App Store Optimization Factors for Effective Mobile App Ranking

Abstract

In recent years, mobile technology has made a great progress, resulting in a transition from conventional to smart mobile devices, the capabilities of which are equal to or surpassing those of computers. With the proliferation of smart mobile devices and the development of technology, applications for these devices have also become widely known. There are millions of free or paid mobile applications available to download and the publishers compete each other for the greatest prevalence in the app stores, since improved rankings in app markets affect highly the sustainability of the mobile apps. This leads to the need for App Store Optimization (ASO) in order to improve or maintain their ranking position. Beyond that, ASO also refers to the processes that convert app views into downloads to users’ mobile devices, procedures defined by the term “Conversion Rate Optimization” (CRO). This paper aims to perform a literature review of criteria that affect the app’s optimization in the stores and to highlight the main factors that contribute to the ranking of an application in the app markets’ search results. In order to achieve this goal, a collection and analysis of academic papers were conducted. Our research identified that ASO can be achieved through the keyword optimization process and through the improvement of the conversion rates. It has been shown that the main traits of an app that affect its ranking are the number of downloads, the reviews and the ratings. Simultaneously, the importance of mobile app advertising is highlighted as it helps to increase users’ reach and app’s popularity which activates better rankings in the app markets.