#32 - Someone Messed Up...
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.
When you look at a set of results and they aren't sorted by ratings you just know someone messed up their keywords. We'll look at a fairly popular keyword that has big names missing out because they don't know this.
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: To Do List
They say to do list apps are much more difficult to make than people think. Which is probably why so many try, and why the keyword's popularity is so high.
Let's have a look at the results.
Deceivingly simple, right? Well, you'll notice this list isn't exactly sorted by ratings which means someone's messed up their keywords!
Starting at the top, Any.do does not have the most new ratings or new downloads, but it uses the term as-is and in the middle of a fairly short name. To the algorithm, that means it's all about to do lists. Now, if there was another app with the same keyword layout and better performance, it'd easily win, but there isn't.
Your rank is determined by Apple, but also by what your competitors do and don't do. That's why it's important to keep an eye on them.
Microsoft holds on to the #2 position even though it has more new ratings and downloads. Why? Because it pushed a half of the keyword into its keyword list. Mistake? Accident? Negligence? Well, remember what I said before about what your competitors don't do? This is exactly what I mean.
If Microsoft adds the word "list" to the app's name, they will easily rank first. And if you're thinking "wait, maybe they're focused on the keyword 'to do' without the list part?". They probably are because they rank 1st for it. But... that keyword has a lower popularity score. So again, mistake? Accident? Negligence?
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Moving on to #3, Todoist (which I analyzed in season 2 of App Teardowns - check it out of recently), has more ratings and downloads than #1, and seems to be using almost identical keyword strategy (who borrowed from who?). So why is it not first?
See that hyphen? Apple counts it as a character. The reason I say this is because searching for "to-do list" and "to do list" yield very different results, and Todoist ranks higher in the former.
While grammar is important, in keyword-land, you'll find that people tend to forget grammar when it requires extra taps. Which means Todoist is really leaving money on the table here, much like Microsoft.
Do! and MinimaList (ha ha!) take fourth and fifth places by having fairly similar keyword layouts, but the latter only having about half the new ratings. Focus could help MinimaList climb up.
And while I didn't want to spend too much about these two because this is already getting long, I can't not point out that "&widgets" at the end is a total waste of characters both for Apple and for human readers. The upside is that dropping it will help with focus. I see a clean win here.
The Important Takeaways
Where you place your keywords is the most important element to a successful ASO strategy. You have a whole bunch of options starting with the name (most aggressive) and all the way down to the end of the subtitle (least aggressive). If you don't do that right you'll have a hard time ranking.
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.
