How to Optimize Your Google Play Description For Higher Ranking

Google Play Search is the main tool for users to find relevant and popular apps in the Play Store. Ensuring that your app and product details are detailed and optimized is an important factor in being found by users on Google Play.

Yes, it is important to optimize your app's details page to attract the most users. Why? Once your app is in the Google Play store, it will be competing with thousands of other apps and will need help to get noticed in the competition.

Do you want to create a description for your new Android app to help you achieve maximum conversions? It's a good idea to search for best practices for Google Play app descriptions. Since the description of your Google Play app is one of the most important aspects of App Store Optimization (ASO), we'll take a smart approach and provide you with all the tips you need to grab the attention of potential users.

The importance of app description in Google Play

The app description in Google Play is very important because it directly affects your app's ranking. How about that one? Unlike the App Store, Google's algorithm catches keywords in the description, which is why App Store optimization plays an important role here.

For Google Play, the second most important thing is the short description of the app, followed by the full description.

Basic rules when adding keywords to the app description

Selecting popular keywords is a key step in providing quality ranking signals to the algorithm.

Let's look at some rules to help you properly add keywords to your descriptions:


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1. Use keywords wisely

If your application is just entering the market, do not chase popular queries. Focus on low and medium frequency requests.

2. Density of the most relevant keywords

Remember that copying keywords across multiple metadata elements does benefit the visibility of your application. Therefore, if you want to rank for competing terms that have been added to your app title, put them in the short description as well. By doing so, you will increase your app's chances of outperforming your competitors. However, please note that each term can only appear once in the short description. Implementing the same term twice will not create additional visibility.

The best practice in long descriptions is to maintain a density of 2-3% for your most relevant keywords. Therefore, you should choose the keywords to focus on wisely and repeat them in the metadata. Avoid exceeding 3% density, as this may be considered "keyword stuffing" (and the algorithm will penalize you for it).

When the description is 2000-2500 characters long, add 3-4 repetitions of important keywords to the text. If the description is longer than 3500 characters, you can repeat a keyword up to 5 times. Forcing them into the description without making any sense. This can have a negative impact on the algorithm, which means it will lower your app ranking.

3. Avoid using competitor's brand name on Google Play app pages

Google Play has no keyword field and app metadata is visible to all users. If you add a competitor's brand keywords to your description, rights holders can see this and file a complaint about your app. 

In addition to complaints from competitors, the app may also be rejected during the review process. Google Play's algorithm automatically validates metadata, which prevents apps with branded keywords from passing. You may be temporarily banned; in this case, the app will be removed from the store and returned only when you remove the branded query. 

To get installs through competitor queries, you can advertise your app on Google Ads. Display locations are automatically selected, but the app may end up in the "Related to your search" section and appear in other people's brand queries. 

It is important to explore the installation to get to the "You may also like" and "Similar apps" sections. Explore can generate a lot of traffic in certain categories of Google Play apps, so it's important to work your way into the editorial.

You should not add competitors' branded keywords to the Google Play app page, but you can use Google Ads and drive Explore traffic to get installs for the desired keywords.

How to optimize both app descriptions on Google Play

Short description

Here, you will have 80 characters to place the most relevant keywords that do not fit in the application title.

Secondly, it can help with conversion rate optimization. Unlike a long description, it is visible on the product page and requires no other user action. Therefore, it is the gateway to the long description that is only readable when the user clicks on "About this application". With an exciting short description, you can keep users on your product page and increase their chances of downloading the application.

As an application owner, you should create a short description that captures the user's attention with a great design and piques their interest with useful information.

USP

People will not use your application to help you. They have a problem or a wish, and they will download your app only if they think it will solve their problem or fulfill their wish.

A short description is a good tool to provide them with this information. Let them know how your app will help them and how it will make their lives better.

State the Unique Selling Point (USP). Usually, your keywords reflect these USPs, but there may be more facts that are worth mentioning. Ask yourself the following questions and use the answers (or some of the answers) as keywords in your short description.

• What are the most important features of your application?
• What features does your application have that your competitors' applications do not?
• Does your app offer a greater variety of content or products than competitor apps?
• Is your app cheaper (or is your product cheaper)?
• Do you offer better service, such as free shipping, 24/7 support, multilingual content, or a money-back guarantee?
• Is your app exceptionally fast or stable?
• Can people use it in airplane mode?

Keep it simple

Make sure to make the short description easy to read and understand. There's no need to write a literary masterpiece. So avoid complex words and long sentences.

Follow the KISS principle: "Keep it simple". By doing so, you ensure that all visitors to your application product page can read and understand your short description, regardless of their educational background.

A short CTA is great for short descriptions, but a comma-separated list of your app's features and benefits may also apply.

Use emojis

Google Play also supports emojis. If it makes sense for your app, consider adding some to draw users' attention to your short description.

Please note that apps don't work for every app. If you have a business app (one that is primarily used in a professional environment) or a financial app, respectively, then emojis are not appropriate. However, for most casual apps, especially games aimed at children, emojis are a good way to embellish short descriptions.

Long description

The main difference between the App Store and Google Play is that the keywords used in the long description are a ranking factor on Google Play, whereas they are not on the App Store. Google Play gives high ranking weight to the long description. For this reason, you should follow ASO best practices to increase your chances of ranking.

Long descriptions on the Google Play Store can contain up to 4000 characters. Use them to provide a broad, clear and structured description of your app's features and uses.

Description length

Don't chase lengthy descriptions. You can describe all the features of your app in 2500-3000 characters, or set the description to 4000 characters. The number of characters will not have much impact on the location of the application. Most importantly, you should use the necessary keywords in the description and talk about the most important features of the app.

Do optimize beginning of the long description 

When someone lands on your app page in the Google Play Store, they will see a preview of the description consisting of about 250 characters without having to click the "Read More" button to see the full text.

This amount is approximately equal to the first three sentences of your description. Since first impressions are important in the mobile app business, you should get your audience to read more by making these sentences as interesting as possible.

Add your keywords several times, especially in the first and last lines of the text, to help Google Play rank your app for those keywords and add more content to the rest of the text. Keywords placed at the top are more relevant to Google than those placed at the bottom. In iOS, you shouldn't repeat keywords, but for Google Play, it's a must. The most important keywords can be added multiple times, especially at the beginning and at the end of the description. 

Format

Write in short paragraphs, use bullet points and rich formatting to provide structure to your text, and make the most of all available characters to get the perfect long description.

So, how should you present this content?

The following are best practices and tips on how to use rich text formatting for long descriptions.

• Use short sentences (+/- 120 characters per line).
• Use small paragraphs (+/- 3-4 lines per paragraph).
• Use line breaks; write your descriptions with spaces between paragraphs.
• Use bullets or lists.
• Use subheadings.
• Use bold formatting where useful.
• Use some (few) words in all capitalization where necessary.
• Use emoticons to add sparkle to your content.