How many apps are installed on your mobile device – ten, twenty, even more? Here’s a better question: how many of them do you use on a daily or even weekly basis? That number is probably considerably lower.
While businesses are under pressure to develop apps in order to attract, retain and engage customers, there are already millions of apps floating around app stores, all vying with each other to gain users’ attention. What can developers do to ensure their app not only won’t get lost in the shuffle, but customers will continue to utilize it in the future?
The answer to that question is app indexing. Read on to learn more about what app indexing is and how it works.
The History of App Indexing
In October 2013, Google introduced a concept called “app indexing.” It allowed webmasters to deep link content within their apps so that they would appear within searches performed on Android devices.
Nearly a year and a half later, the search behemoth announced that it would be improving its ability to index apps even further, so that the best possible results would come up in a search.
How Does App Indexing Work?
Let’s say you’re in the market for a pair of new shoes. You’re also an Android device user. What do you do? You pull out your smartphone or tablet and search for a pair of shoes in your desired size and color on Google, because you know it’s the biggest search engine and you’ll probably get the most relevant results.
Google shows you a number of search results. In addition, content from a shoe store app will appear in this list, because the app knows that the shoe store has the exact pair of shoes you want in stock right now.
App Indexing for iOS and Windows
Google isn’t the only one to use app indexing. Microsoft’s search engine Bing does it, too. What’s the difference between the two search engine’s app indexing? Google is far more popular. In addition, more people use Android devices than they do Windows mobile devices.
App indexing is one area in which Google has the advantage over Apple in the device wars. Google has made app indexing easy for developers to implement, so their content can be shared through search results quite quickly. Apple, on the other hand, wants developers to apply tags that make content discoverable. Some critics argue this is a tedious step for developers, while others believe it enables users to find more relevant content.
App Indexing and the Future
App indexing technology goes a long way to solve the problem of overcrowded app stores and hard-to-find apps. It also helps developers share their creations easily and quickly with an interested audience.
However, app indexing will remain useful only if it provides the most relevant content to users. It does no good if you’re searching for something, only to find a result that doesn’t quite fit. Otherwise, users will become disengaged, and the app will sink into invisibility.
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