App Store ranking: create your own app part 6.2

Once you’ve created your own iOS app, it makes sense to pay attention to your App Store marketing to ensure that users find your app and download it. In part 6.2, we’ll apply the same approach to Apple’s App Store and examine marketing for iOS apps, looking at how the ranking factors differ between the Apple and Google app stores.

This article is the last in our 7-part series on how to develop and market your own app. Now that you’ve dis­covered how to create an iOS ap­plic­a­tion and get it onto the App Store, we’ll take you through the basics for app store op­tim­isa­tion on the Apple App Store, high­light­ing the key factors for ranking that you need to be aware of.

Marketing of iOS ap­plic­a­tions on the Apple App Store basically boils down to one very simple thing: The details page of the ap­plic­a­tion. This is the key page for op­tim­ising the app store ranking of your iOS app. In addition to the app download function, the App Store page for the ap­plic­a­tion contains a de­scrip­tion of the app’s content, example images and screen­shots to demon­strate the visual present­a­tion of content on the app, user ratings, and more. Some areas of the app details page have a direct influence on the ranking of an ap­plic­a­tion on the Apple App Store and so can be optimised in order to improve app store ranking. But even though some of the other factors aren’t directly related to how highly your app ranks on the store, they’re still valuable for boosting the repu­ta­tion of your app and therefore can lead to higher download figures among App Store users. The following examples explain the key factors that influence Apple’s App Store ranking for ap­plic­a­tions. Op­tim­isa­tion of your iOS app details page is done from your account with iTunes Connect and begins as soon as you’ve uploaded your ap­plic­a­tion.

In Apple‘s App Store, op­tim­iz­a­tion of app ranking is de­term­ined most of all by choosing the right keywords in the keyword field. Keywords generally play the most important role in iOS app rankings. If you rewrite the content of your ap­plic­a­tion with ap­pro­pri­ate keywords, the chances are that your app will rise in the search results on the App Store. Keyword op­tim­isa­tion on the app details page is one of the onsite factors that you can directly control, so it’s important to make sure you do all you can to maximise this.

iTunes Connect offers a special segment for you to provide your app details page with keywords. This is the first big dif­fer­ence that separates it from the Google Play Store, where you can only include keywords in the name of the app and its de­scrip­tion. By contrast, Apple’s App Store gives you up to 100 char­ac­ters to add any keywords ap­pro­pri­ate to your app in the ‘Keywords’ field – and you should make the most of this: The keywords listed in this section are decisive when it comes to de­term­in­ing your app’s ranking on the App Store. And if you’ve developed a multi-lingual ap­plic­a­tion, you’ll need to adapt the keywords to each specific language.

Keywords added to the keyword field on iTunes Connect should be separated by a comma – but without spaces: spaces aren’t necessary for Apple to process your keywords, so by excluding them between keywords, you can be sure not to waste char­ac­ters. If you have long-tail keywords that consist of two or more words, enter each one as a single keyword: So if your app offers a filter effect for pho­to­graph­ers, for example, then you should type your keywords ‘photo,filter’ like so. By doing this, you also cover your app for multiple keyword com­bin­a­tions (upper/lower case spelling doesn’t affect keyword searches):

• photo

• filter

• photo filter

• filter photo

There’s also no need to pluralise words – singular versions of any keyword cover plural searches. It’s not necessary to include the word ‘app’ among your keywords either, nor the title of the app category for your chosen app – these keywords are auto­mat­ic­ally assigned to the app and so including them would just take up limited space un­ne­ces­sar­ily. So, as an example, if your app is listed in the games section, then neither ‘game’ nor ‘app’ needs to be included as a keyword. A word of warning: Selecting the right category for your app is very important, because the available cat­egor­ies (3 for gaming apps; 2 for all other ap­plic­a­tions) also influence your keywords. So select your category carefully.

You have up to 50 char­ac­ters to play with when it comes to naming your app. This limit was brought in by Apple in September 2016 in reaction to the number of ludicrously long app titles in the store (the previous limit was set at 255 char­ac­ters – almost twice the length of a tweet!). Apple justified this step by high­light­ing that some app de­velopers took advantage of the extra space to carry out ‘keyword stuffing’. This term refers to the act of overusing keywords in a sprawling manner, a technique designed purely to improve ranking for the app or page, but one which doesn’t offer any added value for the user what­so­ever.

