It's the Third Thursday of the month and I am all alone :(

The mobile team working from the garden

Other links referenced...

• Our first Chinese site for Skechers
• UPDATE: Our Learn Chinese App for iPhone
• British Library Out of this World Exhibition

People are buying Apps for phones, tablets and computers all over the world. There is big money in it and it is not just going to Apple. For example, Gartner predicts that by 2015 Android will account for 49% of smartphones.

The best way to source Apps is through App Stores. Apple, Google, Nokia, Blackberry and even Amazon have them, plus there are many spin offs proliferating the web.

App Stores provide a consolidated location for developers to upload their products and gain instant visibility and traffic from millions of users. However, these stores are quickly getting crowded and competition is intensifying as we strive to build awareness and recognition. Step forward App Store Optimization (ASO).

Optimizing for App Stores

The App Store search algorithm works quite differently to Google. Relevance is driven by downloads, ratings and keywords so, once optimised, popularity is very important. As free apps are downloaded far more than paid ones it supports the theory that a free or “lite” version is advisable. This, in turn, promotes your paid-for upgrade. It’s no coincidence that the same app will often occupy the top spot on both the free and paid charts.

Unlike traditional search engines App Store rankings are not built up over time. Baptiste Benezet of faberNovel came to the conclusion that "The formula for App rankings only accounts for your last 4 days of sales." The formula is 8 times the sales of the current day + 5 times the sales on the 2 proceeding days + 2 times the sales on initial date.

Source: ReadWriteWeb

It would seem that short, sharp campaign bursts are the best way to achieve high rankings, break into the category charts and great a self-perpetuating cycle of high download figures.

However more recently Google and now Apple are including user activity as a factor. Daily or Monthly Active Users are logged and those Apps that are used more frequently will also rank highly. The Android Marketplace takes note of the percentage of users that keep the app installed on their device as space is generally more of a premium with users removing Apps that don’t cut it far more frequently than those using Apple devices.

The Apple App Store search is exact-match only. Your app will only show up if there is an exact match against the app or company name or keywords you have specified. Apple does NOT search against your description, which means that text should be purely around convincing the user reading it to hit install/buy. However, the iTunes Web Preview page is often indexed high on traditional search engines and the first three lines of your description can be indexed so it is still worth optimising the start of your description text. Other App Stores such as Android Marketplace do include description in their search criteria though.

Keyword optimisation is therefore pretty crucial. You should follow similar techniques to standard SEO. Prioritise the words and try and think of what keywords or phrases a user would think of to find your type of app. This could also include popular competitors or major platforms you have integrated with, as their names are popular search terms. A word of warning though. You do risk being rejected by Apple if you blatantly hang on the coat tails of a competitor so you try and be a bit subtle.

That brings us onto the name. Unfortunately a buzzy sounding app name will rank poorly against a does-what-it-says-on-the-tin title. You should also consider starting with a number or early letter in the alphabet for when the user orders their result by name. Including popular search words such as “fun”, “easy”, “exciting” and “free” would do you no harm either.

For example on our new Learn Chinese App we have used the title "Learn Chinese Lite - Mandarin Phrasebook for Travel in China" to capture as much keyword traffic as we can. We have substituted "Lite" with "Pro" for the paid version and also linked to it heavily in the free app to prompt upgrades.

Design & Build

The icon that represents your App is hugely important. It should be eye catching and well designed to give a solid first impression and communicate that this wasn’t cobbled together by a talentless nerd playing with a bit of code. Check out this superb guide on good app icon design.

Whilst your icon design might gain you a view, your screenshots are likely to tip the balance. They should be well chosen examples that flatter the app, demonstrate it’s usefulness and grab the user’s attention. 

Additionally the filesize of your app can affect its popularity. An app under 10MB in size can be downloaded over a 3G network whereas anything over that requires a wifi connection or it has to be downloaded via a computer associated to the device. If you can’t access the app the moment you find it, you may never come back.

Building Downloads

A well-optimised app will still not rank well until it proves to be popular. In order to maximise your potential download figures you should get listed in app directories.

Reaching out to bloggers can be very powerful. We noticed this after we launched Learn Thai and it was picked up by a prominent blog within a few days, skyrocketing downloads. Don’t be afraid to contact bloggers, they need fresh content to write about! Just keep it short, friendly and relevant.

