ASO: What is App Store Optimization?

App Store Optimization, or ASO for short, is the process of optimizing an app or game in app stores (Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Microsoft Store) to maximize visibility, improve conversion rates, and increase organic downloads. It is also known as Application Store Optimization.

In this guide, you’ll learn in detail how to master ASO, what it is, how it’s done, and its effects on your app (or game).

↳ ASO is the process of optimizing an app or game in app stores to maximize visibility, improve conversion rates, and increase organic downloads.

↳ The top 3 results receive about half of all downloads, while those ranked below 10th rarely get any downloads.

↳ ASO for the App Store and Google Play Store is mostly similar. However, unlike Google Play Store, the App Store does not give extra weight to repeated keywords.

↳ ASO is an ongoing process that requires plenty of testing. Make sure you work with a significant amount of data before drawing conclusions.

What is App Store Optimization?

App Store Optimization (ASO) is the set of optimization efforts aimed at improving the ranking of mobile apps in app stores (such as the Apple App Store and Google Play Store) and increasing organic download numbers. ASO increases the visibility of your app, helping you reach more users and improve conversion rates.

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Before diving into strategies to improve your ranking, let’s take a look at where it all started.

A Brief History of ASO

Apple’s App Store revolutionized the way we use our phones when it was launched in 2008. That same year, the Google Play Store followed suit for Android devices. The app started with just 500 apps, but by 2022, there were 3.5 million apps on Google Play and 2.2 million on the App Store.

As expected, the marketplace quickly became overcrowded and highly competitive, leading to two major challenges: How can developers showcase their apps? And how can users find new ones?

This is where ASO comes into play. Just as SEO is needed to succeed on Google, the App Store also has its own algorithm and optimization process.

Thomas Petit divides the development of ASO into two phases: ASO 1.0 and ASO 2.0.

ASO 1.0 In the early days of ASO, the focus was primarily on keywords. The best practices included adding keywords to your app title and including your primary keyword in the keyword field when submitting your app. As competition grew, black-hat ASO strategies also emerged (tactics that violated terms of service to hack app rankings).

ASO 2.0 ASO then became a bit more complex. Filling your app description with meaningless keywords no longer worked. It was about improving the user experience.

At this stage, the ASO algorithm began to take scanning behavior and referral traffic behavior into account. This included conversion rates and the amount of time spent on the app page, which helped determine the quality of the app.

Today, ASO has become a bit more complex. You’ll see what we mean when we dive deeper into this topic in the article.

Why Should You Care About ASO?

ASO helps increase impressions and boost organic downloads. This means more brand visibility and, most importantly, more revenue.

Let’s say someone is searching for a workout app, so they type “workout app” in the App Store. The difference between appearing on the first page of results and appearing on the fifth page is huge.

It’s clear: improving your ranking gives you a competitive advantage. The top rank is like having a restaurant right in the middle of the busiest street in the city. It allows people to instantly recognize that you’re legitimate.

In contrast, the fifth page of search results is like a hidden alley in the shadows. No one dares to enter — and if they do, they’ll be skeptical about the quality of your product.

ASO vs SEO: Are They the Same?

App Store Optimization and Search Engine Optimization are conceptually very similar. SEO involves optimizing a website to improve rankings in search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo, while ASO involves optimizing an app to improve rankings in app stores.

The biggest differences lie in how they are carried out. ASO focuses on increasing organic downloads, reducing user acquisition costs, and improving discoverability, while SEO’s goal is to increase organic traffic and conversions on a website.

Apple App Store vs Google Play Store

ASO for both platforms involves making your app’s product page as informative, relevant, and engaging as possible. However, there are some key differences between the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, especially in terms of algorithms and ranking factors.

Although the exact algorithms are not publicly available, both app ranking algorithms rely on four main factors: perceived quality, freshness, brand scale, and user value.

Some of the factors that contribute to these criteria are:

What Are the Ranking Factors for the Apple App Store?

• App name
• App subtitle
• App URL
• Keyword field
• Update cycle
• Downloads
• Engagement rate
• Number of installs
• App reviews and ratings
• App updates
• In-app purchases

What Are the Ranking Factors for Google Play Store?

• App title
• App short description
• App long description
• Update cycle
• Number of installs
• App reviews and ratings
• In-app purchases

How to Perform App Store Optimization (ASO)?

Now that you’ve learned why ASO is critical to your app’s success, let’s get tactical. In this section, we’ll go over how to conduct keyword research and how to apply these keywords to your product pages to attract more attention and get more downloads.

