Here’s Why You need to carefully consider your app’s category before going live

The world of app development is very competitive and overlooking the slightest detail might prove to be a roadblock in the way of your app’s success. Choosing the right launch plan, reaching a point of success in the app store and retaining users is a multi-step process.

While there are a lot of important aspects of this process, choosing the app’s category is a crucial decision. First of all, the app category helps users in finding the right one among the multitude of apps in stores. Secondly, the category also helps them to find an app that suits their needs and can help in solving an existing issue. Hence, choosing the right app category is a vital step in app store optimization (ASO) and other mobile marketing strategies.

Tips to choose the right category for your app

As we discussed earlier, it is not always easy to pick the right category for your app in the app stores. Having a lot of category options makes a choice even more difficult. At the moment, Google PlayStore offers a range of 33 categories, while the Apple Store has 24 categories.

You can only choose one category for your app in Google PlayStore, But the Apple store offers two different option- a primary and secondary category. However, Apple makes it very clear in online tutorials that the primary category is most important for increasing the app’s visibility in the store.

Coming back to the question, how can one choose the right category for their app? Let’s say you have developed a chatting and video calling app like Hookt, an AirG spamblocker app. It allows you to talk to real people instead of fake ones, something that is very common nowadays. You can share your photos and multimedia with fellow users in a safe space and block anyone immediately. An app of this nature can easily fare well in the social networking category. So, choose the social networking option as it best describes the function of the app.

Here are some more ways in you can decide upon the best category for your app:

• Re-read your app’s proposal as it highlights your app’s functionalities the best.
• Understand your audience and identify the category where they seek an app like the one you have developed.
• Check out your competitor app’s categories.

What to avoid when choosing the app’s category

One of the most popular categories in the app stores is the gaming category. However, if your app doesn’t qualify as a gaming app, don’t classify your app there. Just because a certain category is popular does not mean that it will increase your app’s visibility and downloads. In fact, it can do the opposite. The app store guidelines clearly mention that always choose a category which matches the function of your app. And going against the rules can even result in the removal of your app from the app store.

Benefits of choosing the right app category

Here are some reasons why you should carefully consider the category of your app carefully as you aim for success in the app market:

1- Makes your app discoverable

App categories organize the apps within the stores. It not only makes it easier for users to filter their searches according to app functionality but also increases the chances of your app being discovered.

2- Increases visibility and attracts quality traffic

If you have done your research about the categories of other competitor apps and placed your app in the same category, then it will do wonders to boost your app’s visibility. Chances are that your target users are already browsing through that particular category which gives you a chance to attract quality traffic and improve conversion numbers.

In short, we can’t stress the importance of accurately analyzing each app category before you pick one which is most suitable for your app, contains your ideal customer profile and fellow competitor apps.

Switching app store categories

Now that you have picked out a suitable category for your app doesn’t mean that you can’t switch over time. Your app can evolve with time and might end up being used in a way you never thought of before. A great example of this is Twitter. Initially, Twitter was launched as a social media platform and was categorized in the social media category. Up until April, Twitter managed to grab the 5th spot in the social media category. But as time passed, Twitter became a popular social media platform for journalists which compelled them to switch categories. Today, Twitter bags the number one spot in the News category. Lesson? Switching app categories can sometimes do wonders for your app ranking.

Source: https://blog.prioridata.com/the-complete-guide-to-app-store-categories

Conclusion:

Think of app store categories as a continuous process. App stores are continuously changing and adding new categories because they want users to find and explore apps easily. It might be a bit overwhelming at first, but don’t allow your app to get lost in the madness.

A good app store optimization keyword strategy will help your app maintain a good ranking in the app store. But ultimately, the whole ASO process starts after you submit your app and choose a suitable category.

We hope this article helped you in understanding the importance of app categories and how it can help with organic user acquisition and ASO. If you have any more questions or concerns regarding app categories, then let us know in the comments below: