With the proliferation of technology and increase in the availability of internet, the online marketing world has taken over traditional marketing. We are living in an app-driven world and have the most impatient users. A mobile app helps to target these impatient users and reduces the target audience's efforts to take the intended action. The mobile app industry is growing at a rapid pace and whether it is e-commerce, gaming, etc., businesses must consider having a mobile app presence. Just as we need to optimize PPC ads, optimize websites to rank higher on the SERPs, so do for mobile apps to make the relevant audience have a user-friendly experience.
Well-built mobile apps enable you to build brand awareness, increase traffic to your website, etc. With nearly 3.48 million apps on the android store and 2.22 million apps on iOS, you need to work on app store optimization. The marketing trends keep evolving and your mobile app should constantly be updated with the PPC trends, SEO trends, e-commerce trends, etc., to ensure your brand name always appears on top for the search terms in your domain.
With Google confirming that more searches now appear on mobile devices than desktop, having a mobile presence is becoming a must for all-size businesses. Not only do you need to optimize your website for mobile devices but also have a mobile app so that the users can quickly get in touch with your business. Nearly 63% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose website or apps offers product or services as per user intent. As mobile-first indexing provides businesses with an added advantage for ranking on Google, similarly, a well-optimized mobile app shows up higher on the SERP and in the app store to make the target audience download it. So, let’s see how SEO for mobile apps improves lead generation, improves click-through rate and other SEO metrics for your business; as with a mobile app, the users can take the intended action on your website 24/7.
Important SEO ranking factor for mobile apps
1. Conducting keyword research - Having quality keywords is the foundation of an SEO plan & strategy. Keywords are search queries that the users enter in the search box of the app store. The search queries can be in the form of a single term or phrase. Search engines today focus on the fact that the content on the website matches with the results displayed after the search term is entered. Just as we focus on conducting keyword research for improving the SEO campaign performance and improving its Google ranking. In the same way, when working on an app store optimization strategy, you need to focus on choosing keywords that best suit the users' search queries. To improve your SEO ranking for mobile apps, you need to choose keywords that resonate with the content on the app.
Keywords help you get in touch with the relevant users looking for your mobile app. To improve the performance of your PPC ads, as you work on enhancing the quality score, reducing cost per click, etc. You choose keywords with high search volume so that Google ranking of your ads improves. In the same way, to improve the Google SEO ranking of your mobile app, you can identify the keywords with high search volume. You can also choose keywords based on demographic targeting so that your mobile app has an improved SEO ranking for the specified location. To choose the keywords, you can perform competitive research and perform competitive analysis to figure out what keywords your competitors are targeting in niche marketing. This way, you can have improved keyword ideas and better your app optimization strategy.
2. Mobile App indexing - App indexing plays a crucial role in improving your Google SEO ranking. Indexing refers to information acquisition that directs the user to a particular web page. App indexing is vital as it guides the app stores like Google Play Store and iOS store to display your mobile app for the relevant keywords or search terms entered by the user. Just as we focus on indexing and crawling in Google SEO to improve the website visibility on the SERPs, similarly indexing of mobile apps in your app store optimization strategy becomes essential so that your mobile apps appear higher for the keywords or search terms entered.
App indexing allows you to reach a wide range of relevant users as the number of users of android and iOS is constantly increasing. You must ensure that your app is easily indexed and crawled in your app optimization strategy. When your app is adequately indexed, the Google ranking of the mobile app improves. Better indexing your app ensures that the user is provided with a pop-up to install the app if they do not have it on their mobile. You can use an eye-catching call to action to make the user download the app, just as we do in Google SEO.
Suppose your business has a paid mobile app. In that case, you can consider adding descriptions that create an urgency among the users to convert to better your Google ranking. Proper indexing ensures that all your redirects like 301 and 302 are working properly. The indexing of your app ensures that the display URL and final URL display the user-generated content and improves your mobile SEO ranking. Google crawls different sections on your website, displays it to the user and improves your mobile SEO ranking to display your app for the website content that matches the users’ search query.
3. App name, title and URL - To help app stores display your mobile app on top of the users' search query, you need to include the relevant keywords in your app name, app title and app URL. The app name should be in sync with your product or services so that the users can easily understand what they would get after installing your app. Including relevant keywords makes it easier for search engines to discover your app.
The more enticing the app name, the better the chances for the users to retain its name. You should focus on keeping the app name simple, small and different from your competitors. There are multiple mobile apps available for a single product or service. The more relevant user finds your app, the more they would promote it to their friends and family, thus improving peer-to-peer marketing. Like Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc., have their app name in sync with the target audience; in the same way, you should have app name designed as per users need and interests.
The app title should clearly define what your offerings are. When performing SEO for mobile app, you need to ensure that the app title has great content, relevant keywords, etc., to make the target audience download your app. To improve the Google ranking of your app, you need to ensure that the app URL is redirected to the relevant app store. If you are working on updating app content or designing a new app, you can redirect the user to your webpage. You can display messages like ‘we are upgrading our app’,’ 'will get in touch with you shortly’, etc. and then perform remarketing to make them down your app.
