Principles of ASO Mobile Optimization

With over 6.3 billion mobile device owners, app usage is growing at a steady rate. Mobile devices on various platforms are used by students and officers, children, and adults. And 88% of this time they spend on different mobile device applications.

This fact seems encouraging for app developers and publishers as mobile solutions support almost every sphere of life and are available on most mobile devices. But how can app creators claim their share of this billion-dollar industry? How to compete equally with those mobile development giants?

With more than 4 million applications for mobile devices in app stores, according to Statista, it is a pretty tough task to make the user find your solution on his device. This challenge is usually delegated to ASO specialists that optimize your mobile app page making it visible in stores. We have already discussed what is ASO and what are the ASO agencies. Now it’s time to dive a bit deeper into the process of ASO mobile optimization. Let’s start!

Methods of ASO Mobile Optimization

ASO optimization of mobile apps consists of the following elements:

• Optimization of keywords, name, subtitle, short description, and a full description
• Optimization of icons, screenshots, or video previews
• Localization of the page description into different languages
• Analysis of competitors’ metadata, downloads, user audience
• Regular updates and iterations according to fast-changing app store realities

All these aspects are basic rules for a good ASO strategy. They are applicable both for Google Play and App Store platforms. Let’s have a closer look at the mobile app optimization process.

App Store Optimization for Google Play and App Store

Importance of keyword research

Before planning an ASO strategy it is necessary to make keyword research. Mobile app publishers should analyze the performance of the current keywords if the app is already published or investigate potential keywords’ performance.

The main steps in the keyword research process are:

1. Brainstorming and creating a list of relevant keywords for your product.
2. Inspect the competitors’ keywords.
3. Analyze traffic and the difficulty of chosen keywords.
4. Add the best-performing keywords. The fields for relevant keywords on Google Play and Apple App Store are a bit different: App Name/Title, Subtitle, Keywords on iOS, and Title, Short Description, and Full Description in Google Play.
5. Track the performance of selected keywords and optimize in new iterations if necessary.

Recommendations to get featured

Getting featured by Google or Apple is a short road to success for app developers. It will cause a massive rise in downloads. Here are some tips to make the app featured.

• Create a unique solution. Original and high-quality products have more chances to be featured in mobile stores than copies of already existed.
• Communicate with your user. Good ratings and positive reviews can be a good basis for promoting your app. Don’t ignore any feedback and answer even negative comments.
• Analyze other featured applications. Try to figure out what aspects are important in your niche and optimize your product in a similar way.
• Update your solution. New features and functionality necessary for users will make the stores notice your app.
• Fix all the bugs. Try to give the user the best possible quality in your app. Because attracting the user is a tough task, but holding him is even more complex.
• Localize your solution. The more in-app languages you support the more chances you have to get featured in local stores in Germany, Italy, France, and Asian countries

Visual optimization

Icons and screenshots are necessary elements for mobile optimization in App Store and Google Play. They should impress and convince the potential user of a mobile device at first sight. You can always make an A/B test to examine what icons have a better effect and choose the most successful ones.

As for the screenshots, the best practice is to give a user an instant and clear understanding what is the nature of the service. It is important not to confuse him, but explain the best features and functionalities as briefly as possible. The publisher can add 10 screenshots in Apple App Store and 8 in Google Play Store to grab the user’s attention.

Update your features or content

Depending on the kind of your app you should always improve it. Add new features to your software or some new content and events if you are a game developer. But don’t break what’s already working. Don’t let new bugs spoil the impressions from the latest update.

Generate more positive feedback

Mobile app store feedback is a big factor in your ASO tactics. The more positive feedback you have the better ranking and downloads you get. It is important to remember that relevant keywords in reviews are evaluated by Google Play algorithms and taken into account in search queries. Try to find the best moment to motivate your customers to leave feedback about your solution.

Don’t stop optimizing your app

App Store Optimization is a long-term process and requires the permanent presence and work of ASO specialists. Only by monitoring the current progress of your app, ASO experts will be able to develop a strategy for keeping your position in app stores or improving its performance and revenues.

Key Differences between App Store and Google Play

Google Play and App Store have the same goal: they allow mobile users to search for necessary apps and install them on their devices. However, the stores have some differences.

Both platforms implement a similar mobile app review attitude. But to ensure that they have high-quality apps, Apple’s review procedure takes more time than Google’s. It takes about 3 days after you offer a new application or update. After approval, the application will be available to download within 24 hours.

Speaking about the importance of keywords in both stores, they are essential but evaluated differently. Google Play implements a similar approach as Google Search. All textual elements are checked to find the indexed keywords in your mobile app description. You should repeat relevant keywords 3-5 times across all the fields, including title, subtitle, and descriptions to rank your app for them.

For comparison, The Apple App Store has a specific field, where you can enter all the necessary keywords to get into the search queries. It is not necessary to repeat them across all the fields of your app page.

Conclusion

To sum up, ASO is an essential part of the app publishing campaign. Optimization is a bridge between your product and user and you need to build it strong to have a win-win partnership. But this is the exact case when it is better to delegate this challenge to specialists with enough knowledge and experience in each mobile app store. Grrrow.me is the exact service that can walk you through all the stages of the ASO process and present your solution to the world at its best.

Build a bridge between a user and your app with ASO!