App Indexing: A Bridge Between Your App and the Internet
“Average users have 36 apps on their devices and will only use 1/4 of them. Out of those, only 1/3 have only been used once”.
For those of us who work in the app business, what Google says isn’t very surprising. But there is so much time and money invested in the creation of an app (researching, prototyping, designing, coding and measuring) that when it comes to acquiring and retaining users, the stakes are very high.
Even if you’re successful at user acquisition, the big challenge is for your users to keep coming back. Which leads us to App Indexing.
What is App Indexing?
App Indexing acts as a bridge between your app and your website, linking them so that the app appears on Google Search results. It works for those you have already installed and those you don’t.
Why do we need it?
- To Generate App Installs: By associating your app to your website, users don’t necessarily have to be looking for a specific one and downloading it. They may stumble upon your app and decide to download it.
2. To drive traffic to your app: Without App Indexing, Google Play and the App Store are closed ecosystems. You may have potential app users in Google Search that are not willing to search the App Store/Google Play when looking for a certain product/service.
3. To re-engage with your audience: Some users may have installed your app but are not using it. Autocomplete will remind them that your app gives them the solution they’re looking for.
4. To boost rankings in search results: Indexing shows and promotes the appearance of your app in search results, giving it more visibility and reaching a wider audience.
5. To increase conversions: If your app is reachable via other channels than the app stores, you have more chances of reaching a desired goal (e.g. purchase or download of your product/service).
How to implement it?
- Support HTTP Links in your app for Android and iOS
- Register your app with Google
- Create an app-to-site association
- Test the implementation for Android & iOS
- Optimize your app with analytics for Android & iOS
To complement these tips, you should work on your App Store Optimization. Please read our post on basic tips to get a better position on App Store and Google Play rankings.
Like most successes in life, your app requires constant maintenance. If you don’t carry out a regular optimization, your users will migrate to other apps that do build a bridge between the stores and the Internet!
