Ever since I got my personal smartphone in my hands, I’ve been captivated about all the things I could do with it. Touch screen, swiping, cool functionalities and much more was in there for me but what fascinated me the most was- The App Store.

When I discovered that in its teeny-weeny world, millions of useful apps get uploaded on a daily basis, my curiosity level elevated. Furthermore, I observed that some apps were free while the others were paid but only a few managed to hit the top charts and more importantly secure their position there.

Now what could possibly be the science behind that?

I decided to solve this mystery and after basic research, I learnt that the key to search ranks in the world of mobile apps is ASO i.e. App Store Optimization. Somewhat like a brother to SEO, name wise, but entirely different in other aspects.

The dependency factors of both these categories vary hugely. I dug a little deeper into this and found out the elements that affect the ASO majorly and decided to note them down. So, the next time you want to analyze your app rank in the app store, here’s a little help from my study.

Title, Description and Keywords

This is where the game starts. Let’s understand in least words how to make most from these three-

• Title- Optimize it. You know what your app is all about, the art is to let others know it the same way and that too with a compelling title. Keep the title of your app optimized by fitting in the exact use along with the focus words.

• Description- Maximise it. Though there’s a limit to this but the description part enables you to explain things better. Since space is limited, it’s best to lead with a strong message that’s relevant to your audience. Pen down what your app does and also the features that make it worth installing here.

PS- You can also add an offer related to your app in this section which can maximise the download figures. Ex- * 24hr SALE! First 200 installs for $1.99 ONLY! *

Keywords- Stuff them in. Make sure you take care of the focus words in both the above mentioned parts but do not try to make a reader’s experience annoying by doing a little too extra. Keep your content clean and understandable. I’ve tried a few tools for the purpose of keyword research and out of those, I’ll recommend these three- App Annie, TUNE, Keyword tool

Images, Icons and Screenshots

The performance of your app highly depends on visual factors too. Therefore, along with the words, it’s important to focus on these as well-

• Image- Visualize it.Think of a situation where you look into a newspaper ad or a website or as a matter of fact anything that contains an image along with some text. On analysing your viewpoint, you’ll notice that the image captures your attention almost immediately. That makes images the essence of your application so make sure you keep them attractive, clear and noticeable.

• Icon- Relate it. As the name of a person acts as the identifier for them; icon does that for an app. The app icon should be compelling enough for a person to click on it. This is the spot to induce the creativity of designers. More precisely, the logo should give out the details just from the look.

• Screenshot- Display it. Last but not the least comes screenshots of the app. Think of them as the graphical view of the flow of an app. No matter how much content you write for your app, people will look out for places that gives direct information in less words. In fact, less than 2% users read the full description of the application. That’s why it is highly recommended to work on the screenshots according to this equation-

Creative content + Illustrative images =  Perfect screenshots

So that’s that!  Next time you develop an app, make sure you take care of these points because behind every good app there’s an exceptional idea which demands to be noticed and that can happen if you learn to work the magic with the ASO.

Author Details- Shefali Deshwali is a creative strategist working in the domain of curating content and marketing for IT companies. Currently, she blogs for Hiteshi Technologies, a leading Web and Mobile development company, about the techniques and updates in the industry.