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Dec 18 2020
It is very important to ensure that the specific metadata of your application complies with the detailed rules of the application store before submitting for review.
According to our statistics, whether to provide accurate metadata content has become the second most important factor in rejected reviews, accounting for 21.80% of the total rejected applications. You can join our topic to discuss the details of App Metadata.
Whether it is for end users or the App Review team, all new features, functions, and product changes in the app should be clearly visible.
Provide a detailed description in the "Review Notes" section of App Store Connect (a general description will cause the app to be rejected). Do not market content or services that are not actually provided in your app in the App Store or offline (such as iOS-based virus and malware scanning tools).
If your app contains in-app purchases, you need to make sure that the description, screenshots, and previews of the app clearly indicate whether there are selected items, levels, and subscriptions that need to be purchased separately. And ensure that your app correctly uses the SKPaymentTransactionObserver method so that customers can seamlessly complete the purchase in the app.
Screenshots should show the usage of the app, not just the title cover, login page or initial screen. Screenshots can also include text and image descriptions (for example, demonstrating input mechanisms, such as touch points or an animation of Apple Pencil), and show extended functions on the device, such as the touch bar.
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Preview is a good way to let customers understand the appearance and functions of the app. To ensure that customers understand the experience they will get in the app, previews can only use the video screen captured from the app. Stickers and iMessage extensions can show the user experience in the "message" app. You can also add narration and video, or add text descriptions to help explain anything that cannot be clarified by video alone.
Please select the most suitable category for the app, and refer to "App Store Category Definition" when you need help. If the selected category is far from the actual situation, we may change the category of the app.
Please answer the age rating questions honestly in the App Store Connect to keep the app and parental control functions consistent. If the app rating is incorrect, customers may be surprised when they get the app, or prompt government regulators to investigate accordingly. If the media content contained in the app requires content ratings or warnings (such as movies, music, games, etc.), you must follow local requirements in each region where the app is sold.
Do not try to use trademark terms, popular app names, pricing information or other irrelevant phrases to package any metadata to deceive the system. The app name must be limited to 30 characters and must not contain prices, words, or descriptions that are not part of the app name. The app subtitle is a great place to detail the background information of the app. The subtitle must follow our standard metadata rules and must not contain inappropriate content, mention other apps, or make unverifiable product claims. Apple may modify inappropriate keywords or take other appropriate steps at any time to prevent improper use.
Metadata should be suitable for all audiences, so please make sure that the icons, screenshots, and previews of your app and in-app purchases are maintained at a 4+ age rating; this should be the case even if your app has a higher rating. For example, if your app is a game that contains violence, don’t choose images that contain tragic deaths or aim a gun at a specific character. Only "children category" apps can use words like "suitable for toddlers" and "suitable for children" in their metadata. Please make sure that the metadata including the app name and icon (small icon, large icon, Apple Watch app, backup icon, etc.) are similar to each other to avoid confusion.
You are responsible for ensuring that you have the right to use all the materials in the app icon, screenshots, and previews, and display fictitious account information instead of real personal data.
Please ensure that your app focuses on the iOS, Mac, Apple TV or Apple Watch experience, and does not include the names, icons or images of other mobile platforms in the app or metadata, unless there are specific interactive features that have been approved. Make sure your app metadata focuses on the app itself and its experience. Do not include irrelevant information, including but not limited to information about Apple or the development process.
The apps you submit to the App Store for reservation must be in a complete and publishable state. Please make sure that the final app you publish is not substantially different from the content advertised during the pre-order state. If you make major changes to the app (such as changing its business model), you should restart its pre-order sales.
App must clearly describe new functions and product changes in its "new function" text. Some simple bug fixes, security updates, and performance improvements can be explained by general descriptions, but more significant changes must be listed in the remarks.
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Comments
Edmund Padilla
@Alton Simon Metadata summarizes basic information about data, making finding & working with particular instances of data easier. Metadata can be created manually to be more accurate, or automatically and contain more basic information.
Ethel King
@Claudia Bates Go to the bottom of the right-click menu and click or tap Properties. You can also select the file and then press ALT+Enter on your keyboard. This will bring up the properties of the file, but go ahead and go to the Details tab to get into the nitty-gritty of the metadata.
Evan Douglas
@Lance Obrien Tap the gallery icon on the bottom-left. Select the picture you want to edit EXIF data for. To view EXIF data, you can tap the various icons below the image. To edit or remove EXIF data (after you pay for the app), tap Metadata.
