If you have spent any time creating online content, you know the importance of SEO services for the web. Not only does having your articles optimized and indexed help your current customers and clients find your website, but it helps draw in new readers as well.
Unfortunately most app owners haven’t been able to take advantage of search engine traffic the same way — until now. In their never-ending quest to always provide the most relevant and valuable products and search engine results, Google and Apple will soon be making some pretty significant changes to their app indexing.
App Indexing in the Past
In the past, app search results have been pretty poor. Users commonly could not find specific apps in the search results, even if they searched for them by name. Users frequently had no idea if the information they were looking for was contained within an app until they downloaded it. Android users could find some information from an app in their search results, but only if they already had the app installed.
The Future of App Indexing
Now, Google is working to allow any mobile users to more easily find relevant data from within an app, even if the searcher doesn’t yet have the app installed. The new updates will be rolling out for iOS users as well.
With this new update, mobile users will be able to find information from an app plus a link to download the app right in the search results. More apps will be indexed, and more information from each app will be indexed as well. Instead of just searching for a recipe app, for example, searchers can find an app with the exact recipe they are looking for.
This latest update is exciting news for app developers and users alike. Not only will it help users to discover new and relevant apps they might not know about otherwise, but it will also encourage app users to engage more with the apps that they have already installed.
How Google and Apple are Approaching App Indexing
As Google and Apple begin to roll out app indexing for their devices, the two companies are already approaching the updates with two distinct strategies. While app indexing will be completely voluntary on both platforms, Google is encouraging app owners to index their information in its entirety, while Apple is cautioning app owners to index their most helpful and relevant information only.
Furthermore, Google will automatically make all app information available in the search results unless the app owner tags it with a noindex.xml tag, while Apple will require users to specifically mark their information as shareable.
It will be interesting to see which model works better in the long run, as both have distinct advantages.
Action Steps
As these latest updates roll out gradually, you will want to begin taking steps now to make sure that your app will be ready and it will be ready with Phoenix SEO services. First, make sure your app is able to be indexed in Google searches. You will want to specifically exclude any information that you don’t want to show up in the search results of an Android device and specifically include any information you do want to show up in the search results of an iOS device. This helps ensure that both your current users and your potential users can discover your content.
If you have an app you want to have discovered, app indexing is a great way to do just that. This is one update that both app developers and app users can be excited to see roll out.