You can ask an experienced SEO professional or even a brand new SEO consultant and they’ll tell you the same thing. Being able to game the ranking system is something that cannot be done any longer. Even if you can, you risk getting banned or delisted. Nowadays, the algorithms being used are so far advanced that it can be nearly impossible to get your website ranking high with black hat techniques. To get your website ranking high, it needs to be well made and informative. This is true for both web rankings and app rankings.
The Google Play Store is one of the top app stores out there. It uses an algorithm that keeps the highest quality apps towards the top. That way, a Google Play user can find the very best in the store without having to do too much digging. However, you may be wondering how exactly Google goes about ranking the apps in its store. Apptaura can help you not only develop your new mobile application but get it ranking high.
The primary ranking signal is retention. If someone is continuing to use an app beyond 30 days, there is a chance they have had a very good experience with the app. Your mobile application is typically ranked based on how many users you can retain within a couple of weeks after they start using it.
While it was primarily based on review scores and ratings in the past, that’s no longer the case. While these factors do come into play and are calculated into the rankings, they aren’t what Google is looking at the most. Instead, they are looking how the retention of the mobile app.
With this information available, you might be wondering how you should go about improving your application.
1. Making it Easy to Use
One of the main things you should be doing is attempting to make changes to make your app easier to use. You want to create an intuitive app. Nothing is worse than downloading an app that you need a 4-year education to use. Making something easy to navigate and easy to use is crucial not only for a good end-user experience but to achieve good rankings. Your app shouldn’t need an instruction manual just to use. It should be something that a new user could download and begin using without needing to do research.
2. Create the Right Expectation
When you are looking to get your app ranking better, you’ll want to ensure you are priming expectations properly. You need to be setting the right expectation for a user that is going to be downloading and using your app. The last thing you want is to be targeting the wrong demographic or giving people a false impression of what your app is capable of delivering. You want to ensure that you are positioning your app properly to meet and/or exceed the expectations of your intended users. A lot of users aren’t going to read your app listing. Nor are they going to look at every screenshot and read your instructions. You need to be setting expectations clearly and concisely if you want to maintain a high retention rate.
3. Improve the First Time User’s Experience
One of the most important things you should be doing when you are looking to boost your retention efforts is focusing on the first-time users you get. This is important because you need to ensure they don’t dump your app immediately after downloading it. Try to come up with a method to keep the barrier to entry low. You want to create a frictionless process for signing up for your app and for using it.
4. Inviting Users Back
You should be looking to integrate re-marketing into your app. You want to send out push messages to those who previously used your app or to those who aren’t actively using it. This can get them interested in it and it can help you retain a lot of users that may have simply forgotten about your app.
5. Keeping Things Updated
Try to keep things fresh when it comes to maintaining your app. You want to publish new content, create new features, and continually be updating the app to be better as much as possible. This can keep people coming back for more.