User:1977brime
App Optimization for Search Engines
Optimization shouldn’t just be for the app store. App publishers often overlook just how important search engines are in regards to driving users to their app page. But why would anybody search for apps on Google instead of the app store itself? I suspect for several reasons -including:
Many users are just accustomed to going to Google/Bing when they want to search for anything and that includes apps. Personally I prefer Google results for apps over the iTunes app store. Searching the ios app downloads in iTunes app store is often slow, and it only shows one result at a time… you are required to swipe 1 app per page to find a decent app
Some of the most popular “app” searches are for multiple apps. For instance “apps” gets 2400 monthly Google searches in the US. Rations of this type of search “Best, Top, Popular, New” get countless monthly searches on Google each month. Your App Store page gets indexed in the search engines and can be a valuable source for natural search traffic to your app.
So what can you do to optimize your app for search engines?
Use the google keyword planner to see what search users are searching for. You may think you have a relevant and highly searched for “target” term for your app- but “thinking isn’t knowing”. Use the google keyword planner so you know which term has the best potential.
Pay special attention to your app name. This is a big one… Your app name will appear as the title tag for your app page on the app stores. The title tag is one of the most important on-page factors for SEO. Dozens of sites scrape the app stores and aggregate apps onto their own app directory sites– most will link back with (you guessed it) the name of your app as the link text. The search engines follow these links and evaluate the link text and surrounding text to help decide what the linked-to page is about. Do you want 100 links, all with the link text of “picture” or “app” (or in another words do you want to rank in google for “picture” (which has zero search volume) or do you want to rank in Google for “picture editor” which has over 130,000 monthly searches? You want a cool catchy name- but often times it can be achieved by creatively incorporating highly searched for keywords.
Working in terms like “Best”, “Top” etc to your app description can help earn you significant traffic from Google searches for “Top 10 X Apps”. Sometimes you have to get creative- perhaps you have a review.
When optimizing your app for Google or the app store- Always consider user intent. It can be easy to find a great term, with many monthly searches- but if you don’t consider the intent of someone searching for that term- you may miss the mark. For instance- lets imagine a role playing game. The intent of someone searching for may not be the same as someone searching. Has fewer monthly searches but I’d be willing to bet that term would provide more value for a RPG app and result in a higher conversion rate and more traffic.
