I’m not an expert in promoting Android mobile apps but it seems I have been able to get past the basics. I am still trying to get past the point where I have several thousand downloads per day but I am working towards it. But since I see so many people on here who have trouble getting started I decided to share what little I do know and hopefully it will help. Most of this stuff is obvious to anyone who has been promoting apps long enough, so this is mainly just for the beginners out there. You can’t just place an app in the Play store and have thousands of people download it anymore. You are going to have to do some promotion for it. You will quickly find that with mobile apps, getting to move up the rankings depends on several factors. These factors include the category of your app, whether it is a game or not, and whether your app is hitting the right keywords in its product description. I am going to start making Android games soon but as of right now, while I have made one, I have not placed it in the app store yet so I can’t really help on the gaming side of things. From what I hear its very similar but some things are a little bit different. But when it comes to normal apps, keywords are very important when it comes to your ranking. So are your download rates but in the beginning it will be the keywords that you use that will be the most important. And good keywords will help increase your downloads which again will help your ranking. Just like when you are setting up a web page, setting up the right keywords in your product description will help you go far. And do not forget to pay attention to long tail keywords in your product description. If you want a little help when it comes to long tail keywords for your app then you should type your main keyword in the Play Store search box on your phone. When you do that, you should see a drop down box with other terms that will be close to your main keyword. Those are long tail search terms that people used when searching for an app that used your main keyword. As long as the keywords match your app, try some of them in your product description. Do not keyword stuff though because if Google does a review of your app and they see the description looks unnatural they will shut it down. Another things that you should worry about when you are trying to promote your app is how you rank in the normal Google search engine. A lot of app developers only worry about the internal search engine of the Play store. But you should really make sure that your app is ranking well for your keyword when it comes to normal web searches. There are still a lot of people who search for apps that way so make sure you have all of your bases covered when it comes to the web. Do not be afraid to place your web store link around the web. This will help greatly when it comes to discoverability of your app on the web. You will hear this advice a lot but that is because it does work and that is to try and get other websites to review your app. There are so many apps out there right now that people will go by word of mouth rather than try new apps for themselves. If you can get good reviews from a couple of websites you should be able to see an increase in downloads. And an increase in downloads will help with your rankings in the Play store. Use this section http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/promote/index.html of the Android documentation when it comes to help linking to your app on the web. Remember, using the web helps to encourage downloads so go to popular places on the web and promote your app there. There is also a great video from Google I/O last year that will give you a lot of tips when it comes to app promotion as well. The link is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT9cvFwB_6c. The main thing when it comes to promoting your app just like anything else is to use your imagination. I have not written anything new here, I have just written some things down that have helped my apps do better. The one last thing I would suggest is to make sure you are placing your apps in more than just Google Play. There are a bunch of alternative app stores out there where people download Google apps and so make sure your app is there. There are a lot of Android devices out there that do not even come with the Google Play store. So these alternative app stores are more popular than you think.
very good article in google play search ranking. i am still finding way to improve my ranking, i think that review exchange is a good way. some place such as androidappser.com, androidapp400 provide free exchange, but now, some of them are asking for fee.