Understanding the App Store Algorithm: What Are the Ranking Patterns?
Marketers often strive to keep abreast of the latest industry updates. But when it comes to app distribution platforms, each works in its own mysterious way. And with all the changes and updates going on, it can be challenging to keep tabs on the giants like App Store.
It is no secret that the popularity of the apps depends on a number of factors like the name, the main idea, or description. But the central issue here is discoverability. How do apps get discovered? And what determines their organic discoverability?
Let’s take a sneak peek at the app discovery factors and determine how they affect the ranking.
The Science Behind Apple’s Search Algorithm
How do users discover apps? The first thing that comes to mind is search. And that is exactly the case. According to Apple, 70% of visitors use search to find their next apps. And that is only natural since more than 60% of downloads are attributed to in-store searches.
Which factors influence app discovery? Well, there are some elements marketers can influence. As mentioned before, they include name, short description, promotional text, category, icon, video, screenshots, subtitles, and in some cases, keywords. The latter is true about App Store.
Apple’s app discovery is based on keyword targeting. In other words, the algorithm indexes all the apps for phrases and words used. This way, it identifies the apps or games that match the search queries. To a lesser extent, it also indexes reviews and ratings. The promotional text, however, is not looked into and can be edited anytime.
That brings us to a very important conclusion — optimization matters. Without it, the algorithm won’t figure out the purpose and essence of your app.
So now, it’s time to analyze keywords and their impact on ranking. Here’s how we’re going to approach it:
- Search for a specific keyword.
- Analyze search results and identify deviations (if any).
- Explain the logic behind the deviations.
#1. Calendar
POPULARITY: 72 high
COMPETITIVENESS: 88 high
RESULTS: 15,328 high
The competitive score is 88, which means that the keyword is highly competitive.
App #1. Calendar
by Apple
App #2. Google Calendar: Get Organized
Subtitle: Sync, schedule, book & meet
App #3. Calendar ·
Subtitle: Planner Organizer & Agenda
App #4. Calendars: Planner & Reminders
Subtitle: Agenda, Organizer, To Do list
App #5. Simple Calendar — SimpleCal
Subtitle: Tasks & ToDo for your schedule
Naturally, Apple’s Calendar app takes first place. Next comes Google with its self-titled calendar, which is foreseeable. And now, the fun begins.
We can see a calendar app by Luni ranked number 3. There is a keyword in the name of the application, and it has around 33K downloads. Ranked number 4 is the app called Calendars: Planner & Reminders created by Readdle Technologies Ltd. that got more downloads than the app ranked #3. Why?
Well, Luni does not use any extra words in the name. Therefore, it gets all the weight and goes up on the list despite the smaller number of downloads.
#2. Recipes
POPULARITY: 47 moderate
COMPETITIVENESS: 96 very high
RESULTS: 9,954 moderate
This keyword is less popular but more competitive. Raking high in this case won’t be easy and will take extra effort.
App #1. Yummly Recipes & Cooking Tools
Subtitle: Personalized Meal Plans & More
App #2. Food Network Kitchen
Subtitle: Recipes, how-tos & meal plans
App #3. Tasty: Recipes, Cooking Videos
Subtitle: Meal Planner & Cook Book
App #4. Mealime Meal Plans & Recipes
Subtitle: Meal Planner & Grocery List
App #5. Recipe Keeper
Subtitle: Meal planner & shopping list
So now we’ll look into a real ranking case. The issue here is that the app that used to be called Tasty ranked third. But it had more downloads than the first two apps combined. Now, the app by BuzzFeed is called Tasty: Recipes, Cooking Videos, and it ranks first in the Food & Drink category today.
The trick is in keyword placement. For instance, the app Yummly Recipes & Cooking Tools that initially ranked #1 includes the keyword in the name. As mentioned before, the name has the biggest impact. Then, the subtitle comes into play.
The name of the app that ranked #2 is Food Network Kitchen. Its name doesn’t include the keyword. However, the subtitle does. It looks like this: recipes, how-tos & meal plans.
And here’s the thing: Tasty did not initially include the keyword in the subtitle or its name. Its subtitle looks like this now: meal planner & cook book. But after updating the name, it managed to rank higher.
So ultimately, the algorithm identifies how close the keyword is to the beginning of the name or the subtitle. This way, the app managed to get to #1.
#3. Puzzle
POPULARITY: 58 moderate
COMPETITIVENESS: 88 high
RESULTS: 162,306 very high
A puzzle is a pretty common and popular query. Who doesn’t like puzzles, right? But apparently, some people are not into puzzles, given the popularity score of 58.
But let’s get down to business. Much like we have seen before, the top app has fewer downloads than the apps that ranked #4 and #5. At the same time, app #4 has the highest store rank out of the top 5 in this query.
Well, nothing new here. It all comes down to weight distribution and keyword placement.
App #1. Jigsaw Puzzles — Puzzle Games
Subtitle: Daily HD jigsaw for adults
App #2. ⋆ Jigsaw Puzzle
Subtitle: Puzzles & Games for Adults!
App #3. Blackbox
Subtitle: Award-winning IQ mind puzzles
App #4. Flow Free
Subtitle: Fun and Relaxing Brain Puzzle
App #5. Block Puzzle — Brain Games
Subtitle: Mind Match IQ Test Wood Puzzle
So the app #1 called Jigsaw Puzzles used the keyword twice in its name but not even once in the subtitle. It also has a large number of new ratings and an average number of downloads.
Let’s look at app #2 called ⋆ Jigsaw Puzzle. It includes a keyword in the name and subtitle. However, it has only several downloads and ratings.
Now let’s take a look at app #3 called Blackbox. It has more downloads and reviews than app #2. It means that it could easily go up on the list if there was a keyword in its name.
The most confusing ones are apps #4 and #5. It seems like they should be ranking higher. App #4 is called Flow Free. So, in this case, adding a keyword would improve the situation. But what about app #5? We can see the keyword used twice: in its name and subtitle. The number of downloads is pretty high as well, but the ranking is low. What’s the deal here?
It might seem bizarre, but using the same keyword in the name and subtitle can also hurt the app’s ranking. Here’s the thing: the algorithm chooses only one of the keywords and ignores the other one. So, in this case, placing the keyword early in the name (that’s a good call) and last in the subtitle (that’s a bad call) affects the ranking badly. So if app #5 drops the keyword in the subtitle, the ranking will improve.
The Key Takeaways
It is not uncommon for marketers to believe that the algorithm only cares about the number of downloads. Let’s face it: that would be too easy.
Instead, Apple’s algorithm highlights the most relevant elements of the apps. Here are the factors marketers need to pay attention to primarily:
#1. Search results and keywords matter.
#2. The fewer keywords, the more weight for each keyword.
#3. Keywords used at the beginning of names or subtitles get more weight.
#4. Keyword repetition is not the best approach. It can hurt the app’s ranking.
Naturally, there’s more to Apple’s search algorithm. But with this information at hand, any marketer can give it a try and improve the ranking results for their mobile games or apps.
At the end of the day, it takes effort and optimization to move to the top of the App Store list and use it for affiliate marketing.
