How to increase the rating of the application on Google Play?
Признаюсь, есть у меня одна вредная привычка. Когда на работе нужно спланировать продвижение мобильного приложения, я всегда забываю про оптимизацию описания для Google Play. Наверное, что-то в моем подсознании не считает Google Play таким же полноценным магазином приложений, как App Store. Кроме того, по разным оценкам, приложения на Android приносят меньше прибыли (в быту часто называют разницу в два раза, последние данные от App Annie дают разницу в 70%), а многие уважающие себя разработчики отличных игр и приложений вообще не делают Android-версию или выпускают ее черезкакое-товремяпосле iOS-версииwhen it is already clear that she is guaranteed to rise to the top due to the heated desire of the “androedists” to enjoy all the benefits that the “apple-eaters” enjoy. (However, there are exceptions .)
Nevertheless, some desperate people constantly turn to us and ask us to make them ASO for Google Play. Below is a list of measures that may help. As they say, the salvation of drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves.
To get started, let's go over the main factors of ranking an application in a search on Google Play.
Some assumptions in this article were not formed on the basis of reading the Internet, but on the basis of informal communication with real developers or representatives of various companies, or even personal (non-disclosed) cases. Therefore, not every statement here will be confirmed by links. I apologize in advance for this and will try to discuss such controversial statements in the comments.
1. User reviews
In 2012, Google Play was integrated with Google Plus, putting an end to anonymous reviews. Now all the reviews left on Google Play, supposedly belong to real people, maybe even really installing the application of their own free will and not living in India. For some time to buy such reviews has become more difficult and more expensive than anonymous, but now the farm of paid reviews is againfunction with might and main .
To use such services or not is entirely up to you. Unlike Apple , Google does not explicitly state anywhere that if they notice that you are paying people for reviews, they will remove your application. It makes sense to access such services only if your application is not good enough to rise at the expense of organics, but you still want to get to the top (and this happens, we will not deny it).
A more civilized way to get more feedback would be to say “Did you like the game?” Rate us! " . There is still a couple of tricks, about them - another time.
They also talk about the importance of g +- how many times the Plus Plus app on Google Plus. Representatives of Google themselves are talking about this, but no one knows how important this really is. Just in case, the "pluses" are grown and sold on the same farms as the reviews - and the trade is quite brisk.
2. The number of installations per day and per month
Beginners are given a small handicap here: if you convinced one hundred of your friends to install the application on the first day after launch, you have a chance all day to loom in the Top "Gaining Popularity" in your small but proud country. If you are lucky and if your game is good enough, there is a chance to consolidate your success. More installations - higher rating. Higher rating - more installations ... And now the application rises in the top by itself! This is exactly what you should strive for, having, however, in mind that the top "Gaining Popularity" is shown not in every interface of Google Play.
It’s also known that data on Google Play is collected and evaluated per month. Applications with good installation dynamics rise in the ranking (and with poor dynamics, they drop, do not forget about it). Thus, it is necessary to maintain acceleration for a month (or at least not to sag), and it will be easier to stay in the next month. Here you can even get your hands dirty with paid advertising, the main thing is not to pour money into Hindu grids or complex control systems like Chartboost. Probably the best choice for beginners in marketing right now would be Google AdWords, which is still a native tool for Google Play. In July 2015 they just updated, entered ads directly on Google Play (it’s also worth talking about separately) and made a friendlier tool for purchasing ads, understandable to a simple mobile developer.
Despite the fact that AdMob is part of the same system, I do not presume to recommend it: we have not yet met high-quality users in it, although we may have been looking poorly. In my personal perception, he was still not far from the "Hindu grid."
3. Ratings
More is better. Good grades are better than bad grades. Many average grades are better than few good grades. At one of the mobile conferences, LinguaLeo shared their successful pilot metrics enhancements on mobile devices and came to the interesting conclusions that the average score higher than four stars no longer affects anything. This roughly corresponds to the perception of a typical user: five stars - a miracle, four stars - OK, three stars - sucks, two stars - failure, one star - did not start.
