Keyword ranking improves

A couple of days ago I was a bit put out by a sudden drop in keyword ranking for Float. I was at a loss to explain it.

Now just as suddenly, my ranking has returned. So what happened? Perhaps Google changed an algorithm then changed it back?

Even so, me restored ranking is still very low. I suspect I need more positive ratings to boost it up higher. But I have issue with this. Have you looked at the reviews of indie apps? All 5 stars and all genetic text like "great app, just what I needed!" And "this app is perfect. Outstanding work." These reviews could be for any app, and I suspect have been posted to many apps. Its a buddy system, and means nothing to the quality of an app, only the skill of the marketer.

I guess I need  to apply the same strategy...

Sensor Tower

Becoming an App publisher is no "Field of Dreams."

And by that I mean, "If you build it, they will come" is not a valid moto! I think it's fair to say the making of my first app, Float, was for sure the easy part. Getting it seen is by far a harder task, and something I'm ill prepared for.

I have my app on the devices of a handful of like minded indie developers and family and friends (thank you to all of you!) and some of them are very complimentary. But getting even those people to share or rate or even +1 the app in the play store is hard. As a result, my app lingers way down the rankings, even if you search by its precise name!

So, having stumbled upon Sensor Tower, I've been inspired to focus on the keywords in my app store description.

Sensor tower has allowed me to much more easily establish my ranking for certain search terms (previously I'd have searched and scrolled through 250 apps to determine that I'm not ranking).

It also allows me to track how my ranking has changed over time (See image below, which I'll come back to shortly).

Another really helpful feature is the ability to choose specific competitor apps to track and review their own strategies.

So, I decided I needed to make some changes to my app store description today having viewed my app floundering at 70 in the rankings for searches of "float". I changed the name from "Float" to "Float Tile Puzzle" and added new text to describe the game in more detail, using the terms "Tile" and "Puzzle" a few extra times, as well as "Mahjong" and "Sudoku" once or twice.

The result was not ideal! With the new name, my app instantly plummeted in ranking for search term "float" and did not appear on the rankings for either "tile" or "tile puzzle"

I can only hope the changes will be helpful in the long term. And at least I now have Sensor Tower to help me measure my ranking.

It's not perfect though. The free account is quite limiting (though they do give away a Pro plan to students and indie developers for posting a review of their platform ;))

It also could do with an android app. I couldn't find one (I assume that's not because they haven't optimised their own rankings!) and the web page performs very poorly on a mobile platform.

I hope I can post the image below again soon with a significant bounce back in search performance!