#18 - The Name and Subtitle Aren't the Same

Keyword Teardowns

Ariel

2 minute read 9/18/21

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.

Keyword placement is critical for Apple's algorithm. While you have some choice, where you place keywords should be set by how important they are.

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.

Music learning apps have become extremely popular over the last few years, even before we started working from home. Guitar and piano are both pretty popular instruments, but piano is a bit more competitive, so let's have a look at that.

Search results for "Learn Piano" in the U.S App Store · Check with Inspector

At first glance, I can see this is a pretty competitive keyword and that ratings play a pretty big role here.

Starting with the leader, Simply Piano, who has most of the ratings and downloads. But... it also has this keyword in its name and subtitle. Splitting your main search term between the name and subtitle isn't ideal, but the sheer number of new ratings really bridges that gap.

We can see why when we look at #2, flowkey, which has both words in its name and yet still ranks second. That's because it barely gets any new ratings, and the algorithm is very sensitive to that. It's an order of magnitude away, but if it was closers, having the full search term in the name would have given it the upper hand, even without having more downloads.

Need more convincing that the name is stronger than the subtitle? Sitting at #3 is Yokee, which has twice as many downloads as flowkey and five times the ratings. What it doesn't have, however, is learn piano in its name. It, like Simply Piano, splits it between the name and the subtitle, and that loses it a lot of force.

If Yokee rephrased its app's name to "Learn piano by Yokee" they'd jump to second place fairly easily. Also, app is ignored by Apple's algorithm, so it's not doing much already.

Skoove in 4th and Yousician in 5th follow a fairly similar pattern—First, it's the app that has the full search term in its name, and only then comes the one that has it split.

The name is your app's strongest piece of metadata, as far as the search algorithm is concerned. Use the name for the keyword you want to rank in most.

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.