I recently co-authored and published a simple app to test the Android waters and get used to deving for android:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.parp&feature=search_result
The name of the app is ‘Parp’ yet if you search ‘Parp’ it doesn’t appear until after the fourth page of results (seems to fluctuate a bit). The results above it seem to have nothing to do with the word ‘parp’ and are only there because of the spelling similarity to words in their name/description. E.g. there are a lot of apps related to finding where you parked your car. I understand the link here, but I don’t see why an exact match should be so far down in the rankings. We have tried in incorporate the words ‘parp’ and ‘park’ into the description (without making it ridiculous) to move it nearer the top (it used to be past the 10th page of results) but we have only succeeded in getting it as far as page 4. Whilst I'm not expecting it to top out the results for any related search I was hopeing to get it onto the first or second page for its own name.
Does anybody have any pointers on what more we can do, how the marketplace ranks results, or how to choose good app names that should avoid clashes like this? Getting somewhere on the first page would be great, and I don’t see why it should be unachievable given that this is the only app on the market place that has ‘Parp’ in its title (that I'm aware of)!
You are not the only one who experiences this problems: http://androinica.com/2011/07/android-market-search-problems/
It seems that the android market search was updated and now ranks keywords or similar words higher then the exact title of the app. This is very bad for developers who get their users through word of mouth marketing and hope to get downloads through users remembering a unique app name like yours. At the moment there seems to be no solution to this problem.
Related
I've just started with programming Android apps and was wondering how to get my app to appear to people who search for generic words related to my app. For example, I wrote a simple tetris-like clone, but the word tetris is owned by a company if I'm not mistaken so I can't use that term in my descriptions. However if one does a search of the word "tetris" in the store, many apps will appear even though they don't mention the word "tetris" anywhere within is name, descriptions etc.
So I was wondering how exactly do people get keywords like this to direct to their app without explicitly mentioning it anywhere.
about from description, you can use tags too to make you app found. also the more rating you have the better your applications shows up. that is why some apps with huge rating shows up when some search query similar or has the same meaning with there keys words shows up.
Just work on you application's rating.
I published my first app "FitFit Gym & Fitness Notebook" on friday and it can be found when searching for the full title.
But when I only enter "gym" or "fitness" it isn't found at all, even if I scroll down to the bottom of the page. I understand that it isn't listed at the top results because it is new and has not enough downloads, but I think it should be listed somewhere.
Is it possible Google filters my app out of the results for any reason?
My understanding is the the mechanism Google Play Store uses for ranking apps is proprietary and closely held. It is some algorithm based on key words in the description, popularity (rankings and downloads), etc. You can influence it a bit with repeated key words in the description but not much, and too many repeated keywords may or may not hurt, but it won't help.
Get some users to start giving good feedback and high ranking and that should help your search favorability.
First sorry for my bad English : I'm French and I may make a few mistakes.
I created an app and I uploaded it last month on the Google Play store. You can find it here without problems : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.malerbati.fourInAMine.
The problem is : my app is almost impossible to find with the search engine ! When I search "4 in a mine", my app name, in Google Play, it only appears at the 20th result !
Besides, the app didn't appear at the "Top news" when I uploaded it.
I remember that the last app I created counted 200 downloads 1 day after its release, obviously thanks to the "Top news" thing... whereas this app has only 65 downloads, 1 month after ! And when I look at the statistics, I see that 100% of the downloaders are French (my country), which means that ALL the persons who got my app found it with word of mouth ! That's quite inefficient...
Therefore, here are my questions : why the hell can't we see my app easily, like the others ? Did anyone else encounter the same problem ? I have some suppositions about the origin of the problem :
The last app I created was a big failure : 95% of the people uninstalled it, essentially because the game was too hard. Does Google Play search engine take this into account ?
I created my last app last year. There must be much more apps now. Is my app simply hidden by the (too) big number of other apps ?
My app is very smaller than the last one (only 300 ko, against 3 Mo). Is that taken in account too ?
Thank you in anticipation. I really want to know where the problem is.
