Let’s face it, nobody knows how search engines work. We can constantly test them, work on our SEO, but optimizing for the search engines will always stay a matter of trial and error. The way Apple’s App Store search engine works is no exclusion, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop trying to improve your search visibility.
The first thing you must remember is that there aren’t any shortcuts. If you want to make your app more visible in Apple search results, you’ll need to invest your time into doing things properly. Unfortunately, the App Store search engine is not perfect. Do a quick search for a popular app and you may get very surprising results. Even if you search for the exact name of the app, there is no guarantee that the app will be the first place in the search results. This complicates things when you need to optimize your listing.
To ensure that your app gets the best possible search visibility, you should perform very careful research for keywords. When you have the list of your top target keywords, you should make sure that your most promising ones make it to the app title, to the beginning of the keywords field, and to the app’s description. Though most people think that having keywords in the description doesn’t help, you can often see apps that have your search phrase in the description only appear at the top of the search results. Needless to say that these apps are often totally irrelevant to your search.
Another thing you can do to make your app more visible to your potential users is to optimize the app’s website, Facebook page, and Twitter account for your target keywords. That way you won’t have to fully rely on Apple’s App Store search engine for people to be able to easily find your app.
