App Store Optimization — Part II: Ranking components/factors of ASO

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PROGRAMMING LITE

7 min readDec 1, 2018

Do you now what is App Store Optimization and Why you need this ? If you have no idea see this article App Store Optimization — Part I:What and Why ASO.

# App Keywords

Get Keywords ideas:

Initially collect at least 50 keywords those are relevant to your app. Here are some great ASO tools like Übersuggest, OneLook Reverse Dictionary etc to give you many keyword ideas and they all are full free.
Do you know the words of user reviews in your app are indexed by the app store search engine? So review analysis is a very good way for getting keywords ideas. App reviews always speak a user’s mind. So you may get some real time keyword ideas by analyzing the reviews of your competitor’s app. And you will be astonished to find out the keywords that you have never thought before.

Select Keywords:

For a new app most app publishers make the mistake of selecting keywords that get a lot of searches every month. What they do not realize is that these keywords are also extremely competitive and most apps will not be able to rank for them.
Choose the app store keywords with low difficulty (less competitive) and reasonable popularity(not so demandable). Here are some keyword research tools that will provide the popularities (or search traffic) as well as difficulties (or chances) of your app store keywords.
They will help your app to gain the initial momentum. After gaining the initial momentum, start using app store keywords with higher popularity and reasonable difficulty. They help your app stack up more downloads.
If you have already released your app with your target keywords, check your current app ranking of these keywords. Keep those keywords that your app ranked within top 10, and replace the rest with new keywords in your next release.

# App Name/Title

Both Google and Apple’s search algorithms scan the app name for keywords when a user performs a keyword search in the app markets. So the app name/title is the most important thing for ASO. Follow the below rules for making app name:

App name must be unique. Don’t make the mistake of picking a name that has already been out in the market
Keep the name short and engaging.
Google Play Store sets the limit of title 50 characters. (iOS App Store limits it with 30 characters)
Title must include main Keyword. This will increase 10.3% of ranking. Both Google Play and iOS App Store search algorithms scan the app name for keywords when a user performs an app store search and give higher priority to apps with names that contain the search input.
App Name format:

“Brand Name — Keywords” or “Brand Name: Keywords”

Keep the actual Brand Name short and sweet.
Then append short brand name with a few keywords, typically preceded by a dash or a semicolon.

Here are some real example of title:

Google Maps — GPS Navigation
Amazon — Shopping made easy
eBay:Buy & Sell — Find Deals
Pandora — Free music & Radio
The Weather Channel — Forecast

Use this tool to analyze your app name and get the recommendations of best name format and length.

4. Use only URL-friendly characters in your title, particularly in the App Store, as the iOS uses the app name to create your app URL.

5. Avoid any special characters in your app name, like the trademark or copyright symbol.

# App description

For Android Developers:

Be careful about your app description as Google play store pulls keywords from app description. iOS app store does not pull keywords from app description. It means not you will be lazy with it. You obviously do it very carefully.

~The first two/three lines of description(above-the-fold-section) :

Put your main keywords here as Google Play Store search algorithm give more importance in this section than the rest of the app description. The reason for this is the app store only displays the first 2–3 lines of text and only 5% of users (in iOS app store it get down to 2%) click the “Read More” button. So every character in this section is very important.
Tell users what makes your app unique and why they will love it.
In this section, focus on your app’s values, instead of features.

~Rest of the part of description:

Highlight the features of your app here.
Use spacing and bulleted lists to represent features and make it easy to read. If possible, also list out all the social proofs, awards, and honorable mentions your app has received.
Don’t forget to include your app’s social media links too.
You may Use formatting and emoji to make your description standard.

App Description Length

After analyzing the description length of the top 100 apps it has been found that:

90% of top 100 apps use more than 589 and less than 3385 characters.

Though app description length doesn’t have a very big impact compared to other factors, it is still a good idea to keep your length within this range.

For iOS developers:

iOS App Store does not pull keywords from App description but iOS app store has keyword metadata which decides how your gets discovered. So put your selected keywords in keywords metadata. Here are some rules to follow and make every character counts!

Use all 100 characters
Separate every keyword by a comma
Avoid space, articles and prepositions
Use singular OR plural, the easier one to rank for
Don’t repeat keyword
Use numbers instead of spelled out words
No need to include the words in your company name, app name and app cat

# App Icon

App icon is the first impression and visual element to be noticed and a better icon can increase your downloads up to 560%!. After finding a app with relevant keyword in app store he will move his sight to your app icon. If you have a unenganing and normal icon, you will loose the user though your app has high quality content. So App icon is very important. Here are some basic rule to maintain while making app icon:

Keep you icon simple and eye-catching without much noise.
Do not use many words in icon.
To get ideas, browse the top-rated apps in your category.
Make sure your icon is different from your competitors.
Be sure your looks great in both light and dark backgrounds.
You may use contrasting colors or different shape .
Use the science of color to make your icon.
For functional app use an object to describe the app. In case your app has an established brand, use the logo make your brand. Example: Branded App Icon: Uber, Facebook; Functional App Icon: WhatsApp Messenger, 7 Minute Workout.

# App Screenshots

First two/three screenshot is most important because Only first two screenshots can increase your install rates 25%. According to StoreMaven, 60% users won’t swipe past your first two screenshots.

Make sure each screenshot is telling a single message about your app.
Display your strongest messages in the first two screenshots.
Add a short caption text on a clean background into your screenshots and try to make a positive impression in the viewers’ mind.
Avoid login, registrations, purchase forms, ads and even “Welcome” screen in your screenshots.
Make the best use of the screenshots to tell your users why they should love your app.
Keep the screenshot vertical so the users can see more screenshots on narrow screens.

# App Preview Video

Video is one of the most powerful ways to get your message across about your app. Both Google Play and iOS App Store permit the use of a short video to highlight the key features of the app.. It may be difficult to make a preview video but it can increase install rates by more than 23% according to StoreMaven. And first 12 seconds is very important as 80% of users don’t watch past first 12 seconds of the video. And Don’t forget to use a good feature graphic as this graphic has a big impact whether users would watch the video.

Use the first 5 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention
Focus on the best features, instead of all features
Avoid any fade-in and ‘welcome’ type message at the beginning.
Your video should make sense even with the sound turned off
Include a call-to-action

# App Size

Make your app smaller than 150MB for iOS app, or 100MB for Google Play app. It is because users cannot download apps that are bigger than these sizes using cellular service.
Compress your graphical assets or make some contents downloadable after install.
Keep your app size less than with your competitors.

# App Localization

Translating an app into different languages can greatly increase downloads and expose an app to a larger potential audience. In one study, localization increased the downloads of an iPhone app by 767%. Another study showed that complete localization was able to increase app downloads by 300%.

# Reviews and Rating

85% users would like to install an app has more positive reviews and high ratings. Also, reviews can show the feedback of users and problems of your app. You can optimize your app according to these reviews and satisfy the users’ needs. Indeed, if you have enough budget, you can buy app reviews from real users to improve the quality of your app and get a higher rank in app stores.

# Update App Regularly

When you find some problems and bugs of your app, you have to update your app in time to improve the users’ experience. This method also can help you increase the retention rate and boost your app ranking in app stores.

Among all the ranking factor, ranking impact of Title, Subtitle (in iOS), description, Keyword metadata (in iOS), Rating & Reviews is very HIGH. So do this section very carefully.