Apple has issued a stern warning to developers found to be artificially inflating the rankings of their apps, but an expert says there are plenty of above-board ways that start-ups can boost their apps\u2019 rankings.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apple has issued statement saying it will not stand for any manipulation of App Store rankings, warning any developers who do will be kicked off the App store.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOnce you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it,\u201d Apple said on its site.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHowever, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEven if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The news comes after an anonymous developer blew the whistle on the practice of using automated PCs \u2013 known as bot farms \u2013 to push apps up the charts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bots are pieces of software that run automated tasks on the internet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the developer, who made an anonymous posting on a gaming forum, it is common practice to pay bot farms to inflate rankings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The developer said an unnamed firm offer to give his app a top 25 ranking in return for $5,000. He said the firm had listed some of its other clients, and openly described its business model.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI was totally shocked when I heard that\u2026 eight apps in the top 25 were all promoted by them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to online entrepreneur Fred Schebesta, there are plenty of ways to boost your app\u2019s rankings without getting into trouble:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUse words in you title to describe your app as best as you can,\u201d Schebesta says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAlso, use keywords. Think of relevant keywords people search for\u2026 There is a debate as to whether this increases your traffic so try not to be too niche.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSome people ask users to review their app \u2013 a popup appears on the screen. This can be pretty annoying but it might work.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, people make an app but they haven\u2019t identified who the users are. They\u2019re making technology but there are no customers for it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThey either don\u2019t deliver enough, deliver something else or they deliver too much. It\u2019s important to understand that core scenario the customer is going through.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLots of people make stuff for nobody. They\u2019re vague about who they\u2019re going to make it for. Make sure you\u2019ve got a customer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe big think to take out of all of this is to make an awesome app. The more awesome you make it, the better it will go.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLook at your users and figure out what they want, and deliver it better than anyone else. It sounds simple and obvious but it\u2019s a very involved process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apple has issued a stern warning to developers found to be artificially inflating the rankings of their apps, but an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Have a great title and use keywords<\/h3>\n
Try to get reviews<\/h3>\n
Know your customer<\/h3>\n
Make it awesome<\/h3>\n