Whether reading the news, sharing blog posts about politics, are finding the best apps for travel guides, we rely on our mobile phones for nearly all of the information we process throughout the day. This information is nearly always in the form of our favorite apps.
Increasingly, search engine optimization is learning to index the content available on mobile apps.
We know that Google’s latest updates benefit content that is easily browsed by mobile users, and content is usually the first thing that comes to mind when trying to target best SEO practices. But how is this content interpreted when it’s in the form of a mobile app, and how can developers adjust to these changes?
Next year, the next move for SEO experts will be using Google’s App Indexing.
Google still considers content when ranking apps, but its app indexing platform is rapidly progressing.
In the App Indexing API, developers can share the title and description of the content that exists within app. Plus, it shows the length of time app users spend browsing the content on the app.
The developer submits a start and end time to the API for every action that allows the GoogleBot to understand the content in the app the same way it would crawl web content. GoogleBot also reads the URIs and content in the specified sections of the app.
While Google has more functionality to with Android apps, it can still be integrated with iOS apps.
So what’s the best way to optimize your apps? Of course, start with great content. Support your content with an impressive user experience that keeps your readers coming back for more. Everything should be readable and easy to navigate; for your users and for Google. Because Google does rank content that exists exclusively on apps in mobile search results, consider these elements to make Google’s API will work to your advantage.