Creating an App from scratch and getting it ready – is an amazing feeling. It is like getting a major to-do item checked out from the list. That said, getting an app ready is only the first step. The real issue is to get people to use your app. People indeed keep a lot of apps in their cell phones but how many of those apps are even opened once? Surely, you aren’t making an app just for keeping it – you want it used. There are many methods to promote an app. Be it SEO, PPC, SMM, Reddit, Quora – there’s no limit to the options you have. But no matter who you are or what your app does – your app’s journey will start from the Google Play Store.
Table of Contents
Top 10 Tips To Optimize Your Google Play Store App
App Icon
I wanted to keep this point on the top. Surely, there are many optimization tips that you can start with but often people overlook a very basic app optimization tip. Yes, your app’s icon is the first thing that your potential app user will see and next to some shiny and catchy icon, your icon and its CTR will suffer.
Getting a good icon designed isn’t that difficult. It is perhaps the cheapest and the easiest tweak that you can implement right away. Get a good icon designed and start your app journey on the right foot.
Keywords
There are many ways to approach this point. You can target difficult keywords, work your way up to the top, and gain a lot of traffic. If you have a bigger app and you want to compete with strong competitors then you should go for the toughest keyword first. But if you are simply starting and the app in question is your first app then it is better to target long-tail keywords. LongTail is a phrase that we have used for over a decade now and it refers to keywords that are longer and more specific. Say your keyword is “Wedding Dresses”. Then your long tail keywords will be – “Classic Wedding Dresses” or “Simple Wedding Dresses”.
Understand long tail keywords well and if possible make an Excel sheet full of these keywords. It is easier to rank for these keywords and often they convert far better than the base keyword.
Optimize Title
Your app’s title and sub-title sections are the best places to add your keywords and optimize your app. This step is basic and as all SEO goes, it is the same here – put keywords but don’t make it look like it is stuffed. If a normal user is comfortable with your keyword selection then you are probably ok. Go for your brand name and add a very relevant and important keyword with it.
App Description
The description text is usually sort but that said it can’t be without keywords. Optimize the description section with relevant keywords but do note that people read it, so make it readable too. Choose some keywords that are both relevant and make sense while reading the text.
In Google Play Store there isn’t any place to add the keywords, so whatever you place in your description – especially the first few lines, usually goes into the keywords. So be careful while you pen down this description section.
ScreenShots
People have limited time on their hands and it is unlikely that they will flip through your unlimited screenshots about your app. However, in case they do – feel free to add as many screenshots as you wish – just make sure to keep some really good ones in the first few shots. If your first screenshot is catchy, you are already ahead of your competition.
Add Video
As always, most people will close your video in seconds – so either you catch their attention or you don’t. Make a really good video – it might cost you, but it will be worth its cost. Keep it very short and right to the point, especially in the first few seconds.
Ratings
This is a very important step and you should make sure to get it correct. There is no point asking for ratings from people who aren’t that happy as you only need 5-star ratings – anything below that isn’t worth having. The best way to do this is to make sure that you are only asking for ratings from your satisfied customers.
Reviews
When we look for an app that does a particular thing – say converts music formats for example – we look for reviews and star ratings. We naturally take it for granted that the reviews will be honest and it will come from people who have tried and tested the app that we are going to download. If the reviews seem to be ok, we go ahead and download the app. The reason we do this is that we don’t want to install an app only to find out that the app does not work – then uninstall it and try another one again. Downloading and installing takes time – you want the app to perform a task and the best way to make sure that you get it right – is by reading reviews.
I won’t suggest jacking up the reviews, rather try getting some good reviews from people who have used your app. These people can be your social media connections or bloggers whom you can reach and request to test drive your app. There are many ways to get reviews, it is up to you how you approach it.
Response to Reviews
While you can’t do much about the actual review you can surely add your reply to it. This feature is excellent, it is like blog commenting!
This reply to reviews helps in multiple ways, firstly the people who are adding their reviews – when they see timely responses it motivates them, and this connection that you make with your users is truly great. Other people see the conversation and they immediately see a community flourishing and they jump right in.
Downloads
If there is one metric that tells an app is a success or a failure is its download numbers. If your app is huge then your downloads will be in millions and these are the type of apps that people use without really worrying about anything because millions of people have already tried and tested out the app before you do.
Do note that jacking up the download numbers by methods that are best not discussed here can be bad for your app’s future. The algorithm that Google uses to determine whether your app should get more visibility or not depends a lot on how people interact with your app. Guess what happens when you pay someone to download your app? Exactly, they delete it right off! That is a huge signal that your app is such a turn-off.
Let people download your app if they are genuinely interested in it.
These are just the basic tips to get started with the Google Play Store. Once your app starts to see some traction, it is time to start figuring out a marketing plan that speeds up the downloads and app usage further.
