App Store Optimization Guide: For The App Store & Google Play mentormate.com App Store: How Users Find Apps General browsing in an app store 63% Speaking with friends or family 50% Browsing “top rated” or “most popular” app lists in an app store 34% mentormate.com Source: European Technographics Consumer Technology Online Survey, Q4 2012 Google Play: How Users Find Apps General browsing in an app store 58% Speaking with friends or family 41% Browsing “top rated” or “most popular” app lists in an app store 25% mentormate.com Source: European Technographics Consumer Technology Online Survey, Q4 2012 App Store: Specific Tips mentormate.com App Store: Specific Tips Use Single Words Don’t bother adding multi-word keyword phrases or spaces in the keywords field in the App Store. For example if you were targeting the phrase “mobile conference app” you would want to add the keywords individually as follows: mobile,conference,app Write a Human Description Since keywords in the description field in the App Store have no impact in your rankings, make sure to use it purely to market your app to potential users and highlight its value proposition. Keep it short & concise. mentormate.com Google Play: Specific Tips mentormate.com Google Play: Specific Tips Link To Your Google Play App Listing Google Play app rankings are influenced by links pointing to your Google Play app listing web page. The more authoritative links pointing to your Google Play app listing, the easier it will be for your app to rank more highly in the Google Play search results. Write a Hybrid Human & Robot Description Google Play doesn’t offer a keywords field like the App Store does. This means that it’s important to design your app description to be a hybrid accommodating both robots & humans by placing your targeted keywords in the description in a human-friendly fashion. mentormate.com Google Play: Specific Tips Leverage Google+ Put some effort into getting as many +1’s as you can on Google+. Post about your app in relevant Google+ Communities and get your co-workers and friends to help promote it on their Google+ profiles. mentormate.com App Store Optimization: General Tips mentormate.com App Store Optimization: General Tips Plan What To Show Above The Fold When writing your app descriptions, think about what should go above-the-fold versus below-the- fold (where you need to click to reveal). Consider Using Keywords in the Title If you are willing to use your keyword(s) in the title of your app, on average this will result in a 10.3% increase in app store search rankings. (Source: MOBILEDEVHQ) mentormate.com App Store Optimization: General Tips Consider Using Screenshots as More Than Just Screenshots Screenshots don’t need to just be screenshots, you can use these images to visually explain to users how your app works and explain its functionality. Mitigate Negative Reviews & Nurture Highly-Engaged Users Build in features to collect and respond to user’s feedback directly in order to mitigate negative app store reviews. Encourage reviews for users that are highly engaged with your app. Encourage your friends to give your app a review as well. mentormate.com App Store Optimization: Keyword Research Tools mentormate.com Keyword Research Tools: App Store & Google Suggested Search Brainstorm for Keyword Phrases with Suggested Search As you enter characters in the App Store or Google Play it will recommend queries based on the characters you have entered. Do this to brainstorm good keyword ideas for your app. If this isn’t yielding enough results for your app, try Google’s Search Engine Suggested Search results instead. mentormate.com Keyword Research Tools: Google Trends Check the Popularity of Keyword Phrases with Google Trends Use Google Trends to identify keyword phrases that have a lot of interest and ideally are likely to trend upwards in interest in the future. mentormate.com Keyword Research Tools: SEMRush See What Keyword Phrases Competitors Are Targeting with SEMRush If a similar app has a website, scan its website with SEMRush to see the kinds of keywords its ranking for and how popular & valuable those keywords are. mentormate.com App Store Optimization: Keyword Placement mentormate.com Keyword Placement: In App Listings APP STORE APP GOOGLE PLAY Highest Impact on Rankings TITLE Highest Impact on Rankings No Impact on Rankings DESCRIPTION Impacts Rankings Impacts Rankings KEYWORDS FIELD No Keyword Field Impacts Rankings RATINGS & REVIEWS Impacts Rankings No Impact on Rankings APP LISTING LINKS Impacts Rankings mentormate.com Source: European Technographics Consumer Technology Online Survey, Q4 2012 About MentorMate: MentorMate is a Minneapolis-based mobile app development company that imagines, designs & delivers custom software for its clients. Our rapidly growing list of satisfied clients spans companies from start-up to Fortune 500. MentorMate is a pioneer and has led the way in mobile app development since 2001. Visit mentormate.com mentormate.com .