How to collect keywords for app promotion?
Working with the semantic core is the first step in app store optimization (ASO). Before you start improving the metadata, you may want to collect and prioritize search queries. In this article, we’ll explain in detail how to do this. Read our step-by-step guide with tips, screenshots, and useful links.
1. Define the main idea of your app and find its audience
If you’re about to work on text ASO for the first time as a beginner, focus on the product idea first. Try to think like a user. Answer the question: Why would someone install your app? How would they formulate a search query? To make the task easier, we offer a welcome pack of 50 keywords that can be added with a single click. Our algorithms generate them automatically. Use the keywords to get started.
Sometimes indexing may include irrelevant keywords. This is due to store algorithms: for example, on Google Play, an app is indexed by artificial intelligence, which determines the keywords based on the app category, tags, words in metadata in all localizations (!), reviews.
2. Make a preliminary list of potential keywords
Well, you have a small list of keywords. Now you should expand it. This step is similar to brainstorming — add any matching queries to the list. Then the system will analyze the metrics in more detail and prioritize the keywords.
Use the Keyword Explorer tab. All the keywords by which you are indexed will appear in the left block. If you click them, store hints (suggests), or keyword options, will appear in the right block. You can enter your keywords into the search bar there and look through the hints. Feel free to add keywords that seem relevant to you.
The Ideas tool may be helpful too. This section is a source of insights for search optimization and competitive analysis. Keywords are segmented here according to various parameters like frequency, keyword length, or app ranking by keyword. There are over 10 keyword lists available.
3. Analyze your competitors’ keywords
You may want to analyze the text ASO of your competitors. You should have an understanding of how well they’re doing. Do they improve text ASO often? How fast are they growing in ranking? Say, your competitors are experiencing rapid growth by some keywords. It’s highly likely that they’ve invested in paid or motivated traffic (and this is not an acceptable way to compete). If you’re not ready to spend much on advertising, replacing those queries with less competitive ones may be a better idea. In the Proposed Keywords tab, you can find out which queries are used to index your competitors, and add relevant ones to your list.
Read our article: ‘How does app indexing work?’
4. Prioritize your keywords
At this point, you have a large list of potential keywords. Now you should analyze them and decide which keywords you’re going to test first, and which ones could be stored for the future use. The entire list can be viewed in the Keywords Analysis tab.
- First of all, rate the popularity of each keyword (Search Volume). If you’re a newbie in the store, you should focus on low-frequency and medium-frequency queries.
- With time, your app will become more visible — more noticeable and indexed by a larger number of queries. This means that, over time, you’ll be able to use more popular keywords. The main thing is to work on ASO regularly.
- The next parameter is keyword complexity. You may want to focus on the Total Apps value. This is the number of apps that appear in the search results by a certain key query. The fewer apps per keyword, the less competitive it is. If popular apps with a large number of installs, reviews and a high rating are indexed by a certain keyword, then its complexity level is the highest.
- You can also use the Impressions metric in the Performance section. It shows the approximate number of times a query is used per day. That is, how many times people type it in the search bar on a single day.
- You can also use keywords by which you already have quite high rankings. It may be easier for you to make it to the top using them.
Note! Don’t get rid of unpopular keywords forever. In the Performance section, you can see the history of keyword popularity. If a keyword was popular earlier on, then it may become so again. You may want to check the status of such keywords frequently.
5. Group your keywords for the future use
To avoid having to choose keywords from scratch for every new experiment, save them for the future. Group the keywords as you like. To create your own sections, click + on the Keywords Analysis tab next to ‘tracked keywords’.
Watch our webinar ‘How to make text ASO to improve app visibility?’
6. Add keywords to text elements
For efficient ASO promotion, it may be necessary to complete text metadata properly, taking into account the keywords. To do this, you can create lots of drafts in the ASO Editor section based on the analysis of queries. Keep in mind that text elements are different on Google Play and App Store, and they may influence the ranking differently.
Note! If you have a Google Play app, check your app description for content classification using the Natural Language API. Translate your text into English, paste it into the field and click Analyze. Once you’ve done with the analysis, you’ll see which categories Google assigns the content to as well as its Confidence factor. When experimenting with a description, try to keep this value at least at 0.8 but the higher it is, the better.
7. Analyze results to achieve more
It’s important to evaluate the ASO performance results, draw conclusions and plan the next keyword testing based on the details you get. On App Store, the results will be visible faster. Indexing will be there within a couple of days after your update. On Google Play, the process can take up to three weeks. After updating the text elements, assess your ranking by old keywords and indexing by new ones. You also can quickly assess the dynamics using ASOindex and Search Visibility Index.
ASOindex evaluates the level of optimization of an app page on App Store and Google Play. It’s based on several factors. Among them are the number of text characters, number of screenshots, the average app rating, keyword popularity, app visibility (based on the app ranking by major keywords), a video, if any, and the frequency of updates. This is a more general metric that analyzes ASO as a whole.
Search Visibility Index shows app visibility for search traffic — that is, for those who use key queries to search for apps. If the percentage is low or the chart is sinking, you may want to analyze the ranking by relevant key queries. This is a narrower value, and it focuses on text metadata.
Note! Internal metrics like impressions and page views, installs, financials, retention, and session time are worth analyzing too. The higher those values are, the more likely it is for you to rank higher.
P.S.
We are preparing a big update — stay tuned! It will be even more convenient to collect keywords soon.
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