Back

How to promote an app?

on 

GoodBarber is a no-code app builder that lets you create mobile apps for iOS and Android, in native version, but also for the web, with Progressive Web Apps (PWA). Creating an app without any knowledge of coding is all well and good. But making your app a real success is even better! Indeed, while creating your own app with an app builder  is exciting enough, you need to promote your app to make it a success. And that's a big job. So in this article, we've put together all the things you need to know to promote your app and make it the success it deserves!

All these tips also apply to resellers , who use our app builder to create apps for their customers. While creating an app for a customer is already a big job, there's also all the marketing involved in promoting the app. This is particularly true for marketing and communications agencies.

1/ SEO for PWA

To maximize the number of visitors to the Progressive Web App version of your project, you need to focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In other words, improve your PWA's search engine ranking.
  • What does SEO mean?
SEO can be defined as a set of tasks aimed at improving the search engine ranking of a website or a Progressive Web App. To make it simple, your PWA is considered to have good SEO when it appears among the first search engine results for a certain number of keywords you want to rank for. To assess the relevance of a PWA, search engines rely on two elements: their index and their algorithms.

To build up their index, search engines use indexing robots. These robots, or bots, crawl the web and gather information about the sites they visit (content, links, activity, etc.). The information stored in the index is then used by the algorithms. For each query, they calculate and return a list of the most relevant sites.
  • Why should you rely on SEO?
Firstly, because it's free, unlike Adwords, for example, which involves buying an audience for your site or PWA.
Secondly, because visitors arriving on your PWA via the organic channel, which is what SEO is all about, are better qualified. If only because they have a clearly identified need, and that need has led them to search the web for a solution. If your PWA appears in the search results, it's because you're able to meet their needs.

Moreover, appearing in the top results of search engines helps to establish your brand's or company's reputation.
To conclude, SEO considerably improves the visibility of your Web App and brings quality visitors to your site. It's definitely the acquisition channel of choice for capturing a qualified Web audience.
  • How to optimize your PWA's SEO?
The PWA version of your project can be optimized on several levels to improve its search engine ranking.

On a technicallevel, GoodBarber provides tools to help you index your content. There are a number of options which, if used wisely, will give you the best chance of being indexed:

The information contained in META tags is added by search engines to their index, but is mainly used to display search results for your PWA. They can be customized at different levels:
  • The default meta tag for your PWA
  • The main pages (sections of your app)
  • Content detail pages from the CMS
More information is available here .

You then need to declare your Sitemap to Google . Finally, you can rewrite the URLs of your content pages to make them more relevant to visitors' search engine queries.
In terms of editorialcontent, freshness is a key criteria for search engine relevance. You need to write regularly and make public (accessible to search engines) as many articles as possible using the keywords on which you want to be well positioned. Remember that robots give priority to the first 100 characters of your articles. 
Remember, you're writing for a visitor, not a robot. Don't make the mistake of writing incomprehensible or unpleasant sentences under the pretext of including keywords for which you want to be well ranked.

Acquiringlinks
Whenever possible, try to get as many links as possible from other sites. This is a very strong indicator for a search engine, because if sites are pointing to yours, you have relevant content. Prefer links from sites in the same industry as yours.

A complementary alternative to SEO involves buying traffic from the Google Ads advertising platform. This is known as SEA (search engine advertising). This advertising network is aimed at companies wishing to increase their digital audience through the Google Ads platform.
Based on keywords chosen by advertisers, Google Ads are displayed according to the user's search query in the search engine, above the natural results. The only difference with natural results is that the word "Ad" appears before the URL of the page. This is a good short-term strategy for generating traffic, whereas SEO is a longer-term strategy.

2/ ASO for native apps

ASO means App Store Optimization. It's the same principle as SEO in search engines, but applied to Stores. It's a set of tasks you need to carry out to ensure that your app appears in the top search results of a Store user, based on certain keywords. You can download a special guide here .

3/ Referral (getting the word out about you and your app)

Identify the communities that may be interested in your application. Identify the media outlets that disseminate information to these communities, and get in touch with them so that they refer to your app in an article, on the website or on their social networks. This will promote your app and maximize the number of downloads.

4/ Leveraging social networks

Above all, don't forget to use social networks to promote your app. It's an essential channel for informing, advertising and reaching an audience of potential users. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tik Tok. You can try them all. Then you'll need to assess which social networks are bringing you the most downloads, and bet on those. After all, each social network offers a different concept in terms of content dissemination, and the targets are not the same. For example, we know that social networks like Snapchat or Tik Tok are mainly used by a younger audience. This is less the case for Facebook, for example. So it's important to consider who you're targeting with your app.

5/ Widgets, QR codes and buttons

With GoodBarber, once your app is published, you can get the direct download link to the native Android or iOS app. This allows you to share this link everywhere: blog, social networks, messages, email, etc. To maximize the number of downloads.

But that's not all: you can also generate widgets or buttons to insert on your website or pages to enable the app to be downloaded. Finally, you can also generate a QR Code to download the application from a mobile phone. The QR Code can be printed on flyers for distribution, or installed in partner stores, businesses or other locations.

6/ Updates

To ensure the long-term success of your app, don't forget to update it regularly. These updates can be of various kinds: of course, you need to publish new content on a regular basis to keep users interested in your app, and to avoid your app ending up at the bottom of the list of apps consulted by your users on their smartphones. GoodBarber CMS gives users access to new content in real time.

You can also make changes to your app by modifying certain design aspects, or add new sections to your app. This way, you can continue to promote your app and get new users to download it. Changes to the app's design or structure don't require you to publish an update on the Stores. Simply update the app's settings in the back office, and the new version is ready in seconds, accessible to all your users!

Finally, don't forget to publish an update for your app on the Apple and Google Stores, to apply bug fixes and have an app that's always up to date with the latest versions of the iOS and Android operating systems. This will guarantee users a consistently impeccable experience. Satisfied users will have no trouble spreading the word about your app, or even leaving a positive review on the web or social networks. In this way, you can hope to further increase your user base. We recommend publishing a native app update once every six months.
In conclusion, it's important to remember that promoting an app is a real challenge that needs to be tackled in addition to creating the app on an app builder like GoodBarber, to ensure the success of the project. At GoodBarber, we provide you with a whole range of tools to make your task easier. Don't hesitate to use them to succeed. With GoodBarber, success is just around the corner for your app!

Not yet a reseller? Create a test version here: https://www.goodbarber.com/create/reseller/