@PistachioHowdy Developers, Get Found on oneforty
At oneforty, we want developers’ apps to be found by the users who want them. While we are continually working on new and interesting ways for apps to be found, shared, reviewed, and used, sometimes developers don’t do everything they can to make it easy for our users to find their apps.
So, developers, here’s some best practices to get your application found:
Claim your app and put some faces with the name
Users like to see that developers have claimed their apps on oneforty; it means that they know that the developer cares about the community and is listening to their users. We recommend that you register the application’s Twitter handle (example: EasyTweets) or a support Twitter handle (example: Seesmic Look) as the developer of the app, and then have the humans who built the app listed as contributors (example: RowFeeder). If there is only one developer, feel free to use your personal account to claim the app if you wish (example: Tweetie 2). You can transfer the app to another account (the other account must already be a developer account in our system) and add contributors from your claimed app’s edit page.
Pay attention to your item’s description, tags, platforms, categories, and icon
You may want to have a catchy description for your application, but most users’ first interaction with your application is on a search result page (SERP). Make sure that the first 50 or so characters of your description clearly state what the app does better than any other app. Users compare applications in search results based on their descriptions, so you want to make sure you’re convincing. We also only show the first four tags for your application in our SERPs. You can have twenty tags for your app, and they’ll all show up on the item page, but only the first four show up in search results (example: Analytics tools and the HootSuite item page). Make sure you re-order your tags so that the most distinguishing ones are first. Pick the right category(ies) and platform(s) for your app so that they show up when users browse our pages for those categories and apps. Lastly, make sure you have a nice, square icon to represent your app. User testing has found that users trust apps less when they see a skewed or “smooshed” icon.
Add good screenshots
Users loooooove to see screenshots of applications when they’re reviewing item pages. When you add screenshots, however, make sure that they aren’t so big that the lightbox is bigger than the page canvas. You should crop or resize your screenshots so that they fit inside a standard browser window’s dimensions. When in doubt, upload and test!
Get your users to rate and review your app
It’s no surprise that ratings and reviews figure heavily into our sorting mechanism in our search result pages. If you want to rise up in our rankings, tell your users to come to oneforty and leave reviews of your app. The more users an app has, the higher it ranks. The better the rating is, the higher it ranks. As your app changes and adds features, send them back - users can edit their oneforty ratings and reviews without having to write a brand new one. And make sure that they leave a star rating as well - it’s good structured data that our search engine really likes.
