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How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

blog.discofingers.com

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Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#11
post #9

But what nobody tells you about ASO is that these users are much more unqualified than the other users you get. Downloads coming from friend referrals or reading an article about your app are much more likely to give you a good rating or convert into a paying user.

Hmmm.. What do you base that upon? My stats tell a different story. The downloads are usually of high quality.

This of course depends wether or not you manage to keep the keywords highly relevant. And the technique I am describing usually forces people to be more specific and add more relevant keywords. (Rather than what most app developers do, which is adding generic words like "fun,game,kids,book,music").

Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#13
post #12

Thanks for a great article. Do you know if the keywords used in reviews have any impact on rating? I assume not since it's the first thing to be gamed.

Thanks!

I am not sure, but I don't think so, for the same reason as you.

However, I have heard your overall ratings (and I suspect comments too) will affect your rankings for keywords in general. One of the best way of climbing the keyword ranks is by getting great ratings.

Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#14
post #3

Appstore optimization makes sense when you have 50 daily downloads but want to have 100. Relying on search results only wont make you lot of money there. Anyway in most cases you can start with buggy SensorTower to find out what keywords will bring you more relevant traffic at lower competition. After than just keep tracking things with a free AppAnnie ASO tool.

I have not looked into the economics of app stores myself, but I imagine they are following a similar trend that google did. I bet there are a lot of opportunities for developers selling cheap long-tail apps (recipes, quotes, etc, i.e. "resources") to niche customers. But I have no idea.

Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#15
post #3

Appstore optimization makes sense when you have 50 daily downloads but want to have 100. Relying on search results only wont make you lot of money there. Anyway in most cases you can start with buggy SensorTower to find out what keywords will bring you more relevant traffic at lower competition. After than just keep tracking things with a free AppAnnie ASO tool.

SensorTower is buggy and annoying, I much prefer AppAnnie & MobileDevHq. I compared[1] them a while back and ended up concluding that the free tiers of AppAnnie/MobileDevHQ are enough to do some basic ASO.

[1] http://www.androidb.com/2014/07/10-tools-to-help-with-google...

Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#17
post #16

When are you launching Disco Fingers?

Thanks for asking! We might send it in to Apple today actually. Our dealine was two weeks ago, but you know how it its :)

Do you think it looks interesting?

In hindsight, we probably should have published this article after release... Didn't even dream of getting on the front page of HN.

Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#18
post #12

Thanks for a great article. Do you know if the keywords used in reviews have any impact on rating? I assume not since it's the first thing to be gamed.

Thanks! I am not sure, but I don't think so, for the same reason as you. However, I have heard your overall ratings (and I suspect comments too) will affect your rankings for keywords in general. One of the best way of climbing the keyword ranks is by getting great ratings.

I spent a ton of time testing the Apple's search algorithm for AppCodes.com - didn't find any relationship between ratings and keyword ranks.

Here's a summary of what I found out: http://www.slideshare.net/kolinko/new-rules-in-app-store-sea...

Basically - neither downloads, nor ratings, nor description counts.

Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#19
post #9

But what nobody tells you about ASO is that these users are much more unqualified than the other users you get. Downloads coming from friend referrals or reading an article about your app are much more likely to give you a good rating or convert into a paying user.

Depends on whether you spam the store, or use words/phrases that are relevant.

Re: How to double your app's downloads with keyword optimization

#20
post #3

Appstore optimization makes sense when you have 50 daily downloads but want to have 100. Relying on search results only wont make you lot of money there. Anyway in most cases you can start with buggy SensorTower to find out what keywords will bring you more relevant traffic at lower competition. After than just keep tracking things with a free AppAnnie ASO tool.

SensorTower is buggy and annoying, I much prefer AppAnnie & MobileDevHq. I compared[1] them a while back and ended up concluding that the free tiers of AppAnnie/MobileDevHQ are enough to do some basic ASO. [1] http://www.androidb.com/2014/07/10-tools-to-help-with-google...

Thanks for the tip. Interesting article. I have found that once you get used to SensorTower, it works quite well.

what I mostly need when doing ASO is:

1. Traffic estimation 2. A fast way of researching competition for a specific keyword

SensorTower gives us both and results from updates suggests that there are a connection between their estimations and true life.

How do you experience AppAnnie/MobileDevHQ traffic estimation tools?

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