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ASO Backlinks: The Link Building Guide for Mobile Apps

Link Building
On October 19, 2022

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Backlinks matter not only for the rating of your website but also for your app’s ranking in the Google Play Store. Without ASO, the blacklining strategies won’t work. For effective ASO, you will want to focus on a good design, icon, a great app video preview, a descriptive title, descriptive screenshots, and your app’s reviews.

Did you know that Google Play is the ultimate app store with the most available apps? Google Play enables Android users to choose from more than 3.5 million apps, so getting one’s app discovered is one of the greatest issues many app publishers face.

This aspect perfectly explains the significance of ASO – app store optimization.  

Source: seobility.net

ASO is the process of optimizing a mobile app to rank it higher in the search results of Google Plat or another app store.

The higher the app ranks in the app store’s search results – the more its visibility and the more customers will click on it and download it.

The greater visibility also leads to more traffic to the app page in the app store.

Regarding the question – what is app store optimization – you might think of it in the following terms: 

The objective of ASO is to direct more traffic to your app’s page in Google Play so potential customers can take the action of downloading your app.

1. How are Backlinks Important for ASO

Backlinks are one of the common features between ASO and SEO – specifically for ASO for Google Play Store.

While Apple doesn’t include anything outside the App Store to rank its apps, Google Play Store incorporates Mobile App SEO for its rankings.

So, to optimize your app in Google Play Store, you should integrate good SEO strategies to improve your web SEO and rank higher in the store.

And to rank higher, you need backlinks.

To rank higher in the Play Store, the backlinks that matter are website links leading to your Play Store URL.

The only thing is that your backlinks must be high-quality, good in quantity, and relevant to rank higher in the app store.

 

2. Backlinks – Powerful ASO Boosts

Google Algorithm considers Google Store backlinks an essential aspect of SEO to rank websites higher in SERPs. 

At this point, you might be wondering how to generate backlinks for an Android app. 

We have the answer for you! 

So, if you have a mobile app in Google Play Store, then you can use backlinks to increase the number of websites leading directly to your app’s URL on Google Play Store. 

This way, you will boost your app’s rank in the Google Play Store. 

  • Quality & Quantity Matters

The more backlinks link to your app’s web page, the higher your ASO will be. It is important to mention here that the number of backlinks has an impact on off-page ASO, as does the quality of the backlinks.

Usually, the quality of a backlink is assessed by PR, also known as PageRank, which is a Google algorithm. This algorithm takes several aspects into account to rank websites and domains.

The aspects include:

  • Number of visitors

  • Number of backlinks

  • Bounce rate

  • Relevance

Finally, your backlinks should be relevant for ASO. Ideally, the backlinks directing visitors to your app’s URL should contain relevant keywords.

The keywords will directly impact your Google Play Store keyword ranking. 

3. Top Tips to Get More Backlinks for ASO

Now that we have established the fact that you need quality, quantity, and relevant backlinks – the question remains how do you get those backlinks for your app?

Here is how:

  • Create a High-Quality App

Before you start working on getting the best backlinks for ASO, you need to have a high-quality app – ideally, your app should be user-friendly, have a clear design, and have a unique and powerful core function.

A high-quality app is a foundation to rank higher in Google Store App.

 

  • Get Your App Reviewed

The average number of reviews and ratings can determine how high in the list your app appears.

Understandably, positive reviews will generate more downloads.

Source: clevertap.com 

 

  • Create High-Quality Content

You can write high-quality guest posts and create interesting and informative content to attract more viewers to use your app.

So, ensure your content is related to your app and has the right keywords. For instance, if you have launched a fitness app, you might want to create content of training advice and direct your target audience to your fitness app.

  • Use Social Media

You can use social media to generate backlinks as well. You can promote your app’s unique features and benefits on different social media platforms.

The more you engage with your target audience, the more your social media pages will weigh and boost your app’s ranks.

Source: businessgrow.com 

  

  • Focus on ASO

Lastly, keep working on your ASO. It is crucial to use strong and relevant keywords. When it comes to your app’s keywords rankings, the title of your app and the short/ long descriptions have a big influence on it.

So, couple your ASO backlinks strategy with a strong keywords strategy, and you will see a big boost to your app’s store visibility. 

4. Top Ranking Factors of App Store Optimization

By now, we know that the process of ASO backlinks is similar to SEO backlinks but instead of ranking in Google, you are trying to rank in the app store. The algorithms used for Google Play include some proven strategies that you can take advantage of to improve your apps ranking. 

