ASO mobile app optimization (Google Play or App Store) is exactly what makes you, as a user, see a specific list of apps in response to your search query. Have you ever wondered how the app store generates a particular list of apps? Why do you see certain search results even if you slightly reformulate your query?

What is ASO App Optimization?

ASO is an optimization process that involves collecting and analyzing search terms, and keywords, and using them in app metadata to gain visibility on the app store. Optimization for Google Play and App Store are processed with similar goals, but different approaches due to the difference in the mechanisms for indexing metadata fields.

For you, as a user, almost all of the mentioned takes place in a hidden form, but it is you who forms the search results, determines the relevance of keywords, and makes the decision to install the application. Let’s take a closer look at how it happens with an example. You entered the app store in order to install a tracker of good habits for yourself – you form a search query:

Step 1. Entering the search terms and what you see when you enter them are search suggestions. These are the queries that other users have previously searched for. Thus, by entering only the word “tracker”, you get a whole list of possible options and choose the “habit tracker” that interests you from it.

Step 2. For this search query, the app store will generate a search result, namely a list of applications that match this query. But how the store understands which words are suitable for a particular application, that they are relevant and the application will ultimately solve the user’s questions – this is where the magic of ASO optimization lies.

Step 3. You select the application you are interested in from the list, guided by icons, ratings, or both. Getting to the application page, you just have the opportunity to get acquainted with the app metadata.

Visual and text optimization of apps

As we mentioned above, the user encounters two optimization objects – textual and visual. Text optimization implies the very metadata that contains the necessary keywords. The latter is necessary so that the store algorithm can identify your application and show it to the user.

Visual optimization is about icons, screenshots, and videos. This graphic material no longer interacts with store indexing algorithms but is aimed solely at conversion. App stores (now we will talk about the main ones – Google Play and the App Store) have a lot in common in their approach to app optimization, but there are also differences:

App text optimization

Textual ASO is a process aimed at indexing an application for relevant keywords, i.e. so that the store recognizes your application, associates it with the necessary search queries, and displays applications in the search results. But where to get the necessary data? Relevant keywords are better not to be done quick-and-dirty. It is for this (and not only) that there are ASO optimization tools – platforms for analytics of mobile markets and applications. 

The practical case – children’s coloring game application.

Market – Google Play.

Country – USA.

ASO will be based on ASOMobile analytics.

Collecting the semantic core

So, we start working with semantics for our application. Since it is still in development, we need to find something similar – usually, a competitor application with similar functionality.

Working with the ASOMobile mobile application analytics platform implies the presence of a wide pool of free tools, which are quite enough to form the semantic core of the application:

• Keyword Monitor;
• Keyword Suggest;
• Text analyzer.

Keyword Monitor

We initially get a pool of search queries (the analytics is automatically offered to us) and a generated list of competitors, referring to which we will work with our semantics:

Use the suggestion for every keyword:

Please note that for each added keyword, we can navigate by the traffic indicator and easily evaluate its relevance – by looking at the search results.

Keyword Suggest

As for ASO optimization, suggestions are a guaranteed source of semantics for us. As a result – a relevant, popular keyword, which we definitely include in our semantic core. And analytics will just speed up the whole process – Keyword Suggest, we will now check the suggestions when entering the keyword “coloring”:

Text Analyzer

Text Analyzer will allow us to analyze such an important field of competitors’ metadata as description. A little higher, in the indexing factors, we mentioned that for Google Play, the full description of the app is a source of understanding what it is about and what search queries it is shown to users. It is in this field that a lot of key queries are “hardwired” and its correct filling will improve the position of the app. But for now, we will look at it solely in the interests of semantics.

At this step, we can analyze both the current description of the application and copy here any description of competing applications that interests us. As a result, we will get a detailed analysis of the full description with you – an analysis of the semantics, that is, what key queries were detected by the system in the text.

This way we can expand our core with keywords.

Paid tools for collecting the semantic core

Also, the mobile analytics platform offers a wide range of tools on a paid basis – with more features and in-depth analysis. Use promo code CodeCondo to get 50% off for any plan.:

• App Keywords;
• Keyword Finder;
• Keyword Select.

App Keywords

App Keywords will allow us to see the list of search queries for which the analyzed application is indexed, and moreover, in what place it is located for each of the keywords, with what traffic, and what is the trend of the search query:

Keyword Finder

This tool selects the most relevant and popular keywords for you based on the data that is already in the analytics platform.