Be social! It is easy to integrate Twitter or facebook connect into the app and encourage users to share their scores, activities or even that they like the app on those platforms with their own audience.

It is also worthwhile asking your more active users to rate the app. If a user has had the app for a while and has used it quite frequently it is worth popping up a simple message asking for a rating or review. If this is done in an unobtrusive manner it should not harm your app at all.

There is quite a lot of information to take in there but I hope I have communicated just how vital it is to plan, research and test your search and marketing tactics to avoid your masterpiece lying unused in the murky vaults of an App Store server.

It’s time for the regular, light-hearted rant that is Grind my Gears. This month is an extension of last month’s rant from Nick about courtesy. I’m gonna call it common decency in business.

The thing about our agency, or any organisation really that is consultative, is that there is an element of giving something up front for free. It might be an idea, it might be an approach, it might even be some creative execution. It may involve writing a document, working out what things are going to cost, or may require a formal presentation of our thoughts and ideas.

In many ways, the sales element of what we do is the equivalent of test-driving a car, or tasting a bit of sliced sausage in a delicatessens. The view is that you need to have an idea about what it is you’re going to buy before you commit to it.

And just like cars and sausages, it all costs money. Granted, if you don’t buy the car, or the sausage then it doesn’t cost you anything, but it will cost someone. If nobody test drove a car, then the costs of cars would be cheaper. Someone has to pay for the petrol, for the car that they can’t now sell as new, for the salesman’s suit. Moss Bros ain’t giving these things away for free you know. 

Yet, there is a sense – and I know because I probably sub-consciously felt this way when I worked on the client-side – that by asking an agency to write you a proposal or give you a quote you are actually doing them a massive favour. It’s easy to confuse enthusiasm at having the opportunity of finding an interesting new project with a desire on the agency’s part to work for free for a bit. But, they are two different things, believe me. They may just look the same, but nobody wants to work for free. You don’t like to work for free, I don’t like to work for free. We provide free work because of the promise of bigger, better and more interesting work down the line and to prove to people that we have the ideas and talent to take on the challenge. But it’s not free. It actually takes a lot of time and careful consideration, and this in turn costs us money. Money we expect to spend, but money nevertheless that at one point was ours and now isn’t.

Despite thinking that we’re pretty darn good at what we do, we don’t expect to win all the time. We know that some times we may be too big, too small, too expensive, too cheap, too specialist, too generalised, too busy, too English, too funky, too boring… 

You can never always be everything to everyone – we get that, but… when you have approached someone and asked them, in good faith, to do some work for you at their expense and you decide for whatever reason that it’s not for you, would it hurt to acknowledge their efforts? Would it kill you to say thank you, to explain why you have taken the decision you have, to take a little time out to give some feedback as to where you think a response could have been better, more useful? 

If you went for an interview and didn’t get the job, or applied for a mortgage and didn’t get accepted, or emailed your boss about a great initiative you’d had, or anything where you’d put a bit of yourself into it and hadn’t had the outcome you’d hoped for, wouldn’t you expect some sort of response? Of course you would. 

But, for a small minority of people, they think that we are only too delighted to spend weeks of our time considering their businesses and thinking about ways in which we could address their needs. The fact that for whatever reason they choose not to use us, somehow also means that they can ignore us and we won’t care.

Well, the fact is we do care. Because we put a lot of care into what we do and, frankly, it hurts our feelings! Really, it’s just a question of common decency and that, folks, is what really grinds my gears.

If you’ve ever seen The Social Network you may have noticed a very interesting comment from the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. When talking about the launch of Facebook Mark is asked, “When’s it going to be finished?” to which Mark responds, “It’s never going to be finished. Facebook is like fashion. It never ends”.

This got me thinking, not only about how much of an accurate analogy that is, but also what else are websites like…?

...fashion

So why is Facebook so much like fashion and why is that of interest to the rest of us?

Well, think about the early days of Facebook. What could you do? Add a friend. Give the odd poke. Write your status. Upload some photos. Now what? You can play scrabble, own a farm, sell stuff on the marketplace, check-in….the list is endless. Mark Zuckerberg knew Facebook would evolve over time, just like fashion.

