How Do App Ratings And Reviews Affect ASO & its Best Practices?
Do you think reviews like these affect ASO negatively?
Most people would say yes because Jibreel gave a 2-star rating. However, there’s a twist to it.
Some apps might get even more rankings and some may go down.
To find out how to let’s see how app reviews impact ASO.
2 Ways App Reviews Impact ASO
1. Negative Reviews & Ratings Affect App’s Conversion Rates
Be it a free or paid app, poor ratings make it hard to accept.
When an app gets negative reviews, its rating declines which further decreases the conversion.
The above graph shows Rating Vs Percentage downloads of worldwide apps.
When ratings go from 5 to 4 stars, the download count doesn’t change much.
But when ratings drop from 4 to 3, your install rate reduces by 50%.
Resetting your app reviews with every update is a great idea. But that’s the luxury only iOS app developers can afford.
It’s impossible to reset user reviews on Playstore. In this case, beta testing your updates is important.
This way you can get an idea of your app before launching it for everyone.
In case you don’t know what beta testing is, make sure you at least read this beta testing guide once.
2. Effect of App Ratings & Reviews On App Store’s Search Visibility
Ratings and reviews play a key role in changing search visibility.
An app with tons of positive reviews has more chances to rank on top.
Let’s look at an example to give you a clear understanding:
When you search ‘insurance’ on PlayStore, you will see a bunch of apps.
Almost every app in here has a rating of 4 or above. Yes, there are some apps that still rank high, even with low ratings.
It’s because ASO isn’t about just getting positive reviews; several other factors are involved.
An app with a 3-3.5 rating ranks because of proper optimization.
Another factor that might boost search visibility is getting keywords in reviews.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a negative or a positive review, but if the user types in keywords while writing a review, it’s a big plus for visibility.
4 Factors for Getting Good Reviews and Ratings for Your App
1. App’s Performance: No one likes an app that crashes or lags and this would lead to negative reviews.
2. User Experience: Modern users ask for an epic user experience; poor quality graphics, high loading time, poor interface, etc. might just push users away.
3. Updation Frequency: Without proper updates and modern solutions, your app is just dead because competitors do this regularly.
4. Downtime: Limit the no. of times you put your app under maintenance, otherwise users won’t hesitate scrutinising it in the review section.
How to Get Great Reviews & Ratings for Your App
1. Make it Easy to Review Your App
Finding a review button becomes a task in itself. Make sure users can reach out to it easily.
There are 3 possible cases when a user might be searching for a review button:
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