The SEO of apps: ASO and how to position your app at first place

If you aren’t new to the world of Marketing, you might have heard the term SEO. Today we will show you what SEO and ASO are all about. We will tell you what it is, its advantages, differences, and more. Learn about ASO vs SEO.

What is ASO?

ASO stands for App Store Optimization, which is the mobile application optimization process. Its aim is to improve the positioning of your Apps in the searches of the application stores.

A better position can ensure that more users find your application. It can give you more exposure, which will then increase its use.

The main purpose of ASO allowing users to find the content they are looking for faster within the application store. So, it makes users do what they want most: download your App.

To do this, the App Store Optimization process requires you to understand users.

They are the ones who use the keywords to find similar apps.

When you know which words people use the most, the chances of your potential users finding you turn greater.

In conclusion, ASO is a digital marketing technique that aims to optimize applications so they have a better chance of being found in the play store.

It also includes the AppStore (iOS), and MicrosoftStore (Windows), among other stores’ virtual applications and media.

The final objective of ASO is obvious, it focuses on enhancing the download rate, either to generate income or work on branding.

After all, we develop our applications so people can download them, and this way it becomes important, right?

Now, ASO is considered as the “son” of SEO, since the function of both is the same: to position your mobile apps or websites.

ASO vs SEO. Factors for an ASO positioning

To implement an ASO strategy, brands must take into account the key factors that every application should include to achieve the proposed objectives:

Title:

• We recommend that the title of the application is short so that neither the search engine nor the user takes a long time to find it.

• It must contain at least one keyword of interest to the user.

ASO vs SEO, Description:

• In summary, it should be clear what your application is and what it is for.

• The description limit is 4000 characters. However, the text must be short for clarity and not clutter.

• It must be attractive to motivate the user to generate a lead in favor.

Icon:

• It must be original and creative.

• Avoid white backgrounds because they can be mixed up with other applications.

Screenshots:

• The screenshots should show the attractive landscapes of the application.

• The reason is simple, and it is that with the screenshots it’s more likely to attract users since they are being shown how the APP is inside.

ASO vs SEO, Categories:

• Choose the one that is most suitable for the application.

• Users also make searches by category.

Review:

• The more reviews and positive feedback, the higher the popularity of the application.

• It also means that it is of good quality.

ASO vs SEO, Keywords:

• Use all the application’s related keywords.

• However, do not fill in the entire title or description with these, as it can be counterproductive.

Tips for an ASO positioning

Here are some tips so you know how ASO positioning works:

Audience:

To know the traffic that your application is generating not only in the virtual stores but also in the application’s web page.

We recommend using Google Analytics to analyze them separately.

ASO vs SEO, Keywords: 

It is important to research the consumer so that the keywords used are correct and generate leads.

Later, use the analysis tools to measure if they work and the level of competition that exists on these popular terms.

Online Marketing:

If we don’t promote an application, what do you think will be the result? Well, nobody will know it.

For this reason, it is important to use platforms such as social media.

They will help to spread the word about the new release and explain what it is about.

Help tools for ASO

Some tools can facilitate the development of an ASO strategy to achieve adequate positioning.

Here are three of them.

Google AdWords: 

One of them is the Google AdWords platform.

This shows us what are the most relevant keywords for users.

Thus, it will help us to position apps in virtual stores.

ASO vs SEO, Sensor Tower: 

This platform allows us to know the number of downloads that the application has.

It considers the income that we get in a period and shows the trends in the application market.

It also provides information on the range of difficulty that an app has to position itself, the historical ranking of the keywords used, and some more data.

Snippet Preview App: 

One advantage of App Snippet Preview is that it allows you to see how an application would look before being launched in the different virtual stores.

This way, it becomes possible to edit any error before we launch it.

Besides, it is a free tool, easy to use, and we can apply it to both Android and Apple.

What is SEO? ASO vs SEO 

We know that SEO stands for search engine optimization and that it improves the visibility of a website in the organic results of the different search engines.

To talk a little more about this topic, we can highlight that SEO is one of the “disciplines” that has changed the most in recent years.

Just look at how many updates there have been to Penguin and Panda, and how they have turned the meaning of SEO by 180 degrees.

Now with SEO, what Matt Cutts himself describes as “Search Experience Optimization” is tracked.

SEO factors

Although there are thousands of factors that a search engine relies on to position one page or another, we could say that there are two basic factors:

authority and relevance

• ASO vs SEO, Authority is basically the popularity of a website.

The more popular it is, the more valuable the information it contains, isn’t it?

This factor is the one that a search engine takes more into account since it’s based on the user’s own experience.

The more content they share, the more users find it useful.

• Relevance is the relation a page has to a search.

This doesn’t mean that a page has to contain the search term many times, but that a search engine relies on hundreds of on-site factors to determine this.

SEO Division

We can divide SEO into two large groups:

• ASO vs SEO, On-site: 

On-site SEO is one that cares about relevance.