Evan Douglas
@Lance Obrien Tap the gallery icon on the bottom-left. Select the picture you want to edit EXIF data for. To view EXIF data, you can tap the various icons below the image. To edit or remove EXIF data (after you pay for the app), tap Metadata.
Nelson Robbins
@Edwin Santiago This means that the review has only just been interrupted and can be resumed once you provide the missing information. The most common metadata errors are Inaccurate screenshots: your screenshots should accurately communicate your app's value and functionality.
Marco Stokes
@Wilson Fowler If you use ratings to help you out, you can now filter your search results by ratings on the Google Play Store. Whenever you search for an app on your browser, a drop-down menu will appear.
Samantha Holloway
@Guillermo Ward If your app has to be rejected by Apple, a metadata rejection is the best-case scenario. This means that the review has only just been interrupted and can be resumed once you provide the missing information.
Angel Ross
@Zachary Gardner First, metadata means "data that describes data." In your app, your metadata is primarily the information (data) you see in the App Information and iOS App version tabs that describes what your app (binary data) does and what it looks like.
Jay Watson
@Earnest Little Picking the right keywords and keyword phrases is one of the most important steps in a successful ASO. Increasing traffic to your app is a priority, but attracting the right audience is a necessity.
Jay Watson
@Earnest Little Choosing the most effective keywords to connect with your target market can take time and research, but the results will be worth it.
Sam Weber
@Marcos Rodgers This means that the review has only just been interrupted and can be resumed once you provide the missing information. The most common metadata errors are: Inaccurate screenshots: your screenshots should accurately communicate your app's value and functionality.
Lucy Parsons
@Lorena Powell The best way to do that is to see what keywords your competitors are using with an online tool like App Annie or Sensor Tower. Go to App Annie, for example, and type in your competitor's app. Navigate to the “Keywords (ASO)” tab and you'll see data on which keywords they're ranking highly for.
Gilberto Parker
@Lynda Warren If you have previously downloaded the app and are not able to find it anymore on the App Store, there's a possibility that either the developer of Apple has taken the app off the App Store or the same is no longer available in your region. The best way to resolve is to get in touch with the developer via their website.
Roman Barker
@Terry Park First, metadata means "data that describes data." In your app, your metadata is primarily the information (data) you see in the App Information and iOS App version tabs that describes what your app (binary data) does and what it looks like.
Sheri Walsh
@Anne Waters Similar to Apple App Store search guides, you must put your main keywords in the title of your Google Play Store app. This will increase your Android app’s chances to rank better for those targeted keywords.
Sheri Walsh
@Anne Waters However, choose your keywords wisely as Google allows you to add just 30 characters in the title field. This means, you can add only one or two highly targeted keywords in the app’s title. Use Google AdWords Traffic Estimator to find and prioritize relevant keywords for your app and add the top ones in the title. Do not ever stuff keywords though, that is as much a sin in ASO as in SEO.
Sadie Perez
@Dwight Graves Similar to Apple App Store search guides, you must put your main keywords in the title of your Google Play Store app. This will increase your Android app's chances to rank better for those targeted keywords. According to MobileDevHQ, app titles that have keywords in them have 10.3% higher ranking than those that don't.
Maggie Pena
@Melvin Harrington Specify your location. The first, and perhaps most important, step in finding local SEO keywords is specifying your location. Focus on industry-related keywords. When you conduct local keyword research, focus on industry-related keywords.
Darrel Ward
@Fannie Davidson Just like Google Analytics for web page marketing, there are a number of powerful app store analytics tools that are designed to help your mobile marketing strategy. You will be able to see where your app stands in relation to the competition, and boost your store ranking accordingly.
Darrel Ward
@Fannie Davidson These app analytics tools are helpful because they give you hard data about all sorts of measurements related to your app. They can show you what you’re doing wrong in marketing your app, what you could be doing to improve your app store ranking, and much more.
Damon Drake
@Ramona Jacobs Positive ratings and reviews, both in terms of quality and quantity, have a huge impact on your App Store Optimization efforts. It’s in your best interest to get as many as you can. Of course, they need to be honest reviews from people who have actually downloaded the app. You can encourage users you know through word of mouth to leave a good review of your app on the App Store or Google Play.
