What is App Store Optimization (ASO) and how it differs from SEO

There are three ways to monetize mobile application users: make the application paid, monetize through subscriptions, connect to the in-app advertising network. Obviously, the more users an application has, the better it monetizes and brings more profit. And in order to increase the audience of a webmaster, they often use ASO optimization.

App Store Optimization (ASO) is a set of works on search engine optimization of an application in a store. This list of activities helps the application card to be higher in the issuance of stores for specific key queries. The higher the application in the search results, the more users pay attention to it, install it and turn into customers.
 

How ASO differs from SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a set of measures to adjust the site to certain requirements of the search engine in order to raise the position of the site pages in the search results.

In the community, ASO optimization is called “SEO for applications”, since both of them are a list of actions to promote a resource to the top of the issue in order to attract traffic.

The processes of optimizing mobile applications and web pages are relatively similar: in both cases, you need to analyze competitors, compose semantics, fill the text with keywords, compose correct descriptions, choose images correctly, etc. 

How optimization works

Optimizing apps for the App Store and Google Play is different: iOS and Android stores use different approaches to moderation, rules, and order for app publishing, but have fairly similar ranking algorithms. The following works are related to search engine optimization of applications one way or another:

• ASO - audit (analysis of the state of the application, its position, closest competitors);
• Collection of semantics (creation of a semantic core);
• Preparing metadata (creating keywords);
• Optimization of texts (formulation of the name and prescribing of keys in the application description);
• Visual optimization;
• Working with user feedback (buying comments and ratings).

To simplify work with optimization, there are many services, such as ASOdesk or App Radar. You can also contact a team of specialists who will promote your application on their own.

The best indicator of an app's relevance to a keyword is app downloads after a keyword search. Live installs from the search signal to the store that the user has found a product that matches the query, and raises it higher in the search. Therefore, services for cheating search installs for quickly boosting application positions are very popular on the Internet.

ASO and affiliate marketing

ASO gives the app the ability to receive organic traffic. Organic traffic is considered higher quality by default because the user goes through part of the funnel on their own and is motivated to install the app on their own. Depending on the GEO and niche of the application, the struggle for search positions and organic traffic can be much cheaper than advertising the application on Google UAC, ASA or Facebook.

Webmasters most often use mobile apps to promote products in the iGaming, Finance, and Dating verticals. They place a webview component with the offer site inside the application and purchase installs on advertising sites. A similar approach can be used with organic traffic as well.
 

Comment from the editors of AffJournal

Mobile traffic is confidently capturing the Internet, squeezing a share from the desktop. Apps will inevitably become more popular than websites. Already, almost half of the cases in affiliate marketing are related to mobile applications. Sooner or later you will have to study the world of mobile traffic. Start with ASO.