It ensures that the web is optimized so that the search engine understands the content of it.

The SEO On-site includes the optimization of keywords, loading time, user experience, optimization of the code, and format of the URLs.

• Off-site: 

Off-site SEO is the part of SEO work that focuses on factors external to the web page in which you work.

The most important factors in off-site SEO are the number and quality of the links.

Likewise, the presence in social media, mentions in local media, brand authority, and performance in search results is also important. Last but not least, another factor is the CTR that has our results in a search engine.

You may think the whole topic is great and very interesting. But you are here to understand what SEO is about and why you need it. This way you can learn to use it in the best way within your website.

Also, later on, you will know what benefits you will get if you integrate it into your online strategy.

The difference between types of SEO

We already know what SEO is, what it consists of, its factors, and how it is divided. To know a little more about this search optimizer you also have to know what types of SEO exist:

ASO vs SEO, Black Hat SEO:

It’s called like this because it attempts to improve the search engine positioning of a web page through unethical techniques and because it contradicts the search engine guidelines. Some examples of Black Hat SEO are Cloaking, Spinning, SPAM in forums and blog comments, or Keyword Stuffing.

The use of Black Hat can provide benefits in the short term, but in general, it is a risky strategy. Likewise, it’s not reliable since it doesn’t last long and doesn’t add value.

White Hat SEO: 

It consists of all those ethically correct actions that comply with the search engine guidelines to position a web page in search results.

This is because search engines give greater importance to the pages that best respond to a user’s search.

The White Hat SEO understands the techniques that seek to give or make a page more important for search engines by adding value to its users.

Advantages of SEO

ASO vs SEO. Here are the main advantages:

• Long-term brand positioning: To do this, it is important to upload optimized content constantly and take care of it.

• Increase in sales or conversions: The quality of a website depends on SEO actions and will optimize the conversion rate of the page.

• Best loading time: An optimized page and a good quality SEO On page will reduce the size and weight of the images. It will optimize the server to work quickly and efficiently.

• Higher target traffic: When it comes to a page positioned based on keyword research or keyword study. You can ensure that your traffic is of good quality, as it offers what your potential customers are looking for.

• Promotion of good quality content: They add value to the user.

• Increased visibility of the brand in search engines: You could rank high in Google results.

• Improve web usability: Make it easy for users to navigate.

• Greater confidence: Users know that the content presented in the first positions is of good quality, and that gives them greater confidence.

Differences between SEO and ASO

Classification factors

The main difference between ASO and SEO has to do with the ranking factors.

Google considers over 200 ranking factors to determine in which rank a page should be, for what, and in what position, while the ASO ranking factors don’t reach 200.

The list of ASO ranking factors is much shorter.

Next, we will show you the main ones:

• App title: This is one of the most important parts of ASO. The correct title should have prominent and well-researched keywords.
• App Keywords: Words cover a very important field in the Apple App Store. It’s like the Meta keyword tag, which is now unused. But it really has a huge impact on the App Store rankings.
• Description of the application: This is where you explain what the application is about and motivate people to download it.
• App downloads: The number of app downloads is one of the key factors. Popular apps rank higher.
• Backlinks: This doesn’t really impact the app’s ranking in the Apple App Store.

However, some people believe that backlinks can influence your ranking on Google Play. This makes sense, given that Google already has a similar algorithm for its search engine.

ASO vs SEO, App ratings and user comments:

This is another big difference between ASO and SEO.

In the App Store, each application has its own rating.

Such ratings come as a kind of social proof for the app – people are much more likely to click and download an app when they see that it has a good rating.

Comments play a very similar role.

The feedback from other users about an app influences the way people decide if they’re going to download it or not.

Do you see the importance when rating an app?

Although the action of rating can often bore us, it is of the utmost importance to do it.

This is because in this way we help other people to know if it interests them or not.

Keyword Research:

Keyword Research is a crucial part of SEO.

It is also important for anyone who works at ASO.

However, there is a big difference: With Google, we can enter accurate data with monthly keyword search volumes using the AdWords keyword planner.

However, there is no way to get the required keyword data for the searched keywords in the app store. Some ASO tools can help you.

However, none of them will give you the data SEO professionals take for granted for search engines.

ASO vs SEO, Positioning place:

This is another of the differences between SEO and ASO.

With SEO, we seek that a website or blog appears in the first results of the main search engines:

Google, Bing, Yahoo, or even YouTube.

On the other hand, the purpose of ASO is to position an app in application stores such as Google Play and AppStore.

Conclusion of ASO vs SEO

Finally, you know what SEO and ASO are all about.

They are two very interesting aspects that can be complemented.

However, one is not better than the other, but their functions go in different directions.

Whether you start from scratch or have a website, you can let us know and we will be happy to help you.

I hope our article has been to your liking and can help you with your future strategies.

At BluCactus we have a team of specialists in digital marketing that is highly qualified in carrying out strategies in different web portals.

Count on us!

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