App Store Optimization: The Best Practice For App Name And Keywords
Sandy Jalouzot Cohen
Consultante en stratégie commerciale | Chaque entreprise est unique, votre stratégie commerciale doit l’être aussi. Construisons-la ensemble !
You want your potential customers to be able to find you through search on the App Store because over half of apps are discovered this way. The first place that you need to start isselecting the right app store keywords and app name.
Here are a few tips on how to define your app name and keywords on the iTunes App Store (go here for Google Play Store tips). Doing this well might not get you on the Top Charts, but you can still get a ton of downloads.
As far as App Store SEO is concerned, your app name and keywords count the most.
This is not a big secret, but if you have never gone through the process before, it can be daunting. In this post, we will show you what to look for and how to maximize these two components of your app SEO, otherwise known as App Store Optimization (ASO).
Be Descriptive in Your App Name
After your icon, the first thing your potential users will see is your app name.
Make it count.
For non-games apps, it means that your app name needs to be as explicit as possiblefrom the very beginning. You don’t want people to see a non-relevant name when they are looking for something. You also need to state what your app does in the name.
The second important thing to know about your app name is that the words you put in there also act like App Store keywords. These keywords used to have more importance for search results than the actual keywords, but this seems to have changed. Don’t make it just a list, and try to come up with short phrases (2/3 words) that people are most likely to use.
Basically, you need to find a good balance between keywords and branding.
The app name is used by Apple to create your app URL. Do not include any special characters in your app name, like the trademark or copyright symbol because your iTunes app page will then only use your id.
Another thing you might want to be careful of is try not to repeat an already taken app name (or parts of it), as Apple manually flags (and disables) the concerned keywords.
Choose Your App Store Keywords Wisely
Apple gives you 100 chars to define your keywords, so make the most of it. Separate every word by a coma. Apple seems to be handling plurals better now, so you can get precious characters for your keywords that way.
Sensor Tower provides a handy tool for counting the number of characters in your keyword list. Be sure to use as many characters as possible in your keyword optimization.
Just like web SEO, if a keyword (or combination of keywords for your app name) is overused then try to come up with something different like synonyms or other ways to say it that people might use. Better to be in the top 5 results for an average-searched keyword than in the top 100 for a highly-searched keyword. Oh, and don’t use trademarks, that will get you in big trouble.
There are no bonuses from whole phrases, so just use the keywords composing the search phrases you want to be discovered. For example, “fitness tracker” should be listed as: “fitness,tracker” in your keyword list in iTunes.
How to Find the Right App Store Keywords?
Luckily, there is a wide range of app store optimization tools that can help you find the right keywords for your keyword list and your app name. Here is a list of the top platforms on the market:
These tools can help you figure out some of your competitor’s keywords, find new ones and more. Do your research on which tools fit your needs and budget. Then give a few a try and see which ones work best for you.
You can also have a look at what’s happening on the web, using tools like Google Keyword Planner or Google Trends (those can actually help with market researchas well). These tools can give you other valuable keyword ideas.
What is a Good Keyword?
The biggest mistake that people who are new to ASO make is they choose keywords based on how many searches the keyword gets.
That is actually the last thing that you should look at when choosing a keyword. Here is how you should prioritize the different characteristics of a keyword.