6 Ways to Leverage a Mobile App for SEO
Build links and expand search presence by leveraging your company’s mobile app.
We are certainly not recommending building a mobile app for link building purposes; a good quality app can be quite pricey and should have value beyond SEO. However, if your company already has an app or is in the process of building one, below are 6 ways you can leverage the app for SEO.
App Review Sites:
A great, simple way to leverage a mobile app for SEO is to submit the app to app review sites. There are several sites whose purpose is to review new apps. The idea is, app users come to the site either to learn about new cool apps or they are searching for feedback on a particular app before making a purchase. Here are some examples of these sites, app review sites with Compete rank.
Most have simple app submission forms; others can be pitched with pre app release stories or interviews with the developers. The SEO result you’re striving for is an SEO-Friendly link such as the one below circled in blue…
Submit your company’s app to 20 app review sites, get 20 new links. Easy!
Press Releases:
Another way to leverage the app is to submit press releases for the app launch, app updates or app progress. The goal would be to get a link from the news story similar to the release below from CNET news (circled in blue)…
Mobile news is fresh, so you may find it gets better pick up than traditional product launches or standard company news.
Article/SlideShow Submissions:
Write an article or make a slideshow about the best apps in your industry such as “Top 5 Apps for Business” or “Top 5 Apps for Travel” Give yourself a shameless plug, get a link! Example below…
Participate in Forums:
Participate in a forum in which users are asking questions about apps, the app development process or looking for solutions your app fulfills. Try searching for ‘keyword+forum’ and see what comes up. If you find a forum that is relevant, you can search site:www.FORUM-URL.com “keyword” to find specific posts related to your keyword. In this example below, a user in the forum has asked “Which apps are best for travel”. A forum participant answers the question and gets a link…
Be sure to follow forum best practices and keep in mind not all forums have SEO friendly links in comments (but there are still plenty that do!)
iTunes Descriptions/App Demo Videos:
If you check out the search results below, there is a Google search for ‘Pizza Hut iPhone App’. The top three results are the app’s website, iTunes and a Youtube demo video. Test other apps and you will find similar results. The search results usually include iTunes, App Website or Blog, Social Media Profiles, Youtube Demo Video and App Launch News. The key take away from this, in terms of SEO, is that the iTunes descriptions and demo videos should also include keywords for the app or your business, since iTunes and Youtube will likely gain additional presence in web search results.
Social Media Profiles:
This one can be quite time consuming but you can catch extra links by creating a social media presence for the app. Make a profile, get a link!
These are some basic ideas to leverage your company’s mobile app for SEO. Hopefully this will get your wheels churning on how you can use an app as a way to acquire inbound links and positively impact the SEO strategy for your company. If you have additional ideas to share on how to leverage mobile apps for SEO, please leave them in the comments!