I am unsure about the following suggestion (on naming your app):
> My suggestion would be to find a name that not only sounds good, but is also relatively explicit and contains a major keyword.
I have a fairly popular app out at the moment — it's name is simply a single word.
A lot of competing apps use the "Name - Some Keywords" format in their iTunes app name. I am hesitant to update my app to do the same because it feels tacky.
Does this actually help customers find your app? Has it been shown to produce a real difference in discovery?
How easily is your app found for your major keywords compared to these competitors? If you're #1-#3, then maybe you don't need to change something that is going well.
It is what most experts (the MobileDevHQ, Appcod.es, SearchMan SEO and App Store Ranking peeps) recommend though. I tend to believe them, even if there are definitely other factors in ranking well.
It doesn't have to be tacky, like a list of keywords. Maybe those few keywords can make for a nice, short tagline?
I put the keywords in my app's keyword metadata section. My app shows up at about #18 for the given key phrase (it's a two-word "key word").
My main concern is that people don't know what my app is about due to it not being explained in the name. However, it is quite popular, so I am conflicted about losing the simple branding in favour of a more SEO-heavy name.
That said: I have added a tagline to the upcoming update and will see if that effects discovery.
If you don't make just a list of keywords, then I think you should go for the more SEO-heavy name.
When searching and seeing the results on a device, if your current app name is what comes first (it should be) then your potential users will mainly see that. I think it's something like the 19 first characters that display on the App Store before the "..."
Although I am agree with this, however soo many developer are abusing this to the point where I think it is ridicilous. Soo many app now give you push notification when the app has not been used for a while and I think that's just as bad as spamming.
> My suggestion would be to find a name that not only sounds good, but is also relatively explicit and contains a major keyword.
I have a fairly popular app out at the moment — it's name is simply a single word.
A lot of competing apps use the "Name - Some Keywords" format in their iTunes app name. I am hesitant to update my app to do the same because it feels tacky.
Does this actually help customers find your app? Has it been shown to produce a real difference in discovery?