Mobile App Development Services

All you need to know about creating an ASO strategy on Google Play

App stores are home to zillions of mobile applications and making your application visible there is an issue that you will likely encounter when you start off in the sector. App Store Optimization (ASO) is a technique to optimize an application so that it ranks high in search engines results. With so many apps in every store competing to be ahead of each other, it is quite surprising that not many companies are investing in ASO optimization.

Creating an ASO strategy on Google Play

To start with, you must chart out a plan factoring the main and secondary factors that will affect the optimization of your application. Here is the strategy that you will have to follow:

On-page optimization:

Title of the App: Choosing an appropriate title is crucial for the positioning of your application in search results. Pick a short name as typing on Smartphone is more complex than on a computer keyboard.

Description - There should be clarity in your explanation of what your application is, what it does and its benefits.

Use the right keywords - These words are key to the ASO positioning process. You will have to think of the words your target audience will associate with the service you provide and use them.

App icon - Your icon is a great way to explain your application concisely and creatively. It must be attractive and have no resemblance to any other application.

Application category - It is important to list your app in the right category. If it belongs to many categories, make sure to select the most appropriate ones.

Off-page optimization

App ratings - This is the most crucial factor for application conversion. If your app has hundreds of 5-star ratings, it will enhance your position in the search results.

Customer feedback - The comments are equally important for the positioning as well conversion of an application. Pay heed to the negative feedback to correct errors if any.

Number of downloads - The greater the number of people that install your application, the more the visibility you get in your app store.

With the surge in the computing power which we have seen in the recent years, artificial intelligence and machine learning have really arrived as concepts. This is the reason why a great deal of such algorithm driven software are leaving their mark on the mobile application development space as well, and transforming it for good.

With the underlying technology improving, the AI is expected to transform mobile application development in the following ways:

1.      User engagement enhancement driving business growth

The coming of AI has led to a lot of mobile applications and web avenues install chat bots, which are AI driven communication bots that are fast replacing relationship executives of the earlier world. Thanks to this, you do not need any lengthy contact forms over your avenues to be filled by customers and this results in a much enhanced user experience.

2.      Much improved mobile app algorithms

One change which AI and machine learning have already started to drive is the optimization of algorithms which mobile app developers have put in place to implement the business logic of mobile applications. These algorithms are bound to undergo an overhaul with a surge of useful user engagement data and the increase in the computational resources at hand with the developers, in the times to come.

3.      Intelligent clustering of smart mobile applications

Just as more and more smart devices such as wearables interact with the existing devices and applications, AI platforms will be expected to drive a synchronization and seamless working amongst these. This is where mobile applications currently requiring connecting with these smart devices shall see AI integration increasing leaps and bounds in them.

4.      New products and platforms round the corner

AI is expected to spark a revolution in the creation of platforms to develop enhanced softwares and app development suites, which will make the trivial aspects of mobile application development become automated and give developers a chance to put their minds and wits into the more quirky aspects of it.

A roof over the head is a necessity of life and this very need drives the world of rental and real estate businesses. With the emergence of mobile apps, there has been a great deal of transformation in the way house hunting is carried out today. However, it is only the apps with advanced features and a smart strategy which makes a killing in this competitive market.

Enlisted are some of the salient features to be included as a part of an enticing real estate on demand app:

1.      Auto paying of rent online

Want customers to pay rent on time and that too without any hassle? Then an auto debit of rent every month is a great feature to have in your app, where a scheduled program debits the ACH account on a fixed date of the month, without the need for any manual intervention from the property owner or the tenant.

2.      Automatic maintenance requests

When a tenant dwells in a house, they are bound to require servicing and maintenance procedures in the house and if this feature is available in your mobile app out-of-the-box, it is just a great value add. Building it up, you can have various suppliers listed on your app and can offer your customers hefty discounts and deals through this.

3.      Automated paperwork workflow

When a tenant rents out a place or a buyer purchases a piece of real estate, there is a great deal of paperwork involved, which can easily take an extremely daunting form. This is where a workflow along with a document safe keep can make the lives of the landlords and tenants on your on demand app really easy.