And although we can’t all be a Mark Zuckerberg and create a multi-billion dollar site, we can learn from him. He didn’t set a completion deadline. He didn’t try and include everything on the site that he could think of at the time. He didn’t put the site live, sit back and relax. He started with the basics. He made sure the core functionality was right and allowed people to become familiar with the site before gradually adding more features. He launched phase one in the knowledge that seven years on he would still be releasing updates.

This is exactly what anyone should do when launching a new site. Adopt a phased approach and treat your site like fashion, allow it to develop over time.

...fat dogs

Fat dogs don’t ask to be fed so much food. Their owners just keep on giving it to them. Is your new website your dog and are you making it fat?

Most people not only want an all singing, all dancing site ready for the big launch, but they put pressure on themselves to generate tonnes of content. This can seem like the best thing to do. Create a rich content site so people spend ages reading through all of your amazing content. But this can create issues. It can mean that you rush out lots of content ready for launch that isn’t of the best quality. Visitors may arrive on the site and read everything, but then they have no reason to come back. Or when they do come back they may see all of the same content and think there’s nothing new to read.

Don’t be scared to start slim. You may have a CMS with which to feed your dog but remember a dog needs to be fed small amounts every day, not just one massive meal a year.

Start with solid foundations on which to build. Allow yourself time to learn and adapt to user behaviour, slowly generate content that you know will be of interest and drip feed your site. Keep your audience interested and excited about what’s going to come next and, most importantly, keep them coming back.

...Big Brother contestants

Websites are there to be watched and analysed. So play the part of Big Brother. Use the tools available to you as your cameras and microphones.

One of the major advantages of working in the digital world is the extent to which you can track user behaviour. If you allow yourself the time, resources and budget, you can monitor your site carefully and make any changes accordingly.

General site stats can give you massive clues as to where improvements can be made, for example:

1. Registrations not as high as expected? Are people going to the registration page but then dropping off? The form might be too long. Shorten it and see if that makes a difference.
2. Got loads of great career opportunities but not many people applying via the site? Maybe they can’t find the careers section? Try adding a link to Careers on the homepage.

With a basic tool such as Google Analytics (or something similar) you’ll have even more insight. How people are getting to the site, which pages they are going to, the sections they are spending a lot of time on, etc. You’ll know which sections are working well and which need some TLC.

You can also carry out usability testing. There are a range of techniques you can use, including heat maps to see where users are clicking and setting user goals to see how quickly they can achieve them. For example how quickly can people get to your contact us form? Are they missing the “prominent” link on the homepage?

You can also test different designs or content in what we call an A/B test. It’s fascinating and you’ll be amazed at what a big difference small changes can make. For the phase one launch you could have two different homepages that people are sent to randomly. Find out if people are clicking through more on one design than the other. Or you could change the wording. Does Find out more get more clicks than Click here to view?

It all means that, if you are allowing your site to evolve, you can not only make the changes you feel the site needs but also the changes your audience have told you it needs. Analyse your site constantly and keep making updates before it gets evicted from the Big Brother house.

...women

Websites may seem like they know what they want, but they can change their mind. Just like women (as a female I can get away with saying that!). What they want and need will change over time. Not only because of what you have learnt about your customers but because of changes within your business or, more often, it will be other changes in the digital world.

Think about Flash and how popular it was a few years ago. Every site wanted flash. But now with the lack of support from mobile devices and advances in alternatives to flash, websites are turning their noses up at it. Another example is Search. Whilst we know exactly what a site wants in order to perform well at SEO, all it takes is one change in Google’s algorithms and updates are required. Consider a time when no sites had Join us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter links on their homepage. Now every site wants it added to their homepage.

The sensible thing is to make sure you have a flexible site that allows you to adapt to these changes and new requirements. Although you may be able to build a site that is 100% perfect, it won’t last, because nobody really knows what women want.

...burgers

Think about your website as the burger. Your bun is the mobile site. The chips are Social Media campaign. SEO is the cheese. PPC the bacon etc...

The burger is the daddy of the meal, but it really needs its accompaniments to do the job properly. If the burger’s bad then the meal is ruined. If the burger is good it will do a half decent job on its own. The sides are OK but not really anything without the burger. When they are all on one plate…that’s when you’re talking.