How to Do Keyword Research?

Let’s start by determining what a keyword is. A keyword is a searchable term that describes your app, and it can be divided into four main categories:

• Problem: What needs are you solving?
• Feature: What does your app do well?
• User: What are the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your user base?
• Location: Where and for what purpose is this app used?
• Action: What action does your app enable? Hotel booking? Car rental?

1 – Brainstorm Keyword Ideas

 There are millions of ways to generate ideas. Here are a few ways to create a keyword list:

• Use keyword research tools like AppRadar or AppTweak.
• Open a thesaurus and find as many synonyms for your primary keywords as possible.
• Read user reviews.
• Discover your competitors’ keywords.
• Describe what makes your app unique.
• Define your niche.
• Use autocomplete or AI keyword suggestion tools.

2 – Validate and Narrow Down Your Keywords 

Now that you have a significant number of keywords, you can filter out the best ones by considering the following key points:

• Relevance: How closely is this keyword related to your app? Is it too far-fetched? If so, let it go.
• Difficulty and competition: How many apps are competing for this keyword? Is there an opportunity for arbitrage with your current volume?
• Search Volume: How many people are searching for this keyword?

All the ASO Ranking Factors You Should Know

Now that you’ve mastered keyword research, let’s take a deep dive into how you can apply these to your app page.

In app store search results, a paid app is shown at the top of the page, and users need to scroll down to reach the organic results.

To rank higher, you can optimize the following elements:

1 – App Name and Title

The app title is considered the most important ASO ranking factor. It’s the official name of the app that appears on your product page in the App Store or Google Play Store.

For both stores, the limit is 30 characters, so you need to keep your description short (typically no more than four words).

How can you name your app?

• Take your keyword list and find a way to include them in your title.
• Choose a unique name that doesn’t violate any copyright or trademarks.
• Consider using one of these combinations:
  • Brand name + single keyword (Panera Bread, Google Photos)
  • Brand name: keywords and phrases (Canva: Design)
  • Condensed words and phrases (WeChat, Dropbox)
  • Create an entirely new word (Airbnb) For more tips, check out our effective app title writing guide.

2 – Subtitle

Your subtitle can be up to 30 characters and is the second most important ASO ranking factor. It can be a slogan or a call to action. To save space, consider using commas to list sequential keywords.

3 – Keyword Field

Publishers can enter up to 100 characters to define their apps in a private field. You can enter multiple keywords separated by commas. Remember, commas count toward the character limit, and avoid adding a space after the comma.

4 – In-App Purchase Titles (IAP)

The name of in-app purchases has the least ranking weight but still provides additional context to the algorithm.

5 – Package Name (Google Play)

On Google Play Store, you can publish your app using a unique URL or package name. You can add your primary keywords there, but note that the URL can only be published once and can’t be changed later.

6 – Don’t Duplicate Keywords on iOS

Google Play Store rewards apps that use the same keyword in titles, descriptions, and other placements. Use your keyword once in the title, once in the short description, and up to five times in the long description.

On the other hand, iOS only considers a keyword once, so avoid repeating it in the App Store.

7 – Short Description

The short description can be up to 80 characters on Google Play and up to 45 characters on the App Store. This should be a quick overview of what your app offers. The text should be engaging enough for potential users to click “See More” to read the full app description.

8 – App Description

The character limit for app descriptions on app stores is 4,000 characters, giving you plenty of space to work with. Be sure to include your primary, secondary, and tertiary keywords when describing:

• Your most attractive features
• What makes your app unique
• Why a user will love it
• The main benefits
• What problem you’re solving
• Add some color with social proof, such as prestigious awards, glowing reviews, and how highly rated you are (e.g., “We are the #1 football score app!”).

Professional ASO Tips and Tactics

Alright – you’ve made it this far, and you’re approaching the finish line. However, ASO is an ongoing and long-term process that requires continuous testing and monitoring. There is always something you can improve.

Here are a few extra tips and tactics to help you climb the rankings:

1. Frequently Update Your App

Nobody wants to use an outdated app. Design trends are constantly changing, and app stores want to know that you’re regularly improving your app.

Experts recommend updating your metadata (app name, description, images, videos) every four weeks in the App Store and every 6-8 weeks in the Google Play Store. However, since each app is different, we suggest using this as a baseline and testing a frequency that works best for you.

Getting into the habit of updating your app regularly will help you stay prepared for app store updates and algorithm changes, allow you to adapt quickly to new competitors, and keep your app fresh.

