iPhone iTunes SEO

Apple must have tweaked their iTunes search engine again. Weeks and weeks back I had noticed some applications blatantly inserting lists of the top applications in their listings so they would appear in searches for those applications. It seems that strategy has come and gone since Apple is filtering for it now.

Doesn't work:

• Recommended for fans of Scub, Virtual Village, Scoops, The Creeps, Bugdom, Crazy Penguin Catapult, Pocket God, Eat Bunny Eat, Peekaboo Barn, Zombieville USA, Flight Control, Wolfenstein 3D, The Oregon Trails.
  

A little more complex (might work):

• Familiar with scuba diving sure, but it's not a village of ice cream scoops. It will not give you the virtual creeps as there are no bugs, penguins, pets, or god forbid a pocket of crazy puppy bunny to peekaboo. Zombies are not in flight with a wolf on the trails in oregon.

A link to Abby Crabby in the iTunes App Store

20 year old game grosses $3/4m in iPhone remake

"iShoot, a top-selling iPhone app that was a best-seller for weeks and has now earned the man more than $700,000 ".
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/124073

Interesting. It's just a clone of a game that appeared in the mid 80s called Tank Wars. The Scorched Earth PC game from the early 90s is the one I remember playing. The most memorable feature was a special hidden key combination where it would yell out "No Kabitzing!" I suppose the idea was to put down opponents that were ganging up. Wow, it doesn't seem all that long ago when the idea of a "LAN party" was to sit side-by-side at the computer with your brother and battle it out with tanks.

If a game once had replay value and appeal it probably still does. It's a great argument for putting the mind into park and simply bringing clones back from the dead. Classic game play will always be appealing for new generations.

Generation M

Mobility Defines the Teen Generation
Today’s teenagers have largely been defined by mobility. These teens (“Gen M”) represent the first generation to grow up in a mobile world since the first commercial cell phone service was activated on October 13th, 1983. Now they are taking control and their demands are redefining what mobility will be.

General Teen Mobile Facts

• Teens are a huge consumer market segment and spend more than $100 billion annually
• Today, approximately 79% of all teens (17 million) have a mobile device – a 36% increase since 2005
• Most teens have a conventional cell phone while about 15% own a smart phone

http://www.ctia.org/advocacy/research/index.cfm/AID/11483

Linking your way to the top!

Here are a few iTunes link strategies that appear to be largely underutilized by the community.


Web links that *always* work

It has always struck me as strange that the big brand name players can't figure out how to make an iTunes Application link from their website that actually works on the phone! The 1.1 software had a kink of sorts that made it especially hard. But there is one trick that always works. Use a link that does a search.

Ignore iTMS Link Maker, which tells you to use: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/ wa/viewSoftware?id=000000000

Instead use: http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/ wa/search? media=software&term=Your%20Application%20Name%20Here

This even works for a 1.0 release where you don't yet have a software ID from Apple.


Brand name synergy

Applications under your brand name have sales synergy. Foster this by putting a button in your application that links to all your applications in your brand. Again use a search.

NSString *link=@" http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa /wa/search?media=software&term=My%20Company";

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString: link]];


Live and die by reviews

Getting reviews (even bad ones) is important for your application's ranking. The problem is that people don't often review their applications. Based on my sales, I'd say 1 in 100 actually review. Put a button into your application that sends people directly to the appropriate App Store review screen.

NSString *link=@" http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa /wa/viewContentsUserReviews?type=Purple+Software&id=000000000"

Side note, "Purple" was the internal iPhone code name.


mailTo links

You may be using openURL and mailto to send email from your application. If the content of your email contains an iTMS link it will certainly contain the '&' ampersand symbol. This will not work as iPhone's mailto will truncate the link and your iTMS link won't work.

Instead put a simple URL into the email that redirects to the real iTMS link. You could use TinyURL or host your own redirect. If you host the redirect yourself you can track the click through.

Do application updates boost sales?

I've always been a firm believer in releasing finished code. But alas, I've learned a new iTunes App Store lesson today. It turns out releasing updates helps get your application attention and sales. It makes sense really. Once your application is installed on someone's phone you have a slice of real estate. The App Store will bring the application back into people's minds when an update is published.

So here's to all those people releasing half finished applications and updating every couple of days! Well, and those applications like Labyrinth, Fuzzle, Eat Bunny Eat, and Where To that seem to be milking the update to ranking boost trick for all its worth!