Is App SEO Going To Be Necessary In 2016?

It’s no secret that mobile traffic has already overtaken desktop traffic, and that there are no signs of its upward momentum coming to a halt any time soon. For years, search marketers and SEO experts have preached the importance of having a website that’s optimized for a mobile experience. Until recently, that’s mostly meant having a web design that looks clean and remains interactive when viewed on a mobile device (i.e., having functional images and videos, readable text without zooming, and so on). Google’s “Mobilegeddon” update back in April of this year proved their commitment to such mobile-optimization strategies by penalizing any site that hasn’t yet adopted these measures.

But the influence mobile devices have on SEO isn’t stopping there. In fact, a new type of SEO is starting to emerge—one that threatens to replace site-based rankings as a primary goal for search. App-based SEO is already here, but you can still have a thriving SEO strategy without worrying about it. Is that about to change in the next year?

App Indexing

App indexing is already happening—in fact, it’s been happening for a long time now. For the last few years, if you perform a mobile search using Google and a particular app is relevant to your query, chances are you’d see that app (and probably a competitor or two) embedded directly in your search results. For example, if you searched for a particular app by name, Google would provide you a link to that app’s page in your app store.

Earlier this year, Google rolled out a new function that will suggest various apps to install based on your query. For example, if you search for “local weather,” Google could recommend two or three top weather apps for you to install and use for this purpose. As long as you’re following Google’s standards for app indexing, your app will be indexed in Google’s records just like a website, and just like a website, it will be available to view for relevant queries.

App Deep Linking

The fun doesn’t stop there. Google is also offering an app deep linking functionality. A deep link on a traditional website is a link that goes to some internal page of the site, rather than a home page or main nav page. A deep link for an app, then, is a link that opens a particular app on your mobile device and immediately redirects you to a certain section or certain interface within that app.

Though the process to create an app deep link is relatively advanced compared to traditional deep linking, any app developer should have no trouble creating those protocols. Essentially, you’ll be telling Google which sections of your app are used for which purposes (as well as the type of content that’s available in those sections). Theoretically, if a user searches for something that could be answered by your app’s specific section, Google could produce a result that prompts an install of your app and takes the user to the most relevant section within. Plus, app deep links will increase your authority, which will help your app (and possibly your brand’s traditional site) rank higher in relevant searches.