#17 - Stop Doing This. Stop Doing This.
Have you ever looked at search results in the App Store and wondered why they're ranked the way they are? In this series of Keyword Teardowns we analyze how the algorithm works and highlight tips and tricks to help you rank higher.
I've said this more times than I think I should, but repetition isn't good for ASO. Here's another good example of it in action.
Apple's and Google's search algorithms are black boxes and completely undocumented, but when you look at enough data, patterns start to emerge. I actively analyze search results to reverse engineer how the stores decide which apps to rank and how to rank them, and share what I find, including tips, tricks, and secrets, here for you to learn from.
Keyword: Emoji Keyboard
It's not too long ago when emoji keyboards were all the rage. But even now, when the iPhone's built-in keyboard supports emojis fairly well, this search is pretty popular.
At first glance, I can already tell this is going to be an interesting one because Apple handles the & symbol weird...
Starting at the top, Facemoji managed to cram emoji and keyboard into its name and subtitle twice! Did they have to in order to rank #1? Absolutely not. But.. the app has quite a few new ratings and downloads, between those and having the term in its name, the algorithm has no other option.
Actually, wait! Duplication means the algorithm sees the last instance of the words and not the first, so technically it only has the search term in its subtitle. As we go down the list, you'll see all other apps do as well, which is why Facemoji is still the #1 result. Also, it has the term as the first keyworword of its subtitle. That helps.
The second place here also kind of makes sense. It's using the keywords correctly and has a decent amount of downloads and ratings. Not as many new ratings as the #1, which is why it's sitting pretty at #2.
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In #3, Fonts shows us exactly why you need to have your keyword in the name and not split between the name and the subtitle (or just in the subtitle). Because it doesn't use the full search term in the name, its' massively larger number of downloads and even higher number of ratings are no match.
So far, so good, things still make sense. And as we dip into #4, they continue to do that. Emoji for Message only has a part of the search term visible, and I'm pretty sure the other half is tucked in its keyword list, making it the weaker of the bunch. Downloads and ratings are also not very competitive, so it can only go as high as #4.
At #5 is where we need to do some more thinking. The app has the full search term as its name. It doesn't have a lot of downloads, but we've seen before that enough ratings will make up for that, but it doesn't have too many of those either, so it's not too competitive.
But it has the full search term as its name, which in the past I've suggested will works wonders, so ?!?!?!?!?!
Well... It suffers from the cardinal sin of duplication. See that emoji in the subtitle? By including it there, the app actually loses the weight that just having it in the name earned. Without that weight and without competitive performance, it's very hard for the algorithm to reason having it any higher.
If I'm KissApp, S.L., my first order of business is rewriting that subtitle.
What You Need to Know
Duplication can really hurt your ranks. Don't do it unless you know exactly what you're doing.
Are You Putting My Tips to Good Use?
App Store Optimization is part art and part science. I say it a lot, and I mean it. The art part is what I've been talking about in this Keyword Teardown and in my App Teardowns. The science part is where our simple and intuitive ASO tools come into play. See where your apps are ranked, track trends, snoop on competitors, get suggestions, here.
