ASO has changed drastically over the years. The main question back then was, “What the hell does the App store want?” You dealt mainly with “guesstimates,” and keywords easily got high search volumes because there was no competition and few people searching.
Today, we ask, “What are people looking for? and how are they looking for it?” We now deal with optimising or improving the possibilities of getting organic traffic in the different app stores by covering more search terms.
This is not as easy – do the search terms we want exist in the app store and will it receive the traffic we expect? We also want to find out – via ASO – how much actual organic traffic is out there for our chosen keywords. And of course, also via ASO, how can we get that traffic and outrank the competition.
It is a much more complex and professional process that is well worth doing for its precise results and ROI implications.
What is ASO in 2020
ASO is much more complex today than 2014 or 2015.
Today, it is made up of many different factors that contribute to how the app stores ranks us vs other apps. These include keyword research, reviews, download (and uninstall) velocity, sandboxing, and the authority of our own app.
If you are serious about turning your app into a success, ASO is something you need to do.