The basic principle of ASO is simple - pick high volume, low competition keywords. One problem I've encountered when training my research assistants is how do you teach what is a high volume keyword? How do you judge competition? Is it only related to number of competitors? (In my experience, this ISN'T the case, in fact there is another factor which is even more important..) Its a bit in-depth, for the full read you can see it here: http://makeappmag.com/app-store-optimization-201/ Interested to hear your thoughts - have you guys had similar experiences?
Thanks for sharing. Most of the ranking algorithm seems to be based on the popularity of the app still at least for less competitive keywords. It would be interesting to see what happens in 2014 with Apple's acquisition of topsy.
Thanks for the article,Sensor Tracker should prove to be a very useful tool,but there's a but of a learning curve to using it.
@hoobastank68 - yep, popularity (i.e. download volume / velocity + rankings) definitely plays a MAJOR MAJOR part in where you appear in the search results. My analysis involves looking just at the things we have more direct control over, i.e. choosing keywords and choosing how to place the keywords (title vs keyword field, and keyword density in title).
I am running a test with ASO with my latest game update. I will share the results of this as soon as the app comes live and will share some numbers here.
Ok so here is what we have done as per the suggestions given by everyone. 1) We have kept the game paid for week and then made it free with a new update that has gone live today. 2) We have renamed the app to Space Clash Saga from Space Quest - Journey for Hope and completely reworked all the keywords. Hope this gets the ASO right!! 3) We now have much better store positions during a search and I will release the download numbers in a few days.
You can make the Title much longer. I recommend have a [Title] - [Tagline Format], where title is the name and tagline is a description of what the game is about. E.g. Space Clash Saga - Fun Galaxy Shooter To Kill Alien Invaders For Kids That will get way more keywords indexed.
Wonder if view rate/keyword is taken into account One thing I've always wondered is if app stores take into account the number of times the details for a particular app are viewed after searches for a given keyword (even if the user doesn't actually download the app at that minute). In other words, aside from downloads, how much "general interest" the app store gets in a particular app for a given search?
Hmm.. @javamex this is from my own experience... I don't think that is happening at the moment. Where I think that the search algorithm should go is towards engagement... but that ain't happening yet. Also Apple just bought Topsy which aggregates twitter data, so it might look at social signals as more of an indicator of popularity.