5 App Store Optimization Trends In 2020 You Shouldn't Ignore

The new year is right around the corner and if you're trying to get more downloads, you're probably wondering what's going to happen with ASO in 2020. More than 1.3 million new apps and games launched in 2019, making finding yours just that much harder to find. That's why we've been seeing demand for ASO grow drastically this year.

Here are the trends we expect to continue in 2020. Keeping ahead of them will help you maintain (or gain) your competitive edge.

1. More of your competitors will be leveraging ASO. As more developers are discovering the power of ASO it'll become harder to succeed just because you've optimized your keywords once. We already see this trend, with more than 60% of the Top 1,000 apps and games in the US using keyword optimization, which is up from ~50% earlier this year. Developers who do it see results.

If you haven't gotten into ASO yet, or "set-it-and-forget-it" once, you could be left behind in 2020.

👉 Optimizing Your App’s Name to Get More Downloads

2. Apple and Google will make fundamental changes to their search algorithms. Both Apple and Google are working to fine-tune their search algorithms to give users fresh and relevant results. We expect Apple to (finally) devote more time to getting rid of hacks that allow some apps to game their way to a higher rank. With the release of iOS 13 Apple started cracking down on some of the black-hat techniques. We also expect Apple to start indexing descriptions.

On the other end, we believe Google will give more emphasis to current performance. Right now, the algorithm looks at the all-time downloads of an app to determine how high to rank it in relevant keywords, which makes it harder for newer apps to compete with incumbents. Just like Google changed how they compute the average rating earlier this year, we expect the algorithm to focus on more recent downloads which will allow for much faster iterations and open up more opportunities.

3. Long tail keywords will bring on new opportunities. With more developers optimizing, including the already popular apps, the shorter and more generic terms have become very crowded and hard to compete for. But as the stores' auto-complete becomes smarter longer search terms will start to increase in popularity and offer more optimization opportunities.

This trend correlates to where SEO (Search Engine Optimization - ASO for the web) was a few years ago. With more opportunities getting a better rank will become a factor of good keyword research.

👉 8 Simple Ways to Find Hundreds of Keywords to Rank For

4. Developers who can iterate faster will grow faster. Traditional update cycles of a few weeks or even months will shrink in the new year because more competition means there’s more need to find keyword opportunities. The App Store already indexes apps very quickly, and we believe Google will move in that direction too

With tools to offer visibility at a higher granularity (we update ranks every hour) developers will be able to try things faster, and better yet prevent negative impact from experimenting by making changes as soon as the trend turns negative.

5. Page conversion will matter more than ever. Getting more users to see your app is the first half of good ASO. The other, which is as important, is how many of those users actually download it. That’s your on-page optimization, and given the focus on optimization we believe the developers who will win at ASO will be those that pay close attention to how well impressions convert into downloads.

Take the time to review your app’s page. Are the screenshots highlighting the best benefits? Are they engaging? Is your video showing off your most unique features? Try changing things up and monitoring the results, or run an A/B test in Google Play for your Android app. We expect to see more developers focusing their effort on page conversion in the next year.

A Data Driven 2020

We're expecting a busy 2020 for optimizers. Things will get more challenging, but iterating and experimenting is going to offer great results, and having the right ASO tools will make finding new opportunities and monitoring performance much easier.

Appfigures helps you optimize with tools to find and analyze new keyword, monitor your performance, and keep tabs on competitors. Getting started takes a few moments and will provide you with actionable insights right away. Get started for free →