How to start correctly when publishing a mobile application: keywords

In conditions of enormous competition, among more than 2 million applications in the main application stores (markets), one of the serious tasks is to help the user notice your application. To do this, it is important to be able to apply various methods of marketing applications. Today we would like to share the main ASO technique (App store optimization) and pay close attention to the use of such a tool as keywords (keywords) in various markets - AppStore, Amazon, Google Play and Opera.

ASO is the process of optimizing a mobile application for a higher ranking on the market. The goal is to direct as much traffic as possible to the application page on the market so that users download it. The higher your application in the ratings, the more visible it is to potential customers. The optimization process should continue throughout the product life cycle.

We recommend that you optimize your descriptions and keywords at the application creation stage - BEFORE publishing. Otherwise, it risks remaining invisible to your customers, and they never download it.

One of the most important optimization methods is to select the most relevant keywords. It is very important to understand the target audience and find the keywords that users use to find applications similar to yours.
First of all, keywords should be in the name of the application. They should have the most extensive traffic. According to statistics, keywords in the title give 10.3% of the percentage of results in higher places in the ratings.

Keywords should explain the application accurately and be related to it. Add them to the description, in promo-phrases. This will increase the chances of finding your application on the Internet through Google, Yahoo and other search services - you should not be limited only to application stores. It’s useful to monitor competitors to understand how many new applications have appeared on the market for your keyword throughout the entire application life cycle. Due to the fact that the mobile application market is growing rapidly, new items are published every day. Therefore, over time, the rating of the application changes and you need to select keywords again.

First of all, make an extensive list of keywords. It includes an associative series - those words that are best suited thematically. But it is worth noting that you do not need to use all associations. For example, when it comes to racing, a potential user will most likely not use the word “tire” to search for races.

At the same time, you can use services such as  Google AdWords Keyword Planner ,  Google Trends , Thesaurus, hashtags search on Twitter,  Wordpot , Wordstream . Also, in order not to reinvent the wheel, you can turn to competitive applications in the corresponding niche. That is, monitor the state of affairs on the market.

Another way is to search for keywords in reviews on your app and competitor apps. First of all, you should pay attention to reviews with 5 stars, as they are likely to consist of positive comments. You can also try to go to the forums and be interested in the target audience, what words they would use.

Now for the Good Keywords. When you evaluate search queries, the “easy” keywords are 25 applications in the search results for a word. Medium - 25-100 applications. “Competitive” - more than 100 applications, they need a larger number of downloads to make the rating higher.

Further, I would like to give you some tips for finding keywords that will make your life easier:

• Do not use spaces between words, use commas, otherwise the market will perceive the list as one meaningless word;
• Do not use stop words and phrases such as “The”, “is”, “and”. They will not help you in any way;
• The strongest keywords should be used in the name of the application;
• Do not repeat the words, and do not use the words that appear in the name of your application;
• Consider using the plural of the word - they are different from the only one in the ranking - traffic and competition. Always compare and choose the best;
• Use shorter words, then you can choose more keywords. 9 characters in a word are two words of 4 characters each. In any case, the most important is relevance. Use length as a secondary factor, other things being equal. Each keyword must contain at least 2 characters;
• If you have few characters left, then use numbers, not words;
• Apple sets a limit of 100 characters separated by commas without spaces; words are selected through special services for optimization and analytics (see below).
• Amazon sets a limit of 30 words; words are selected through the application store by analyzing search results for queries.
• Opera - there are no restrictions on the number of keywords. They can be selected in different languages ​​on the website http://apps.opera.com/en_ru /
• Google Play - keywords are used only in the description, so you yourself determine 5-10 keywords using auxiliary analytics services (see below) and use them several times in the text. Do not overdo it - you can fall under the ban for spam keywords;
• You cannot use brand names and those words for which you do not have rights - otherwise the application store will ban you;
• The use of curses is prohibited;
• Use the localization feature: write descriptions and keywords in the native languages ​​of the countries where the application is located. This will help the application to be found in other countries. Many users prefer to use the interface in their native language rather than English;
• If the application will be sold in England, America, Australia and a number of other English-speaking countries, it is better to select keywords separately for each country - the statistics will differ;
• A great trick is to pick up additional words related to current significant events and holidays (New Year, Christmas, etc.).

So, now let us dwell in more detail on the choice of words using auxiliary services for Apple and Android applications. There are two main indicators by which we determine the relevance of a keyword: traffic (request frequency) and difficulty (competitiveness). Frequency of the request - how popular the word is in the search volume. Competitiveness - how difficult it is for him to compete with others.

The perfect combination: high frequency and low competition. But this is quite difficult to achieve, so at first it is better to concentrate on competitiveness. Then you will get words that are more likely to light up. When words were selected by the first criterion, then filter the list by frequency to check how popular the word is in the search results. For example: you have the My Pizza Shop iPhone app on the App Store. The key word ingredients has Traffic 4.8, Difficulty 3.4 and the number of competitive applications 596. Such indicators are quite suitable for using this word. On the contrary, the word cook has Traffic 4.6, Difficulty 5.2 and the number of competitive applications 8370. This combination is not suitable, since it has a negative appeal: (4.6 - 5.2 = -0.8). It is lost among eight thousand competitors.

If you decide to perform keyword optimization again, it is recommended that you keep the old list of words, as the new composition may not be effective, and it will be easier for you to return to the previous option.

To help developers, there are quite a few services for evaluating the attractiveness of keywords. In our opinion, the Sensor Tower's Keyword Research Module is a convenient service for comparison - it gives a rating of 1 to 10, as well as the number of search query applications for iPhone, iPad, Android. For extended rights to use the services you will have to make a monthly or one-time payment in full, but there is always limited access to a free promo version. Since most of these services are paid, it’s better to set aside a budget for marketing.

Next, we offer a small list of such services:

• App Annie  provides all kinds of analytics and app ratings;
• SensorTower provides a complete ASO package with detailed keyword analysis;
• MobileDevHQ  provides a complete ASO package;
• AppCodes  provides a complete ASO package;
• AppTweak  provides a complete ASO package and detailed analytics;
• AppFigures  - a good analytical system;
• Appnique  provides a complete package and a broad marketing company.

In conclusion, I would like to note that for the quality promotion of your application, it will not be superfluous to write reviews, press releases, and use social networks. To capture the market and user attention, you will need time for careful assembly and financial investments for an effective marketing company.

We hope that our material will simplify your life and soon we will see your application in TOPs! Success in creative work! In the following articles of this series we will consider other basic components of a successful marketing campaign - from choosing the right name and type of device to the criteria for timely and high-quality update.