Let us have a look at some key factors affecting ASO:

1. Use a Descriptive Title

The good name of your app is key – including a brand name and a relevant keyword or two in the title of your app.

By using keywords directly in your app title, you can rank at least 10% higher.

So, take your time and develop a unique, keyword-rich, and descriptive title.

Google Play allows your app title to be up to 30 characters. You might as well be required to provide additional metadata for your app.

So, make sure that you are extremely precise and to the point about what your app is about.

Source: Appradar.com 

 

2. Select Keywords Wisely

Just like SEO, keywords are extremely important to ASO. Your audience will find you through keywords, so ensure you are taking advantage of keywords.

With Google Play, you don’t have any specific keyword field – but your app description is searchable. Make sure to add certain keywords to the app name by putting the main keywords in your title and description.

Speaking of ASO backlinks, it is a good idea to look at what the top apps in your niche are and what keywords they use to rank. From there, you can select the most effective keywords.

But remember – your description should be easily readable for a human and not just for the algorithm.

 

3. Describe Your App Well

In ASO, your app description acts as your app’s landing page.

Once you get a potential user to your app’s page – you now should focus on selling them the benefits of your app.

Assess the following aspects of your app before forming the description:

  • What does the app do?
  • What problem does the app solve?
  • How will the app make life easier?
  • Why is the app worth the price?

With 88% of the mobile time spent on apps, the average users take only a few seconds to decide whether they are downloading an app or not.

So, how your page looks on Google App is crucial to their decision.

  • Add Screenshots

You can make the description visually appealing by including some useful screenshots that are relevant to what your potential customers are looking for.

The screenshots should focus on your app’s most engaging parts and key benefits.

4. Include an App Preview Video

There are 245 million online video viewers in the US alone, and more than half of the content is consumed on smartphones.

That said, you can harness the power of video by creating a video app preview for your app store page. It is important to mention that most people will watch the app video preview with no sound.

So, you might want to use text overlays to help explain what your app is about.

Source: apptamin.com

 

5. Select the Accurate Category

Choosing the right category for your app is not only helpful for the users who are browsing apps by category – but it is also ideal practice for helping your app to rank well.

That said, you will want to choose the category that best describes your mobile app. It might be a good idea to assess how many apps are trying to rank for each category – choosing the least competitive category can give your app the best ranking closer to the top.

But – make sure your mobile app is relevant to that category.

Source: shoutem.com

 

6. Encourage Positive Reviews

Positive reviews and ratings – both in terms of quality and quantity – have been found to be the most crucial factor in helping someone decide whether they should try out an app or not.

  • Positive Reviews will Make Your App Rank Better 

In SEO, backlinks play a crucial role in optimizing a website. And because of all the backlinks, the website has higher priority as loads of people are linking to it, so Google sees the links as votes and ranks the website higher.

Now when it comes to link building for mobile apps – or ASO backlinks, it has a lot to do with ratings and reviews. So, if you will focus on ratings and reviews, your app is more likely to rank better. You might want to regularly ask your users for reviews.

Source: sociocs.com 

 

7. Opt for Cross Promotion 

Cross promotion is definitely something that you should be doing. So, if you have an app portfolio, and you have one app that is driving loads of downloads, then you should be using that app to cross-promote to other apps. 

If Google app users are liking one of your apps, they are definitely going to the other ones that you have built – especially, if they are complementary.

8. Pay Attention to Icon Design

If you only get one image to show why your app is worth the customer’s consideration, you should pay special attention to it.

The app icon is the initial visual impression people will have of your app, which is why you should aim to get it right.

The following tips will help you create great app icons:

  • Ditch the text – an app icon is small, so the text might be difficult to comprehend.
  • Choose the right colors – ideally, you should use your brand colors. Also, try colors that are different from your competitors.

Pro Tip: test four icon variants before the final launch.

Source: Sketchappsources.com 

9. Use App Store Analytics 

Just like Google Analytics for web page marketing, there are several amazing app store analytic tools that are exclusively designed to help your mobile marketing strategy and help you with ASO backlinks.

The analytic tools will show you where your app stands, and you can use the data to make updates and boost your app store ranking accordingly.

Conclusion

Backlinks and ASO are essential for optimizing your app on Google Play Store. The Google search engine evaluates the apps that receive high-quality and relevant backlinks to the app’s page. Subsequently, ASO helps your app rank better in Google App Store ranking.

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