There was one other change along with the short­en­ing of available character length for the app title: According to Apple, the app name may no longer include any de­script­ive terms for the content of the app. This measure was also taken to tackle keyword stuffing. The new guidelines mean that the app title field can’t really include any in­form­a­tion about the app other than its actual name – slogans and similar appear to also be banned. Despite these new, stricter rules, it’s difficult to un­der­stand the extent of control that Apple is willing to take over app titles. So it’s likely that a keyword optimised app slogan that follows the name of the app in the title is surely still going to have a good chance of being included high up on the App Store ranking.

Despite allowing up to 50 char­ac­ters, Apple does recommend that app designers stick to a maximum of 23 char­ac­ters for app titles: if the name is longer, then there’s a risk that it will be cut off on devices with smaller display screens. This is important to bear in mind and adhere to, as it will look extremely un­pro­fes­sion­al and damage your brand image if the name of your app doesn’t display properly on all devices.

Of­fi­cially speaking, Apple has stated that only keywords included in the official keywords field will have an influence on ranking – but it’s important that the de­scrip­tion of your iOS ap­plic­a­tion should also include important keywords. Even if Apple doesn’t take this into account, search engines like Google do, and the de­scrip­tion of an app is used by Google as a key ranking factor (thus narrowing the gap between search engine op­tim­iz­a­tion and app store op­tim­iz­a­tion in this instance).

Embedding keywords into your de­scrip­tion text shouldn’t be difficult, because ex­plain­ing what the app is and does without using ap­pro­pri­ate keywords is prac­tic­ally in­con­ceiv­able – but you should take time to make sure you use the correct ones. The de­scrip­tion section gives you a lot of room for keyword op­tim­isa­tion too: You have a total of 4,000 char­ac­ters to play with when ex­plain­ing your app’s content. However, you should only reach this limit in ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances – the more succinct and to the point that you can keep your de­scrip­tion, the better it will resonate with users.

The opening sentences are the most important, because they’re im­me­di­ately visible on the app page – App Store users have to click on the ‘More’ button in order to receive the rest of the de­scrip­tion and other in­form­a­tion. As a result, you should present all the most important in­form­a­tion about your app in the first section of the de­scrip­tion, so that it’s visible from the get-go.

There are other ASO methods that can help to improve your ap­plic­a­tion’s Apple App Store ranking besides keyword op­tim­iz­a­tion. User reviews of the ap­plic­a­tion on the App Store and the number of downloads are two in­dic­at­ors that have a big influence on your app’s position. These two work hand in hand, too: Many positive reviews increase the chances of your app being down­loaded, and high download figures increase the pre­con­cep­tion that your app is high quality, in­creas­ing the chances of positive reviews. But there are other App Store marketing measures that can have a positive influence on your ranking, like an appealing app icon, high-quality, clear screen­shots, and a pro­mo­tion­al video or tutorial. So here’s how to optimise these ad­di­tion­al areas of your app details page.

The total number of App Store downloads is a clear indicator of the pop­ular­ity and success of an ap­plic­a­tion. As a general rule, the more often an iOS app is down­loaded, the more relevant it becomes for the Apple App Store. The same is true of app reviews: The sheer fact that an ap­plic­a­tion has received a re­l­at­ively high number of user ratings (re­gard­less of whether they are positive or negative) can lead to an increased position in the app store ranking. In turn, the type of rating of course also plays an important role as a ranking factor: the more positive that user reviews are, the better the app will place. So the average user rating for an ap­plic­a­tion is crucially important.

However, these ASO meas­ure­ments are con­sidered off-site ranking factors that can only be in­flu­enced in­dir­ectly. As an app developer, you can only affect these by ensuring you offer a high quality, user-friendly, and func­tion­ally sound app, and market it properly. Apps only ex­per­i­ence real success when they offer users something that excites them and works in a way they like. iOS apps that have happy customers and good marketing will generally lead to good user reviews and download figures on the App Store.

One way to help you ret­ro­spect­ively boost the user rating for your app and to improve customer sat­is­fac­tion is to offer com­pre­hens­ive customer support. If your users ex­per­i­ence dif­fi­culties with their app (either because of an app error or com­pat­ib­il­ity issues with their mobile device or operating system), then offering prompt, friendly, and ac­cess­ible advice to solve the problem can help to stop bad ratings and reviews.

Unlike with customer ratings and download figures, op­tim­isa­tion of your app icon as well as the inclusion of promo videos and screen­shots lies firmly in your hands. But un­for­tu­nately, they only have a passive effect on the Apple App Store ranking in com­par­is­on to downloads and reviews.

