App Store Optimization (ASO)

ASO is the practice of improving an app's visibility and conversion in the App Store and Play Store — title, subtitle, keywords, screenshots, ratings and description.

Screenshots do the heavy lifting. Most people decide from the first two before reading anything, so screenshots that show the app solving a problem convert far better than screenshots of interface chrome.

Ratings act as a multiplier on everything else: they affect ranking and they affect whether anyone installs after seeing the listing. Asking for a rating after a successful action, rather than on launch, is the single highest-impact change most apps can make.

Why it matters

An app nobody can find has the same commercial result as an app that doesn't exist. ASO is cheap relative to build cost and routinely skipped.

Related terms

MVP (Minimum Viable Product)An MVP is the smallest version of a product that delivers real value to real users, built to test whether the idea works before investing in the full …Keyword ResearchKeyword research is finding the terms people actually use when searching for what you offer, and judging which are realistically winnable given compet…

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