I’m not a big fan of the App Store Search Optimization (ASO) process or any “we rank you based on some qualifiers, now go play that game” approach. I feel like if you create a good app that people want to use, it shouldn’t matter what kind of words you use in the title and subtitle—but it does. Most of the downloads for my two apps come from the App Store, so being able to “play the game” can help me grow my app’s user base naturally.

I’ve already read two eBooks from the creator of the Astro app (which helps improve your ASO) and implemented some tips, such as:

• don’t duplicate keywords from the title and subtitle
• the title keywords are the most important, followed by the subtitle, and then the keywords section
• there’s a Minify ASO app that can help with keyword optimization
• icon design and preview images matter significantly
• the description isn’t used by the search algorithm, so keep it clean. Focus on listing the main features without going into too much (technical) detail
• reviews matter (note to self: I still need to implement asking for a review when the user successfully completes the most “important” action that brings the most value. That’s likely my best chance of getting a positive review)

This is just the beginning. I’ll continue learning more about ASO and sharing my findings.

I also need to start working on my next app. I have a few ideas in mind but still need to do some market research to decide what to build next.

On another note, I recently discovered from Cassidy Williams that people are doing “Blogvents”, where they blog every day of December. This seems like such a cool idea, especially since I’ve just fallen back in love with blogging.