4. App description - Another point to consider in your app optimization strategy is app description. To improve your SEO ranking of the mobile app, you need to ensure that you write an engaging product description. You need to describe your product features and benefits that the users would get after downloading your app. The app description provides the user with an overview of why they should choose your app above others.
You should have a meta description, meta title, etc., that includes relevant keywords, thus increasing the chances of downloading your mobile app. As we write ad copies and then perform a PPC audit to find what drives more traffic to the landing page. In the same way, you can a/b test your app description to try different app iterations that work best and improve your SEO ranking.
5. Optimizing app images and logo - The first point of contact for your business in the mobile app industry is the app logo. To improve your mobile app's SEO ranking, you should work on choosing the app logo that best suits your products or services. When you choose the app logo, make sure that it is not duplicated to the ones chosen by other businesses.
The app logo should be designed in a way so that the users engage with them. To improve your mobile SEO, there are many SEO metrics that you need to work on and optimizing images on the app is one of them. You need to ensure that the images clearly define what you want to state. Moreover, as in content marketing strategy, you avoid duplicate content in the same way you should focus on the fact that there are no broken images present on the website. You need to make sure that the images clearly define your product or service offering. With an app optimization strategy, you should work on improving mobile SEO and convert the visitors into customers luring them to take the intended action.
6. Updating app content - The business offering keeps updating with the marketing trends. The highest-ranking apps in app stores are those that are continually getting improved, such as changes in technology, feature improvements, or adding new user feedback. To improve the SEO ranking of your mobile app, you should focus on updating the app content.The updated content on the mobile app increases the users’ trust in your brand name.social media marketing and you find users reaching your app store with social media platforms, updated content helps you build brand awareness. If the content is not updated, then you will see visitors uninstalling your mobile app. It provides the user with the belief that they are being provided with the latest products or services in the market. Google’s artificial intelligence and ranking algorithm also analyzes the app content and counts the number of downloads on the app store. So, you continuously need to update your app content to improve the Google SEO ranking of your mobile app.
7. Quality backlinks - When performing SEO for mobile apps, another critical point to focus on is working on quality backlinks. The more quality backlinks your mobile app has, the more trustworthy it is from the users' point of view. Today there are multiple online platforms present and backlinks from various websites; you see an increase in the impression share. The more the number of users for your website, the better you have the chance to improve the conversion rate and increase online sales.
When other people refer to your mobile app, it shows the search engines that your app is trustworthy and legitimate. When you have links from relevant websites, other websites' trust in your brand increases. They also wish to partner with your business, thus increasing the chances of affiliate marketing. You should also ensure that you do not get links from black hat websites as it lowers the ranking of your website and affects the SEO ranking of your mobile app.
8. Reviews and ratings - The core area of building users' trust is having a positive rating of your mobile app on the app store. These reviews and ratings are public and visible to all on the app store. It increases your brand credibility among the users on the search engine and the app store. So, in your app store optimization strategy, you need to focus on having a maximum number of positive reviews.
When optimizing SEO for mobile apps, you should also consider the fact that not all negative reviews are bad. If you have a negative review about your business, you can take them seriously and take the necessary steps to optimize them. It highlights the potholes of your app and what steps you need to take in your app optimization strategy to increase the number of downloads. App stores consider these reviews and then provide ratings to your mobile app. So, you should continuously monitor these reviews to empower your SEO for mobile app strategy to gather positive reviews for your app consistently.
Why to do SEO for mobile applications
With more than 6 million mobile apps in the app store, getting your mobile app noticed is a tough nut to crack. SEO for mobile apps means that you work on various SEO tools, SEO planning & strategy, etc., to rank your mobile app in the app store. With the increasing number of smartphone users, you cannot just build a mobile app and rest assured that things will be working fine. To continuously analyze the performance of your mobile app and see whether it is yielding the desired results, you need to do SEO for mobile applications.
Search engine optimization is a technique used to improve the ranking of the website. The SEO strategy helps analyze what essential metrics related to your business need to be optimized to achieve the desired results. Performing SEO for mobile applications, you can do an SEO audit to analyze the performance of your mobile app. With a data-driven attribution report, you get to know which path users choose to download your mobile app. It is thus crucial to perform SEO for mobile applications and optimize the necessary metrics to increase the number of app downloads.
Round off
For any size business having a mobile app is becoming the need of the hour. The mobile app reduces the efforts to navigate through different sections on the web page. To reach the relevant section you are looking for, you just need to scroll through various tabs and have the desired result. It also improves user engagement with the business and increases users' trust. The users believe that the business thinks from the users' perspective and reduces the users' search efforts.
To reap the desired benefits from the mobile app, you need to work on SEO for mobile applications. It would help you know vital areas that need to be worked on to improve the mobile app's performance. If SEO strategy for mobile apps is cumbersome, you can get in touch with a digital marketing company with expertise in local SEO, website design, content marketing, etc. and increase the number of downloads for your mobile app.
References:
• 5 SEO tips to get mobile apps ranked in SERPs
• What is app store optimization? (ASO)