What is ASO and how to promote a mobile app

You’ve created a mobile app and successfully added it to the stores – what do you do next? How do you compete for your users among 2,654,747 apps on Google Play (according to Statista) and almost the same number of apps on the App Store? A set of methods for optimizing apps on the app store and Google is called ASO (App Store Optimization), and today we will tell you in detail what ASO is and how it works.

What is ASO (app store optimization)?

ASO (App Store Optimization) is a tool that will help you stay afloat and compete with even the largest market players. Using Apple Search Ads helps to determine the effectiveness of keywords for ASO. Of course, provided that your product is well-designed and evokes positive emotions in users.

More specifically, ASO is the optimization of your app page in the app store, which helps to increase page views and app installs. The better the page is designed, the more chances you have to become a leader among competitors or at least stay afloat and attract a certain number of users.

Internal ASO: keywords

The internal part of ASO is working with keyword indexing and optimization of the application. This means selecting keywords, phrases, and descriptions so that Google and Apple will rank your app for the relevant keywords and categorize it in the right way. Basically, this is working with the text part of the page. It is important to choose the right keywords to optimize your app.

Let’s take an example. You have an app for buying books online that allows you to download them to your phone and read them offline. We already have some keywords that have traffic and can bring users. Instead of just naming the app “ReadOn”, it’s better to do this: “ReadOn – buying books online”. This way, the following keys will be indexed: book, buying books, buying online, buying books online.

A subtitle can be used to expand keyword indexing, for example: “Download and read books offline”. This will allow you to add even more keys for indexing, increasing the position of your app.

On Google Play and the App Store, there are several fields for entering keywords for indexing. They are different for each store, so preparation should be separate for each. The frequency of keywords is also different, so the semantic core should be prepared individually for each store.

External ASO

The external part of ASO is a direct connection with a potential user. You have to convince the user that your app is exactly what they were looking for. It is important to optimize the elements of the app page for play and app store to ensure visibility and competitiveness. You need to convince with correct information and attractive visual elements.

The title and subtitle should not only be search-optimized, but also readable and understandable. Just a set of keywords can cause rejection or misunderstanding of what kind of program it is.

The visual part plays an important role. If you’re a creative person with an analytical mindset, then working with screenshots and icons can be fun.

The main task of visual elements is to increase conversion from pre-installation page views of the app. It is important to choose content that does not mislead users, but at the same time attracts them.

Testing is the best solution. Constantly searching for the best options that can increase installs and boost conversions should be your priority.

Example: you have a well-designed icon that is pleasing to the eye and partially conveys the essence of the app. But that doesn’t mean it attracts the maximum number of users. A simple experiment with changing the icon’s background can increase conversion by 10%. Thus, a new icon can bring 110 installations instead of 100.

Testing should be done constantly. Generate new ideas, draw conclusions from past experiments, and try something new. You can’t know for sure what will work best and what won’t. Also, don’t forget about seasonality: for example, New Year’s decorations can be a good idea.

What ASO and SEO have in common

SEO optimization is aimed at increasing the ranking of websites in search engines, which allows you to increase the profit of the site owner. The goal of ASO (App Store Optimization) is to improve the position of mobile applications in the rankings of app stores for key queries and increase organic installations after viewing the application page.

Despite the common goal of increasing visibility, mobile app promotion differs from SEO in several ways:

1. Search Principle: Users don’t search for apps in stores the same way they search for answers to questions in search engines.
2. Limited number of characters: The metadata for indexing in the app stores has a limited number of characters.
3. Different algorithms: The algorithms of the App Store and Google Play differ significantly. The App Store indexes the Title, Subtitle, and Keywords fields, while Google Play indexes the Title, Short, and Full description fields. It’s also important to optimize your app pages for Google Play and the App Store by choosing the right keywords, descriptions, and categories.
   
4. Defining keywords: Google Play and the App Store have different ways of determining which words to index an app. Google Play uses artificial intelligence to select keywords based on the title and description. It can conjugate words, find synonyms, and translate them into other languages. For the App Store, it is important to localize text metadata, choose logos, titles, descriptions, visual elements, and keywords.
   
5. Limitations of the Apple algorithm: Apple’s algorithm is more primitive – it can combine words into phrases and sometimes change singular to plural and vice versa (in English only). It cannot conjugate words, find synonyms, or translate. For example, if the name contains the word “accounting” and the keywords contain “warehouse”, the app will find the phrases “warehouse accounting” or “warehouse accounting”, but not the phrases “warehouse accounting”, “warehouse accounting” or “warehouse accounting”.

Conclusion

If you are serious about developing an app and want to succeed in this niche, be sure to learn and use ASO. Understand Google’s algorithms, research the preferences and interests of your potential users, and turn your weaknesses into strengths. An ASO specialist will help you promote your apps in the App Store and Google Play Market, develop semantic core and metadata, and test new approaches and hypotheses. Delving deeper into this issue, you will learn about new techniques, promotion methods, and traffic sources.