4. Release and update date.
The best results are for applications that were published less than a month and more than two years ago. Why - “Captain Evidence” will explain: if in two years you have not risen, then “ it was not a bobbin". Applications that were updated less than a month ago go to higher positions. From this we can make a very sound and correct conclusion that you need to update at least once a month, especially since no one will keep you waiting two weeks and find fault with each screen as during the app store review process
5. Application name
The most weighted keywords are used in the name of the application. Here you have two ways: to the side of good and to the side of evil. Real Jedi give their application a unique name, make a brand out of it and promote it with PR, as well as at the expense of the quality and usefulness of their application, so that they can then become leaders in the so-called “brand inquiries”. If you’re just on the way to initiation into the Jedi or you have many competitors, you can add two or three relevant keywords to the second part of the application name, separating it with a dash or hyphen. It is advisable to make a meaningful phrase from these words so that your ASO efforts are not too striking for ordinary users. It is this part of ASO that is well lit in Runet by some famous personalities.
What is happening on the side of evil, you most likely have already seen more than once. For the sake of decency, it’s worth saying that the length of the name on Google Play should not exceed 30 characters, that the real benefit of the excess of keywords in the name has not been proved, and the real harm is likely if the guys from Google notice your application (yes, Google is clearly against this ) .
6. SEO descriptions
Then your internal marketer can take a walk - the application’s description page on Google Play is optimized according to the same SEO laws that apply to regular searches. So refer and make friends link, stuff with keywords, seosh! .. Another thing is that the effectiveness of such optimization has not yet been confirmed by itself, in isolation from other measures. Personally, it seems to me that this does not work with products that have many analogues (alas, 99% of mobile games and applications are just that). After all, judging by the Google Keyword Planner, users search on Google Play and search on “mobile phones” very simple, monosyllabic things, usually the ones they already know about (for example, King games or the messenger of a popular social network) - these are the very brand requests that we already mentioned. For the most part, this is a limited set of keywords, the top search results for which have long been occupied by more powerful and successful players. Following them in the top are those who used these keywords in the title. It may turn out that you “swept” your sweat, and then it turned out that the maximum you can count on is the third echelon after the two mentioned above. On the other hand, there is such a thing as a “long tail” of keywords that are rarely searched for, but aptly found.
There is a suspicion that SEO descriptions will be even more useful if you simultaneously optimize the application content and add deep links from the landing page. This functionality was launched in the public domain not so long ago, more about it on the official Google page . For this to work, you must have a sufficiently meaningful application whose screens somehow correspond (Google uses the word 'mirrored') to landing pages on the web. This promotion is suitable for a reference application or magazine, but it will be difficult to implement it for a game with three screens and a leaderboard.
7. Retention
Rumor has it that Google considers it, but no one knows how. There are vague rumors that Google is tracking the frequency of application launches. When launching its own "deep links" , Apple made a reservation that yes, Apple considers all this, and that when searching for Apple Search, it takes into account how often users open the application, how long they stay on certain screens. It is possible that in some way this will pop up in Google Search. They also say that mass deletions omit the application in the search results, and that is why on services that attract motivated traffic, they are often asked not to delete the application within three days.
Perhaps this has already been mentioned somewhere, but: if you have a high-quality application that you want to use and that you want to return to, then your chances of getting into the top in any store are much higher.
8. Integration with Google Plus
Here you can add the "deep links" that have already been mentioned. Representatives of the company promise mountains of gold to those who integrated Google Plus, right up to the special choice of the Google Play edition. Real cases of the "Golden Mountains" are not yet visible, if any, it will be interesting to discuss them.
9. Availability of a demo video
In any case, this factor is positive, especially if this video is good (or you can basically watch it without pain). On the other hand, if you have the opportunity to record a decent movie, then most likely your application is good enough, and you have already taken into account other delivery factors.
10. A catchy icon, attractive screenshots
for all these types of devices. This is an indirect factor, which in itself is not related to ranking, but rather strongly affects the number of organic plants. Despite the large number of tools for previews and A / B testing, this part of optimization is still more an art than a science. By the way, you no longer need external services for A / B testing - now Google has"Optimizing the application page using experiments . "
Finally, there are three tips on how to improve icons and what works almost always:
1. Use simple geometric shapes.
2. Use no more than three colors, select them according to the color wheel.
3. Do not try to be original - choose the simplest solution.
Optimizing application descriptions is a cunning and lengthy process in which success ultimately depends on the application itself. The main thing in this matter is an adequate perception of your product, and also the willingness to collaborate and listen to others, whether it is the opinion of a despicable marketer, an assessment of the majority of users (it is advisable to exclude friends and relatives from the sample) or, finally, Google analytics. It is for her that the last word remains in all matters related to the optimization of descriptions on Google Play.