If you’ve followed the process correctly then you will have gradually developed a site that is performing on all levels. Visitors are looking at the areas you want them to, returning to the site and responding to your calls to action. Now you have a good burger you can you start thinking about adding other stuff to the plate.

Add a bun. You will have learnt how many people are accessing your site from mobiles and you may find your audience are more mobile than you thought. Do you need a mobile site, or maybe an app to make it accessible and fully support their needs?

Some chips? You have a site you can really be proud of, so get people talking about it. The power of Facebook and Twitter are yours for the taking. Give your audience a reason to talk and interact with your brand. This will both drive traffic to the site and build your brand into a truly digital one.

A bit of cheese and bacon. Both SEO and PPC search campaigns can be used to raise brand awareness and drive traffic. By now you will have a thorough understanding of user behaviour on your site and can tailor these campaigns accordingly for most effect.

It’s not only about the key ingredients but adding them at the right time and refining them until you have the perfect combination.

...a million other things

The analogy list is probably endless, but these few have helped me think about what we should all remember when launching a site.

Take your time and use a phased approach for launch. Think about future proofing your site. Ensure you build a flexible website platform that allows you to evolve and adapt. Work out who’s responsible for constantly analysing user behaviour. Ensure you have budget to make any required updates. Start planning to support your site with other digital campaigns - when it’s ready for them.

There’s a lot to think about but it’s easy; just consider your new website as a fashionable female fat-dog owner eating a burger on Big Brother!

Twitter’s been in the news again. This time because one Twitterer decided to publish the names of people allegedly the subject of super injunctions to prevent details of their private lives being written about. I say ‘alleged’ because it appears that in at least one case, the information was false.

Of course, tabloid newspapers are using this as a way of both making the case for a relaxing of the privacy laws that see them being prevented or sued for writing salacious stories about the rich and famous, and showing that whistle-blowing members of the public don’t check their facts first.

It also shows how we’re all publishers now. It might be micro-publishing with a limit of 140 characters, but it’s still publishing nevertheless. And the injunction Tweeter managed to clock up tens of thousands of followers in a short time. I just wonder whether he or she knew what they were doing….was it someone who just knew some info and decided to share it, or was it more of a deliberate plan with a full expectation of what would follow? The fact is, they’ve committed an offence and could possibly end up in jail. Actually, potentially, so has anyone else who Re-Tweeted any of these messages. Seems a high price to pay to embarrass a few celebrities.

Talking of high prices. Why has Microsoft decided to buy Skype for $8.5bn, a company that lost $69m last year? A number of theories abound and I’ve tried to summarise them here:

Brand. Skype is a massive brand. It’s one of those brands that has become a verb like Photoshop, Twitter and Facebook. Microsoft isn’t exactly unknown, granted, but even a giant like them wouldn’t be able to build a brand like Skype anytime soon (or ever, anyone here using Microsoft’s Zune at all?).

Business. Maybe Skype will be directed at professional users. If Microsoft product managers can be tasked with integrating Skype into Office or Sharepoint, then it increases the value of those product lines.

Defence. There are a lot of people saying that Microsoft only did this to keep Skype out of the hands of rivals such as Google or Facebook.

Gaming. Or is it more to do with stealing a march on Sony by integrating video chat into the X-Box Kinect?

Keeping up with the Joneses. Apple has Facetime, which works across their phones, tablets and computers. Microsoft would trump Apple with Skype and it would bode well for their Windows 7 phones. Although they have said Skype will work across multiple platforms, what if they decided to discontinue supporting Skype on Apple products? 

Microsoft has run out of ideas. They can’t innovate, and their shareprice has fallen 11% in the last 12 months, against Apple’s growth of 44%. Some argue that this is CEO, Steve Ballmer’s last-ditch attempt to show that he is up to the job.

Ahead of the wave? Video is only going to increase as we move to 4G/5G and super-fast delivery of data. Microsoft want to be able to be at the head of the game when developers are integrating video chat into their apps.

Money. There must be someone thinking about how they are going to monetize Skype. Maybe the freemium route is one that they will be able to roll-out.

All in all, I hope that this will be good news for users of Skype, although Microsoft’s track record of late doesn’t bode terribly well. I’m very glad it doesn’t fall on my shoulders to demonstrate a justification for the investment over the next few years.