What is ASO and why it is urgently needed by today's developers
This is the first article in a series of materials that I plan to devote to the promotion of mobile applications using ASO and localization. Therefore, in the first place, I would like to explain what is this ASO, what components it consists of, with which it is inherently connected and why it is so necessary. In the future, based on my experience (and, accordingly, the experience of the company in which I work), I will be happy to tell you how to use these tools most efficiently, what results to expect in the long and short term, I will give an algorithm for aso actions and share useful resources that help reduce time for ASO activities.
But let's start with the basics. Every mobile application developer wants their product to be successful. Success can be measured differently (the number of downloads and active users, ratings and user reviews, etc.), but you and I understand that one of the most important indicators of success is payback and then the profitability of the whole business. So, what the numbers tell us: in 2012, the global market for mobile applications amounted to approximately $ 7.83 billion. According to various estimates, the Russian segment of the mobile applications market reached $ 120–160 million in 2012, and continued growth in the first quarter of 2013 by 11 % There are good news and bad news in these remarkable numbers. It is good that the Russian-speaking market is growing. This means that we have with you, where to turn, there is an active audience, ready to download applications and use them. Thanks to this audience, we can improve our products and make them as beautiful as possible. And the second news is that in order to be really successful and to earn a lot, you and I have to go out of the zone of Russian-speaking comfort and explore international markets. And this is not bad at all. This is interesting, this is, as our English-speaking friends say, challenging.
And a couple of words about the global application market.
According to Flurry, which you see on the cute chart below, the largest number of iOS and Android devices are concentrated in the USA and China, in third place is the United Kingdom.
This means that localizing the application in just 2 languages (English and Chinese) will add you almost 500 million potential users.
Now let's look not at the number of devices, but at the profit volumes in these markets:
Let's analyze data a little.
USA is the undisputed leader in the AppStore, with very heavy competition.
Japan is a promising market if you like your application there. (The small secret of successful monetization in the Japanese zone of Google.Play is withdrawal of funds from the operator’s mobile account, not from a credit card)
China - the main profit will come to you from the AppStore. On numerous Chinese forums, you will be able to download the apk of your paid application literally the next day after it appears on Google.Play.
And here we return to the 500 million potential Anglo-Chinese users. Even if a fifth of these users buy something from you for $ 1, and take another 30% of the market, the amount will still be pretty impressive.
I will leave you for a moment to dream.
Well, if this is not enough for you, here are the data on the fastest growing markets for mobile devices. These areas and languages are quite promising for themselves, and in most of them the competition is less than in the US mobile application market.
And one more good news for independent developers, which we are. See the diagram below. On it, we can observe a positive upward trend in income from independent and small developers, games and applications that take a position below the one hundredth, but whose income, however, is 68% of the income of all mobile publishers.
This means that if you are really good, you will feel it in monetary terms. Well, in case of financial failure, you will have one less excuse.
So let's still go back to ASO, that is, AppStore Optimization, which many people call loudly new SEO. Now I will try “in my own words” to explain what it is and why it is so necessary. Today, there are over 800 thousand applications in the AppStore. Updating the AppStore interface (now search results are not displayed in the list, but in large blocks with an icon, a screenshot and the top line of the description) together with an imperfect search system make our application invisible to potential users, and ASO will help us to get out of this situation.
What does this mysterious ASO include and why is it so effective? AppStore Optimization is a complex of measures. Here, both the icon and the screenshots are important, as well as the name of both the application itself and the publisher; in addition, the key words here are hidden from users. And do not forget about user feedback and their number, the number of external links to your application, the number of applications from the publisher and their quality, as well as many other things that affect your rating and position when searching.
I will allow myself another very interesting schedule, so that you have added confidence that not everything is lost.
