10 Ultimate App Store Optimization Strategies (ASO)

Ravalika Medipally

Jul 12, 2022
10 Ultimate App Store Optimization Strategies

It’s a known fact that mobile applications are the most efficient ways to reach the target audience for a business, expand users, boost revenue, and outperform your competitors. About 3.48 million Android and 2.22 million iOS apps are available on Google Play and Apple App Store today. The user spending on Google Play is projected to reach $60 billion by 2023 from $53 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 19%.

For your mobile app to be noticed in the app stores, ASO creative strategies should be followed from the point the application is released to the market.

However, even the best mobile applications can fail if they don’t target the right users. The only secret to success for these applications is ASO or creating and optimizing the content on App Stores. These initiatives enhance an application's app store positioning - the better an application's content and rating, the more noticeable among users and more downloads. More significant popularity is good since it promotes higher conversion and more organic downloads.

App Store Optimization (ASO) – How does it Work?

The strategy/method used to increase an app's visibility/ranking in app stores is called App Store Optimization (ASO). App stores rank every app based on criteria like effective keywords, optimized content, helpful images, appropriate explainer videos, and ratings. Although ASO and SEO are sometimes contrasted, the former mainly relates to an app store's search feature and ranking procedures. The overlap between SEO and ASO can be found in several areas, which can be helpful when first attempting to improve your App Store rankings.

The idea behind optimizing apps on the app store is obvious – the higher you rank, your app will receive more exposure to potential new users. Understanding your users is essential to implementing these insights while creating your ASO content. Increasing organic traffic and organic downloads are the primary goal of content optimization. In simplest terms, traffic plus conversion equals app store optimization. There’s one other deciding element that you need to focus on ratings of an app have a direct impact on its ranking and visibility.

Here are my top 10 ASO strategies you need to follow to rank high on app stores:

Top 10 ASO Strategies to Follow

  • Choose the Right Title
  • Keyword Research & Optimization
  • Optimized App Description
  • Effective Images and Explainer Video
  • Reviews and Ratings Matter
  • Understand Your Audience
  • Optimize Product Pages
  • Don’t Neglect App Icon
  • Know Your Competition
  • Paid Promotions & Marketing

Choose the Right Title

An app title on Google Play Store or Apple App Store can be 30 characters long. Use terms in your app title that are appropriate for the app - simple, unique, and easy to understand. The title is the first impression for a user – use it properly to grab your users’ attention.

Keyword Research & Optimization

By improving your visibility for relevant keywords, you can gain more visits. Without effective keyword optimization, you'll waste time chasing misleading click-to-install statistics that won't help you raise your conversion rate. You can use voice-of-customer research to match your keywords to audience intent to acquire high-quality downloads that won't churn.

Carefully selected keywords ensure that your app is indexed as a search result for users looking for a specific type of app. These have been chosen based on how accurately they convey your app, its features, and the most recent developments in the app store search.

Optimized App Description

Targeting the user base should be the main emphasis of the app's description. It encourages prospective customers to download the application. Even if there’s a 4000-character restriction for your lengthy description, remember that you only have 252 characters before the "More" link truncates the remaining portion of the report. In this context, ensure the consumer understands why they should download your app by keeping your message short and to the point.

If you intend to repeat keywords for the app store optimization, pay attention to the word count to avoid keyword stuffing, which could hurt your rankings in search results.

Compelling Images & Explainer Video

Enhancement of conversion rate extensively depends on videos and screenshots. Videos and app images are excellent ways to show off your app's top features to someone who hasn't yet downloaded it. Some app developers create videos to demonstrate the app, while others make a marketing video with music and captions, depending on what works best for their app.

Reviews & Ratings Matter

The success of ASO depends greatly on user feedback, which both Google Play and Apple App Store consider. An app appears more relevant and receives a higher rating as its ranks rise. Reviews are, therefore, significant elements in the app store ranking algorithm. Additionally, user evaluations and ratings impact potential customers' decisions about whether to download your product or not. Consequently, responding to client feedback promptly helps you earn more users/downloads.

Understand Your Audience

Begin researching your target market and audience to see what they need and how they behave. You can obtain data that might be useful for app content creation by getting to know your users. You need to identify their reasons for using the app, discovery method, language preferences, and other factors.

Optimize Product Pages

Along with your app store optimization, optimizing the product pages or web pages is equally important. Continuously optimizing app names, descriptions, images, videos, etc., on the app store gives you more downloads, but the website/webpage provides more authority to an application. It builds trust for a user to download the app and use it.

Don’t Neglect App Icon

The app icon should have an appealing yet subtle visual quality. Choose a color palette, size, and shape that immediately creates a positive impression and helps describe what the app offers. Your app will be able to stand out among millions of others. However, be careful that your app's icon doesn't resemble any others. When it comes to app design, each app store has its criteria – check a few mentioned below:

  • iOS - 1024 x 1024 pixels
  • App icons - 180 x 180
  • Navigation icons - 66 x 66
  • Tab bar icons - 75 x 75
  • Google - 512 x 512 pixels

Know Your Competition

Many great tools are available online to provide efficient marketing strategy and research. These tools forecast your competitors' success and present application marketing trends. These will enable you to examine your competitors' apps' revenue, market presence, and advertising purchasing behavior. They’ll help you develop ASO and a sound marketing plan so your app installs and revenues surge.

Paid Promotions & Marketing

For developers trying to compete in the app stores, paid promotion can be a great alternative to get instant results. For instance, you might increase traffic to an app listing by showing it to users looking for relevant terms using paid advertising.

Think of it as competing for a top place on a search engine results page. Due to the enhanced visibility from sponsored networks, your app will be indexed for relevant keywords more quickly. Additionally, the downloads and clicks are driven by the advertisements also boost organic growth.

ASO – The Future

An app publisher must create a mobile app with the best functionality possible. However, app store optimization is just as important as developing an app because it enables developers to expose their product to a larger audience. The likelihood of downloading an app increases with only the number of app impressions.

It's not enough to merely do some keyword research, write a description for your app, add a few images, and then ignore it. You must create and implement an ASO strategy if you want long-term results. It is essential to understand your users, focus on their experience, and measure and improve your ASO.

The FUTURE of mobile is the future of EVERYTHING. Smartphones have invaded human life completely-one's life has become incomplete without using a mobile application at least once a day. You can now understand how difficult it is to promote a newbie app in this competitive market. Connect with our ASO experts to help you optimize your app and gain higher user acquisition.