Adriatik's Blog

Instead of focusing on what to do, let’s look at what not to do when performing app store optimization. Please do not:

• Repeat keywords
• Use irrelevant keywords
• Overlook Localizations
• Have poor visuals
• Neglect A/B Testing
• Ignore App Performance
• Disregard ratings and reviews

Before we move to details, see this known facts:

App Name – ASO Impact: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The app name is crucial for ASO, being the first thing users see. With a 30-character limit, it’s the most important ASO metadata, so choose it carefully.

Subtitle – ASO Impact: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The subtitle is important ASO metadata, seen after the app name. With a 30-character limit, you can use it to attract users or boost keyword combinations. The choice depends on your strategy.

Keywords – ASO Impact: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Choose keywords related to your app that users might search for. They should align with your app name and subtitle to help your app appear in more search results. The keyword field has a 100-character limit.

And remember the importance is from left to the right, so in the title the very first keywords have more impact on the algorithm than the keywords at the right.

Keywords repetition

Do not repeat any keywords, even when you do cross localization still do not repeat any of the keywords, for example if you have to do in title do not put it in your keywords field or in any other localization like Spanish(Mexico), as algorithm when combines it can either take them from keywords or from the title. As an exception: using long-tail keywords that contain common words is not considered duplication.

Using Irrelevant keywords

While doing keyword research you might find keywords with high volume and low difficulty score but if they are irrelevant to your app you will just lose some space for the relevant keywords (if you find such a keyword it’s better to build an entire app around that rather miss using it on the wrong place). You can see some traction at the begging but if users does not click on your app or if they just get and delete it the algorithm will start to rank the app lower for that irrelevant keyword.

Overlooking Localizations

Most of the engineers are mostly focused on the English countries, so while everyone’s focus is there it’s better to try other markets like German, Nordic or others. The other mistake I’ve seen here is engineers only do update the keywords but do not update screenshots & description. When updating for locales which you don’t know it’s always better to get the opinion of the people which are of that culture. Reddit is a great channel to ask help related.

Having poor visuals

We have only 3 seconds to get people attention if you don’t get it you just lose a potential download. The first 3 screenshots are the most important ranking again from left to right by first being the most important then 2, 3 then others. If you rank for a specific keyword repeating it or writing a context around it on the first screenshots has potential to increases the conversation rate.

Neglecting A/B Testing

Nowadays, it’s all about conversion rates—whether it’s downloads, activations, or subscriptions—making A/B testing a crucial aspect that should not be neglected.

Ignoring App Performance

I’m guilt of this too, sometimes we do a great job on the ASO we get downloads but if the app performance is not good after some time we see a drop on the keywords ranking. App Store algorithm has informations on your app uninstalls, session per active etc and all of this is counted on the ranking.

Rating & Reviews

Bad reviews are manageable, good reviews are fantastic, but having no reviews is a problem. Here, using a bit of psychology, we ask users during onboarding to leave a review. As they reflect on their onboarding experience, they are likely to leave a 5-star review, which significantly helps with ranking.

Thanks for reading until the end. If this helps, subscribe for more. If it didn’t, feel free to leave me a comment. Either way, it would make me happy.