Whether you’re designing an app, a website, or a product, one of the most important factors in whether a prospective customer sees your product will be its keyword relevance.
When it comes to designing apps and launching them on the Apple App Store or Google Play, getting noticed among the millions of other apps can seem like a daunting task. In this article, we’ll explore how to optimize your keywords and why it may be a good idea to hire a freelance ASO specialist on a freelancing site like Guru.
What Affects My Rankings in the App Store?
A Relevant and Descriptive Title
Make sure the title of your app gives some idea of what it does–don’t call your app for dog walkers and groomers “Furry Friends.” For all anyone knows, this could be a game, so you may want to call it something like, “Furry Friends: Find Groomers, Walkers, and More!”
Titles such as this will allow the customer to get a better idea of what they are looking at and make them more likely to hit that install button.
App Description Quality
You need to effectively describe to your potential customer what the app does. Why is this game addicting? In what way will this dog walking app help me find a dog walker? How will this app benefit me more than others?
Quality Screenshots
Make sure you take plenty of high-quality screenshots and find the best and clearest ones to use in your app description. If you’re launching a gaming app, make sure you find a photo with plenty of action that doesn’t appear too complex. With any app, be sure to show a few shots of the user interface that depict how easy it is to use.
An Eye-Catching Icon
A minimalist icon looks great for certain apps, but if you’re creating an action-packed game, it should have some action-oriented artwork as its icon portraying the idea of excitement and fun. They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to an app store, everyone will judge your app–and decide whether or not to check it out–by its icon.
Positive Reviews
Politely asking customers within the app if they would like to leave a review is a great way to boost your rankings. Don’t be overbearing, though–only have the app ask once every so often and always give the customer the option to say “don’t ask again.” Keeping customers happy by not interrupting their game with review requests will lead to them telling their friends to download your game.
The Right Keywords
The keywords begin right in the title of your app–if your game is called “Master Blaster,” that’s a great name, but it doesn’t exactly describe what the game does. If the title is “Master Blaster: A Sci-Fi Space Adventure,” it’s not only more descriptive, but you’ve included three keywords. Anyone who searches for a space game, sci-fi game, or adventure game is more likely to come across your game.
The next keyword inclusion will be within the game’s description–maybe you’ll talk about how the game is “team-based,” “multi-player,” or has a “tournament mode.” Use these keywords multiple times without over-stuffing them in the description and making it unreadable.
It’s important to note that the Apple Store has a special keyword section that’s limited to one-hundred characters–you can choose to max this out. Google Play reads keywords from the title and description and allows up to 4000 characters.
You can also try out different keyword searches in the app store and find trending and popular keywords–be careful here, though, as using top trending keywords could cause you to get buried under the avalanche of apps with similar keywords. However, if you mix trending keywords with some additional keywords, you can find a good balance.
In Conclusion
Managing keywords can be tricky and definitely requires a bit of homework. However, it’s absolutely doable–if you find you aren’t great at writing high-quality descriptions or you find the process of app optimization confusing and time-consuming, you can always hire an experienced freelance professional app optimizer on Guru.
If you’re worried about how much app store optimization costs–don’t be, as it’s quite reasonable. On Guru, you can browse thousands of affordable professionals who know the best methods of making sure your app gets a head start on the competition while consistently increasing its growth.
