ASO Optimization: Detailed Explanation of App Store Ranking Rules

ASO optimization obviously affects the first step, which is also the purpose of ASO optimization - to allow the application to be displayed as much as possible so that it has a chance to be clicked, downloaded, and installed. The only question now is: how to make the application more visible? To solve this problem, you must understand the App Store search rules!

Here are some things about ASO optimization:

I have always felt that ASO optimization is a trend and this is something that must be done. After all, we are all losers. In the words of Mumu Ge, we are brick movers, but how do we move these bricks? Brother Shui likes to think from the user's behavior habits. From the user inputting keywords to the final download, installation and activation, the general steps are as follows:

Search keywords → App display → Click → App details page → Download → Install

ASO optimization obviously affects the first step, which is also the purpose of ASO optimization - to allow the application to be displayed as much as possible so that it has a chance to be clicked, downloaded, and installed. The only question now is: how to make the application more visible?

To solve this problem, you must understand the App Store search rules!

The search rules of the App Store need to be discussed from two aspects. The first is the relevant factors that affect the App Store's overall ranking. Note that it is the overall ranking, not the influence of search results, so don't be confused. The second is the relevant factors that affect the App Store's search ranking. This is where optimization can be done. Do you feel like you have suddenly become enlightened? Brother Shui thought about it for a long time and finally figured out the relationship between them. Because there are two rankings here, the overall ranking and the search result ranking, which is different from the PC.

1. Relevant factors affecting the ranking of the App Store overall list: download volume per unit time, number of reviews, review star rating, ranking weight, hot word search coverage, etc., but the most important factor is the download volume per unit time, which is basically determined by this. However, it does not mean that the following factors can be ignored:

Ranking weight - If your app is found to have cheated, it will be downgraded by Apple, so cheating is risky and investment should be cautious; for example, UC Browser is a hard-hit area, with a huge number of downloads and users, but even if you search for UC Browser, it ranks in the top ten. Think about how high Apple's hatred index is for it;

Keyword search coverage - refers to the more search keywords that the app can display and the greater the weight, the higher the ranking will be;

2. Relevant factors affecting the App Store search ranking: In order of weight from large to small, they are title → keywords → account name. The app introduction has almost no effect, and these are where we can operate. Speaking of this, did you suddenly realize that ASO is actually very simple, because there are so few places we can operate? Just fill in your optimized keywords in the app name and keywords when submitting the app. But there are many tricky issues here, especially the selection and combination of keywords, which is where your creativity is truly reflected. Poor keyword selection or inappropriate word listing may lead to Apple rejecting your application during the review.

So, how to select and combine keywords?

Here, let's focus on the App Store's search word segmentation rules. Anyone who has used PC search engines knows that it first splits the content according to keywords, so that the content matches the relevant keywords. When users search for keywords, the keywords searched by users are first split out, and then the corresponding content is ranked and displayed according to certain rules. This is Shui Ge's understanding of major search engines when he was doing PC search promotion before.

For the App Store platform, the principle is similar. When a user enters a keyword, the App Store first splits the keyword searched by the user according to characters. As long as the title and keywords of the application cover this word, it may be searched out. This is much simpler than the PC version because its content is not complicated and is standardized enough.

According to Shui Ge's experience, Apple's word segmentation only splits the first ten or so characters input by the user. That is, when the user searches for too many keywords, Apple only splits the first ten or so characters for application pairing display, and Apple will not display the applications corresponding to the characters that appear later.