This is part 3 of the ASO Components blog sequence. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can check part 1 and part 2 before reading this. Unlike the previous articles, the spotlight today is on components you cannot directly control, and namely user reviews & ratings.
Make sure your app delivers!
App reviews and ratings are critical to ASO. This is why you should always make sure your app does exactly what it says it does. Let’s say you found a new niche, you made the first app, and got lucky to appear first in a search query. If your app doesn’t deliver customer satisfaction, you get negative reviews and low ratings, your ranking will dramatically go down, competitors will find the niche soon enough, and will outrank you easily.
More than 30% of search ranking is based on reviews and ratings.
When your app faces lots of competition, every little aspect can make a difference. It makes sense for a human user to look for highly rated and positively reviewed apps, but it seems that both Apple App Store and Google Play Store use the reviews and ratings as an ASO ranking factor.
So, what is the best way of getting reviews?
Or what is the best way not to get negative reviews?
Experience shows that people most often leave reviews when dissatisfied. Before making sure you get good reviews, you should minimize bad review opportunities. For example, make sure your app does not request a rating/review in a case your app crashes. In other words, don’t ask for feedback in situations where the customer is unhappy.
Instead, you can ask your customers to review after 10 days of use, for example, or when they have finished a booking, after winning, etc. The rule of thumb is happy customers leave positive reviews.
Contact third parties and testers
Contacting third parties, professional ASO companies, and professional reviewers is always an option too. These are specific circles of people with their own network. Once again, if your app is as good as it says, professional reviewers sharing their experience with your app on their social media network will generate more traffic for sure.
Your best case scenario is a positive review left by a third party with a wide network of people trusting that third party. This applies to apps, videos, articles… Once somebody trustworthy says something is good, a lot of their followers automatically assume it’s good and rate it instantly as good.
Professional ASO writing services are not a bad idea, and if you don’t have good reviews and ratings, consider the option of contacting a professional ASO specialist. It is definitely worth it as this is definitely an important ranking factor in the ASO process.
If you have something to add, ask or disagree with, I’ll be happy to discuss it with you in the comment section. Thank you for staying with me so far and stay tuned for the next blog from the sequence!
