If you’ve ever created an Android app and put it into Android Market Google Play, you probably noticed that search alone will not make an app popular or profitable. There are a number of ways to popularize an app.
Here are six of the most popular:
Press releases
Social Media
Blogging
SEO
Advertising in ad networks
Advertising in magazines and other offline offerings
Obviously, those are all excellent parts of a campaign for popularizing an app, but there’s another method that increases app usage quickly and efficiently and its power shouldn’t be underestimated.
That method is App Store Optimization (ASO). There are numerous elements involved in ASO. They include:
Great app icons. Your icon is the first thing people see when they look for an app. Make sure your icon stands out.
Great app name. Make sure the name tells people what the app does.
Great screenshots. They don’t all have to be actual screenshots. You can show someone using the app, too.
Sharp app description. Aim to describe the app thoroughly in the first five words, and then explain why it’s needed. Be sure to include important keywords.
Good app rating. Get your friends and co-workers to take a look at the app and rate it. Hopefully the app is good enough that they won’t be lying when they rate it highly.
A good app review. If necessary, solicit one from Fiverr. Just be sure that they don’t lie.
A network of apps.
Creating a network or family of apps is probably the most underused, under-rated methods of ASO. Simply put, if you have a network of apps, then every discovery of one app is an app discovery of all your apps. By creating a family of apps, you can have apps in a number of categories and banners in your apps that refer users to other apps.
As an example of how this could work, I’ll use juggling, since it’s my most accessible hobby. Imagine a system of apps including:
How to Juggle Balls — A written guide.
Learn to Juggle Clubs — A video guide. (I made this one, using AppsGeyser when I first started working for them.)
Siteswap simulator (Siteswap is a notation which tells jugglers how high a ball should go and to which hand — it’s useful for creating interesting patterns. Link included because siteswap is very cool.)
Juggling Wallpaper — Pictures of jugglers doing exciting tricks.
Buy Juggling Equipment — A mobile juggling equipment store.
A Juggling blog — Perhaps it would just carry the dates for upcoming juggling events.
By creating six different apps in at least four different categories, I’d open up my app for discovery. Any search for anything related to juggling would bring up an app of mine, leading people to every other app.
Of course, the more an app is looked at, downloaded, and rated, the higher up the charts it goes. It doesn’t matter which app goes up the charts. What matters is how users are siphoned into the primary app — the one that makes the money. The ASO potential here is amazing, and many app makers neglect it. Remember that not every app has to be perfect. It’s enough to make a mobile blog app and wrap it with a tool like AppsGeyser or Mippin. (Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I work for AppsGeyser.) Make sure that your flagship app is great, but don’t hesitate to put in a supporting cast of apps, even if they’re not as robust.
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