So what we see here. Almost 20% of search queries are “trivial”, amounting to thousands and millions. Try entering the search game (about 160 thousand results), travel (23 thousand), camera (12 thousand), news (15 thousand), shopping (3 thousand). Of course, no one will view a thousand applications in search of yours (do not forget that the more the application has downloads and positive reviews, the higher it is displayed in the search results and new applications do not belong here). And now, let's look at the chart again. 70% of search queries are rare words or combinations of words, long or specialized queries. Thus, one of the basics of ASO is the right keywords that will lead you to the first position in a specialized search.
It should be noted that the selection of narrow and successful keywords is mainly applicable to the AppStore. Google.Play is different, the description text is indexed there, unlike the AppStore, and the keyword string hidden from users is missing. However, I plan to devote a separate article to keywords in the AppStore, Google.Play and Amazon.
The ASO theme is incredibly extensive, and I plan to continue sharing it with you.
In the meantime, I’ll give you some of the ASO "newbies" mistakes that will help you today:
• When listing keywords in the AppStore, use only commas, no spaces!
• Do not invent a name from non-existent words. Ideally, the name of the application should contain at least one keyword. This will significantly increase the chances of the application being found.
• Do not put text on the icon. This is definitely superfluous.
• The first screenshot should have the maximum information content, so it is best to place there the “gameplay” or the main functions of the application. Do not be the first to set the menu or splash screen.
• Be sure to localize the screenshots! This is a must!
• The most important thing in the description of the application - the first line. Make it as informative as possible.
• The application description in the AppStore is not indexed for search, so you should not stuff it with keywords.
• It will be useful to put in the description the rewards that the application received, or the good feedback from users. It works.
• Recently, asterisks and ticks (★ ✓) cannot be used in the description on the AppStore, but you can still treat the description creatively.
• You can change keywords in the AppStore only with the update of the application. But you should not do an update just because of this. The guys from Apple may not like it.
• In the end, study your competitors! See what they do well and maybe borrow.
• Use the services appstorerankings.net , searchman.com and other similar to search for successful keywords and track competitors, but do not forget to double-check their work.
• Localize your applications, their descriptions and keywords, if you have not done so before.
')
I look forward to your feedback and comments, I urge you to share experiences and practical advice. For my part, I am always ready to give advice or consultation. Thank.
Based on:
blog.flurry.com
blog.appannie.com/category/app-annie-index
But let's start with the basics. Every mobile application developer wants their product to be successful. Success can be measured differently (the number of downloads and active users, ratings and user reviews, etc.), but you and I understand that one of the most important indicators of success is payback and then the profitability of the whole business. So, what the numbers tell us: in 2012, the global market for mobile applications amounted to approximately $ 7.83 billion. According to various estimates, the Russian segment of the mobile applications market reached $ 120–160 million in 2012, and continued growth in the first quarter of 2013 by 11 % There are good news and bad news in these remarkable numbers. It is good that the Russian-speaking market is growing. This means that we have with you, where to turn, there is an active audience, ready to download applications and use them. Thanks to this audience, we can improve our products and make them as beautiful as possible. And the second news is that in order to be really successful and to earn a lot, you and I have to go out of the zone of Russian-speaking comfort and explore international markets. And this is not bad at all. This is interesting, this is, as our English-speaking friends say, challenging.
And a couple of words about the global application market.
According to Flurry, which you see on the cute chart below, the largest number of iOS and Android devices are concentrated in the USA and China, in third place is the United Kingdom.
This means that localizing the application in just 2 languages (English and Chinese) will add you almost 500 million potential users.
Now let's look not at the number of devices, but at the profit volumes in these markets:
Let's analyze data a little.
USA is the undisputed leader in the AppStore, with very heavy competition.
Japan is a promising market if you like your application there. (The small secret of successful monetization in the Japanese zone of Google.Play is withdrawal of funds from the operator’s mobile account, not from a credit card)
China - the main profit will come to you from the AppStore. On numerous Chinese forums, you will be able to download the apk of your paid application literally the next day after it appears on Google.Play.
