There are countless guides and articles revolving around how to do ASO (App Store Optimization), including our own blog. However, things can get quite mixed up when there are too many resources that all provide scattered information.
To make things easier, we have prepared this Complete ASO Checklist for you to follow the necessary steps whilst doing ASO.
Let’s get a couple of things straight before we get started.
This is not an ASO guide, you can see our comprehensive ASO guide right here. This article is designed to provide you an easy-to-follow checklist while applying the knowledge you’ve learned from our guides.
For further information:
- Google Play ASO (App Store Optimization): The Definitive Guide
- ASO for iOS: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering the Apple App Store
- App Store Optimization (ASO): A Complete Guide & Proven Tips
The Complete ASO Checklist for a Successful App
Our ASO Checklist revolves around telling you each step you should take while engaging in App Store Optimization.
We’ve prepared a detailed breakdown for each step and actions required in those steps.
Without losing much time, let’s get started with the necessary steps required to have a solid ASO (App Store Optimization) strategy.
Know Where You Stand!
The first place to start doing ASO is looking at your own app.
Knowing how your app is performing and identifying any low-hanging fruits are crucial to the success of your app.
1. Do you know where you rank?
If you have no idea where you are located in your app category and how your place has changed over time, there’s no point in blindly trying to do competitor research. In order to start doing ASO, you’ll need to know ‘where you stand’.
You can use the App Analysis and ASO analysis tools to see where you stand in terms of keywords and visibility. You can also take a glance at your ratings and reviews. Make sure that you are using app store optimization services to really see the metrics around your keywords’ results. This way you won’t have to guess which word is bringing in the downloads and which is not. Once you know where you are, you can come up with a strategy to reach where you want to be.
To find out where you stand, you should check your Category Rankings to see where you belong in your category. After you know your footing, you can start planning your future strategy.
2. Do you know which keywords you rank for?
Before finding new keywords and spying on your competitors, you should check which keywords you rank for and in what place in those rankings are. You should carefully pick the low-performing ones and make a list of which ones you want to replace.
Along the life-cycle of your app, you should regularly monitor your keyword rankings and apply a method we call the “keyword optimization cycle”.
Monitoring your keywords, identifying the high and low performing ones, discovering new keywords and updating your keyword list with the new promising ones is what this cycle consists of.
For the best practices for keyword optimization, we highly recommend taking a look at the App Store Keyword Optimization blog post.
3. Do you know which keywords your competitors rank for & get downloads from?
If you have more or less a general idea about your app’s keyword rankings, then the next place you should look at is your competitor’s keywords and do mobile app competitor analysis.
Since app markets are extremely competitive environments now, your app should rank for keywords that your competitor apps are ranking for. This is where your app should sneak into the top results for search queries.
Also, getting downloads from a keyword is a good indicator of high performance for that particular keyword. Targeting download bringing keywords of your competitors is also a good start to rank higher.
4. Do you track your competitor’s updates?
Users’ preference over the apps that perform the same task are highly differential today and they are very good at catching up with the new functionalities.
To retain your existing users or to gain new users regularly, you have to track the updates and new functionalities that your competitors bring into your specific type of service. In that regard, following the App Update Timelines of your competitors will help you to realize how they develop their service, UI, and creatives.
At MobileAction, we gather all the information through any app’s update timeline. Check out our post on How to Use App Update Timeline to learn more about it.
5. Do you know all of your competitors?
Sometimes, taking a step back and scanning your environment is a wise decision to spot the competitors you might have not noticed before.
Most of the apps are cross-functional now and they might be competing in similar tracks with you, if not completely the same. However, this will still create some area for them to convert users.
Spotting every competitor and enlarging your playground into a broader area are again musts while doing ASO.
If you are having trouble identifying more competitors to your app, you can check out our post on how to find your competitors with ASO.
6. Do you measure the performance of your efforts?
In today’s conditions, App Store Optimization is solely a data-backed process, as our CEO Aykut Karaalioglu explains. Therefore, there are some inputs into the process, which are your tweaks, updates, and targetings.
Naturally, there are outputs of this process, which are the reflections of your efforts on your rankings.
Measuring your rankings & downloads are the biggest performance indicating metrics of your ASO efforts. Therefore, you should be tracking all your tweaks in a historical fashion, in which you list down all of your tweaks, track them in short-to-medium-term periods and measure their performance with their effects on your rankings and download numbers.
7. Are you using MobileAction to track analytics?
No matter how perfect you get your ASO on the first round, you will need to continue updating your keywords, your title and your screenshots. You should make sure that you are tracking keywords and following along with what the keyword trends are!
You can track your keywords, your competitors and even receive suggested keywords with our app store optimization tools.
App Store keyword optimization is not the end either! You will be able to see your competitors’ other updates as well. When did they last update their app? What changed? How did this affect their ratings and reviews? You should be asking yourself questions like these.
8. There is also the matter of localization.
Localization is a must for ASO. Not only do you need to be translating your screenshots and description, but your keywords will be changing too.
MobileAction’s translation Module can be very useful when browsing competitors; keywords that are localized from another region.
Make sure you are checking competitors and testing for this as well. Localization is not translation alone! Different regions will use different keywords in their searches!
If you’ve got 8 ticks now, let’s dive into Optimization!
These 8 checkpoints are the main stations that should direct your ASO efforts into a successful track.
If you’re comfortable with them, now it is time for you to spark off the growth machine and carry your app into the positions that it deserves!
One more time, it is all about knowing where you stand while doing ASO, and it will determine where to be headed in a crystal clear picture.
Now you have your ASO checklist, you are armed with the tools you need to get out there and start that App Store Optimization! If you want more tips, tricks, or access to our ASO too, sign up for a demo today!
