I wrote this blog post titled "How to improve your app store presence" as an assignment for a company I applied to for a writing position.
So, you’ve developed an app and it is everything you hoped it would be. Now you want to share your creation with as many users as possible.
How do you make your app stand out in such a highly competitive marketplace? The answer is App Store Optimization or “ASO” which is a process of making sure that your app will be discovered in an app store by optimizing your app store listing.
Below are a few tips to guide you through creating a more compelling app store description that will attract more users.
Keyword research is an important step. Just as is the case in web content, most people find apps to solve their challenges by searching for them.
When you choose more popular and relevant keywords to help describe your app, your app’s listing will be higher. This, in turn, will increase the likelihood that users will find your app. Not too many though!
The name you choose for your app and the keywords you use in your app listing's title are also really important. Let's say a prospective user is searching for basketball games and searches for "basketball". This is what he will probably see in the Google Play Store:
At this stage, your prospective user has to make a decision based on the app's title, logo, ratings and perhaps even the price. Of these factors, the title is the most prominent so choose one that calls out to the user.
Users tend to choose apps that have higher ratings. Higher ratings are a signal to other users that the app is worth using because it is good quality or does what it promises to do, well.
Two ways to earn better ratings include asking your users to rate your app and, if you receive a negative review, respond as soon as possible and address the user’s issue as best you can.
Users sometimes give apps low ratings out of frustration and addressing them constructively can convert them into evangelists for your app.
ASO is a process of trial and error. You need to constantly measure how effective the elements of your app store listing are and optimize them. The key is to approach it from your user's perspective and find what appeals most to them.