The importance of optimizing your site for mobile is not a secret if you want to increase traffic and become readily available for viewers.
Today, we will share some of the clear advantages of App Indexing and how it can influence your SEO efforts. Until recently, this mostly meant having a web layout that is clean and performance friendly (i.e. operative videos, images, easy to navigate, and so on.)
As any SEO specialists would say, claiming the favorite top spot in search results can take loads of time, work, and money to optimize your website and obtain enough authority to surpass the SERPs heap of listing.
Fortunately, as the digital marketing world evolves new opportunities arise for websites to profit on!
Google Allows Apps to Rank Against Websites
In April of 2015, Google announced its mobile friendly ranking algorithm that took SEO to a new level and may replace site-based rankings as the leading search result: Two SEO developments included:
- Mobile-friendly websites would be seen higher in search results
- Relevant content within apps would be shown in search results
Even if your company does not have an app, new changes to Google mobile results permit apps to challenge your sites rankings. And more times than not, app results are winning. App based SEO and indexing is already here, but many organizations fail fully to utilize the benefits of applications and search engines.
Searchmetrics found a full 70% of top ranking websites with an Android app, and 81% with an iOS app are still not making use of app indexing.
- 90% of top the 100 websites have an Android app; 89% have an iOS app
- 30% of Android apps have integrated deep linking/app indexing
- 19% of iOS apps have embedded deep linking/app indexing
What is App Indexing?
Unlike in the past, users now have access to your content either on your website or via your app, both straight from Google’s search results. Just as search engines crawl and index websites, your content can now be indexed through your app.
This means when a user does a relevant search; Google can now list a particular page of an app, instead of just a standard landing page of a website. Ideally, if a user searches for something that could be fulfilled by a particular section within your app, Google could present a result that prompts an install of your application and directs the user to the most applicable section within.
For example, if you searched for “local coffee shops,” Google could recommend two or three top coffee shop apps for you to install and use for this purpose. As long as you follow Google’s code for app indexing, your app will be indexed in Google’s memory just like a website, and just like sites, it will be pulled for matching requests.
App Deep Linking
Google digs deeper with, Googles’ Deep Links, that is designed to crawl and rank internally specific content within an app. In other words, rather than just launching the first screen, it directs the user past the homepage of a website to a particular page within the app.
Still, the technique of creating an app deep link is moderately advanced compared to traditional deep linking; any app builder should easily be able to create the needed protocols. Deep linking not only alludes viewers deeper into your companies brand but also increases your authority which will help you rank higher in relevant searches.
“If your app is indexed, Google will use the content within your app as a signal in ranking, not just your web content.” So it’s worth doing to increase your presence in search results.”
The History of Google Apps
Google has been ranking apps for some time now, but until currently Google only displayed apps as standard blue links leading users to app store download pages, which were ranked similarly to the regular web-ranking algorithm.
In the past, on-line searchers looked for apps in OS- specific app stores. The app stores were fabricated into cell phone devices and only showed app results that were conformable with the searcher’s device.
As of 2015, however, Google has better grasped the concept of evaluating and ranking apps, as well as discovering and screening for device and OS compatibility.
The Future Predicts App Streaming
According to TechCrunch, after tapping a search result link for app content not presently installed on their cell phone, the user has the option to open the app virtually on Google’s cloud platform. Users can then engage in the app as if it were installed on their device, accessing app content without installation.
In other words, this is not a mobile web version of the app. The actual app would be streaming to the user’s smartphone from a virtual machine.
If you are ready to beat competitors to the punch and attract more customers, Kirk Donovan Enterprises has the digital marketing services that will fit your business needs. Click Below to start your free marketing consultation or to speak with Kirk Donovan about how you can meet your growth potential.
