30 Oct 2014

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Google Play vs. Apple App Store: An Opinion on App Store

Submitting an app to Google Play Store and submitting an app to Apple's App Store, both the processes are the two opposite sides of the coin. App submission is an easiest, fastest, and less chance of rejection process at Google Play Store, and vice versa at Apple's App Store. Similarly, app marketing becomes easy with Google play store and turns into a tough process with the Apple app store. Let's see the time taken by Google Play Store and Apple's App Store in accepting the new app and a key difference between them.



Total Review and Approval Time Taken By App Store
  • Apple's App Store: 5 Days
  • Google Play Store: 2 Hours
App Submission Difficulty on a Scale of 1 to 10
  • Apple's App Store: 8 to 9 
  • Google Play Store: 2 to 3
Guidelines Level
  • Apple's App Store: Pretty Strict
  • Google Play Store: Very Reasonable
Rejection Possibilities
  • Apple's App Store: Common
  • Google Play Store: Rare
The above data shows that if we submit an app to Google Play store, we will see it marked as published within an hour or two. But, with Apple's App Store, we can't expect the same.

Human involvement is absent at Google Play Store, that's why it takes a little time to publish. In contrast, Apple App Store follows a strict rule of checking the app by involving a human reviewer. Apple keeps the new app in a queue for review and once the app approved, it gets published on iTunes store in a day. But, if Apple rejects the app, the process goes longer from app return to resubmit again by removing the errors responsible for app rejection.

Google play leaves a lot of freedom for app makers, which is good at one side and bad on another side. Virus Shield, a top paid app on Google Play Store, costs $4 and shows over 10,000 download with 4.7 star rating. In actual, the app has nothing and proved a fake app. Additionally, Google play store has an estimated 42000 malware apps.

Apple app store possesses a complete different nature than Google play. Due to a strict selective process and guidelines, the developers get hurt who work hard on their rejected apps. But, it is also true that because of such strictness, iOS users love their apps. Apple aims to deliver an excellent, safe and secure experience to their users; that's why it reviews each and every app carefully. The Apple team communicates with the developers via email to tell them the list of errors, their apps have. Once the developers resubmit their error free apps, Apple approves them pretty fast.
Not only the submission process, but Google and Apple are also followed by a different process when it comes to app store optimization. Getting good rankings for apps is far easier in Google play store than the Apple app store.

Conclusion

Before developing an app, one must go through the App store review guidelines whether it is for Google Play Store or Apple app store. Getting familiar with guidelines will save you from headaches of long term processes of resubmission. If your app gets rejected by Apple, you can have a word with the reviewer as he will guide you for the reasons behind the app rejection.

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12 Oct 2014

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How to Pick High Performing Keywords for Your App?

When it comes to app visibility, the name and keywords of app counts the most and when it comes to convincing people to download your app, the rest like description matters much. Read more to know how to put the best name, keywords and description of your app.

App developers are looking for answers of three questions after creating a complete app. They are:
  • How to get an app discovered easily?
  • How to improve app store ranking?
  • How to drive app downloads?
There is only one answer of all these questions that is picking up the best keywords for an app. Keywords are a vital part of app marketing. A correct keyword research and selection is necessary to get the real results in short time. Keeping this in mind, here we have arranged some best ways to search and select the best keywords for your app.

How to Pick High Performing Keywords for Your App?

App Name Acts As a Keyword
An app name itself acts as a keyword. So, you have to take care while selecting the name for your app. An app name must be recognizable when people search for it. For example, if user searches for note making apps, an app name with a word “note” in it will be more recognizable by user, giving him an idea of the app, he is looking for.

Have a look on apps, similar to your app; also words that very-well describe your app. Put a list of collections and think of the best suggestion for your app and for your targeted users as well.

Competitor’s keywords + Highly Relevant = Perfect Selection
Competitor’s keywords help you more to reach the best selection. Take a look on apps, having features similar to your app. Find out the keywords from them and take the keywords highly relevant to the name and features of your app. This step will ensure the discoverability of your app even before gaining any reviews and ratings.

The Way Users Search
It is important to understand how your targeted audience will search for your app. Keyword research is widely depends upon this aspect. The words user’s type to search for an app are the words that you have to select as keywords for your app.

Space Analysis
Apple allows putting keywords within the limit of 99 characters while there is no limit on keywords with Google play store. But it is important to put the keywords in some limit like not too short and not too long. A keyword with 3-5 words are more targeted to specific searches and also come with less competition, giving your app a chance to get discovered more easily. You can also use short tail keywords with 2 words as many users prefer to type short terms.

Put a Correct Combination of Words in App Description
Many app marketers think that description must be a combination of keywords. Not at all. You have already integrated selected keywords with your app, no need to describe the same with the description. An app description must be a combination of words that gives an exciting overview of the app. The user must understand what the app does and how it drives some benefits for him.

Make the Most of Localization Features
If your app has localization features, it’s a good opportunity for you to make the most out of it. Specify the locations for which your app is available. Also, don’t forget that people of different countries perform searches in a different way. So, your keyword selection must be according to the searches of various countries.

Keyword Testing
User’s behavior, not always remains the same. They can search with some words today and they will search with other words, tomorrow to find the same thing. After selecting the keywords, you have to test them by seeing the results, your app is showing. If the results are dull, change the keywords, until they give you the best results as per your expectations.

Without the correct selection of keywords, it will become more difficult for your app to come up in front of your targeted audience. Research is a key to reach the relevant keywords and user’s searching habits is a key to select the best keywords. Constant practices for the above tips will improve the discovery of your app as the time goes on.
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