Nevertheless, some desperate people constantly turn to us and ask us to make them ASO for Google Play. Below is a list of measures that may help. As they say, the salvation of drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves.
To get started, let's go over the main factors of ranking an application in a search on Google Play.
Some assumptions in this article were not formed on the basis of reading the Internet, but on the basis of informal communication with real developers or representatives of various companies, or even personal (non-disclosed) cases. Therefore, not every statement here will be confirmed by links. I apologize in advance for this and will try to discuss such controversial statements in the comments.
1. User reviews
In 2012, Google Play was integrated with Google Plus, putting an end to anonymous reviews. Now all the reviews left on Google Play, supposedly belong to real people, maybe even really installing the application of their own free will and not living in India. For some time to buy such reviews has become more difficult and more expensive than anonymous, but now the farm of paid reviews is againfunction with might and main .
To use such services or not is entirely up to you. Unlike Apple , Google does not explicitly state anywhere that if they notice that you are paying people for reviews, they will remove your application. It makes sense to access such services only if your application is not good enough to rise at the expense of organics, but you still want to get to the top (and this happens, we will not deny it).
A more civilized way to get more feedback would be to say “Did you like the game?” Rate us! " . There is still a couple of tricks, about them - another time.
They also talk about the importance of g +- how many times the Plus Plus app on Google Plus. Representatives of Google themselves are talking about this, but no one knows how important this really is. Just in case, the "pluses" are grown and sold on the same farms as the reviews - and the trade is quite brisk.
2. The number of installations per day and per month
Beginners are given a small handicap here: if you convinced one hundred of your friends to install the application on the first day after launch, you have a chance all day to loom in the Top "Gaining Popularity" in your small but proud country. If you are lucky and if your game is good enough, there is a chance to consolidate your success. More installations - higher rating. Higher rating - more installations ... And now the application rises in the top by itself! This is exactly what you should strive for, having, however, in mind that the top "Gaining Popularity" is shown not in every interface of Google Play.
It’s also known that data on Google Play is collected and evaluated per month. Applications with good installation dynamics rise in the ranking (and with poor dynamics, they drop, do not forget about it). Thus, it is necessary to maintain acceleration for a month (or at least not to sag), and it will be easier to stay in the next month. Here you can even get your hands dirty with paid advertising, the main thing is not to pour money into Hindu grids or complex control systems like Chartboost. Probably the best choice for beginners in marketing right now would be Google AdWords, which is still a native tool for Google Play. In July 2015 they just updated, entered ads directly on Google Play (it’s also worth talking about separately) and made a friendlier tool for purchasing ads, understandable to a simple mobile developer.
Despite the fact that AdMob is part of the same system, I do not presume to recommend it: we have not yet met high-quality users in it, although we may have been looking poorly. In my personal perception, he was still not far from the "Hindu grid."
3. Ratings
More is better. Good grades are better than bad grades. Many average grades are better than few good grades. At one of the mobile conferences, LinguaLeo shared their successful pilot metrics enhancements on mobile devices and came to the interesting conclusions that the average score higher than four stars no longer affects anything. This roughly corresponds to the perception of a typical user: five stars - a miracle, four stars - OK, three stars - sucks, two stars - failure, one star - did not start.
4. Release and update date.
The best results are for applications that were published less than a month and more than two years ago. Why - “Captain Evidence” will explain: if in two years you have not risen, then “ it was not a bobbin". Applications that were updated less than a month ago go to higher positions. From this we can make a very sound and correct conclusion that you need to update at least once a month, especially since no one will keep you waiting two weeks and find fault with each screen as during the app store review process
5. Application name
The most weighted keywords are used in the name of the application. Here you have two ways: to the side of good and to the side of evil. Real Jedi give their application a unique name, make a brand out of it and promote it with PR, as well as at the expense of the quality and usefulness of their application, so that they can then become leaders in the so-called “brand inquiries”. If you’re just on the way to initiation into the Jedi or you have many competitors, you can add two or three relevant keywords to the second part of the application name, separating it with a dash or hyphen. It is advisable to make a meaningful phrase from these words so that your ASO efforts are not too striking for ordinary users. It is this part of ASO that is well lit in Runet by some famous personalities.
