With the tremendous development in mobile communications and the growth of smartphones, mobile app development has grown in stature. The world of mobile apps is now very competitive. If you are an app developer, publisher, or marketer, you must know about the competition and the market. Else, you will be left languishing way behind. So, the essence of app ranking in the google play store or other app stores is the key to your success in this industry.
To keep a step ahead of your competitors, you must seriously undertake the job of competitor research. There are five essential aspects that you need to evaluate when you do competitive research. Let us elucidate them below.
1 The first thing that you need to do is to identify your competitors. Thus, you need to check the app stores for all apps covering the same niche as your app does. The category of the apps is also vital, and you may look into the right one as well. The next thing is your target audience. Make sure that you select all apps that have a similar target audience as yours. The functionalities and features of your app should be similar to the apps of your competitors, so that is another thing you should look for carefully. The last but not the least way to find out your competitor apps is to look for keywords. The apps that come in the app store search results with your app are your competitors.
2 Next, you need to see how the competitor apps compare to yours in the category rankings of the app store. These rankings are a fluid measure of the apps which are established and big players. The rankings also tell you about the newcomers in the genre. The most ideal way to start your analysis is by pitching your app against the leading apps in your industry. When you look into the app rankings you will understand how far behind the industry leader are you. If you have become the leader then how much you are leading.
3 The category ranking is one of the most vital metrics to concentrate on when looking for your competitors. The next type of ranking that you should carefully observe is the App store ranking of your competitors. This is a keyword ranking search. You will have to visit the respective app stores and search for all keywords that you believe are pertinent to your mobile app. Find out which of your competitor apps are showing up in the results in the top 10 for these keywords. If the idea of ranking confuses you, it is the position an app appears on the app stores search page for specific keywords or search queries. The Apple App Store or Google Play store rank the apps depends on many factors. Out of which keywords are one of the vital factors. When you have access to the probable keywords for which your competitors are ranking on top, you will be able to optimize your strategy. The keywords will also give you access to the words and the language consumers use to search for apps like yours.
4 Advertisements form a very significant part of your analysis. Organic keywords and organic search results are vital to your competitor's analysis, and there is no doubt about it, yet advertisements must be a part of your analysis. You know your competitors, and now you need to find out how they advertise their apps on the app store. Your competitors are sure to have different strategies and different aggressiveness when it comes to marketing their apps. Thus, if you are a leading player in the domain, a really aggressive advertiser may run ads on your name as well. This is a strategy that you can also use when you want.
5 The last thing is the strength and weaknesses analysis of your competitors that you can easily understand through the competitive analysis of your apps.
If you carefully consider all these factors, there is a good chance that your competitive research on mobile app rankings will be as close to perfect as possible. You will be able to find opportunities to grow your app well.