How to do ASO: a complete guide

If you’ve ever been to the app store, chances are that you’ve seen an app with ASO. It stands for App Store Optimization and it’s a crucial part of any developer’s marketing strategy. But what is ASO? How do you do it? And most importantly: how can I best optimize my app so that my users find it easier and faster in the app store? In this post, we’ll explore all these questions and more!

Why ASO is too important to ignore

ASO is a critical component of the app store’s success. If you ignore ASO, then your apps will be ignored by users and they won’t download them, so you must take it seriously.

ASO helps you achieve your business goals such as increasing downloads, revenue, and brand awareness. It also allows you to connect with users who might not have heard about your app otherwise.

You can use ASO to get more downloads for free or at a lower cost than paid ads (which are very expensive).

What is ASO?

App store optimization (ASO) is the process of increasing the visibility of your app in the App Store. You’re probably already familiar with this concept, but if you aren’t: ASO isn’t just about making your app look nice and neat—it also helps users find your app when they search for something related to what you offer.

In other words, an optimized listing will show up higher on the search results page than one that hasn’t been optimized at all!

Is ASO different from SEO?

App Store Optimization is the process of improving a game or application’s visibility in the app stores in Search (when users search) and Explore (when users explore), increasing traffic to the listing, and improving conversion rate to produce the greatest number of organic downloads.

The two key components of ASO are Visibility (Search + Explore) and Download Conversion Rate.

SEO is a procedure that is also optimized. Improving website placement is its goal. It stands for search engine optimization, which is the process of boosting both the volume and quality of visitors to your website via natural search engine results (definition from Moz.

Search visibility and click-through rate are two key components of SEO.

When searching the internet, users are seeking material or information.

ASO, or App Store Optimization, is the process of getting your app into the top charts. This includes several things:

• App store ranking
• App store reviews
• User engagement (i.e., users who have installed and used your app)

The six stages of ASO

The six stages of ASO are:

• Keyword selection, analysis, and research (stage 1)
• Wireframing, sketching, and prototyping (stage 2)
• App store optimization planning and recommendations (stage 3)
• Creative design/mockups/prototyping (stage 4)
• App Store Testing, Tracking & Iteration (stage 5)
• Attribution & Analytics Setup and Tracking (stage 6)

Stage 1: Keyword Selection and Analysis

The first step to ASO is keyword selection. Keywords are the words people use when they type a search query on Google or Siri, but they’re also the most important part of ASO. They’re the foundation upon which you build your app’s presence, and without them, it would be impossible for anyone to find your app!

The best way to understand what keywords are all about is by looking at how they work: when someone types “basketball” into Google (or Bing), what do they see? A list of results that include basketball games, sports blogs about those games…and maybe even more interesting things like articles about the history of basketball or pictures from past NBA (National Basketball Association) championships! If this sounds familiar then congratulations—you just discovered something called organic traffic!

Stage 2: Wireframing/Sketching

Once you have a basic understanding of what your app will look like, it’s time to start wireframing. This is an important step because it helps you focus on the most important elements of your app.

Wireframing is a way of creating mockups without having to build an actual prototype (which would take much longer). Wireframes allow developers and designers to visually communicate their ideas and thoughts about how an application should work with other stakeholders. It’s also one way for them to evaluate whether or not they’re going in the right direction when developing new features or redesigning existing ones.

One thing that makes wireframing difficult is making sure everything looks good at different resolutions—especially if working with mobile devices! So here are some tips:

• Before commencing the wireframe, create a goal user flow.
• First, make wireframes for the main screens.
• Pick the appropriate degree of fidelity.
• Make your point with color.
• Dummy text should be avoided in mid-fidelity wireframes.
• Wireframes should be clickable.
• Mark up wireframes.
• Implement wireframe kits.

Stage 3: App Store Optimization Planning and Recommendations

• Use a keyword research tool. Keyword tools are the best way to find and analyze keywords, so you can use them to help with your app store optimization efforts.
• Use a keyword analysis tool. These tools will give you insights into how many times each word has been searched for, how often it appears in the top 10 results for certain searches, and so on—all useful information when planning out which words/phrases should be used in your titles and descriptions (and what order).
• Use a keyword tracker or tracking software like Google Analytics or MixRank Studio for iOS11 devices such as iPhones/iPads running iOS 11 beta software versions (not final versions).

Stage 4: Creative Design, Mockups, and Prototyping

For the fourth stage of your app’s lifecycle, you’ll need to think about design. This is where the user experience comes together and becomes something that people can interact with—a beautiful thing, indeed.

But before you dive into creating those mockups and prototypes, there are some things you should keep in mind:

• Designing an app isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s also about usability. You want users to have fun using your product without having issues or frustrations when they first use it (or even later on). Remember this rule of thumb: if someone had a bad experience with your product during testing phase 1, then chances are pretty high that everyone else will too! And if that happens…well…then don’t worry about all this fancy stuff I’m saying now because we’re going straight into prototyping instead! So let’s get started by creating something real quick so we can start testing again tomorrow morning…

Stage 5: App Store Testing, Tracking & Iteration

You’re almost there! If you’ve done everything right, your app will be live on the App Store. Now it’s time to start testing and tracking results.

The first step is to test the app store listing—you can do this by visiting an iPhone or iPad device, logging into iTunes Connect (if you don’t have one yet), clicking “Settings > TestFlight”, then selecting “App Store” as your device type. Make sure that it works well enough by going through each option in a few different ways:

• Test that all images are showing up properly; if not, try adjusting their sizes/ratios/other options until they look just right
• Try tapping on links within the text from other apps like Twitter or Facebook Messenger; make sure those links open in Safari vs Safari’s built-in web browser (and not some other kind of browser) so users can easily find them later when browsing through their feeds or reading messages from friends who sent them something interesting over social media channels such as Facebook Messenger

Stage 6 – Attribution & Analytics Setup and Tracking

Now that you have a great landing page and some leads, it’s time to track what happens next.

Tracking the right metrics will help you understand how much traffic your campaign is getting and where they are coming from. For example:

• How many downloads did we get? Did we have any refunds? We can see if people who downloaded the product were more likely to purchase another one or not. This helps us understand how successful our ASO efforts are overall without having too many internal data points (like an A/B test).
• What was our revenue from each conversion? Did anyone buy another product after downloading ours? Or was this just a one-time thing for them or did they buy something else later on down the line…you know what I mean! And of course…the big question: Were there any abandoned baskets (people who downloaded but never bought anything)? These would be good indicators of whether or not we need some additional marketing channels like email marketing campaigns or discount codes available on social media platforms that drive traffic back to our site

If you want people to find your app in the app store, then you need to optimize it.

If you want people to find your app in the app store, then you need to optimize it. The word ASO stands for App Store Optimization and refers to any action taken by a developer and/or business owner that increases the likelihood of an app being recommended by other users.

ASO is not SEO (search engine optimization). It’s not just about keywords; instead, ASO involves learning about your customers and their needs so that they can find what they want quickly and easily on an app store search page or within an app itself.

ASO isn’t just about keywords either; it’s also about how well-designed pages look on mobile devices—and how well those pages serve their purpose (i.e., showing relevant content) without distracting from whatever else happens when someone taps those links!

Conclusion

We’re not saying that ASO is easy. It takes a lot of time and effort. However, if you want your app to be found by users, then it’s something that you need to do yourself. There are many ways in which you can improve both on-page SEO (search engine optimization) and off-page ASO (app store optimization), but the main takeaway here is that both of these strategies will help create more visibility for your app at the expense of some time investment initially