According to Adam from Appfigures, you can lift your app to the top of App Store rankings, regardless of its popularity score and effectiveness.
And all it takes is knowing where to place your keyword. Here’s what we mean…
Adam analyzed how apps rank depending on their keywords. In this case, his example was “gif maker.” And he noticed something interesting:
- Top-ranking apps aren’t necessarily the most popular, best ranked, or most recently updated.
- They are mostly brandless.
- They duplicate keywords in their subtitles.
So, nothing that should make them rank that well, and yet, here they are. This is why.
Adam noticed one common denominator: every app had the main keyword placed before the name of the app.
So instead of listing the app as ImgPlay – Gif Maker, an app was listed as Gif Maker – ImgPlay, emphasizing the keyword before the actual brand.
It’s the same for the top 5 apps except Giphy, which ranked fourth.
According to Adam, Giphy would definitely be ranked first if it had put “gif maker” first. Instead, Apple sees it listed as Giphy – the GIF search engine, and deems it less relevant.
The same goes for new apps.
The fifth app on the list “is brandless, duplicated, and without new ratings in the last month.” However, Apple wants to give new apps a chance to stick, so its algorithm boosts them for a while to see how they’ll perform.
That’s your chance to climb as well.
In a nutshell, you can win even popular or competitive words if you optimize them well. Also, new apps also get a boost in the rankings when they’re first released, so use that time.
Alex Lim
Alex Lim is a certified book reviewer and editor with over 10 years of experience in the publishing industry. He has reviewed hundreds of books for reputable magazines and websites, such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and Goodreads. Alex has a master’s degree in comparative literature from Harvard University and a PhD in literary criticism from Oxford University. He is also the author of several acclaimed books on literary theory and analysis, such as The Art of Reading and How to Write a Book Review. Alex lives in London, England with his wife and two children. You can contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Website | Twitter | Facebook
