I work for a mobile marketing company and we have 2 apps that look like they have gotten penalized. For one app, ranking for most keywords has stayed stable but the main keyword (also targeted through link building) decreased from 2 -> 25. For the second app, most keywords have decreased slightly in ranking, but one keyword in particular decreased from 9 -> 90. For the keyword that decreased, we haven't used it at all in link building but recently started targeting it more on-page (in the title and 4 times in description) Does anyone else have experience with a penalty for an app? Does that seem like what is happening in these 2 cases? Would love some insight! Thanks!
This relies on upon what you class as an “App” on the off chance that you class a mobile version of your site i.e. m.yoursite.com then yes this will be classed as copy substance and it causes penalty.
Link building is not the basis to rank well and the reason why your app most keywords had decreased was the performance of the app in the search and most importantly the engagement to the targeted audience. Which means your competitors app is more interesting and likely interacted by the users.