There are more than 5 million available apps in Google Play and Apple Store. This makes the app publishers’ job a bit harder as discovering a certain app seems like looking for a needle in a haystack.
This is where ASO – App Store Optimization comes in.
If you are in the mobile app space, it is really important to understand the various methods for marketing your apps, but I’m positively sure this blog will be helpful for regular users as well. In today’s blog article I would like to introduce you to everything that one has to know about ASO including its brief history and its importance.
So, what exactly is ASO…
… and when it became a thing?
In its most common sense, ASO (App Store Optimization) is the process of improving the visibility of a certain application in its app store. Just like SEO is for websites, ASO is for mobile apps. It is also known as Mobile App SEO and App Store Marketing.
Apple’s iTunes store was launched in July 2008 and just a couple of months later, Google launched their Google Play store. Until 2011, both of the stores had nearly half a million apps each. It is hard to say when exactly ASO become a thing but as the number of the apps started growing, it only made sense for developers to do everything possible for their apps to become more visible.
The first time the term “app store optimization” was used to describe the action of improving the ranking of a mobile application directly within app stores was in a presentation by Johannes Borchardt on November 4, 2009. Not long after, the term increased popularity and was used by popular web news platforms such as Search Engine Watch and TechCrunch. By 2012 the term was widely known in the area.
Or was it…?
I noticed that there are not many companies that provide ASO services. Come to think about it, I can’t name one major business that provides mainly ASO services. If you are looking for such services, you have probably noticed that there are mainly ASO freelancers and not established companies. This has got me thinking…
People don’t understand the importance of ASO!
This excludes the developers of course. Everyone wants their app to be as visible as possible. The developers just don’t see a market for ASO and I’m positively sure that most of them don’t really know this is an actual thing. In my opinion, as soon as more companies start offering legitimate ASO services, the developers will instantly widen their ASO knowledge.
Increased app downloads and something else…
While the main goal of ASO is obvious – increasing app downloads, there are other supplement goals such as:
- Positive review and ratings
- Additional marketing channel diversity
- Brand exposure increasement
- Audience engagement
In other words, considering the increase in mobile device use, ASO should be something both business and developers should think about. In my opinion, ASO is surely a tactic that should be prioritized.
What do you think about it? Is this the first time you hear of ASO or you were just looking to learn something more about it? You can let me know in the comment section. Also, expect more blogs on the topic in future.