Keyword Select

This tool will allow us to select suitable keywords based on existing ones. You just need to enter the query you are interested in, and the analytics will already select all relevant and popular:

Semantic core analysis

So, we used a lot of tools and achieved the initial version of the semantics for our application  (based on Keyword Monitor).

Initially, our semantic core was a list of 220 keywords, but it was thanks to the ability to use search results as a relevance check that we cleaned the semantics of inappropriate keywords (an excellent example, is the age category – all keywords that contain a suggestion of a coloring book for adults, were removed). The final result was a semantic core for 133 queries.

Next, we can operate with the traffic indicator and ungroup our keywords from the list into three conditional groups:

• high-frequency keywords;
• mid-frequency keywords;
• low-frequency keywords.

For convenience, we will simply use color filters, and the main guideline will be the traffic indicator.

As practice shows, the division is rather conditional, but still, there are not so many keys in the green zone (high-frequency requests), most of them fall into the orange (mid-frequency) and yellow (low-frequency) zones.

Bottom line – we have formed a semantic core, and search queries are included according to traffic and relevance. We’re all set to inject semantics into the app metadata, so let’s get started.

Forming application metadata

A rather voluminous preparation of the semantic core led us to the almost final step of text optimization – the formation of metadata. We will work with the following fields:

• App name
• Short description
• Full description

To generate metadata, we will use the ASO Creator tool:

Please note that for our convenience, character restrictions are already written here and basic tips for filling in the specified fields are given. But the most interesting thing awaits us in the semantic core – the system clearly shows which keywords we used, and which other keywords are not indicated in our metadata. 

Here we can experiment as much as we want with different titles and combinations of keywords in the short description, paying attention to the keyword usage indicator, as well as which keywords we use.

Working with a full description for Google Play is also quite voluminous, as it involves creating SEO-optimized text, using the right keywords, with the right frequency. That is why we will use the Unique words tab:

The formation of a complete description is the work of professional copywriters who, in addition to knowing the language, must understand how SEO texts are built. On our part, we have to specify which keywords we need to use, how often they need to be specified, etc. 

There is no single template of the technical task, but there are important aspects of it:

• full description length: 2500-3000 characters (maximum 4000 characters)
• frequency of occurrence of keywords
• keyword occurrence density.

The last indicator is very important, because of it even such a specific term appeared in text optimization for Google Play – overspam. This is when a keyword is used too often, which is negatively perceived by the ranking algorithms and can lead to the fact that the application will not be shown at all for this keyword or fail to move up in the search results.

How to avoid such a negative experience? Text Analyzer – we have already mentioned that it can be used at different stages of ASO optimization, and now we will turn to it from the point of view of checking the full app description.

The system will easily tell us the optimal number of repetitions, and show the number and frequency of keywords used. As a result, after a small adjustment, we have a complete app description.

We return to ASO Creator and look at our metadata in its final form:

So, the metadata is formed! For the first iteration of text optimization, we have enough data.

Analysis of the ASO optimization efficiency

Well, if you were careful enough while reading, you noticed our caution – the first iteration of optimization. We have formed the metadata, prepared the visual part (you can find a lot of information about visual ASO in our blog), and the application has been released on Google Play. What’s next? How to understand whether everything is successful with us and whether we have done everything to achieve our goals?

• After loading the text and visual parts into the console, it may take some time to pass checks and moderation.
• Next, the market will need time to index your application.
• After that, we highly recommend starting tracking and analyzing the information received.

Keyword Monitor – it not only stores our semantic core, but also shows us which keywords the application has already been indexed for and at what positions.

Organic Downloads will show which keywords the app gets organic installs for.

Here you can even see Total Installs (416) which is the expected number of organic installs per keyword per day.

ASO Dashboard is a very informative tool that visualizes the whole picture of your app development dynamics:

We can observe the visibility indicators in the search, which keywords are indexed, what their dynamics are, how well the distribution of keywords is happening now, and much more.

Thus, you can check the state of your application in the context of text optimization. Don’t be upset if you don’t get it right the first time, because optimization is a cyclical process – update your metadata according to trends, analytics, seasonality, and fashion trends. And taking into account the fact that Google Play allows you to make changes to the metadata without updating the product itself, do not forget that each iteration of the metadata can lead to a temporary decrease in positions. Be sure to consider these features when updating your application page.

Use promo code CodeCondo to get 50% off for any ASOMobile plan.

Also Read: Top 13 Checklist for Launching Your Android App on Google Play