Oh dear... how to SEO for the iTunes app store
Posted by chezza on June 28
Well it was only a matter of time before the SEO experts started casting a beady eye on the iTunes app store*. It was fun while it lasted, but the days of great apps floating to the top are gone, with more and more people trying to game the app store rankings.
Search Engine Land have published an article on How to SEO for Apples App Store. Their first tip is to “make an interesting app”. You would hope so – I would go further and suggest that if you’re not making an interesting app you should stay well away from mobile until you can figure out a way to creating something meaningful for your users.
Their second tip is to keep an eye on the top 50 apps so you can create a similar app and piggy-back off traffic for related apps. I think this is terrible advice. Why on earth would you watch the top 50 most popular apps and then set out to create something similar? I’d say keep an eye on the top 50 apps so you could see what sort of apps are missing rather than appearing. Do you really want to create Grumpy Birds, or Smaller Wings based on the top 50 apps now? That’s crazy advice and akin to telling your kids to run out and play in the abandoned old mine shaft.
They also suggest adding keywords to the app name, which would explain why there’s so many spammy results in the app store when you look up popular topics such as photography, games, fun, etc. The iTunes store app search has become fairly clunky and unwieldy, precisely because companies are doing this, and a lot of the time their keywords aren’t relevant to the search results. We do a lot of competitor reviews, which means we’re constantly searching for apps under particular categories. It’s amazingly hard to find great, relevant apps because of so much keyword stuffing in the title.
The same goes for referencing other popular apps in the body copy (another suggestion from the article). When used properly this can be useful – I have not yet seen it done properly.
I say ignore all articles that tell you how to game the app store rankings, and create a meaningful, useful and beautiful app for your users. Apple pays close attention to the detail of design – you’ll notice that many of their featured apps have gorgeous pixel-perfect design. Concentrate on creating the best possible app and testing it with your users. If it adds value to the lives of your users, that is the only measure that counts.
* I spent 5 years working in SEO so I feel like I’ve earned the right to be a little sarky about the industry. I worked for good rather than evil but it’s still an industry that focuses a little too heavily on side details (how to get better rankings) than what I see as really important – creating meaningful experiences. I really hope Apple takes a hard line on SEO within the app store as all the SEO advice I’ve seen really isn’t good for the end user.