SEO Vs ASO: What Is the Difference?
With the rising penetration and inclusivity of mobile telephony globally, Apps are the new thing that serves as marketing platforms for brands and businesses. Technological bandwidth and innovations get upgraded to bring forth all the essentials right onto our palms. But, how does SEO vs ASO affect this?
Thanks to search engines, all you have to do now are typically a few keywords, and you are good to go. But how do some sites appear on the topmost section of your search engine page results? Ever thought of it? It happens through an SEO agency.
What follows is a brief about search engine optimisation and ASO or app store optimization.
Introducing ASO and SEO
First things first, the ‘O’ in both these phenomena stands for optimization. There is the contention that ASO is the SEO for Apps. But, in reality, ASO goes way beyond. For now, one should note the similarity between both these concepts. The purpose of both is to boost traffic and increasing visibility. Does that mean that they are in for a battle? Well, not quite!
App Store Optimisation is the process of leveraging games or applications to attain maximum visibility in app stores, both in the Search (in terms of user search queries) and Explore (in terms of user browsing) categories. SEO, on the other hand, also renders optimization. The objective, in this case, is to increase website positioning by driving the quantity and quality of traffic to a particular website through the search engine page results or SERPs.
The Defining Factors
Although both serve as drivers for search queries and organic traffic through algorithms, the methods used to differ. The two factors that outline the distinction are what the app owners can or cannot optimize and, secondly, the objective or purpose behind each search query.
Extent of Optimisation
In terms of SEO, everything, including the build, can be optimized. More so, you can improve SEO through the nitty-gritty of title, meta description, keyword testing, and others. Plugins and themes such as Yoast SEO are crucial in this avenue. Delving further into the realm of SEO, you have complete creative control over what the content shall include, be it images, text, and video.
SEO offers creators more options for optimizing the quality. Additional plugins help gear up the aesthetics and user-friendliness of the websites. When it comes to ASO, there is not much that you can do. At the outset, only the elements that cater to app details on the listing can be optimized.
Does the call for optimization constraints for ASO regard it to be better than SEO? There are pros and cons to both. SEO tends to become much more competitive due to the leniency. But this also enables the magnates and bigwigs to front-run the SERPs, which is not the case for ASO. Additionally, the limitations make ASO challenging to replicate for others.
Objective and Purpose of the Search
Another avenue that renders stark differences between ASO and SEO is the types of searches. The intent of search among users for apps and content differ. To begin with, SEO provides an extensive scope when searching for information than ASO. SEO includes both queries and tools, whereas the advent of ASO sticks to Apps or particular brands. More so, users punch in inquiries regarding the functionality of the app.
With that said, the search queries for both differ drastically as well. For ASO, users type out target or single-word keywords such as finance, stocks, or fitness. On the other hand, SEO allows for long-form queries such as ‘What are the top-performing stocks of the month’ or ‘What are the best fitness regimes for building muscles’.
Additional Differences in SEO and ASO
Now that you know the defining factors, next up are the differences in visibility and trends.
Visibility Factors
ASO comprises the Explore or Browse traffic categories which allow App stores to feature particular applications in their stories, category rankings, editorials, and recommendations. Again, this avenue is not available for SEO. In addition, App Stores explicitly reveal user opinions through ratings and reviews and, it is an in-built section in App listings, another feature that is not available with SEO.
Paid traffic is another distinguishing factor and affects both SEO and ASO. It determines the popularity of Apps within the App Store, such that it influences the search algorithm and hence, the organic visibility. However, this is not the circumstance with SEO. Therefore, paid promotion does not impact the organic visibility of websites.
Type anything on Google, and you will see paid advertising banners. What is new and trending in the Apps department is very evident through ASO. Aspects such as special features and stories and new and latest Apps help garner a competitive edge over the older ones. However, no concrete notion renders new and latest websites or pages an advantage in rankings.
Trends
The trends for search engines and App stores differ, and this should come as no surprise whatsoever. When users look for specific Apps on web search, the search engine displays features and benefits that reside in that particular application or tool. However, the trends for the App store search are different. In the app Stores, the trends comprise parameters relating to ranking, such as the number of installations, frequency, and data history.
Final Words
Increasing penetration and inclusivity of mobile telephony have introduced the advent of Apps and brought them to the forefront. They serve as the marketing tools for brands and businesses today. Type a few keywords on a search engine or an App store, and you will see the results. This occurs because of the advent of App Search Optimisation and Search Engine Optimisation.
The primary purpose of both these avenues is to boost traction and increase visibility. But the defining factors that distinguish these two phenomena are the extent of optimization and search intent. Additional differences stem from visibility factors such as ratings and reviews, paid traffic, and new and latest additions.
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