And here we return to the 500 million potential Anglo-Chinese users. Even if a fifth of these users buy something from you for $ 1, and take another 30% of the market, the amount will still be pretty impressive.
I will leave you for a moment to dream.
Well, if this is not enough for you, here are the data on the fastest growing markets for mobile devices. These areas and languages are quite promising for themselves, and in most of them the competition is less than in the US mobile application market.
And one more good news for independent developers, which we are. See the diagram below. On it, we can observe a positive upward trend in income from independent and small developers, games and applications that take a position below the one hundredth, but whose income, however, is 68% of the income of all mobile publishers.
This means that if you are really good, you will feel it in monetary terms. Well, in case of financial failure, you will have one less excuse.
So let's still go back to ASO, that is, AppStore Optimization, which many people call loudly new SEO. Now I will try “in my own words” to explain what it is and why it is so necessary. Today, there are over 800 thousand applications in the AppStore. Updating the AppStore interface (now search results are not displayed in the list, but in large blocks with an icon, a screenshot and the top line of the description) together with an imperfect search system make our application invisible to potential users, and ASO will help us to get out of this situation.
What does this mysterious ASO include and why is it so effective? AppStore Optimization is a complex of measures. Here, both the icon and the screenshots are important, as well as the name of both the application itself and the publisher; in addition, the key words here are hidden from users. And do not forget about user feedback and their number, the number of external links to your application, the number of applications from the publisher and their quality, as well as many other things that affect your rating and position when searching.
I will allow myself another very interesting schedule, so that you have added confidence that not everything is lost.
So what we see here. Almost 20% of search queries are “trivial”, amounting to thousands and millions. Try entering the search game (about 160 thousand results), travel (23 thousand), camera (12 thousand), news (15 thousand), shopping (3 thousand). Of course, no one will view a thousand applications in search of yours (do not forget that the more the application has downloads and positive reviews, the higher it is displayed in the search results and new applications do not belong here). And now, let's look at the chart again. 70% of search queries are rare words or combinations of words, long or specialized queries. Thus, one of the basics of ASO is the right keywords that will lead you to the first position in a specialized search.
It should be noted that the selection of narrow and successful keywords is mainly applicable to the AppStore. Google.Play is different, the description text is indexed there, unlike the AppStore, and the keyword string hidden from users is missing. However, I plan to devote a separate article to keywords in the AppStore, Google.Play and Amazon.
The ASO theme is incredibly extensive, and I plan to continue sharing it with you.
In the meantime, I’ll give you some of the ASO "newbies" mistakes that will help you today:
• When listing keywords in the AppStore, use only commas, no spaces!
• Do not invent a name from non-existent words. Ideally, the name of the application should contain at least one keyword. This will significantly increase the chances of the application being found.
• Do not put text on the icon. This is definitely superfluous.
• The first screenshot should have the maximum information content, so it is best to place there the “gameplay” or the main functions of the application. Do not be the first to set the menu or splash screen.
• Be sure to localize the screenshots! This is a must!
• The most important thing in the description of the application - the first line. Make it as informative as possible.
• The application description in the AppStore is not indexed for search, so you should not stuff it with keywords.
• It will be useful to put in the description the rewards that the application received, or the good feedback from users. It works.
• Recently, asterisks and ticks (★ ✓) cannot be used in the description on the AppStore, but you can still treat the description creatively.
• You can change keywords in the AppStore only with the update of the application. But you should not do an update just because of this. The guys from Apple may not like it.
• In the end, study your competitors! See what they do well and maybe borrow.
• Use the services appstorerankings.net , searchman.com and other similar to search for successful keywords and track competitors, but do not forget to double-check their work.
• Localize your applications, their descriptions and keywords, if you have not done so before.
')
I look forward to your feedback and comments, I urge you to share experiences and practical advice. For my part, I am always ready to give advice or consultation. Thank.
Based on:
blog.flurry.com
blog.appannie.com/category/app-annie-index
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/178095/
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