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Hi Everyone,
The opportunity is really the product of a collision between Desktop and Mobile worlds: the explosive popularity of apps are reshaping the Web’s link graph around the App Store and Android Market sites.
It comes as no surprise that “Popular Apps” listed in the App Store and Android Market pages are driven by app download volume and rating quality. But these app profile pages and app “directories” (like the App Store’s Lifestyle category page) are also webpages.
As search engines continue to index, display, and rank app pages for search-dominant mobile users, app-mania is simultaneously driving a geometric expansion of the backlinks and social popularity of these ordinary webpages – giving them extraordinary influence over organic search results.
The net effect, based on our own analysis of top ranking mobile iOS apps, appears to be a powerful feedback loop: App Store popularity gets rewarded by incremental Google visibility.
Higher Google visibility induces more app downloads. More downloading drives higher App Store popularity and on and on, potentially entrenching popular apps in a rich-get-richer-faster phenomenon.
This might seem like bad news for the 99% who have good mobile apps, but aren’t among the “Most Popular” apps listed. But the fact is, this highlights the opportunity – and urgency – for brands to optimize app pages for organic search rankings, to help drive app popularity and other benefits.
The opportunity is really the product of a collision between Desktop and Mobile worlds: the explosive popularity of apps are reshaping the Web’s link graph around the App Store and Android Market sites.
It comes as no surprise that “Popular Apps” listed in the App Store and Android Market pages are driven by app download volume and rating quality. But these app profile pages and app “directories” (like the App Store’s Lifestyle category page) are also webpages.
As search engines continue to index, display, and rank app pages for search-dominant mobile users, app-mania is simultaneously driving a geometric expansion of the backlinks and social popularity of these ordinary webpages – giving them extraordinary influence over organic search results.
The net effect, based on our own analysis of top ranking mobile iOS apps, appears to be a powerful feedback loop: App Store popularity gets rewarded by incremental Google visibility.
Higher Google visibility induces more app downloads. More downloading drives higher App Store popularity and on and on, potentially entrenching popular apps in a rich-get-richer-faster phenomenon.
This might seem like bad news for the 99% who have good mobile apps, but aren’t among the “Most Popular” apps listed. But the fact is, this highlights the opportunity – and urgency – for brands to optimize app pages for organic search rankings, to help drive app popularity and other benefits.