Search Analytics for Your Apps

Let’s be honest – apps rule the world right now. Everyone has an app for something and everyone has their favorite apps for certain things. The majority of the time, you can find millennials on their phones, and if they are not texting – guess what – they are using their favorite app; which is most likely Facebook or Instagram. However, even apps that are not the most popular are still used if they are a necessity; like a mobile banking app, and even that handy gas station app that tells you where the cheapest gas station is around you. 

For businesses who have a mobile app and webmasters who participate in App Indexing, we dedicate this post to you. Google’s new Search Console (formerly known as Webmaster Tools) is said to be easier to use for non-webmasters and has recently been updated with new reports that show developers how their app content is performing in search results. 

The Requirements:

1. You have to have an Android app
2. Go to your Search Console and enter your app name; for example: 
android-app://com.example
3. Have an associated app to a site in your Search Console
4. Submit the XML feed

Now, you can use the Search Analytics report to see top queries and the most trafficked app pages. But, hold onto your seats because it gets better – you can also use filters to sort by clicks, impressions, and click-through rate.

Another feature is the beta version of Fetch As Google for Apps. This feature allows developers and businesses to be able to see how Google sees the content within their Android app; how Google renders the app’s URI scheme. 

Not sure what URI scheme is? Well, we all know what content is and how your business ranks based off of many factors, one being content. Internet space is inhabited by many points of content and the most common form of URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) is a webpage address. The URI to your app is the mechanism used to access the resource, and it will tell the specific computer that the resource is housed in, as well as the specific name of the resource on the computer. So, in order for Google to be able to interpret your app’s specific URI scheme, they have created the beta version of Fetch As Google for Apps, allowing developers to understand how Google understands and treats app content in terms of search results, and every business with an app wants to know how their app content helps them rank. 

Below is a photo of how your app may look to Google: