7 Ways To Get Higher Ranking Positions Through App Ratings
App Ratings and Reviews are an important factor in Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). Learn how to keep your app ratings as close to 5 stars as possible.
This article was originally published on the WordData blog.
Theoretically, a 5-star ranking system should work like this:
But we all know it actually works like this:
Besides being present as a variable in the iOS App Store algorithm (it might have become even more important after August 27, 2014), the App Ratings and Reviews are an important factor in Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
CRO deals with convincing the user who found your app to actually download it. It’s getting harder and harder to get noticed on the App Store (70% of apps are zombies, accordingly to a report by Adjust), so you’ll want to turn the maximum possible number of App Page views into Downloads.
For instance, you can control how the App Icon looks like, what you’re showing on your Screenshots and what call-to-action your Description has…. But what can you do about Ratings and Reviews? It’s not within your control, as it’s the users who determine what rating to give your app.
Be that as it may, there are some methods you can do to increase the number of your app’s high ratings (without pissing Apple off, of course).
Follow the tips below and keep your app ratings as close to 5 stars as possible.
1. Make sure your game doesn’t suck
Seriously, if your app delivers a horrible user experience, having a bad rating is inevitable. Before complaining about evil-minded users or haters, ask yourself: does my app suck?
There are a lot of things that can make your app suck, including bugs and crashes, confusing interface, low-quality art assets, aggressive monetization mechanics, and intrusive use of in-app advertising.
2. Ask family and friends to make the first ratings and reviews
“But wouldn’t this be gaming the system?”
Unless your group of family and friends number 2,000 people, you should be OK. The point here is not balancing bad reviews — if your app sucks, 10 five-star reviews won’t be enough to save it.
The point is to kickstart your app. Imagine if you’ve just launched your app, it crashes in 2–3 devices, and their owners are the only ones in the first few days to give reviews. Great, you just started, and you already have a 2-star app. By having 5-star reviews early on in the launch, you can keep this anomaly from happening. However, to emphasize again, if your app is badly coded, nothing will stop the 1-star review tsunami.
3. Use review exchange networks
If you don’t have many friends or family members with an iOS device, you should consider asking help from other indie developers struggling to get more reviews, just like you.
There are some communities, like AppReview.me, that exchange reviews between apps. It usually works like that: the more you review, the more your app will be reviewed.
4. Ask your users for ratings and reviews
This looks obvious. I mean, shouldn’t they be reviewing your app in the first place?
Well, yes. But the fact is that a consumer is more likely to leave feedback if is negative, not if it is positive. So, how do you convince happy users to leave a review? Well, by asking them nicely!
With an easy-to-implement “rate me” pop-up like Appirater and iRate, you can increase the number of ratings and reviews by reminding your users to leave feedback. But it could bring more low-rated reviews right? Right, that’s why you should…
5. Delay appearance of pop-ups after an in-app milestone
By asking users to review your app after some positive milestone (like getting a high score on your game or completing tasks on your To Do List app), you get a better chance to receive a positive review.
It’s all about aiming for the right moment. Look at your app’s analytics and find out places where most users go, do stuff, and complete them. If you place the pop up after a screen that frustrates your users and make them leave your app, they are more likely to leave a bad review.
In the end, though, it doesn’t matter where you put your “rate me” pop-up. Eventually, you will drive a user to leave a bad review on your app. In that case…
6. Ask redirect negative reviews to a feedback screen
Some companies like Apptentive offer intelligent pop-ups that reduce the number of bad reviews (at least the ones coming from your own pop-ups, as nothing can stop the user to actually search your app and 1-star it).
How do they work? Simple: First, they ask the user if he’s enjoying the app. If he clicks “yes,” a second pop-up will ask him to rate it. If he clicks “no,” another pop-up will appear, asking the user to explain what he didn’t like about the app, and send it directly to you.
That way, besides stopping a low-rated review, you get valuable feedback to fix your app in the next updates, thereby getting more high-rated reviews in the future.
7. Ask for app ratings and reviews from engaged users only
Another way to increase the ratio between high and low-rated reviews is asking it from engaged users only. These users have probably enjoyed your app somehow, since they keep using it.
Besides, bundled with the previous tip, it will generate better quality feedback, since even the bad reviews will come from users that actually got to know your app and really tried to use it. Just don’t reward the user for reviewing – this can get your app rejected, since it violates Apple’s rules about ratings.
Conclusion
If a user reads your app profile and thinks it is crappy because it has 3.5 stars, you should consider adopting some of the above-mentioned tactics to increase good reviews.
By doing Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), you will get better rankings, more downloads, and more feedback to make quality apps. Besides ratings and reviews, you can keep doing CRO by writing compelling descriptions and app name, keeping your app smaller than 100MB, making an impressive App Previews (presentation video), designing better screenshots, and creating a creative icon.
What about you? What tricks have worked for you to get better reviews?
Learn more about App Store Optimization (ASO) on the WordData blog.
Enjoyed the post? Hit the ‘Recommend’ button below and spread the knowledge!
