What is ASO ranking?
ASO ranking (App Store Optimization) is the process of optimizing an app in order to increase its visibility in searches and navigation on app stores.
Apart from visibility, the main objective of ASO ranking is to increase the volume of organic downloads.
ASO ranking has 2 main pillars:
- ASO on-metadata factors.
- ASO off-metadata factors.
Both of them have a direct impact on the visibility of applications and the conversion rate of their downloads.
How many App stores are there?
Google Play Store, App Store (iOS), Windows Store and Amazon Store are the names of the main mobile app marketplaces. Not all of them have the same importance for a brand:
According to a survey by Appfigures and Statista, in 2021 the most popular marketplace for mobile applications was Google Play Store.
Therefore, in this practical guide we are going to tell you how to improve your ranking in Google Play Store.
ASO on-metadata factors
On-metadata ASO factors are those that can be edited or modified directly in the Google Play Console. These are:
- Title or name of the app.
- Short description.
- Long or complete description.
- Category.
- Developer’s name.
- Tags.
- App icon.
- Screenshots.
- Feature Graphic.
- Video Preview.
- URL.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important factors:
Title
- Name of the app.
- You can work up to a maximum of 30 characters.
- It is one of the most important points in ASO ranking.
- The keyword(s) must be included.
Short description
- Short description
- You can work up to a maximum of 80 characters.
- Keyword(s) must be included.
Long description
- Short description
- You can work up to a maximum of 4000 characters.
- Keyword(s) must be included.
The factors that have a great impact on organic visibility and conversions are: Title or app name, short description, long description, developer name, app icon, feature graphic and URL.
How to include or edit ASO on-metadata factors on Google Play Console?
When logging into the app account in Google Play Console, the main visible sections are:
- Panel.
- Publish.
- Growth.
- Quality.
- Monetization.
- Policies.
In the “Growth” section we go to “Presence in Play Store” and click on “Main Play Store Tab”, in this section we can edit or modify the following ASO on-metadata factors:
- Name of the app.
- Short description.
- Full description.
- App icon.
- Functions chart.
- Video preview.
- Screenshots.
Also, within the “Growth” / “Play Store Presence” / “Store Settings” section, the following ASO on-metadata factors can be modified:
- Category.
- Tags.
Off-metadata ASO factors
ASO off-metadata factors are those that cannot be controlled by developers, they depend on other elements such as product, budget and brand positioning.
The main off-metadata ASO factors are:
- Installs volume.
- Installs speed.
- Ratings volume.
- Ratings.
- Average rating.
- Reviews.
- Backlinks.
- Android vitals.
- Users engagement.
Practically most of the above factors depend on the good work of the company; that is, if the company has differential competitive advantages, communicates effectively through its digital marketing actions and achieves a good ranking. This will translate into more installations, ratings, reviews, backlinks and user engagement.
There are two aspects that can be managed by the app development team from the moment the app is created: the speed of installations and Android vitals. To achieve this, two key steps need to be considered:
- “Launching” the app with a suitable size, which will allow the installation speed to be faster.
- Running tests before launching a new version, in order to verify that the app does not present errors. In this way, Android Vitals will show indicators that do not affect the user experience.
Where to monitor off-metadata ASO factors?
When logging into the app account in Google Play Console, the main visible sections are:
- Panel
- Publish
- Growth
- Quality
- Monetization
- Policies
In the “Quality” section we go to “Ratings and opinions” and we will be able to see details of the ratings, average ratings, reviews and user engagement.
Inside “Android vitals” we will be able to see the failures or crashes of our app, as well as its size.
The volume of installations can be seen by going to Growth/Play Store Performance/Play Store Analytics.
ASO Tools
There are several tools to work on the ASO ranking of a Google Play App:
All tools have their positive and negative points; however, one of the most complete and widely used is Apptweak, a topic that will be covered later in another post.
The main benefits of Apptweak are:
In Brandépica we also specialize in digital marketing, with SEO or ASO ranking for Apps being one of the most innovative services of our agency.
If you want to increase your leads thanks to the ASO ranking of your app on Google Play, contact us.