Here are a few resources to help:
How Android Developers Can Thrive with Google Play
Maximize search potential in your app title: identify your most successful keywords and make sure to include them in your app title. In fact, this is so critical to success (potentially 80 to 100 places in your search ranking), that you should seriously consider removing your app name from your title and focus your description on the best keywords. Include the app name in the body of the app description – users will still be able to find it by name. Unlike iOS, the body description is searched under Google Play.
Use, but don’t overuse, keywords: try to use the best keywords at five times the body of your app description. This can affect search ranking from 10 to 20 places. Anything over five times has no additional benefit, so don’t overdo it.
Test your search parameters: the above recommendations are guidelines based on accumulated experience, but search results can vary based on many factors.
Steady efforts work best: Google Play’s ranking algorithm is tilted towards long term user acquisition – apps that acquire and retain satisfied users are rewarded with higher ranks. Advertising campaigns should be run over a longer term and sustained over two to three months, as opposed to the short bursts of activity often seen in the iOS market.
Use closed loop attribution and target long term users: since retained users have an important impact in ranking, use closed loop marketing to ensure you are identifying and utilizing ad sources that bring loyal users.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and test market your strategy with Android. You can apply these learnings to your iOS versions and reduce your costs and risks.
Google Play Optimization Secrets - 5 Helpful Tips
The second link contains more information that leans more towards marketing and sales strategy than practical steps.
Your application contains a number of very common words. Some of the most common, smallest little auxiliary words are probably discarded because they return a hit on everything.
If you put quotes around it, then Google Play will search for the whole sequence. When I search 4 in a mine then I basically don't see your app. When I search "4 in a mine", then your app is the only result.
I understand that this information doesn't really help you because, while it answers your question, you cannot control users' behavior. You would do better to make your title unique. That of course also makes it less descriptive and harder for users to remember. It's an unavoidable tradeoff.
Responding to your other questions:
I would be surprised if the success or failure of your other game had anything to do with the search relevance of this one. I could believe the uninstall rate affects the search relevance of the uninstalled title.
The huge number of new apps being published does mean that you want to get onto the virtuous cycle of installs quickly. So, the same day that you upload the app, get onto your social networks and tell all your friends and followers that you have a new game to try out. Make sure it works on most of the devices they are using. :-)
A listing page that describes your app well helps you get some collateral benefit from the "Users also viewed" lists for searches that lead to similar games. You gain a little more collateral benefit by publishing additional apps that appear under "More from developer". It may not be a big boost, but it is a feedback path -- probably the only one that you directly control.
I would be surprised if app size made any difference at all.
To sum up:
I think your problem is your title is composed entirely of either tiny words that get discarded, or common words that match lots of other games. You can easily locate your app by searching for the phrase all in one piece, but users won't do that. So work on combining unique terms that only you use, with descriptive terms that help the search engine determine your relevance in searches. And follow it up with some marketing.
I googled this for quiet a bit tonight and haven't really came across a good solution.
I simply needed to run a query on google and retrieve the top, say 10 results. Right now the only information I need is the URL of the top 10 results. It seems like Google puts a lot of limitations if you want the results returned as in xml, unless you're a paid customer. So what's my best option here? Simply GET the html of the "http://google.com/search?q=" and try to parse it out manually? Is there a better method of doing so?
How is an app's position in the Android Market search results determined? Is it as mysterious and complex as Google Web search results?
We obviously don't want to change any words in our app's title or description that would hurt our position.
Same question applies for not only search results, but when clicking on a Category in the Android Market. How is the order of the list determined?
Hopefully someone here can help. I would think that Google would have published some guidelines at least that could help, but I haven't found anything yet.
My theory is that the total to active install ratio is very important. So, the obvious approach is to target customers who don't know how to uninstall apps :)
Search result ranking— there is purposefully no publicized documentation, to minimize the chances of gaming the system.
Category top paid/free ranking— again, there is purposefully no publicized documentation, but it's a combination of several metrics, several of which quantify application 'popularity.'