4.      Apartment browsing online

A smart real estate app can strip out the need for any brokers or middlemen when browsing and foraging for the right buy. An advanced gallery with elucidate images; all filtered intelligently to location, budget and type of property is what can really benefit your customers.

5.      Offers galore

Reward your loyal users and others to use your app by offering deals and discounts on things like gym memberships, restaurants, groceries etc. and breathe a new life into your income stream.

A recent study proclaims as many as 67% of all small and medium business in the world today have their dedicated mobile apps. Such has been the penetration of mobile apps that an app is being planned somewhere in the world, all the time. However, a lucrative and useful mobile app is only a result of strategic planning and controlled implementation.

Here is a list of key considerations which if taken into account, can drive success with your mobile apps in the future.

1.      A refined business idea

It isn’t enough to have a random idea and hit the development mode with it. You app’s success is directly proportional to the amount of value it adds to the user base and this is why ascertaining this is the case with your idea should be the inception step.

2.      Pen down the specifications

Be it an in-house team of mobile app developers who you plan to helm your mobile app through or outsourcing to a partner, the first step has to be a clear cut specification list-down for the app. This can be the high level design entailing the overall UI features you need, along with a detailed breakdown of the low level features such as buttons, pages and responsive features.

3.      Zero in on the app platform

There are just two major choices you have here – Android and iOS, but this still is a key consideration to take into account. While an Android app will give you a quantitative user be engagement, iOS is the place to be if you are only interested in customers with serious affordability and spending preferences. Start with ascertaining what is the most suited platform for your app idea before jumping on to the development.

4.      Cost Decisions

In a world of cut-throat competition and short-term strategizing, infinite budgets are just not something any app development project has at its disposal. Thus, you need to set budgets for every phase of the app development project – UI, UX, dataset connectivity and integration beforehand.

All your efforts to ace Android apps development have brought you to this exquisite mobile app, which you think would set in a rage over the Play Store. Trust the statistics and you will find that hardly 20 percent of all Android apps developed really catch the customer attention in the Play Store. So there really is more to a successful app on Play Store, than simply a good design.

Here are some ways you can ensure that your Android app performs unperturbed on Play Store:

1.      Go easy on the size

Statistics suggest that most mobile users are still hooked on to networked connections, which are dominated by 2G and Edge users. Thus bandwidth is an expensive resource for your target audience and you will be really helping your case when you choose to keep your mobile application’s size clipped. A faster download and a reduced memory expense transcends into a greater liking by customers overall.

2.      Localize to Publicize

Many Android app developers simply perceive the process from a technical standpoint, without appreciating the real value which the app gives them – increased global reach. Localization is a strategy which can push the cause by making your app appeal to specific audiences, both from a language and a culture perspective. The smart way to approach this is to invest into the services of a translations expert, who can guide you about what phrases and words to use for specific linguistic audiences.

3.      Crash Reporting Abilities

This is more of a business-as-usual activity for mobile apps, but holds great value in incepting for applications of all types. Having a crash reporting feature built into the application design will issue alarms whenever the mobile app crashes in production, helping you collect valuable performance data and then have your team of developers take remedial action.

4.      Test the mettle of your app for various versions of Android

There is only one direction in which Android as an open source operating platform is bound to be headed – towards growth. As new versions of the OS hit the market, it gets crucial that your Android app is tested on all these versions to ensure compatibility and a glitch-free operation.

It goes without saying that Google’s Play Store is a highly congested market place. With over 3.5 million apps crowding the app store, gaining visibility and standing out from the competition can always be a stiff challenge. Getting a good rank on the search results is the best way to boost your visibility and the size of your customer base.

Following these steps can help you gain better ranking on the play store:

●       Memory Footprint: Application users always prefer to download apps that are nimble and small in size. This helps reduce loading time and frees up space for other applications. Hence, Google’s algorithms offer better ranking for apps that are smaller in size compared to large and clunky applications.

●       Average Retention Time: Google tracks the longevity of your application on a user’s smartphone. If your application enjoys a longer stay on the smartphones of your user's, it directly translates into better rankings for your app. Hence, it is important to develop an app that gives a compelling reason for your users to stick to your services.

