ASO (App Store Optimization) audit is the process of analyzing and optimizing your mobile app’s page in the App Store and Google Play Store to improve its visibility and ranking in search results. It involves reviewing your app’s metadata, such as title, description, keywords, screenshots, videos, and reviews, to ensure they are well-optimized and relevant to your target audience.
Doing an ASO Audit for your app page can help you identify areas for improvement and implement best practices to increase your app’s visibility and downloads. A comprehensive ASO audit can help you understand competitors’ strategies and identify opportunities to stand out. By optimizing your app page for ASO, you can attract more quality users, increase engagement, and ultimately drive more revenue for your business.
The things that you need to consider while conducting an ASO audit:
1. The App Title:
- Make a clear picture of the title in front of viewers: The first thing users see in the search results is your app’s title, which influences their decision to visit your app page or boost app downloads. Your app title should convey the app’s purpose clearly and concisely, allowing users to understand what your app does quickly.
- Use the most important keywords for the title: To rank your app in the top search results, it’s essential to have a selection of keywords that reflect your app’s purpose.
- Use all the available keywords: App Store and Google Play Store titles have a 30-character limit, so it’s recommended to use all available characters to target essential keywords. However, it’s important to avoid a spam-like title and ensure that the title accurately and concisely represents your app’s functionality.
2. The Subtitle: In addition to the Title, App Store apps also have Subtitles limited to 30 characters. When reviewing your App Subtitle, ensure to:
- Add important keywords: The App Subtitle can accommodate important keywords that could not fit the App Title. For instance, Duolingo lists the languages users can learn with the app in their Subtitle.
- Fill the gaps: Disregarding this field is unwise, as it also impacts your app’s position in search results.
- Subtitle that makes keyword phrases with a title: Word combinations formed by your App Title and Subtitle are commonly used by people when searching for your app.
3. Short description: The short description appears before the “read more” button on every app page and is limited to 80 characters in Google Play. If you don’t include promo text in the App Store, the first 170 characters of your full app description are displayed on the app page. There are 2 essential things that you need to consider in a short description while conducting an ASO audit
- App purpose must be clear to Boost app downloads.
- Put most of the keywords in Short description on Google Play
4. App description: With a character limit of 4000 in both the App Store and Google Play, the app description can affect your Conversion Rate (CVR) and app position in Google Play. Therefore, while reviewing your app description, ensure to:
- Repeat important keywords: It’s essential to include the key keywords from your App Title in your app description, repeating them 3-5 times.
- Don’t make the description too short: Although optional, utilizing all 4000 characters is not required for your app description, but it’s crucial to highlight all critical features of your app in the description.
- Highlight the main features of your app: The marketing objective of your app description is to demonstrate to users how they can address their problems with your app. Thus, it’s essential to prioritize the primary function of your app.
5. Use keywords for App ranking: To identify the necessary changes, it’s recommended to check your app’s ranking in both the App Store and Google Play.
- Incorporating high and medium-frequency keywords, for which your app already ranks, into your metadata can improve your app’s position.
- It’s essential to watch your competitors and check if they receive traffic from your branded queries. Competitors often run ads on your branded keywords and may occupy the top position in the App Store with Search Ads.
- To reach a wider user base and generate more traffic, you should use additional localizations in your country for the App Store, not just the primary one.
6. App icon: In the App Store and Google Play Store search results, users glance at your icon briefly. Thus, it’s essential to ensure that your app icon grabs their attention and depicts the main features of your app. It is one of the vital parts of the App store and Google play store marketing.
- Your app icon should display the primary feature of your app and convey its purpose, illustrating how it can help users solve their problems.
- Make sure that your app icon is distinctive and unique. It should belong to a specific app niche yet not be too similar to your competitors’ app icons.
- When performing an ASO audit, ensuring that your app icon is informative, relevant to your search queries, and distinctive from your competitors’ app icons is crucial.
7. Screenshots: When conducting an ASO audit, it’s essential to consider the following factors for app screenshots: the images should showcase the app’s main features, the screenshots should be of high quality, and they should be easy to understand.
- Ensure that your app screenshots effectively showcase your app’s user experience. The primary objective of your app screenshots is to demonstrate to users how they can use your app and its features.
- Ensure that your app screenshots showcase the critical functions that your app can accomplish.
- When auditing your app screenshots, ensure the text is easily readable. The font size should be large enough to be legible on small screens.
8. Preview video: Here are some key factors to consider when reviewing preview videos:
- When conducting an audit of your app’s preview video, it is crucial to ensure that it accurately displays your app’s user interface. The video should convey the purpose of your app and provide users with an understanding of how to use it.
- When creating a preview video, it is crucial to keep it short and dynamic, highlighting the most captivating frames at the beginning to grab users’ attention.
9. Rating and reviews of your app: Positive ratings and reviews are essential to increase App Store rankings.
- Analyzing app ratings and finding ways to improve them is crucial, as low app ratings can discourage users from downloading and using the app.
- Ensure that the Featured reviews on your app page are positive. These reviews are the first ones that users see, which can significantly impact the decision to install your app. It is crucial to prevent negative reviews from appearing in this section.
Conclusion:
Performing an ASO app audit is essential for ensuring that your app page in the App Store and Google Play is optimized for maximum visibility and downloads. By carefully evaluating and optimizing elements such as your app title, description, keywords, icon, screenshots, video preview, and reviews, you can significantly increase your app’s chances of ranking higher in search results and attracting more users. Therefore, it is crucial to regularly conduct an ASO audit to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices and continuously improve your app’s performance.
