App positioning in the App Store and Google Play

Mobile app optimisation – what is ASO?

To a certain extent, this process is similar to what is done with websites. One key aspect common to both situations is the careful selection of keywords. The objective is also similar.

With the help of ASO, you can boost your product’s visibility. Mobile app optimisation is simply about attracting as many users as possible to use it. And this, of course, leads to the monetisation of the product. Another similarity with traditional SEO lies in the importance of statistics – in this case, relating to the mobile app. Interpreting these skilfully allows you, amongst other things, to adjust certain optimisation strategies. This could involve, for example, reducing the cost of acquiring new users.

App Store and Google Play rankings

The two largest mobile app platforms. Suffice it to say that Google Play had over 3 million apps last year – in 2021. Not only is this figure impressive, but it also raises a question. How do you make your product stand out? The start of the whole process is quite simple. Let’s focus on Google Play for a moment.

The platform requires you to fill in a few fields, which are particularly important from the point of view of your mobile app’s search engine optimisation. Let’s start with the title. On Google Play, it can be up to 50 characters long (including spaces). It’s best to include the app’s name and keywords. The latter should describe what your product does.

Another aspect is the visual one: the app icon. And that’s actually a topic for a separate guide – on how to create the perfect visual representation of your product that will attract users. The next two fields are the short (eighty characters including spaces) and long (four hundred) descriptions of the app. In the latter case, it’s worth making the most of keywords.

Factors beyond the app developer’s control

They are often referred to as ‘off-site’. They have a huge impact on the ranking of mobile apps. These are the number of downloads and user reviews. Which means – essentially – that you can influence the latter. And we’re not talking about buying reviews here.

After all, how users’ interest in a product develops and how they rate it depends on what it looks like. We’re referring here not so much to its tasks (or functions) as to its UI and UX. A clear design influences how an app is perceived and, consequently, is one of the factors that shape people’s opinions of it. By the way, one more thing. It’s worth engaging with the comments. And by that we don’t mean constantly being negative or trying to prove that someone doesn’t understand the idea behind your product. Because the question in such a situation is whether the fault lies with the creator and the execution of the app.

Can you optimise your mobile product yourself? Of course. Will entrusting this to professionals – if you don’t have any experience yourself – yield better results? Definitely.