Tips For Boosting Your Flipbook App Ranking In iTunes

• Make your keywords work for you. When preparing your flipbook app’s listing, iTunes will allow you to enter up to 100 characters of searchable keywords for your app, including commas. Make sure when entering your keywords that there are no wasted characters, such as unnecessary spaces, for example: “ Coles Magazine, Catalogue, Recipes , ”.

• Avoid plural forms. You can also avoid adding the plural of words as they are automatically included in the search results, for example: “Magazine, Magazines”.

• Short is sweet. While it may not always be feasible, try to choose shorter keywords when possible, this will allow you to enter more keywords within your 100 character allowance.

• Avoid repetition. Try to avoid duplicating keywords as they will become redundant. For example: “Coles Magazine, Coles, Magazine”. There is no need to duplicate your flipbook app name in the keywords as the app name is searchable.

• Consider your value proposition. While common search keywords (like “science”, “recipes”, “camera”, or “photo”) will bear more results, they will conversely make it harder for your flipbook app to stand out in the crowd. If your app has any unique selling points it may be good to also add these into the keyword field. 

App name

• Use a catchy name. Since users are 4 times more likely to search based on functionality over a specific app name, you may find it beneficial to choose an app name which promotes its own functionality.

• Simplified and searchable. Since the app name character allowance is 255 (compared to the keyword character allowance at only 100) you may see a lot of apps with long names, filled with keywords. While in cases this may not look as presentable as a simply titled app, it does help boost the visibility of your flipbook app in the iTunes store. Finding a medium between simplicity and searchability is essential when choosing your app name. 

Feedback and user rating

• Monitor ratings and reviews.. User feedback is an important factor in the ranking of your app, the higher the app has been rated the more chance you have of it appearing at the top of the list of search results. It is always good to keep an eye on user ratings and reviews and to address any concerns they may raise as soon as possible to avoid any low ratings.

• Apps are like wine or cheese. A few other factors that are important are the number of downloads an app has and how long the app remains open and active. ePublishing apps that are downloaded and then later deleted can result in lowering your visibility in the app store.

App updates

• Continuous improvement is key. Apps that are up to date may be more likely to rank higher in the search results. You may want to do a free-test app first to give you an idea of how you’d like your app to look and see how you can make it better from there.

• iTunes is King. Anyone who has had any previous experience with submitting apps to the iTunes app store will know how rigorously iOS apps are reviewed before they are approved. It is important to adhere to iTunes’ high standard when it comes submitting and managing your apps as you are likely to see the payoff in the search results!

While it appears that iTunes keep tweaking its search algorithm, we, at Realview, make sure we are up-to-date on what they’re tweaking that could lead to us and our clients to such high-impact changes. Try Realview for free!