I have been quiet for the last few months letting all the noise hit the walls in the ASO world.
Yes, noise, although a lot of content has been published regarding ASO, it seems we haven’t really going in-depth regarding the changes that happened to the app store in November the 1st of November and the 21st of November.
So I have decided to publish a few series of informal videos to talk about these changes and how to adapt to them.
A lot more in-depth with real case studies can be found in my latest ASO training, but for the time being I want to talk about the basic new rules the Appstore has given us since the algorithm change in November the 1st and then later on in November 21st .
First :
Sandbox of keywords.
The concept is simple:
You now will not rank for any keywords just by putting them in your keyword list.
So automatic ranking doesn’t exist for basic keyword any longer. In Plain English in a few words, just because you have the keywords in your iTunes Connect section, it doesn’t mean you will be indexed for that keyword.
Before this change you could have achieve SOME type of ranking, (even low) for keywords added in your iTunes Connect section. Well that is all gone.
My theory as I explain in my latest course and in my next webinar, is that this a typical Sandbox by Apple.
Why a sandbox?
To prevent apps with no social signals, with no downloads, with no activity , to rank for highly popular keywords. If you ask me a smart way to declutter the search option
Is there any data to proof my theory?
Yes. Plenty.
Anyone with a brand new app and access to the keywords of this app can prove this as a valid theory, I have tested it since the 4th of November and after working in over 32 apps since November (mainly new ones) we have proven that the Sandbox theory is 100% a reality.
Can the sandbox being skipped or avoided?
Yes. With a proper incentivized download strategy or with a proper LAUNCH of the app, what we have found is that after a few days of a “boost” those “sandboxed” keywords will started to raise slowly to a stable ranking
Okay so what else is new?
Well contextual keywords started to appear in ranking. But the reality of this contextual keywords is a bit more complex that what other people are really talking about.
More about this in my second post.