Damon Drake
@Ramona Jacobs Another way to get app store reviews might be sending a push notification to encourage users to review your app (as long as you’ve gotten permission to send push notifications!). You can also have an in-app pop-up notification asking the user to leave a good review if he or she liked it. (MobiLoud includes this features in your apps for you and the results are encouraging, with a 4.5 average rating for MobiLoud customer apps.)
Damon Drake
@Ramona Jacobs We would recommend having the notification appear after a certain number of times the app has been opened; if a user is opening the app frequently, chances are that they like it and will put in a good review. If they haven’t used your app much, the review won’t reflect their experience accurately.
Bradford Delgado
@Clinton Allison There’s a direct correlation between downloads and ranking: the more downloads your app has, the more popular it is perceived to be, therefore the higher it’s ranked.
Jennifer Munoz
@Clinton Allison Knowing how to design and an engaging app icon is very important as well. You only get one image to show app store audiences why your app is worth their time for consideration, so choose carefully!
Sally Wood
@Jerry Perry Placing your app in the proper category on both the Apple App Store and on Google Play is not only helpful for users who are browsing apps by category, but it is also best practice for helping your app to rank well. If you feel like your app fits into more than one category, there are 3 ways to approach your problem:
Sally Wood
@Jerry Perry First, and most obviously, you’ll want to pick the category that best describes your mobile app. Next, it’s a good idea to check out just how many apps are in each category; choosing the least competitive category gives your app a better chance of ranking closer to the top. Finally, look at the estimated app worth (EAW) of the apps near the top of those categories. Put your app in the one with the lower numbers may be to your advantage as well. It’s also important to remember that putting your app in a category that’s blatantly wrong can lead to trouble. Apple reviews all submitted apps before publishing them to the App Store, and adding your app to the wrong category for App Store Optimization purposes will probably mean a rejection stamp.
Sally Wood
@Jerry Perry As for Google Play, users can report violations for review. If you have a major error like Sports app in the Medical category, it’s only a matter of time before someone points that out.
Gwen Tate
@Christy Nguyen 85% of the US internet audience watch videos online, and over half of video content is consumed on mobile. You can harness the power of video for your App Store page to give prospective users a better insight into what your app can offer them.
Gwen Tate
@Gwen Tate Most people will view this on auto-play with muted audio. So have text overlays to explain pertinent sections or features that you’re showing. And, only include footage of the app itself, don’t waste precious seconds filming happy, smiling people using the app. This isn’t 2009 anymore, people!” Lionel Valdellon, Content Marketing Manager at CleverTap
Gwen Tate
@Christy Nguyen App Previews in the iOS App Store allow you to upload 30 second long videos to showcase the features and benefits of your app. You can only show recordings of the in-app experience, so make sure your mobile app UX looks good, and matches what your prospective audience is looking for! This App Store Optimization technique is going to help your App Store page convert higher as you’re providing valuable content.
Taylor Peterson
@Vickie Steele People only spend 7 seconds deciding if they’re going to download an app or not. How your app store page looks is a crucial factor in their decision, and high quality app store screenshots are going to make a big difference.
Taylor Peterson
@Vickie Steele In fact, they’re cited as being the second most influential factor when it comes to convincing someone to download your app (second only to your App Rating). Combine app store screenshots
Taylor Peterson
@Vickie Steele You should use your screenshot real estate wisely, and focus on the key benefits and most engaging parts of your app. There are a host of tools available to help you create app screenshots that look great, such as Figma, MockUPhone, and AppLaunchpad. If you build apps with MobiLoud – we can prepare the screenshots (as well as all other design assets) for you to the highest standard.
Tracey Sullivan
@Hazel Holt For both Apple and Android apps, your app description is like your website’s landing page. If you’ve brought your potential buyer this far, you want to be able to close the deal and make the sale! Therefore, your app’s description and page within the app store should be viewed as an important part of your App Store Optimization Strategy. Start by assuming that users know very little about your app besides, its name. You need to think like your customer would. It often helps to think in terms of bullet points:
Tracey Sullivan
@Hazel Holt What does your app do? What problem does it solve? How will it make the buyer’s life easier? Why is it worth the price?
Alberta Steele
@Audrey Cain Like in SEO, Keywords are an important factor in ASO. Just like with app titles, how you should handle app keywords differs from the Apple App Store to Google Play.
