Digital Tech Byte Latest Technology News
App Store Optimization (ASO in short) is all about making the app rank high in the search results by increasing visibility in the app stores. This way more people will be able to find and download your app and use it. ASO is also known as App Store SEO, Play Store ASO, App Store ASO, App Search Optimization.
More App downloads mean more users and more users means more revenue. It looks simple right, well it’s not so easy.
What is App Store Optimization (ASO)
App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of improving your app’s visibility in an app store, with the major ones being the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. In addition to ranking high in the app store search results, the basic requirement of ASO is also the focus on click-through rate (CTR). This means that once they find it, you need to convince people to actually click on your app store listing. You can do so by optimizing your App Name, App Title, App Icon, App Screenshots, and App Rating.
Once people click through the listing page of your app store, you have to make make sure they download it or make a purchase as well. This part of Optimizing the In-App Store is also known as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
ASO vs. SEO: Differences & Similarities:
ASO:
App Store Optimization is the method of optimizing a game or application to maximize its visibility in the Search app stores (when users search) and Explore (when users browse), increase the listing traffic, and improve the conversion rate to achieve the maximum volume of organic download.
- ASO is about Visibility (Search + Explore) and Conversion Rate to download on the stores.
- Users are looking for apps when searching and browsing app stores.
- Get more organic downloads, and reduce the cost of a mobile app for UA (User Acquisition).
- The iOS and Android app stores: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Huawei AppGallery, and more.
SEO:
SEO is also a process of optimisation. Its aim is to get a better positioning on the website. It stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the amount and quality of traffic to your website through results from organic search engines.
- On the web search, SEO is about Visibility (Search) and CTR (Click Through Rate).
- Users are looking for information or content when searching on the web.
- Get more organic traffic (visitors) and grow digital businesses.
This is why ASO is often described as the “SEO for apps“, a simple way to present things to people who know about SEO (web marketing) but don’t know about ASO (app marketing). The web search (both desktop and mobile). SEO can be done for Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. search engines.
ASO & SEO major factors:
ASO factors:
When talking about ASO, two different types of factors can be identified: the on-metadata factors and the off-metadata ones. These also differ a bit between the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Let’s review them to have a general idea of what has an impact on visibility and conversion rate to download.
On-metadata factors:
- App Name / Title
- Subtitle / Short Description
- Promotional Text (App Store)
- Description
- Keywords field (App Store)
- Visual assets: icons, screenshots, and videos
- Listing localization
- Developer name (Google Play)
- URL (Google Play)
- In-App Purchases names (App Store)
Off-metadata factors:
- Downloads
- Ratings & Reviews
- Backlinks (Google Play)
As you can see, the factors sometimes differ between both stores, as well as their importance and relevance.
SEO factors:
When talking about SEO, two different types of factors can be identified: the on-page factors and the off-page ones. Let’s review them to have a general idea of what has an impact on website visibility on Google search results pages (SERPs).
On-page factors:
- Site architecture
- UX
- Page load speed
- Meta Title
- Meta Description
- H1, H2, H3… tags
- Content optimization (text, images, video…)
- Quality of content
- User Engagement
- Responsive/mobile design (Mobile first)
Off-page factors:
- Backlinks (quantity, quality, speed, topic relevance…)
- Traffic
- SEO other stuff
You surely have noticed that the SEO factors are indeed mainly similar to the ASO factors. And it’s more: When they are similar, their degree of influence might differ.
How will you measure the success of ASO and SEO?
In order to measure the success of ASO, you have to take into account the following KPIs or metrics:
-Keywords rankings
-Top Charts rankings
-Featured tracking
-Conversion Rate to visit
-Conversion Rate to download
-User ratings & reviews
-Organic downloads (Search)
-Organic downloads (Explore / Browse)
-Organic uplift
-Revenue
How do you track all this stuff? Easy, you can use any ASO tool.
In order to measure the success of SEO, you have to take into account the following KPIs or metrics:
-Link profile
-Keywords rankings (desktop and mobile)
-CTR
-Organic traffic
-Bounce rate, time per session, etc.
-Revenue
-Google PageSpeed
How do you track all this stuff? Easy, you can use any SEO tool available in the market like SEMrush or Ahrefs.
We have now discovered that for various reasons, ASO and SEO are distinct, and primarily because they have different goals and are designed for different objectives. This means that neither ASO nor SEO competes. We can even go a little further by suggesting they can complement one another. Indeed, combining SEO to an ASO strategy is absolutely possible: users sometimes discover apps while searching on the mobile web. This means that users will find part of the discovered apps on the web and not in app stores.
It is important to remember that it is not possible to use either ASO or SEO as a magic wand and that both require time, effort and strategy to be successful. Essentially, what you need to know is that ASO and SEO aren’t the same, even if both of them are optimizing processes with the goal of increasing organic traffic. To be efficient each of the two needs its own strategy.