Binod Jha
I found your post very helpful to get live an app in store from scratch. You mentioned all the points that are very important for any app marketer and owner to consider.
Thanks! Oleg
Moss Clement
Hi Oleg,
Great points and tips for consideration. I agree with you that the design of your app plays a crucial role to the success if your app on Google pay store. For example, just as a unique brand logo helps you express your brand culture and represents your brand in a positive light, your app’s design works in a similar way. Further, using the right keywords has become the best marketing tactics to increase organic traffic, same goes with using the right keywords for your app. A difficult keywords works great, best I like using long tail keywords as it is more descriptive and specific!
mahesh
I found your post very helpful to get live an app in store from scratch. You mentioned all the points that are very important for any app marketer and owner to consider.
Bhawna Kaushik
Hey Oleg
Great article :)I think in these types of cases initial hype/boost is something very important. You need that initial push. Plus have good reviews early on and reply to the concerning one can also put you on the map.
If you have designed a truly amazing app maybe you could end up in editor’s choice which is a huge deal.
Thanks for the amazing article.
Brain Pundits
Hello OLEG
we are also developing our app with in-house developers. Currently, we are testing different UI and it is very hard to come up with a design which would be appreciated by other peoples.
Thank you for the great tips, these would come handy when we publish the app and when we are promoting the app.
Sajid Akhter
Hi Oleg,
You have shared a good post which is very helpful. I am planning to develop an app for my business. Your suggestions are quite handy and I will keep it in my mind to implement them.
Thanks for sharing, have a good day. 🙂
Brandi Gates
Hi oleg
great post as you did always. thank you for sharing new knowledge with us
whenever i visited your blog i found new things
🙂
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Brandi,
Thank you for the comment,
Glad to know that you have liked it,
thanks,
– Oleg
Saurabh
Hi, Oleg,
What an amazing ASO guide on Google Play for App Marketers.
The App Store Optimization works on the basis of the number, the more user reviews, and downloads, then there is a chance to get higher the ranking on Google’s Play Store.
Donna Merrill
Hi Oleg
These are all great ideas.
Since all apps are essentially visual – then video is critical.
I’d even strongly suggest Facebook live or Google live so people can actually see you demonstrate, and ask questions about your app in real time.
-Donna
Oleg Kaluger
Hey Donna,
Thank you for the comment,
Glad to know that you have liked the ideas,
Yeah, real time communication can be really helpful. I guess all creators should come live from time to time so that people can ask questions – even AMA’s can be helpful too,
thanks,
– Oleg
Reviewcart
Hi Oleg,
Wonderful article to optimise our app on play store, I was going to ask you the same question that you have answered so technically well in this post- what if we hire people to download and put review on the play store? You have answered it well, they will eventually delete it without interacting with it for a long time and than google will regard that app a really low rank as with high downloads and high installation this is what it will depict. Thanks for sharing this post.
Meenashi
Hi Oleg,
I am searching for an article related to the creation of an app, but if your article came out it was very nice to read it, please provide the link of which article regarding making the app. Thanks for this one
Julian Ann
This is really a wonderful article to understand how to Optimize an App on Google Play Store.
Thanks for this wonderful article.
Dharmik Babariya
Hey Oleg,
In today’s competitive marketplace to rank, your app in play store is very difficult if you not doing ASO. You shared very depth knowledge of ASO and it is very useful. Thank you for your time effort to publish this article with us.
Have a nice day!
Best,
Dhamrik Babariya
nilesh
nice article, keep it up.
Sathish Arumugam
We are now in a financial crisis and it is more difficult to make the new customer and retain the existing customer. Calling intelligence need to be effective and economic too. This tip helps in selecting the successful salespeople who can succeed in calling technologies
Sathish Arumugam
There are tons of content about the App store optimization on the internet and the amount of content is growing every year and becoming bigger and more competitive. This is one of the filed which are growing exponentially. 100% app store optimization must be focussed by any developer or marketer to increase the visibility and volume of organic download from the store. Thanks for the hints
Amit Shee
Hi Oleg,
You have shared a good post which is very helpful. I am planning to develop an app for my business. Your suggestions are quite handy and I will keep it in my mind to implement them.
Thanks for sharing, have a good day.
Rimal
I have recently starting replying to the comments and this has really helped in increasing my downloads.
Rituparna Das
Beautiful ideas and happy to use it.
mukesh kumar
This is a truly amazing article to understand how to optimize an app in the Google Play Store.
Thanks for the great article.
Swegar Sahu
I have recently starting replying to the comments and this has really helped in increasing my downloads.
sanjay
Very Helpful Information
arju
Very educative!
shahil
Interesting. Learned a lot
niraj
I am so impacted
mohit
Wao! This is really impressive
Rubina
nice article
paha priya
great article
sagar
nice post. very good information