Alberta Steele
@Audrey Cain With Apple, you get only 100 characters for all of your keywords, so obviously, you need to choose wisely; it should go without saying that you should get as close to this 100 character limit as you possibly can. With Google Play, though, there is no specific keyword field. However, the app description is searchable, and you have a comfortable 4000 characters to work with.
Alberta Steele
@Alberta Steele For the best App Store Optimization, you’ll want to put your most important keywords in your description five times. However, be careful not to overdo it – keyword stuffing will get your app penalized (just like keyword stuffing on a website would get your site penalized by Google), leading to a drop in your ranking. There’s a fine line between optimizing your app description, and stuffing it with keywords – the key is to make sure it reads well and makes sense for a person reading it, not just for the App Store algorithm!
Audrey Johnston
@Dave Mendoza App Store Optimization (ASO) is the effort to improve an app's visibility in the app stores — and it's become a key resource in mobile marketing strategies since it brings qualified organic traffic and lowers User Acquisition (UA) costs. Among other things, a basic ASO project/strategy involves creative updates.
Georgia Johnson
@Leah Flowers It’s also a good idea to take a look at what the top apps are for each keyword to get an idea of what people are looking for when they search for that term. If your app does something completely different than the top apps for that keyword, you may not have as much interest as you’d like.
Georgia Johnson
@Leah Flowers It’s also a good idea to take a look at what the top apps are for each keyword to get an idea of what people are looking for when they search for that term. If your app does something completely different than the top apps for that keyword, you may not have as much interest as you’d like.
Rodolfo Weaver
@Nicole Rice If it’s been a few weeks, and you’re not pleased with your app’s current app store ranking, it’s time to take a look at your data, make some assessments, and change some things around:
Rodolfo Weaver
@Nicole Rice Maybe the keywords aren’t right? Is the description isn’t persuasive enough? Are you sure it’s in the right category? Does the icon needs some fine tuning?
Priscilla Wright
@Ramiro George What’s in a name? Plenty, especially when you’re talking about the name of your app and ASO. A good name not only identifies what your app does to prospective users, but it can also improve your rankings. We highlighted how a strong, relevant title can improve your ASO in this post, with an example of how to make your app title relevant. In fact, including a keyword or two in your app’s title can help you rank at least 10% higher than if you didn’t include one. Of course, both the Apple iOS App Store and Google Play handle titles and keywords differently, so how you approach your title should depend on if you’re marketing to Apple or Android users.
Priscilla Wright
@Ramiro George The Apple App Store gives you 255 characters for your title. So, while a succinct title can help with your branding efforts, it will do you no favours if you’re trying to boost your Apple ASO. Take the time to come up with a creative title that is unique, descriptive, and keyword rich; it’s not a bad idea to create a title and then a subtitle with your keywords. Doing so will help you both establish market share and improve your ranking.
Priscilla Wright
@Ramiro George Titles are handled a bit differently in the Google Play store. There, you get a paltry 30 characters for your title, so you have to be extremely concise. However, you don’t have to be as concerned about keywords in the title with Android apps; for Google Play, the keywords should go in the description, as we explain in step two.
Willis Collier
@Jesus Harmon Just like Google Analytics for web page marketing, there are a number of powerful app store analytics tools that are designed to help your mobile marketing strategy. You will be able to see where your app stands in relation to the competition, and boost your store ranking accordingly.
Willis Collier
@Jesus Harmon These app analytics tools are helpful because they give you hard data about all sorts of measurements related to your app. They can show you what you’re doing wrong in marketing your app, what you could be doing to improve your app store ranking, and much more.
Evelyn Reese
@Doug Munoz App Store Optimization (ASO) is known by a few names, including App Store Marketing and Mobile App SEO. The focus of ASO is expert resource application related to improving the ranking of mobile applications (apps) directly within app stores (like iTunes, Google Play, and Windows Store).
Lillie Kelley
@Eula Alvarez The goal of ASO is to drive more traffic to your app's page in the app store, so searchers can take a specific action: download your app. The ASO process also requires a crucial understanding of your target customer base, including the keywords your potential customers are using to find apps similar to yours.
Danielle Yates
@Enrique Gross Metadata makes it much easier to find relevant data. Most searches are done using text (like a Google search), so formats like audio, images, and video are limited unless text metadata is available. Metadata also makes text documents easier to find because it explains exactly what the document is about.
