You create an app, list it on the Shopify app store, and notice that it isn't getting any installs. There are two reasons for this; it's either not solving a real problem or it isn't being discovered at all.
Everyone does research before building an app and, surely there will always be use cases for them. However, for discoverability, you can't just sit back and wait for people to come.
Discoverability on the Shopify app store takes cognizance of a lot of things but thankfully, it isn't one of the hardest things to solve. You just have to do your marketing right. Getting your discoverability is one of the items on the Ultimate Shopify SEO checklist for the Shopify store.
In this article, we make you understand everything about discoverability and cover everything you may do to improve it for your app. Let's get right in.
How To Improve Shopify App Store Discoverability
You don't build an app and leave it to be discovered by users on the Shopify app store. It could be, but you don't want to just leave it to the mercies of the algorithms without working on it yourself.
We want you to understand a few things.
Your Shopify app doesn't necessarily have to get customers from the store alone. There are other ways of attracting users to it.
Additionally, you expect certain users when it comes to the Shopify app store.
The Shopify app store is typically used by small to mid-sized businesses. This is because these types of businesses typically search for apps to make certain parts of their business easier and compensate for a lack of adequate personnel.
Larger Shopify websites, companies, or brands typically don't use the Shopify app store. They discover apps through information from a community of Shopify website owners, direct outreach from you, references from people they trust, or ads they see on their feed.
What this tells us is that if you build your app for these larger companies, you need to do external promotional activities to get them to use your app. It's a little harder to only rely on the Shopify algorithm as they are expected to use the store fewer times.
If you create your app for small and mid-sized Shopify websites, then you get the most out of our tips.
So how do you improve your app's discoverability?
1. Discover And Implement Keywords
Shopify SEO is everything and optimizing your Shopify app with keywords is the first thing you want to do. This involves identifying your most important keywords and placing them within your app name as well as your app description text.
Identifying Keywords
When it comes to keywords, you need to research your users. You understand what they are looking for and the words you expect them to use while looking for your app.
Some ways you could get your keywords to include:
- Talking to customers to gather direct insight and feedback from them on how they look for similar apps on the Shopify search engine
- Engaging in competitive analysis by checking out similar Shopify apps and identifying the keywords they use within their app title, description text, and key benefits heading. You also want to input these identified keywords into the Shopify search box and see that they bring actual results similar to your app.
The keywords you discover are going to be a lot at first and you have to whittle them down.
Selecting Keywords
Generally, when choosing the main keyword, you want to select one that ranks for a long time. It is one that customers keep on using and is not determined by seasonal trends.
Nonetheless, there is more to just selecting keywords based on how often you expect customers to use them.
You have to study keyword difficulty. Keyword difficulty relates to how hard it is for your app to rank in the top results for that particular keyword.
If you create an app to facilitate searches, for instance, you could check to see the difficulty of ranking for keywords like "search app", "search bar", or "advance search".
Here is how you determine keyword difficulty;
- Input the keyword in the Shopify search bar
- Check out the number of reviews for the top five apps for this keyword in the past 30 days
- Check out the average rating for these five apps
Why do you need the number of reviews and ratings?
You use the number of reviews to determine the number of installs the app has gotten.
Shopify estimates that 5% of new installs within 30 days give reviews. What you simply do is multiply the number of new reviews by 20 and get an estimate. This isn't 100% accurate but gives you an idea.
Where this number is low, depending on your niche, then you have a chance of ranking high. However, the average rating also comes into play.
If the average rating of these five apps is on the high side, then you have to focus on other keywords.
Keywords that give you low install estimates and apps that are not getting a lot of favorable reviews are what you want to go for.
You don't immediately rank higher. However, you know that if your app offers more value and the appropriate improvements over the top ranking apps, your ranking position explodes up the ladder.
2. Set Up Google Analytics For Your App Listing Page
Once you choose keywords, you want to monitor their performance and identify the ones that offer the most value. You also want to change the keywords that don't bring in any results. Analyzing your app listing page is then the next step.
You start tracking your app listing page by connecting it to Google Analytics. With this, you know where your traffic is coming from ( either the category or Shopify search result page), the key search phrases or actual category, and where your app ranks within these pages.
All these give you a lot of data and information to work with and optimize your keywords for improved Shopify search ranking.
3. Gather Positive Reviews
Positive reviews massively improve your app's ranking within the Shopify app store. They show the algorithms and how well you solve problems for your relevant keywords.
Nonetheless, you want to be careful. Don't gather positive reviews by crook means. Shopify is strongly against this and could ban your app temporarily or permanently from the app store.
Instead, your prompt for a review within the app and wait for one or you wait for app users to reach out due to a problem and help these users solve the problem.
You then prompt them to give a positive review in the app store.
When getting complaints on a problem, you want to be fast in resolving it and then ask them to leave a review if they found your services helpful.
Ranking Higher Isn't All That Difficult
Improving your app's discoverability on the Shopify app store is all about applying some effective Shopify SEO practices.
You engage in proper keyword research, set up Google Analytics to analyze the effectiveness of selected keywords, and improve rankings by gathering positive reviews on your app. All of these work together as the techniques to improve eCommerce site conversion and performance
Of course, your app remains successful in the Shopify store if it also solves a real problem. Don't wait before you start applying the tips listed above.