These App Store image options are basically there to give you the chance to present your app. But an appealing design for the app page does also have a positive effect on dis­tri­bu­tion and downloads. Many undecided App Store users can often be persuaded to download an app by at­tract­ive present­a­tion of it on the app page. The very least you should offer to make a pro­fes­sion­al im­pres­sion is an icon as well as some screen­shots – an app video isn’t strictly an essential, but it does offer an added extra to convince users to download, es­pe­cially if it’s high quality.

Here’s a quick summary of what to consider when designing your icon, screen­shots, and pro­mo­tion­al video:

• App icon: the symbol for your ap­plic­a­tion is displayed in the App Store (and other places too, including on Google’s SERPs) as well as on the mobile device of the user (in the form of a start button). This logo is par­tic­u­larly important for helping your app to be taken seriously on the App Store, so it’s important to make sure it looks pro­fes­sion­al and cor­res­ponds to your app. If a user has found your app through the search function on the App Store, then your app icon will be there first im­pres­sion they get of your app – and in the app market, first im­pres­sions count for everything.
  The symbol should ideally be re­cog­nis­ably different from other app icons and should im­me­di­ately catch the user’s eye (through a unique design or vivid colours that match the app’s content, for example). You should create the logo in 1024 x 1024 pixel size and upload it to iTunes Connect. Since the actual size of the symbol on the home screen of your user’s Apple device will be sig­ni­fic­antly smaller (i.e. 57 x 57 pixels for the iPhone), you should make sure to stick to a min­im­al­ist­ic logo design. Il­lus­tra­tions that are too detailed or feature text are likely to come across as messy, muddled, and illegible when displayed on the smaller screen.

• Screen­shots: you can upload up to 5 images to add to the app page of the App Store. These screen­shots should act as an in­tro­duc­tion to your app – so it’s important to make sure they leave a good im­pres­sion. You should include screen­shots of the user interface in as broad a way as possible. Even though Apple only requires you to upload a single screen­shot, it’s re­com­men­ded to include as many as you’re permitted.
  The more you reveal about the way your app appears, the more informed that your user will feel when making his/her decision to download the app (many users flick through the screen­shots first, before reading the de­scrip­tion text for the app, because it’s quicker and easier to get an instant feel for the app). Make sure that your images are in­form­at­ive, pro­fes­sion­ally designed, high res­ol­u­tion, and formatted to fit the cor­res­pond­ing display screens for Apple devices (iPhone, iPad).

• Promo video: preparing a video isn’t a re­quire­ment from Apple, but it almost always registers pos­it­ively with users. A pro­mo­tion­al video can show a user how an app looks in action – meaning that dynamic content can be un­der­stood im­me­di­ately by your target group. Videos should be between 15 and 30 seconds in length.
  Make sure you introduce the most important aspects of the ap­plic­a­tion at the start and explain them clearly, so that even the most impatient viewers are able to un­der­stand what your app is all about. As with the screen­shots, your video should be well produced with high standards of quality in mind and should also include all the essential in­form­a­tion about your app.

ASO can have just as positive an effect in Apple’s App Store as it does in the Google Play Store. The most important thing here is to use the right keywords. These should always fit the content and function of the app. Using the right keywords increases the chance that users will find your ap­plic­a­tion on the App Store. This can also be achieved by choosing the right category for your app on iTunes Connect. After that, it’s down to your app page to convince users to download.

A healthy number of (good) user ratings and many downloads lead to a higher ranking and an increased reach for your app. You can’t affect these figures directly – they’re purely down to your customers. But your il­lus­tra­tion options can have an indirect influence on the number of downloads you receive. An at­tract­ive and striking app symbol, coupled with an in­form­at­ive promo video and a number of high quality screen­shots can help present your app in an appealing way. These tools are crucial for app store marketing – a positive first im­pres­sion on your app page can see your download figures sky rocket.

All of these factors add up to a lot of variables for you to exploit and optimise in order to improve your app’s per­form­ance on the Apple App Store. But despite all this, you shouldn’t rely ex­clus­ively on app store op­tim­iz­a­tion as a marketing tool for your ap­plic­a­tion: suc­cess­ful marketing usually comes from ex­ploit­ing several channels (whether you’re offering an app for iOS, Android, or for another mobile operating system al­to­geth­er). Deciding which channels and strategies are the right ones for marketing your app depends on the content of the app and should be evaluated in­di­vidu­ally based on your product. The important thing to remember is that app store op­tim­isa­tion should only ever make up a part of your entire marketing plan. If you’re able to convince your app users of the quality of what your product offers and you can market your app ef­fect­ively, then there’s no reason why your iOS ap­plic­a­tion can’t be the next big hitter on the Apple App Store.