Following up on last week's look at a very important signal, here's another example to turn those of you who emailed me to say I'm incorrect in my analysis into believers.
App Store Optimization is as important to games as it is to apps. I may not talk about games as often, but that's only because there are more apps out there. If you have a game-related keyword you'd like me to tackle let me know.
At first glance, I finally see a list that's optimized so well that the order the results are in follows the number of new ratings they get. It might just be the first time we've seen that in this series!
FYI - Like the Karaoke apps we looked at earlier, all of these apps are called "chess," so I'll refer to them by their developers.
In first place, we have Chess.com. It uses the keyword in the app's name and without duplication. It has the most new downloads of the bunch, but what really works for it is the number of ratings (3.8K).
#2, Optime (which I actually have on my phone), also only has the keyword in its name, no subtitle, and no duplication. This is a very focused approach. But, the #1 has so many more ratings that it's hard to outrank with just keyword placement.
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Vinta, the #3 result, also optimizes properly, but new ratings are about half of Optimize at 1.3K with an average rating of 4.65. If it were any closer in total count, it could overtake 2nd.
FYI - The actual average isn't important for the algorithm. I'm mentioning it here because it's something people consider when making the decision to choose an app. Not quite ASO, but something to keep in mind.
Vintolo almost does the keyword placement part right but duplicates the keyword into the subtitle... Fixing it probably won't help because at 356 new ratings is too far from #3. It's worth noting that an average of 4.72, while nice, also isn't enough to push it up since the count is a lot lower.
At 5th place, we have Chess Online+, which could overtake 4th by removing the unnecessary duplication and getting a handful more new ratings.
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The algorithm uses a cascading set of rules to decide how to sort search results. While keyword placement is (usually) the main signal it considers, ratings play a very important role in the way results are sorted. We've seen it week after week, and if you think about it, it also makes sense.
How much weight is derived from the ratings vs. keyword placement and focus depends a lot on the competition.
Where apps aren't all optimized the same way, the order is a result of both. "Notes" is a good example of that. When all apps are optimized the same, more or less, the ratings become the main signal the algorithm has. A good example of that is "Chess".
So, you need more ratings. Regardless of how big your user base is, your first optimization should be to ask that user base.
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.
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