[ComboApp]

Since the inception of the Apple’s App Store and then Google Play the question - how do those app stores operate (read: how do they rank apps) was the number one. This week we can say that, at least partly, this question was addressed, during the last week Google’s I / O Google Play Ankit Jain did provide a great insight into how Google Play works.

Quite frankly this is the priceless information for any Android app developer. In a nutshell here is the scope of what was revealed:

• 12% of DAU (daily active users) search for apps daily
• 50% of DAU search for apps weekly
• 6 million unique search phrases being searched monthly and roughly 50% of those are misspelled words!
• An app’s title should reflect it’s purpose, be short, unique and creative.
• The first app’s description sentence should give a clear picture of what app is about
• Screenshots and video are the crucial ingredients to entice people to download an app
• There are device and geo targeting in place for reviews and ratings
• Jain highly recommends that developers with a tablet app get the “designed for tablets” designation.
• Make sure your app’s page on Google Play are getting links with targeted keywords in its anchor text and it sounds enticing in general.
• Don’t imitate an existing popular app’s name and again - remember about all those 50% of monthly search queries that are essentially misspelled words.
• Keep your app package (APK) small - small apps are getting more installs.
• Create the viral loop for your app: A. Get users to review your apps. B. Don’t get users to leave your app. This can be accomplished by adding an in-app Google+ +1 API, and in the future, Google will release an API for in-app user reviews. C. Integrate Google Play’s newly launched game services.

[Kroncept]

Solid 1st post!