●       App design: Visually appealing apps go a long way in capturing the attention of application users. However, heavy designs and animations can slow down app performance and lead to app crashes. Hence, precautions should be taken to reach the middle ground between visual appeal and speed.

●       Maintenance and update: Both Google and its audience are highly intolerant of bugs and crashes. Hence, it is important for you to ensure that the app is constantly monitored and any issues are resolved with timely patches and updates. This can help reduce uninstalls and boost the ranking.

●       Ratings and Reviews: Search engines incentivize reviews more than ratings. While that 5-star rating adds great value, getting a review from your users can help you convert apprehensive users. Push your users subtly to give you reviews. This can improve your search engine rankings.

Mobile apps occupy a prominent role in the current market with their high accessibility and the ease with which they can be used. From serving as mere brand outreach tools to being a full-fledged business tool that offers the entire spectrum of service, apps have a lot to offer.

If you are an enterprise with operations in various business verticals, investing in a mobile application can offer you the following advantages:

1.      Customer Habit: Apps offer great flexibility in usage over websites and offline services thanks to their lag-free and intuitive interface. This helps your app seamlessly integrate with the lifestyle of consumers.

2.      Better Ranking: Search results on the internet favor apps more than websites. This provides your services with great visibility on the internet.

3.      Powerful Branding: An app can be an online outpost for your brand with all your services being offered on it. This helps you win over customer trust and promote the value of your brand effectively.

4.      Brand Recall: Applications unlike websites are always present on the smartphone and offer a great visibility to the brand. This aids in increasing brand recall.

5.      Reliable Connectivity: Applications offer a great connectivity for businesses with their consumers and vice-versa.

6.      Customer Retention and Loyalty: Customer loyalty is a unique asset that aids in the longevity of the brand’s success. Mobile apps with their high visibility and accessibility aid in customer retention.

7.      Effective Lead Generation: For enterprise usage, apps offer the most versatile platform for lead generation. They also learn about user preference and usage patterns which can aid in targeted marketing.

8.      Competitive Edge: Apps offer a great edge over brands who adopt a website-only strategy. Average users are likely to spend more time on mobile apps than on websites.

It goes without saying that 21st century will be dominated by AI. As humans increasingly adopt internet into their lives, AI is disrupting several conventional services. At the forefront of this are ChatBots that are gaining ground over traditional modes of customer service. While initially met with skepticism, ChatBots are today increasingly adopted by renowned businesses as a personalized way of offering their services.

The technology has matured and is expected to revolutionize major industries. Some of the industries that will be transformed with this new tech include:

Automating Education

These apps have a great role to play in improving the learning experience of students. By personalizing the mode of engagement with young learners, these apps can ensure that students learn their chapters efficiently and are thoroughly revised. Using AI, customized mock tests can be conducted and students can be evaluated using the same to better their understanding.

Customer Grievance Handling

Businesses are increasingly moving away from ‘Calls Centers’ to ‘Live Chat’ features. This ‘Live Chat’ functionality is handled by ChatBots that follow an AI-enabled algorithm to serve customers in a personalized manner. Thanks to the cloud and internet connectivity, these ChatBots will get better at handling customers as they learn constantly from each interaction.

Wellness Inquiry

Apps like Nadia, which engages in personalized chats based on word usage patterns and tonality, are bringing emotion into the equation of ChatBots. This makes them an ideal tool for offering company to users through interactive chats that inquire the health and wellness of users. Such apps will see an increasing demand in a world that is facing an aging crisis.

Personal Assistance

Apps like Siri and Cortana have paved the way for a whole genre of personal assistant apps that use natural language processing and voice processing to answer the queries of customers. As these apps mature in capability and get more natural in their responses, they will replace a whole bunch of apps and become a one-stop solution for all our needs.

In the area of targeted marketing, the smartphone screen continues to be the undisputed king when it comes to the maximum time spent watching it. With this being the case, it has emerged as a highly potent platform when it comes to marketing and customer handling. With the change in consumer behavior vis-a-vis perusal of services, the era of call center-based customer handling is diminishing and the action shifts towards mobile phones.

