While promoting a mobile app, it’s necessary to take the highest TOP positions in a store. But in order to be a king there, you should know the principles of how the rating is formed. That’s our topic for today.
The algorithms of forming TOPs are classified as secret. But many specialists try to solve them. They’ve succeeded in investigating the secret formula of TOPs. We can’t say that we know all the algorithms but common principles are clear. And it’s enough to affect a TOP.

App Store TOP

Quantity of installs is the main factor of how a common Apple Top is formed. The more people install an app, the higher is its rating. That’s why a rather primitive tactic is used — mass install purchase.
Besides the number of installs, they also take into account the time they were made. For getting to the TOP you’ll need a maximum of installs for a minimum time. And regularity is necessary for keeping the position. It’s impossible to talk about the time periods as the algorithms are secreted. But experimental and analytical work has shown that in order to get to the TOP the first 3 days are crucial, i.e. you need to get maximum of installs in 72 hours. The last day is the most important one. Ratings are updated once every 3 hours, although in the previous year it happened every 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Another factor is a grade — the stars users give to apps. But there’s also an opinion that they’re not used by TOP forming algorithms, and an evident benefit of apps with 4-5 stars is explained that users give more preference to them.
Another factor that hasn’t been proved yet is a mass deletion of an app from devices. Some investigators consider that it affects TOP positions.

App Store search results

Apps get a great deal of traffic from search which is provided in the store. Moreover, this kind of traffic is considered to be more preferable as it includes a maximum of installs by loyal users.

The following factors affect search results:

  • Publisher name,
  • App name,
  • Keywords,
  • App rating,
  • Quantity of installs.

Google Play TOP

The main factor of forming TOP in Google is a number of installs as well. But the dynamics of installs growth are evaluated differently: the crucial period is 48 hours. The peculiarity of the store is minor delays. For example, a reaction to a mass install purchase won’t come at once. The reason is deep indexation which takes some time.

Factors affecting an app rating in the TOP (according to their importance):

  • installs quantity — the most important.
  • reviews and stars — store algorithms take them into account that’s why you should carefully stimulate users to positive feedback.
  • app deletion from devices — the more users delete an app, the lower it’s in the rating.
  • retention or user comebacks — the more often and regularly the app is used on the devices, the more beneficially it affects its positions.
  • session length — the apps which are launched for a longer time on the devices get higher positions.
  • social factors — a quantity of «+1» that users give to an app also affects the place in the rating.

Google Play search results

Google Play algorithms of forming search results are more complex than in the Apple store. It’s not surprising as the store belongs to a search giant and it uses powerful ranking algorithms.

Main factors of forming search results:

  • links from a web-app can be promoted just as websites — by SEO principles.
  • presence of keywords in the description — the store indexes the content of an app description that’s why you should be careful and attentive about the semantic core.

While promoting an app it’s necessary to know the principles of TOP forming. It will make the process easier and reduce the budget for the advertising campaign. Also, try to be the most attentive about SEO. Traffic from search results is the most valuable one as it’s full of loyal users.

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