Since the technological advancement of mobile devices is increasing every day and user habits are changing along with it, the importance of ASO (App Store Optimization) is becoming more clearly realized. ASO is known as the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization) but on the mobile side. Sure, they have similar goals, but is ASO really the new SEO? Let’s have a look at their similarities and differences, and then decide together.
Similarities and Differences
When we talk about the similarities, they are as follows:
Both ASO and SEO are specialized marketing tactics and optimization processes to increase the search rankings of your business.
Knowing your audience and the keywords they use to find your products or services has a key role in both optimization processes.
Keyword stuffing is useless in both optimization processes.
The main differences between SEO and ASO are:
SEO is intended for websites to rank higher in the organic (natural or unpaid) page results of search engines like Google or Bing.
ASO is for mobile applications to increase their visibility and downloads in major app stores like iTunes or Google Play.
Do you think this information is enough to make the decision? No? Then let’s check out the processes of SEO and ASO.
SEO
Fact: 44% of online customers start their buying process by using a search engine. Here’s another: 75% of users never look at the second page of search engine results. Can you see now why it is so important to rank higher in SERPs and therefore perform SEO? Well, let’s take a look at the process. We can examine SEO from two main viewpoints: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO
The main purpose of search engines is to provide the knowledge that a user is seeking quickly and accurately. On-page optimization aims at tweaking your website’s data and content to help search engines do just that. Optimizing your site to be user friendly and using user-centric content is what search engines are looking for. A proper title, unique content, fast website loading speed, size of titles and pictures are some of the metrics that positively affect SEO.
Off-Page SEO
Off-Site SEO involves using other websites to validate yours. This important optimization includes:
- Link building
- Submission to trusted and quality directories
- Social media optimization
- Building your brand
- Promoting your brand and website online
- Anchor text diversity
- Link/Content relevancy
- Link juice
- Creating shareable and helpful content
- Guest blogging
- Writing press releases about a new service or product
- Link trading
ASO
There are over 3 million apps in the major app stores, so if you want your app to be found in this data ocean, ASO is an absolute necessity. So how can you do it? Well, here is the checklist:
- Finding right keywords – When you’re choosing keywords, you should consider the relevancy of your app and the competitiveness. This means that you must the find least competitive and most impactful keywords for your app. Don’t forget that Google Play doesn’t provide a keyword field, and you can only use a maximum of 100 characters of keywords in iTunes.
- App name optimization – Your app’s name is very important for first impressions, so it must be unique, memorable and fitting with your app. When naming your app, you should also consider that you can use a maximum of 30 characters in Google Play and 255 characters in iTunes.
- App description optimization – Your app description is very important to convince users to download your app. Because of that you must very clearly explain the following to users: what your app is about, how it can come in handy, and the difference to other apps in the same category. The first 3 lines of the description is shown on your app’s landing page without clicking the “More” button, so you should use your best persuasion skills in those lines. Lastly, you can use a maximum of 4000 characters for your description in both iTunes and Google Play.
- Screenshots and app icon optimization – The app icon and screenshots are the first visual elements that users see in app store searches, so they must stand out. They must be high quality, well-designed, and most importantly relevant to your app. You should also know that iTunes allows 5 screenshots, while Google Play allows 8.
- Preview video optimization – Users pay attention to visuals more than descriptions before deciding which app they want to download, so preview videos have an important role in convincing users. When creating a preview video, you should focus on the key features of your app and give users a realistic idea of your app’s experience. Don’t forget that you can upload a 30-second-long video in iTunes and a 2-minute-long video in Google Play.
- Localization – If you have a multi-language app, you should translate your keywords, description, screenshots and preview video for each region your targeting. This way you can increase your audience, potential users, and naturally the number of downloads.
- Regular updates – To ensure continuity of downloads, you should keep track of your ASO performance weekly and update regularly. You should test your keywords and change badly performing keywords with new ones. You should then optimize your app title and description too, and also make seasonal updates for your app icon, screenshots and preview video.
It really does seem like ASO is the new SEO, don’t you think? The importance of ASO is growing every day in marketing efforts, but that doesn’t mean SEO is not necessary anymore. As we said before, both ASO and SEO are specialized marketing tactics, and it seems that they’ll be fairly important for businesses in the future as they are today.
