentally searched and didn’t match the keyword, or if they are actually related to the keyword.

② If you find that many apps match the keywords you searched, you should use the download and review ratio of these apps to determine whether these apps are a successful match for your keywords;

③Based on past experience, it is a good choice to have one keyword appear in each sentence on average;

④Keywords appear in the title. It seems that the app title should have a stronger relevance to the app itself than its description. If possible, you should name your app based on the keywords that best describe what your app does and are most relevant to it.

Tip: When you really take keyword optimization seriously, the first thing you need to do is find a great keyword and then match it to your app.

2) How to filter keywords?

①Keyword optimization: It is recommended to start from two aspects: keywords related to the application content and with high search volume, and high-quality keywords;

② Remove duplicates: remove the Chinese characters contained in the previous keywords;

③Fill in the filtered keywords and submit: Filter as many keywords as possible that are relevant to the application content and have high search volume and optimize them into your application.

Suggestion: The more effective keywords you have, the better. This way, you will have a greater chance of being displayed and naturally have everything.

3. Beautiful icons

A good icon is crucial to the success of your app. If the icon is designed smartly and attractively, it can effectively increase the user's click-through rate on the app in the search results list page, which is of great help to ASO. Moreover, a beautiful icon may bring unexpected additional benefits. Perhaps one day when Apple Store is making promotional materials, it will randomly select some beautiful icons and put them on them. This will be beneficial to the promotion of game brands.

A comprehensive analysis of App Store ASO - Collector's Edition

4. Screenshots and videos. Videos are strongly recommended.

1) If you can upload a video, be sure to upload it, so that your app will have a great advantage in search results;

2) The size of the uploaded screenshots must comply with market requirements, and the screenshots must be clear and free of watermarks.

Recommendation: Update your version regularly, which will help keep your ranking priority, and be sure to manage your users.

5. Guide users to leave comments, do not post fake comments

1) It must be authentic;

2) It must be effective;

3) User ID cannot be repeated;

6. Downloads

Even in the App Store, although the weight of download volume has been reduced, there are still many factors that affect the weight that can be optimized, such as the number of active users, user activity, short-term user retention rate, etc. Although it is not as simple as boosting downloads, good results can be achieved through the cooperation of other marketing methods.

Suggestion: APP download volume is similar to web page views, so this is an important indicator. Providing relatively more user downloads is a necessary and priority prerequisite for ranking. Apple will review the true validity of the download volume.

7. App usage frequency: How to increase the frequency of App usage?

1) Provide high-quality content;

2) Add push reminders in the app;

3) Increase the exposure of the app on the website;

4) Brand exposure when purchasing offline products;

5) Register some accounts and go to major forum channels to increase the exposure of the app.

Suggestions: 1. Help your users provide jailbroken APP for them to download and install;

2. Provide users with a useful function to help them (similar to the promotion of Wandoujia application, which solves the process from users installing the APP to using the APP).

8. Social sharing data

① The iOS algorithm will take into account the number of times your APP link has been spread, but it must be real, not fake;

②Users can spread the information on major social media;

③ The age and history of the APP. Although these will have a certain impact, they are not absolute data. If the budget is sufficient, it can also increase the brand communication.

Summarize

ASO is actually an indispensable part of refined operations!