android - App not in search results on Google Play

Question

I published my app on Google Play two days ago. If I search for it by name ("1-on-1 Poker"), I find it, but if I search by term ("poker"), it's not displayed. [Apologies to those that think I'm looking for free publicity, but the exact name of the app is relevant to this question]

This has obviously resulted in no one knowing about my app, although it seems like it's available to be downloaded from testing on a few devices.

I asked Google, but all they said was, "We do the best we can with search. Sometimes apps don't show up for a certain term". This seems like an odd answer.

Anyone know anything about this?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17354065/app-not-in-search-results-on-google-play

Answer 1

This is not that uncommon an experience. I think your app doesn't have enough unique keywords in the name, so it is not showing up.

My app also uses very common words ("Droid Of The Day"). For the longest time, I didn't show up in search results at all (I would search my name, and go through all 20 pages of results, and never see my app). Each of the words in my name were being ignored I think, as they weren't unique).

Bottom line, I didn't want to change my name, so I suffered a bit (until I hit a critical mass of downloads, and so my search rank went higher).

You can change your name in the Play Store Console, so I would suggest trying some different combinations of words, and try to find some that are unique to yourself (maybe 'Poker Wars' or something).

There is a tool on AppBrains (http://www.appbrain.com/apptimizer?) that allows you to search any app (check your competitors ;-), and see a ranking of search terms. I would suggest you check this out, and use their suggestions to figure out how you can make your name more unique, while still getting your message across.

Bottom-line, I think your name doesn't have enough 'uniqueness', and that is why it is not showing up in search ranks.