Ask HN: Suggestions for Keywords Apple App Store

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3353068

by iamjonlee • 15 years ago

3 4 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We launched our iphone app two days ago (http://www.grooovy.me) and while we're not doing bad, we could be doing a lot better. One of the things I just read about was the keywords that you use in order for people to find you in the App store.

Does anyone have any experience with keywords or have suggestions as to what keywords I should use? I realize that terms like 'social networking' and 'meetups' are far too general and won't be helpful at all.

kurtvarner• 15 years ago

Can't help much for the keywords, but I do have a suggestion. You need a much better description of what your app does. If it's an event planning app, then simple say that. From your website it took me way to long to understand what it does. "Create Connect Enjoy" and "The free app that breaks barriers and puts you in the driving seat" I literally have no idea what that means, and those are your first two headings. This is marketing talk and doesn't make anyone want to use it. I didn't actually find out what the app does until the third page down, and even then it was hidden behind "Meet to your mood". "Create events on the fly" is what I was looking for. It's simple and direct. This statement should be the main text on your home page.

Sorry for the rant, but I really think you need much, much simpler copy that is more direct and less marketing lingo.

tbgvi• 15 years ago

It tough because they restrict you to a pretty small space for keywords. I stumbled into this one... but you should try using the names of competitive apps in your keywords, or perhaps complementary apps.

I un-intentionally did this once (one of our "competitors" had a fairly broad/generic app name), and it definitely seemed to kick start our downloads.

Not sure how often you plan on updating your app, but I'd definitely recommend experimenting with the keywords. Unfortunately you can only change them when pushing out an update, so you'd need to update frequently to do a lot of experimentation with them.

mjs00• 15 years ago

"meet new people", at least 6 apps with that phrase in the title. "meetup" - also used a few times

... you can test other words and phrases in the iTunes search box, and see if popular enough that its being cached and used as a suggestion for autocompletion.

alecszaharia• 15 years ago

P.s: I think you should minimize the images.

Ask HN: Suggestions for Keywords Apple App Store

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