An ultimate guide to ASO: vocabulary for beginners
If you are a newcomer in the mobile world and everything sounds gibberish so far, read this guide. We focus on the basic concepts of ASO and terms that can be hard to google. From now on your warrior of ASO journey begins. Come with us, young padawan!
A — I
ASO (App Store Optimization) is working on an app page to improve its visibility and convert views to installs better. ASO is divided into text and graphic optimization. Text optimization involves working on text. Graphic optimization involves working on icons, screenshots, and videos. The goal is to improve your app ranking by keywords and categories. This is done to increase organic installs.
ASOindex indicates the level of optimization of your app page on the App Store and Google Play. It’s based on several factors. Among them are the number of text characters, number of screenshots, the average app rating, keyword popularity, app visibility (based on the app ranking by major keywords), a video, if any, and the frequency of updates.
A/B testing is a way to compare two versions of the same element on an app page. This way, you can test app titles, icons, screenshots, videos, and descriptions.
Browse/Explore a channel (Browse for App Store, Explore for Google Play) for getting organic traffic. Traffic comes from rankings by category, lists of similar apps, and impressions in store collections.
Conversion means the percentage of users who perform a useful action. For example, they go from a store’s search results to the app page or install the app once they read its description.
Description is an expanded text about the app. The maximum description size for Google Play and App Store is 4,000 characters.
Featuring is when the moderators of App Store or Google Play select an app for an additional display to users. The app can be added to editors’ choice, collections, and categories.
Indexation, or indexing, is a chance for an app to appear among search results when searching by a certain keyword. Usually, it takes two weeks to one month for search queries to be fully indexed once you upload an app.
K — S
Keyword is a word or phrase by which store users search for an app. Semantics (semantic core) includes keywords that are suitable for a particular app.
Organic traffic includes users who find your app through the Search and Browse/Explore channels. The former takes into account the users who find your app through search queries while the latter includes those who you acquire thanks to the ranking by category, lists of similar apps, and impressions in store collections.
Performance Index shows how efficiently you acquire organic traffic. It takes into account the app optimization quality, ranking by key queries, and app visibility.
Promotion strategy means a detailed action plan scheduled for a specific timeframe.
Ranking is how apps are filtered among the search results of App Store and Google Play.
Search Volume shows the popularity of a search query in the selected country. It varies from 5 to 99.
Search Visibility Index shows app visibility for search traffic — that is, for users who use search queries to search for apps. If the percentage is low or the chart is sinking, you may want to analyze the ranking by relevant search queries.
Short description means some text that explains an app briefly. It’s available on Google Play only. Maximum 80 characters are available. Users can expand it to read the full version.
Spam is every technique that stores take for a manipulative attempt to influence the search algorithms. For example, keyword repetitions or branded queries in text elements may be considered spamming.
Suggests are store search suggestions for the selected keyword. This is a way to collect a suitable semantic core.
Subtitle is a field with text that follows the title of a game or app. It’s only used on App Store. 30 characters are available. Usually, the most relevant keywords are in it to make the app idea clear.
T — V
Title, or name is a text element that has the greatest influence on ranking. The number of characters allowed depends on the store: 50 characters for Google Play and 30 for App Store.
Top means highest search results on Google Play or on App Store by category and by keyword. If you make it to the top, you’ll usually experience a powerful influx of organic users. Apps and games that hit Top 1, Top 2, and Top 3 can be seen by tens of thousands of users. You can make it to the top if your app receives a large and stable influx of new installs. A quality ASO can help you do that, among other things.
Tracked Keywords is a list of keywords you added to track the changes.
Visibility Index shows the visibility of your app. It may affect the ASOindex. It takes into account the number and popularity of keywords by which your app has made it to the top 10 among the search results. Visibility Index shouldn’t be confused with Search Visibility Index.
Video means a video file that introduces the users to the app interface and functionality or shows the gameplay. It is placed in the header (at the top of the page) on Google Play or among screenshots on App Store.
P.S.
Any questions left? We have some basic ASO articles for you. Go deeper.
📌 How does app indexing work on App Store and Google Play?
📌 The must ASO strategy before launching an app
📌 Text ASO tutorial for the App Store and Google Play
And finally, try our tools to have up-to-date and accurate mobile analytics. This will help get your app forward. We have free trials, no card required.
