After months and months of app development, it can be disappointing to find that your app is not receiving the downloads that you expected. In fact, it seems that not many people are able to find your app at all. With app store optimisation only get you so far, there is only SEO left to help boost your app’s discoverability.
Apps offer a new frontier in the world of SEO; better yet, a new challenge. It is not enough to simply upload your app to Itunes or the Play Store anymore and watch the downloads pour in.
So, what techniques do you need to use in order to boost your app’s discoverability?
Create a Landing Page
Any app that you create should, by default, have a landing page to accompany it on your company’s website. If you do not have a website or larger company outside of your app then this still applies. Create a simplistic one-page site in order to reap the benefits of SEO for your app.
Not having a presence on the web can be a quick death for many apps, so make sure your landing page is ready to go on the launch day of your app!
Optimise Your Landing Page
It may seem simple, but that’s because it is. Take brands such as Snapchat. This is a company that is solely based on its app, it has no real need for a web page. In fact, the one it does have is as barebones as it is possible to get. It does, however, have a handy download link for the app.
The sole purpose of the page is to capture the search volume from Google and profit in the form of downloads. You can also apply this to your own app.
Of course, brands like Snapchat will profit from searches of their own brand name more often than not. But, as a smaller company, you can take it a step further and rank for keywords that are relevant to your app. If your landing page is a part of a larger brand website, you can easily integrate this into your current SEO campaigns.
Conversions are at the heart of your landing page, so other than optimising all SEO elements (meta, links, CTA) there are a few other ways to make your page convert better. For example:
Reduce the number of inbound links on the page. Typically, inbound links are useful to keep your visitor interested. But in the case of your landing page, you want them to convert then and there. Reducing the temptation to navigate away helps to boost your conversion rates.
Testimonials on your landing page also help people to see the value of your service, as it offers social proof. This boosts conversion.
A high volume of text does not convert well. Add an image or video to create a more engaging page - ideally a video which demonstrates your app’s capabilities.
Use bullet points to break down what text you do have. Making it clear and concise what the benefits of conversion are.
Optimising your page for conversion is a trial and error case. You need to test different formats, determine which saw the better conversion rate (in this case downloads) and then stick to this landing page.
Increase Backlinks
A tried and tested method of SEO is to gain backlinks in order to boost your discoverability. It is essential in order to positively affect the ranking of your landing page as a cornerstone of SEO strategy.
The way to do it for apps varies, but a good strategy is always to look at your competitors and try to identify where they are getting their backlinks from. A little underhanded perhaps, but it’s everyone for themselves when it comes to SEO. Once you make a list the real work happens: outreach.
Not everyone on your list will be relevant or worth contacting, so be sure to edit them out first. Once you’ve established the relevant contacts, start reaching out to them via email to include your app on their lists or even do a feature on them. Not everyone will be convinced or think your app is worth it - shame on them - but, it will give you the opportunity to make solid relationships with those that do respond well.
You may not get a lot of direct backlinks from this method, but it is sure to help your rankings and the conversions you do get will be highly qualified.
Do Intensive Mobile Keyword Research
When optimising SEO for an app, chances are that you would prefer most of your traffic to be coming through on mobile. This way the traffic you do receive will be able to convert instantly and download your app from the landing page. So, with this in mind, it makes sense to optimise your SEO for mobile devices.
This technique isn’t revolutionary, in fact, the big take away is to aim for keywords that have large search volumes on mobile devices. With the gap between rankings on mobile vs desktop so apparent, the need to make this distinction is more important than ever.
Final Thoughts
SEO matters now more than ever before, even in terms of marketing a product that you traditionally would not think would not optimisation for discoverability. With the number of people searching the web from mobile devices skyrocketing, can you really afford to miss out on this traffic?
To make the most of these mobile users you need to make your app as findable as possible - SEO and all.
Zack
