a practical App Store SEO tutorial

5th April 2013

using only App Store SEO you can achieve $300 - $6000 3k - 150k or in sales free downloads per month
( based on our experience and the stories weve heard from our users )

this is the search phrase

people type it on their phone in the app store search

those are the search keywords

this is what you give to Apple

search iTunes phrases keywords

The most important thing.

Your goal is not to improve your position. Your goal is to nd the search queries which work. That is because there is no known way to improve your position for a search query.

Positioning 101
1. brainstorm your search queries 2. prepare appropriate search keywords App name & dev name also matters, so dont repeat it in the keywords. App description, on the other hand - doesnt matter. Unlike Google SEO, there is not much more you can do if Apple doesnt put you on top of the result list. Thats why you should focus on looking on phrases with little competition, not just high popularity.

search query racing game ghting game laser game wheels robots

think of phrases that people may be searching for

result count >100 >100 90 >100 >100

search query racing game ghting game laser game wheels robots

how many results show up for each one?

result count >100 >100 90 >100 >100 10 15 30 5

search query racing game ghting game laser game wheels robots robots on wheels robot game sexy robots ghter robots

good phrases because count < 30

result count >100 >100 90 >100 >100 10 15 30 5

search query racing game ghting game laser game bad phrases wheels ( too much competition ) robots robots on wheels robot game sexy robots ghter robots

result count >100 >100 90 >100 >100 10 15 30 5

search query racing game ghting game laser game wheels robots robots on wheels robot game sexy robots ghter robots

choose your iTunes keywords based on this

robots,on,wheels,game,sexy

result count >100 >100 90 >100 >100 10 15 30 5

search query pos. racing game ghting game laser game wheels track your position in the store robots robots on wheels 5th robot game 3rd sexy robots 31st ghter robots

robots,on,wheels,game,sexy

result count >100 >100 90 >100 >100 10 15 30 5

search query pos. racing game ghting game laser game wheels robots robots on wheels 5th robot game 3rd sexy robots 31st ghter robots improve the keywords
by removing the ones which dont work

count >100 >100 90 >100 >100 10 15 30 5

search query racing game ghting game laser game wheels robots robots on wheels robot game sexy robots ghter robots

pos.

5 3 31

essence of AppCodes

essence of AppCodes

our other features

if name doesnt t the grey bar, it will be truncated in the App Store Search

results as they appear in the App Store

quick preview of the result count etc.

see app popularity at a glance

download estimates via Xyologic

our guess of app iTunes Keywords

you can mark your competitors here

then click the competitors tab

then click the competitors tab

words popular in their descriptions & names

words within their iTunes keyword list

press mentions, press releases

beware! good SEO good sales

you need to have a good conversion rate as well

How to do it?
Brutally speaking, make sure that your app is not crap - its not yet another ashlight/dictionary/photo app - a game with less than supreme quality but foremost - it needs user appeal

Where is your target market?

e.g. weve seen devs from Europe claiming they target U.S. but spending 90% of their communication in their home countries true story: - oh yes, we target U.S - says a dev - how many reviews do you have there? - we dont track those stats outside of Germany

Do you talk to users from that market? What are your reviews on that market?

Did you talk to your users?

- did you ask anyone outside of your friends & family for a review? - did you discuss the idea on web forums? - did you visit a local meetup/barcamp and talked to real people about it? - did you talk to bloggers about your idea? Well, I posted on that one forum one time, and nobody replies Dont blame the forum. Its either your pitch, or your idea that is lousy youve got work to do. If you cannot nd at least a dozen people in the Internet, who will be excited by your concept, even the best seo wont help you.

The rst screenshot needs to explain in detail what the app is supposed to do

even if your app is horizontal make the screenshot vertical*

* - unless youre Rovio, if youre Rovio, people already know what your game does

see?

by the way check the amount of ratings in your target country (we recommend AppFigures for that) and ask explicitly for reviews, using AppIrater

Talk to the real people

- conferences - barcamps, meetups - wherever your target audience hangs out - see who wrote about your competitors, approach them as well Most failures weve seen were because either the product was lousy, it had lousy screenshots, or the authors didnt talk to their customers.

Your next steps

1. build your competitor list 2. brainstorm the search queries 3. gure out the new keywords 4. update your app 5. make sure you have good screenshots and you ask users for the reviews 6. iterate iterate iterate

and dont forget to tell your colleagues about

support@appcodes.com

btw. we also recommend these books

good basics of PR

interface design

design in general

(were unafliated with the autors)

and if youre building a game, watch this

Plenty of people try to build a game because they heard its a good business, or they heard of this guy from Ow My Balls who had a smashing success. But you cannot achieve success in games unless you live and breathe them. This is different from tools, business and any other kind of apps, where you can usually get decent income while working part time. In case of other apps, its all about carving out your own niche. In case of games, its about building a supreme product - there arguably are fewer niches.

do you have a similar passion?

This is a version 1.0 of this presentation. Anything missing? Let us know.

support@appcodes.com