With millions of apps on the Google Play Store and many more on Apple’s App Store, your app's visibility can be limited. No matter the niche your app is in, there may be better apps with bigger marketing budgets and more reviews, making it hard to be noticed. While you can boost your visibility by advertising on the Play Store, this comes at an additional cost.

So, how can you improve your visibility on the Play Store? The answer lies in App Store Optimization (ASO). In this article, we take you through the steps of optimizing your app for increased visibility on the App Store and Play Store. This is one of the key steps of creating an outstanding mobile marketing campaign.

What is App Store Optimization?

App Store Optimization involves optimizing the visibility of your app on app stores such as Google Play and Apple’s App Store to increase its visibility and organic downloads. Just as SEO is for websites, ASO is for apps. For instance, if your app is focused on home workouts, ASO will make it visible when people search for keywords in your niche, such as home workout tips or home workout apps.

Remember that attention spans on mobile devices are short, so your target audience may not have the luxury of looking at more than five apps. When you use this mobile marketing strategy, your app can appear among the first few results, thereby boosting its visibility and downloads.

Benefits of App Store Optimization

ASO is essential because it improves your app's discoverability on the app store, often leading to more downloads. When properly done, it can help you to:

• Attract the right user. When you optimize for keywords relevant to your niche, you can easily attract users interested in your product.
• Lower costs. With ASO, you can get traffic from searches without paying. This traffic is usually more cost-effective than using ads.
• Increased credibility and trust. Mobile phone users consider the top-ranking apps to be more credible and trustworthy. This is because they expect the app store only to show reputable apps at the top.
• Ensure long-term growth. When your app page is well optimized, it can continue generating downloads in the long term.

How App Store Optimization Works

Just like SEO helps with website and social media ranking, app stores use algorithms that determine which content appears in search results. Some of the factors considered by the APP store algorithm are:

• Number of downloads.
• Use of accurate and descriptive language.
• Frequency of updates.
• Visuals such as videos and screenshots.
• Reviews and ratings.
• Keywords used in the app description.

However, it's worth noting that how the Play Store ranks apps is different from Apple’s App Store.

Steps in App Store Optimization

To increase the visibility of your app on the App Store, follow these steps:

Conduct Keywords Research

Just as you conduct keyword research for your website, you also need to do the same for your app. This involves determining the terms and phrases that people use to find apps in your niche. You can begin by creating a few seed keywords. These should consist of basic terms that describe what your product does, for instance, as in our earlier example. 

Your seed keywords can be "exercise” or “workout”. You can then use a third-party keyword research tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush to find more keywords. This is easier in an era when AI has revolutionized keyword research.

Add the Keywords in the App Title and Subtitle

The app title appears in the app's listing and helps users decide whether to click it. This is why you need to add the keywords people use to search for apps in your industry. When doing that, remember that your app store title is limited to 30 characters, and the subtitle can be up to 30 more.

On the Apple App Store, you will have an option to add up to 100 characters, and this can impact your ranking on the search engines. You can separate your keywords using a comma without adding a space. Make sure you include some less popular, less competitive keywords. This will enable you to increase your visibility as it is easier to rank for the keywords.

Add an Outstanding App Description

You can improve your app's ranking by adding a clear, concise description. This will enable potential app users to download it. Make the first paragraph captivating and include the app's key benefits. You can then add bullet points and paragraphs to make the features more meaningful.

In Google Play, the first 80 characters consist of short descriptions, and you should add the primary keywords in this space. You can then add relevant keywords in the description. Apple doesn't define how your app’s visibility is affected by the description. However, it suggests the need to add value and avoid keyword stuffing.

Choose the Right Category

Select an app category that is a reflection of what your app is about and its target audience. This is important as it will help the store to understand your app. It also enables users who browse using the category to find it.

Include Compelling Visuals

Another factor that can affect your ranking on the app store is visuals, such as videos and screenshots. Therefore, it can help to include visuals that show the core benefits and features of your app. You can also include text overlays explaining what is happening in each visual. Make sure the visuals look good on your mobile devices. 

On the App Store, you can add up to 10 screen shorts and three videos. Playstore, on the other hand, allows you to add a single feature graphic, a prompt video, and eight screenshots.

Encourage User Reviews and Ratings

Having positive reviews and high ratings can increase your account's visibility and credibility. Therefore, make sure you encourage your users to leave reviews. When they do so, make sure you respond fast and professionally, including to the negative ones. This will show potential users that you value feedback and are working hard to improve the app.

Encouraging Downloads

Another factor that can improve your app's visibility on the app store is the number of downloads. When this number is big, it will also attract more users, so look for ways to increase app downloads by using different social media channels and emails. You can run paid ads during the campaign to build initial momentum.

Remember, the first few weeks after a launch are key, as early performance will determine how your app ranks in the app store. When you have a high number of downloads and strong positive user engagement, this can increase the app's visibility.

Regularly Update the App

If you regularly update the app, you can signal to the App Store that you are actively maintaining and improving it, which can help increase its visibility. Make numerous updates to remove bugs, improve performance, and add new features based on user feedback. You can use major updates to refresh the whole app.

Localize the App Listing

When you localize your listing, you can increase the number of downloads and ranking from various audiences. On both the Play Store and App Store, you can create different versions of an app to target different markets. You can, therefore, optimize your app for:

• Different regions and languages
• Target timely and seasonal content
• Show different features for different market segments.

In Conclusion

If you create an app and wait for people to start downloading with no effort, you will be doing zero work. However, through ASO, you can optimize your app to increase its visibility on the app stores.