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iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

pixiteapps.com

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Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#61

Post by taligent »

joeld42 wrote: post #50
Zaheer wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any resources you suggest for learning App Store SEO?

1) Have a long title with keywords in it: "Super Task: The todo organizer time management for agile" 2) Pick good keywords. Repeat them in your description copy. 3) Get everyone you know to give you a 5-star review when you launch. That's about it. There's not much more you can do.

Actually this could be bad advice in the new model. You see the App Store search is still at its core just a Lucene index. In which case the weightings are likely to be similar:

titlePhrase 9 / authorPhrase 9 / subjectPhrase 9 / genrePhrase 9 / titleWords 3 / authorWords 3 / subjectWords 3 / genreWords 3 / titleExact 20 / authorExact 18

As you could see just stuffing keywords will guarantee you appear in lots of different searches but not necessarily ranked highly in any of them. Really depends on the type of app you sell.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#63

Post by Timothee »

danboarder wrote: post #40
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #38

>" No offense to the makers of “Picasa HD Lite”, which ranks #1 in a search for “picasa,” but Web Albums’ 5-star average from 483 ratings should be ranked higher than a 2.5-star average from 30 ratings. " No, if I search for X I want to get X, not a better rated app in the same category as X. If I search for "photo album" or something to that tune this argument would be valid.

@JumpCrisscross what you missed here is that "Web Albums" is the official google Picasa app for iOS. Picasa HD Lite is a low-rated knockoff optimized for appstore SEO. The author's point stands, the official Picasa app (Web Albums) should rank first.

How is it the official app? It's not made by Google but by Pixite (author of the OP): http://www.webalbumsapp.com/

Were they bought out or something? That page doesn't seem to indicate so.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#64

Post by induscreep »

I like the new App Store layout. One of the first thing I look for in an app is how intrusive the ads are - and looking at the screenshots shows me exactly that. This new layout is perfect for this app search strategy.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#65

Post by tomjen3 »

bpatrianakos wrote: post #18

Nothing is broken and no one is "doing it wrong". It's not broken, it's just inconvenient for you . This sucks for app developers with bad app store SEO and lackluster icons, app designs, and screenshots of said designs. Many apps at the bottom of the stack will be neglected. This is a good thing. I'm about to release an app into the app store for the first time and I'm happy about it. This will raise the bar for dev…

When I search the app store I am not looking for a pretty app. I am looking for a very specific app.

But you are properly right. Apple doesn't get that functionality is so much more important than estethics.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#66

Post by tomjen3 »

bpatrianakos wrote: post #29
tzs wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a buyer, I don't see how it is great for me. When I search on the App Store there are usually several hits in the results that are not at all interesting to me, and ahead of the hits that better match what I'm looking for. I want to see several results at once so I can pick which ones I want to look into more deeply. If I have to step through them one at a time with a noticeable delay at each step, I'm not going t…

You want this. You have certain tastes and preferences and expectations but you (and me and everyone else who reads HN) are not representative of the typical user. For a community all about entrepreneurship and building things for others you'd think we'd figure out by now that we are not the customer (unless you run some business directed directly at tech savvy people but you get my point). Also, I am astounded at th…

MS build their platform on being nice to decelopers. Apple has consistently fucked their developers over and over.

That tactic works as long as we can wipe our asses with 100 dollar bills from their sales. If that doesn't happen, we might as well go where we are wanted.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#67

Post by stickfigure »

induscreep wrote: post #64

I like the new App Store layout. One of the first thing I look for in an app is how intrusive the ads are - and looking at the screenshots shows me exactly that. This new layout is perfect for this app search strategy.

Screenshots are submitted by the app developers. You expect them to include ads in those screenshots? Comical.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#68

Post by stickfigure »

sumukh1 wrote: post #5

This is awesome news (though it's been known for a while) for the top publishers who have: large download numbers, good AppStore SEO, and good screenshots. While I think that this is bad on whole for developers/discovery as we knew it, it might just help users. Most of the time, users are either window shopping or looking for a very specific product. Window Shoppers: "I want a photo editing app", chances are you are…

Just imagine for a moment that Google only offered one result per page. Do you really think this is going to improve the user experience? How often do you click "I'm Feeling Lucky"?

The ability of Apple apologists to rationalize bad behavior is astounding.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#69

Post by drgath »

jayfuerstenberg wrote: post #31
bpatrianakos wrote: post #18

Nothing is broken and no one is "doing it wrong". It's not broken, it's just inconvenient for you . This sucks for app developers with bad app store SEO and lackluster icons, app designs, and screenshots of said designs. Many apps at the bottom of the stack will be neglected. This is a good thing. I'm about to release an app into the app store for the first time and I'm happy about it. This will raise the bar for dev…

If you're about to release your first app on the app store you're not qualified to understand its dynamics. Sorry. I believe this redesign is a small step backward, and some sort of step forward. Showing a screenshot is a good idea but users are notoriously lazy and won't venture past even a few results so it creates a feedback loop where only the best performers get rewarded, further fueling that performance.

> If you're about to release your first app on the app store you're not qualified to understand its dynamics. Sorry.

Possibly. But it does mean he's more qualified to view the App Store from a user's perspective, instead of a developer's. The App Store is designed for users, not for developers, which was his whole point.

Re: iOS 6 Breaks the App Store

#70

Post by mayanksinghal »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #49
mannkind wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course! There's no possible way to promote your app other than telling users to search for it in the App Store. If having users stumble upon your app is in your critical path, you have other problems. The search results have always been less-than-stellar whether you could scroll through 25 results in 1s or 11s.

Why hasn't Google jumped on this? If I search for "todo app" in Google, I get mostly blogs (SEO experts) and one app that apparently was the first to ask for the name Todo. Shouldn't Google trigger a special view like they do when you search for "CITY_NAME weather" or "MOVIE_TITLE showtimes"?

You mean platform dependent results? If the person is accessing from Web then web apps, from Android then playstore results etc... Sounds nice actually!
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