Here’s how in-app messaging can be used effectively as a powerful marketing tool

●       Customized On boarding

It is important to have a personalized way of introducing a user to the service. By having content that is dynamic and unique for individual customer use cases, businesses can ensure that users are kept engaged and not feel that they are interacting with a prerecorded response. The welcome experience should be unique and make the customer feel wanted.

●       Business Models

In the age of the smartphone apps, the “pay-to-use” model does not work often. This is mainly because it deters most users who don’t wish to spend on app purchases. Hence, the model that is adopted is usually the freemium model where most of the application is free with certain features positioned as “pay-to-use.” In-app messages can help bring better conversions in this model and boost revenues.

●       Collecting Customer Satisfaction Data

Apps should also aim to capture as much feedback as they can from the customer. By gathering customer responses through personalized feedback forms, developers can understand the perception of the application by different demographics. Analyzing these responses and segregating them efficiently can help developers find the core users and their preferences.

●       Better app experience

The key differentiates between websites and mobile apps are that mobile apps are seen as instantaneous and responsive. Users dislike the loading screens on websites. App screens, on the other hand, have quick loading features and sharp transitions that are visually more attractive. Adding interactive wordings and animations on top of this can make app experiences highly responsive.

When it comes to developing a successful app, it is all about understanding the market and identifying the niche. The design and the technology come much later. Unless the right market and a core audience are not identified, businesses cannot deploy apps riding on the wave of strong features as the application will simply be out of place.

When it comes to mobile application development, three crucial steps need to be followed for the app to gain sufficient installs. They are:

1. The user receives utmost priority

During the planning for an application, app designers should focus on four crucial attributes- Performance, Utility, Punctuality, and Delight. The app developers should first work on the operational aspects of an application and keep it bug-free and crash-free. This should be followed by the usage comfort and finally, desirability and theme. The application should have a User Experience that is intuitive and keeps the user glued to the screen.

2. Pay attention to retention rates

Once, the application hits the market, the strategy adopted for driving installs must be tweaked to ensure that the word keeps spreading.  Also, businesses should pay more attention to retention rates than ratings or customer reviews. Retention rates are a more reliable Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for understanding how alluring the application is with the majority that has downloaded it. This can help understand the shortcomings and the segment of the audience where the app is performing better.

3. Let there be no haste

Not every bug needs to be fixed in one day. Businesses should focus on moving towards the greater goal of enhancing overall customer experience. This can be accomplished only by staying true to improving the UX constantly and focus on aligning the priorities towards reducing the pain points associated with the application.

Today we take Geo-location for granted. All of our smartphones have an integrated GPS sensor that helps the phone track its position in the GPS coordinates. This functionality has several benefits as it is used extensively by navigational apps such as Maps and route trackers to deliver constant updates and guide us during transit. However, the functionality of Geo location extends far beyond navigation as it plays a major role in several other important domains.

The following avenues are some in which mobile application development teams can incorporate Geo-location as a feature:

1.    Internet of Things (IoT) applications

Hundreds of IoT and Home automation apps are developed today. These apps are predominantly used to remotely operate our residences or our workplaces. All these apps require an element of Geo location as they help triangulate the position of the device.

2.    Geo-fencing

Geo-fencing is an offshoot of Geo-location technology where it monitors a particular area or space and tracks any violation of the territory. This is used in security applications where trespassers and poachers are tracked and their entry into a guarded area is monitored. It also holds a great benefit in several emerging fields such as retail where customers are sent push notifications about offers or deals on the aisle they are wading through.

3.    On-demand delivery

 Ride hailing, dating, and lifestyle apps such as Uber, and Tinder use Geo-location to convey constant updates on the location of their cabs to their users or the location of their matches to the users, in the case of Tinder. This helps users plan their journey and also feel secure while they are traveling.

4.    Object trackers

 In several applications such as anti-theft devices, Geo-location is used alongside hardware such as Bluetooth Low energy trackers to track the object in real-time and relay the location.