App Store Optimisation: Getting Your App Found

Most app installs still begin with a search in the store. Optimising the listing is the mobile equivalent of search engine work, with a smaller surface area and faster feedback.

What affects discovery

• Title — the strongest keyword signal. Include the category term people actually search, not only your brand.
• Subtitle and short description, which carry weight and are read in results.
• The keyword field on iOS, and the long description on Android where terms are indexed. Don't repeat words unnecessarily; use the space for distinct terms.
• Ratings and install velocity, which feed ranking directly.
• Category choice and localisation — publishing metadata in the languages of your markets materially expands reach.

What affects conversion once found

• Icon — the single most visible element in a results list, and the one most worth testing.
• The first two screenshots, which are all most people see. Use captions stating the benefit rather than showing bare interface.
• A preview video, which helps for products whose value is hard to convey statically.
• Rating and recent reviews. A visible run of unanswered negative reviews suppresses installs regardless of the average.
• Size and permissions, both of which deter installs when they look disproportionate.

Ratings deserve deliberate work

• Prompt for a review after a moment of success, not on launch or during a failure.
• Use the platform's in-app review mechanism rather than sending people out to the store.
• Route unhappy users to support first — resolving the problem is better than either a bad review or a suppressed one.
• Respond to reviews. It changes some ratings and is visible to everyone else.
• Never buy reviews or installs; detection results in removal, and recovery is difficult.

Test rather than guess

Both stores offer some form of listing experimentation — use it, change one element at a time, and give each test enough traffic to be meaningful. Track impressions, product page views, and install conversion separately, because a change that increases visibility while lowering conversion can leave you worse off. And re-check after each major release: keywords that worked last year drift as the category's vocabulary changes.