What is happening on the side of evil, you most likely have already seen more than once. For the sake of decency, it’s worth saying that the length of the name on Google Play should not exceed 30 characters, that the real benefit of the excess of keywords in the name has not been proved, and the real harm is likely if the guys from Google notice your application (yes, Google is clearly against this ) .
6. SEO descriptions
Then your internal marketer can take a walk - the application’s description page on Google Play is optimized according to the same SEO laws that apply to regular searches. So refer and make friends link, stuff with keywords, seosh! .. Another thing is that the effectiveness of such optimization has not yet been confirmed by itself, in isolation from other measures. Personally, it seems to me that this does not work with products that have many analogues (alas, 99% of mobile games and applications are just that). After all, judging by the Google Keyword Planner, users search on Google Play and search on “mobile phones” very simple, monosyllabic things, usually the ones they already know about (for example, King games or the messenger of a popular social network) - these are the very brand requests that we already mentioned. For the most part, this is a limited set of keywords, the top search results for which have long been occupied by more powerful and successful players. Following them in the top are those who used these keywords in the title. It may turn out that you “swept” your sweat, and then it turned out that the maximum you can count on is the third echelon after the two mentioned above. On the other hand, there is such a thing as a “long tail” of keywords that are rarely searched for, but aptly found.
There is a suspicion that SEO descriptions will be even more useful if you simultaneously optimize the application content and add deep links from the landing page. This functionality was launched in the public domain not so long ago, more about it on the official Google page . For this to work, you must have a sufficiently meaningful application whose screens somehow correspond (Google uses the word 'mirrored') to landing pages on the web. This promotion is suitable for a reference application or magazine, but it will be difficult to implement it for a game with three screens and a leaderboard.
7. Retention
Rumor has it that Google considers it, but no one knows how. There are vague rumors that Google is tracking the frequency of application launches. When launching its own "deep links" , Apple made a reservation that yes, Apple considers all this, and that when searching for Apple Search, it takes into account how often users open the application, how long they stay on certain screens. It is possible that in some way this will pop up in Google Search. They also say that mass deletions omit the application in the search results, and that is why on services that attract motivated traffic, they are often asked not to delete the application within three days.
Perhaps this has already been mentioned somewhere, but: if you have a high-quality application that you want to use and that you want to return to, then your chances of getting into the top in any store are much higher.
8. Integration with Google Plus
Here you can add the "deep links" that have already been mentioned. Representatives of the company promise mountains of gold to those who integrated Google Plus, right up to the special choice of the Google Play edition. Real cases of the "Golden Mountains" are not yet visible, if any, it will be interesting to discuss them.
9. Availability of a demo video
In any case, this factor is positive, especially if this video is good (or you can basically watch it without pain). On the other hand, if you have the opportunity to record a decent movie, then most likely your application is good enough, and you have already taken into account other delivery factors.
10. A catchy icon, attractive screenshots
for all these types of devices. This is an indirect factor, which in itself is not related to ranking, but rather strongly affects the number of organic plants. Despite the large number of tools for previews and A / B testing, this part of optimization is still more an art than a science. By the way, you no longer need external services for A / B testing - now Google has"Optimizing the application page using experiments . "
Finally, there are three tips on how to improve icons and what works almost always:
1. Use simple geometric shapes.
2. Use no more than three colors, select them according to the color wheel.
3. Do not try to be original - choose the simplest solution.
Optimizing application descriptions is a cunning and lengthy process in which success ultimately depends on the application itself. The main thing in this matter is an adequate perception of your product, and also the willingness to collaborate and listen to others, whether it is the opinion of a despicable marketer, an assessment of the majority of users (it is advisable to exclude friends and relatives from the sample) or, finally, Google analytics. It is for her that the last word remains in all matters related to the optimization of descriptions on Google Play.