Leroy Dean
@Jeannette Cruz There are many factors that contribute to a mobile app’s success on the market. Apart from the overall and value it delivers, it must also be easy to find by potential users. If you run an Android app, one of the key ways of ensuring its high discoverability is by optimizing it for Google Play Store – so, making it stand out among the tens of other options available. Especially, as we’re talking about 2.9 million apps on Google Play worldwide!
Charlie Lawson
@Hilda Valdez Mobile marketing consists of ads that appear on mobile smart-phones, tablets, or other mobile devices. Mobile marketing ad formats, customization, and styles can vary, as many social media platforms, websites, and mobile apps offer their own unique and tailored mobile ad options.
Nicole Montgomery
@Julio Curtis Positive ratings and reviews, both in terms of quality and quantity, have a huge impact on your App Store Optimization efforts. It’s in your best interest to get as many as you can. Of course, they need to be honest reviews from people who have actually downloaded the app. You can encourage users you know through word of mouth to leave a good review of your app on the App Store or Google Play. Another way to get app store reviews might be sending a push notification to encourage users to review your app (as long as you’ve gotten permission to send push notifications!). You can also have an in-app pop-up notification asking the user to leave a good review if he or she liked it.
Pat Walker
@Lora Parsons In short, Google does not use information in the keywords meta tag or the description meta tag to actually rank pages, but it does use the meta description text to create search snippets.
Jerome Gardner
@Ron Mullins With our smartphones glued to our side, it’s not a surprise that mobile marketing and communication have the highest open rates of all digital marketing channels and are usually opened within 3 minutes of being received. This makes SMS the most valuable channel of communication for marketers, with average open rates of 82% in comparison to emails 24%.
Ron Mullins
@Ron Mullins Face it, without mobile communications with your customers you’re only getting half the engagement. Consumers (and especially smartphone users) have preferred SMS messages because it allows for a personal and convenient ongoing conversation, with all their historic messages in one single chat. Rather than a series of disjointed emails, or inconvenient phone calls, SMS allows you to have an ongoing and personalized conversation with your target audience in a means that is not disruptive.
Ron Mullins
@Ron Mullins If you’re ready to step-up your customer engagement and jump into the world of mobile communication, let’s get some clarity around the different types of mobile communications that exist, and which work best for your business case.
Winifred Keller
@Loren Garrett Keywords is one of the most useful sections of formal metadata, yet it is often misunderstood and consequently is less effective than it could be. This note is intended to help you understand keywords so that you can use them to make your data easier for users to find and understand.
Toni Green
@Olive Sharp The three main types of metadata are descriptive, structural and administrative.
Alberto Stanley
@Francisco Martin Metadata is data about data. A simple example of metadata for a document might include a collection of information like the author, file size, the date the document was created, and keywords to describe the document. Metadata for a music file might include the artist's name, the album, and the year it was released.
Jaime Bradley
@Catherine Bates Metadata summarizes basic information about data, making finding & working with particular instances of data easier. Metadata can be created manually to be more accurate, or automatically and contain more basic information.
Dora Rose
@Andrea Long Go to the bottom of the right-click menu and click or tap Properties. You can also select the file and then press ALT+Enter on your keyboard. This will bring up the properties of the file, but go ahead and go to the Details tab to get into the nitty-gritty of the metadata.
Jody Rodgers
@Wallace Coleman Tap the gallery icon on the bottom-left. Select the picture you want to edit EXIF data for. To view EXIF data, you can tap the various icons below the image. To edit or remove EXIF data (after you pay for the app), tap Metadata.
Beatrice Ballard
@Silvia Lane This means that the review has only just been interrupted and can be resumed once you provide the missing information. The most common metadata errors are: Inaccurate screenshots: your screenshots should accurately communicate your app's value and functionality.
Andre Hines
@Martin Mcguire If you use ratings to help you out, you can now filter your search results by ratings on the Google Play Store. Whenever you search for an app on your browser, a drop down menu will appear.
Joshua Williamson
@Ignacio Woods If your app has to be rejected by Apple, a metadata rejection is the best case scenario. This means that the review has only just been interrupted and can be resumed once you provide the missing information.
Kirk Stevens
@Charlene Adams First, metadata means "data that describes data." In your app, your metadata is primarily the information (data) you see in the App Information and iOS App version tabs that describes what your app (binary data) does and what it looks like.
