ASO Keyword Research

Steps to take when doing Keyword Research

The first step of optimization of your product page for the App Stores is keyword research. Keywords are the search terms that users write when looking for your app. The ASO team’s job is to understand what users search when looking for apps related to yours, so the first step is to look at your app’s competitors.

Competitors

It is always insightful to look at the top apps in your category and explore their pages. 

Here is the process that our ASO Specialists go through in order to better understand the competitors and the strategies that are driving organic growth and increasing revenue. 

1. Petitor’s Research

          a. What keywords are your competitors targeting?

          b. What is their conversion rate on those keywords?

          c. How is the CR being affected by the screenshots quality and what strategies are your competitors using to increase the CR?

                       i. Are the screenshots using social proof and other high-end strategies to increase the CR?

                       ii. Are the first 2 screComenshots optimized for a high CR and are they using the best conversion techniques?

          d. What competitors have a better conversion rate for revenue? (Why you should emulate their strategies that are monetizing better and what those strategies are.)

          e. What keywords you should drop completely and why.

                       i. The reasons could be related to the intent of the user and lack of ROI or to the difficulty and competition of the keywords and your current app power or simply the lack of volume.

The main keywords you should take note of will be on the title and description of the app. Since it is what the user sees first, it needs to clearly describe the app’s purpose. 

Search tools

Search tools like Google can help you discover search terms that people use when looking for an app like yours. Simply enter your app’s topic followed by ‘app’, and Google’s auto-complete will provide a list of related keywords searched by users.

Keyword tools

Keyword tools can be used to not only search for new keywords but also narrow down your list since it is important to only use the most relevant search terms. These tools can tell you valuable data like the keywords’ volume, difficulty, installs, rank, etc., which is crucial when choosing the best keywords and targeting keywords that have high purchase intent and will bring a positive ROI.

Volume – is measured between 5 and 100 and indicates how popular a keyword is in terms of searches. The higher the volume number, the more popular the keyword.

Difficulty – is measured between 0 and 100 and indicates the level of competition that a keyword has. The higher the difficulty, the higher the keyword’s competition.

A keyword with a high difficulty has powerful apps ranking in the top 10 search results, which makes it more difficult for an average app to rank high for that keyword.

Chance – is measured between 0 and 100 and indicates how likely it is for an app to rank in the top 10 search results of a certain keyword. The more powerful the app, the higher the chance score and the easier it is for the app to rank in the top 10 search results.

KEI (Keyword Efficiency Index) – is measured between 0 and 100 and indicates the potential visibility of a keyword for a certain app. The KEI takes into account the volume and chance scores, which means that keywords with high volume and chance have a higher KEI and the potential to increase an app’s visibility.