Anyone had luck with keywords?

john26 · November 2013

All the app stores ask you to type in keywords for your game but in my experience no one seems to discover and download games based on searching through keywords. The small number of people who downloaded my game seem to find out through review websites, forums etc. People just don't seem to search by keyword. They hear about a hot game in the press or maybe its on the top 25 list or featured on the app store. That's how I see it.

Anyone else agree with this or am I just using the wrong keywords? :P

OZApps · November 2013

@john26,
like fingerprints, you would get different responses and feedback on this.

****Comment retracted****

OZApps · November 2013

@john26, Did you pay for a review/listing on touch arcade or was it free?

thanhquan1512 · November 2013

Disagree.

Keywords are not very effective, but it does help for increase downloads.

Some of my old games without any reviews and no marketing expense still have 50-150 downloads a day. I believe it is because my game have good rank in some keywords.

Of course if you list your keywords and rank >10 with these keywords, it is useless.

hgvyas123 · November 2013

i also agree with @thanhquan1512 keywords are important choose them very carefully
ofcourse you can not expect tons of downloads if you dont have good rank but still user searches with keyword like endless game, runner game.... and if you have good rank in this keyword you have relatively good chance to get higher downloads

phongtt · November 2013

Agreed with thanhquan1512 and hgvyas123

OZApps · November 2013

Guys, one of the problem is that try searching for an app by name, half the time it doesn't even show up. I am not sure if the keywords really help. Anyways I get the iTunes links most of the times, so never had to work with the keywords much.

john26 · November 2013

@thanhquan1512: Wow, you've convinced me! Obviously my keywords are crap but how can I improve them?

"Of course if you list your keywords and rank >10 with these keywords, it is useless. "

What do you mean by "if you list your keywords"? And how do I get rank > 10 with my keywords?

@hgvyas123 "If you have good rank in this keyword". How do I get a good rank? (I suppose this is the $64k question!)

john26 · November 2013

@OZApps, I simply set up a new post on the forum describing my game. They have a cool markup where you just type the app store URL and it creates a box with your description and screenshots. I think the site automatically then adds your game to the list and calls it a "hot game" if you get lots of forum activity.

I also sent an email to the staff asking them to review but no reply! Has anyone got a reply from them? I was thinking of asking again given my game is now "hot" but not sure if it would just annoy them...?

Mells · November 2013

@john26 Keywords are... key, period.
-> ASO (SEO).

I don't recall the % exactly, but in a recent research the number of users who find apps through a search in the app store directly was surprisingly high.
Insight : we are devs and we are far from understanding how the average user is using his device and his consumption habits.

The second thing is : the search algorithm in the Apple App store is far from being efficient *according to our own standards*, but this is our role to understand how it works (+ how people are using it) and how we can play within its rules.

I was thinking of asking again given my game is now "hot" but not sure if it would just annoy them...?

You won't annoy them (anyway, do you care?). If your game is hot and people like it, they **want** to talk about it.

hgvyas123 · November 2013

How do I get a good rank? (I suppose this is the $64k question!)

unfortunately there is no straight forward way to achieve good ranking. appstore and google play are much smarter as well as all the other developers are also. the only way to achieve good rank or downloads is

make good game
continue your efforts by making more good games
cross promote them
have patience
Good icon, screenshots, description and video
Luck

i also suggest for not going to paid review, press release or paid advertisement unless you can easily afford them as failing in this you will lose considerable amount of money and there are higher chance that you will quit this indie journey

phongtt · November 2013

I just saw this thought haven't watched through yet. It may be helpful.

thanhquan1512 · November 2013

@john26: I agree with @hgvyas123 that you should avoid paid review and advertisement as an indie devs. App store optimization is a good way to begin with and you will find that you can save a lot of money.

In my experience, to have good rank you should combine:

1. ASO: good icon, attractive video and screenshot, good name, description..Spend much time to optimize keywords every game update is not very effective - in my experience.

2. Quality game (graphic, gameplay, font,..)

Btw, you should learn about game monetization too, a game with large amount of downloads does not mean that it has good (or effective) income.

john26 · November 2013

Thanks for your input guys. I can see that ASO and keywords are very important but still don't know how to do it! Is there a website somewhere where you can find a list of good keywords to use? I really need a step by step guide since I'm clueless on this.

For those of you who have tried it, can you suggest keywords for Nebula Retro?

I think the basics are ok (good icon, screenshots, name, description), but please correct me if I'm wrong.

hgvyas123 · November 2013

@john26
see this site https://sensortower.com/

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