2. Visual Design Improves Conversion Rates

Writing the right descriptions is not enough. Design plays a significant role in app store marketing, and better design leads to higher engagement, more views, clicks, and conversions.

Your visuals consist of three key elements: the app icon, app screenshots, and the app preview or promotional video. Let’s break these down and see how each one can be used to improve your rankings and conversion rates:

App Icons 

A well-designed app icon should be distinctive, memorable, and scalable. To achieve this:

• Use text only when necessary.
• Choose graphic symbols instead of photos so they scale well in different contexts.
• Always test different variations.

For more inspiration, follow Apple’s guidelines for app icons.

App Screenshots 

App screenshots are one of the best ways to make a great first impression. Given how much space they take up, they are an excellent opportunity to tell a story and showcase your most unique features.

In your first screenshot, make sure to present your primary selling point. For example, Airbnb says “Search. Book. Travel. Explore.” which clearly explains what the app is for.

Here are some additional tips:

• Simplicity is key. Make your app the star and avoid unnecessary distractions.
• Keep the text to a minimum.
• Make sure your screenshots come together to tell a story.
• Be consistent in your color choices to align with your brand’s color scheme.

3. App Preview and Promotional Videos 

An app preview video on the App Store and a promotional video on Google Play act as video ads. They give potential users a good sense of how the app works.

Ensure the video is shot entirely within the app and provides an honest preview of the app’s capabilities.

Think of it as a test drive: this is a chance for potential users to experience your app firsthand.

Here are some additional tips:

• Hook users within the first five seconds.
• Keep the video short and focus on tempo.
• Ensure good sound quality.
• Include a clear call-to-action (CTA).
• Make sure you’re not using copyrighted music and visuals.
• Assume users will watch the video without sound. Use text and graphics to explain your key message.

Run Data-Driven A/B Tests

Let’s say you’ve filled out your profile, listed all your screenshots, and your app preview video beats your competitors. Running experiments is the key to continually improving your ranking and conversion rates. Here’s how:

1. Examine Your App Category: Start by closely observing your competitors, their rankings, and how they showcase their apps.
2. Ensure Sufficient Traffic for Testing: Make sure you have enough traffic to test your performance. A good starting point is getting at least 400 visitors on your app profile.
3. Create a Hypothesis: Set a simple, clear, and measurable goal. This could be improving traffic, conversion rates, click-through and load times, engagement rates, or retention rates.
4. Consider Testing for Different Locales: Test for different regional settings. And don’t just apply what you learned from an Apple App Store A/B test to Google Play, as each platform offers a slightly different user experience and behavior, which requires separate tests.
5. Create a Variation to Test: Whether it’s a new screenshot or editing your long description, ensure you’re testing only one key change at a time.
6. Run the Test for One or Two Weeks and Analyze the Results: Be sure to analyze results using substantial data.
7. Analyze the Results and Optimize Accordingly!

Testing and adjusting is essential for ASO success. The app store environment is competitive, and your goal should always be to optimize based on what the data shows you. By continuously testing, refining, and adapting, you’ll be able to climb the rankings and maintain a successful app.

Consider Seasonality

Just like Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé’s seasonal popularity, seasonality can cause fluctuations in user behavior that should be taken into account. For instance, there’s a huge uptick in fitness app downloads around the New Year (associated with new gym memberships).

One of the easiest things you can do is update your app’s icon, screenshots, and promotions to reflect the Halloween or Holiday season. This could be as simple as adding a Santa hat to your logo or announcing new holiday-themed in-app content in your screenshots.

Then, there are category-specific themes. Maybe the World Cup is approaching, the NBA season is starting, or you’re promoting a blockbuster movie release on your streaming app.

All of these can be showcased on your product page. Just like your Christmas tree, though, be sure not to leave them up for too long so you don’t come off as lazy or outdated.

Conclusion

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Despite smartphones surpassing saturation levels, the mobile app industry is still growing. Smartphones are no longer the only devices in people’s lives.

Apple Vision Pro launched with over 600 compatible apps, opening up a new realm for mobile experiences beyond traditional smartphones.

As new devices and app stores emerge, app store optimization (ASO) will become more complex.

However, the rewards will also grow, and companies that have already mastered ASO will be the first to take advantage of new opportunities as emerging technologies open up new possibilities.

At Digipeak, we offer comprehensive ASO services provided by our experts. Feel free to check out our service page or get in touch with us through our contact page!