What determines ranking for a word search in the iTunes App Store?

TomCoffeeTomCoffee Member, PRO Posts: 175
edited December 2011 in Business and Marketing Theory
Okay, so my app Santa Scan-O-Meter Pro (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/santa-scan-o-meter-pro/id482464457?mt=8) has been doing pretty well. I've noticed that when I search for "santa" (a logical search at this time of year) it comes in around the 15 - 20th position. That's nice and it's been doing rather well, but then I took a look at some of the other apps that ahead of it...

Some are logical (Angry Bird Seasons? of COURSE!)... free apps? Sure, there are some and they're probably getting many more downloads than my app...

But why would an app like "Santa!!!" come in at #1? Just keyword? Should I name my next app "Santa!!!!" with FOUR exclamation points? The "Santa!!!" app that's #1 doesn't seem to have any reviews at all (which tells me it hasn't been downloaded all that much...)

I'm having fun with this, but I'm pretty baffled by the search logic behind the iTunes app store for certain keywords.

Thanks for any insight anyone can lend!
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Comments

  • MotherHooseMotherHoose Member Posts: 2,456
    @TomCoffee, Thanx for giving me a new tangent to explore … good excuse for not working on my tasks ;)

    you might like to read:
    Assigning Keywords For Your App
    and with developer-sign-in App Store Submission Tips

    N.B. you do not have to list: developer name; company name; app categories … in Keywords; they are already in the Search fields.
    * Apple says you should not include AppName as a keyword … but most other SEO experts say you should!
    it isn't required, but probably boosts your rank count.

    using punctuation might be a bad idea … they are char(s) that user might have to input in the search field.

    in HTML development; we often used repetitive keywords (santa, santa, santa,) to add to our relative term rank …and push our page up in the results list … alas, the engines wised-up; and deleted identical terms from the search.

    perhaps, the iTunesStore does not implement the webSearchEngine filters ... so repeating the term(s) might increase rank

    @TSB taught us all not to use spaces after ,(s) in Keywords … that sure saves chars for more terms!
    however, AppleOS (Spotlight;Finder; Terminal) still parse the highest rank to titles that have a space before the name.
    perhaps, this also applies to AppStore search … using space only for very generic terms like 'santa,' … ' santa,' might rank you higher.

    MH

    PS for your webSite SEO analyses you might like this free app SEOzio
  • T8TRG8TRT8TRG8TR Member Posts: 120
    I've wondered this too. Using the same keyword, one of my apps has gone from 15th ish to 2nd and down again to like 6th then back up. I didn't change anything, and this was within a day or two. I don't think it had to do with number of downloads. It was very strange.
  • TomCoffeeTomCoffee Member, PRO Posts: 175
    Hmm.. I know a fair bit about SEO... it's pretty clear that iTunes has some sort of algorithm that takes # of downloads in a given time period (24 hours?) into consideration... I've noticed a pretty direct correlation (but maybe not causation) between my app being higher in the listing and having more sales the day before.

    I'm going to experiment with pricing changes and paid advertising as well..

    Hmm, I missed that tip with the keywords and spacing... and... I just learned you can't change keywords once an app is published... Oops. Oh well, live and learn.. thanks!
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  • ozboybrianozboybrian PRO Posts: 2,102
    I have favourited this topic!

    When I did a test publish once, I put the key words "Angry Birds" lol
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