Nowadays, mobile applications are on the rise. Without them, communicating with friends, buying tickets, or learning foreign languages just isn’t the same anymore. All smartphone owners know what an app store is. Android users look for apps in the Google Play Store, while the iOS App Store covers Apple users.
A description page helps users familiarize themselves with an app, as it contains detailed information on the software and what it has to offer, including screenshots, videos, information about the developer, ratings, reviews, etc. Finding an app you need is intuitive: you type in the name and choose the app you are looking for. This is the million-dollar question: What language do you type your request in? If the app is intended for a broad audience, users’ search requests are likely to be in their native languages. Unless the app developer only wants users from a particular country or region to see its product in the search results, the app’s description page must be translated and localized into other languages.
Which Localization Languages Should You
Choose for App Promotion?
When choosing languages for your localization efforts, the target region’s ethnic groups and languages must be considered and that data used to determine the total potential user count. We cannot emphasize enough that in today’s competitive environment, more often than not, users prioritize experience and accessibility over price. Therefore, more languages mean more grateful clients. For 65% of online shoppers, it’s important to receive information in their native language. In other words, information accessibility and, more specifically, the display language, is just as important in the purchase decision-making process as the need for the product or its relevance.
The number of app downloads in the Google Play Store in 2023 reached nearly 121 billion, and forecasts suggest this figure will reach 143 billion in the coming years. The total profit for app owners in the App Store for 2023 amounted to $320 billion USD, three times more than in 2020. The report provided by Apple states that the total number of App Store visitors worldwide averages over 650 million per week. The top two positions on the download rates list are held by China and India due to their large populations. The US market comes in third because of its high overall number of users.
When you need to assess how crowded the online environment is in any particular country, a competitive landscape analysis is the way to go. The assessment criteria include subject-specific keyword monitoring, for which such services as Keyword Explorer, Similarweb, Marketing Intelligence, or Serpstat may come in handy.
The Importance of Localization in ASO Optimization
Localization is the process of translating and adapting content while accounting for all the details. Localizing an app page in an online store involves addressing many elements, including:
- Description text.
- Visual elements (screenshots, photos, icons, and logos).
- Videos.
- Marketing blocks (slogans and other texts intended to drive conversion).
App localization requires regional settings in the app management service as well as content modification based on country-specific cultural norms and other nuances. A comprehensive approach differentiates a localized translation from a regular one. Its primary objective is to make the app page look and feel as natural and correct as possible to a user from a given region.
The Importance of Localization for Business
Localization allows developers to implement a new language version of their app. Releasing the product in a foreign region leads to higher download rates and increased chances of achieving a high international ranking. The simplest way to build hype for an app is to advertise it. This method is quick to deliver but it requires ongoing investment. Achieving sustainable, long-term results and gaining organic search traffic, while it does not rely heavily on investments, is impossible without localization.
What Is ASO?
App stores are a competitive environment. To successfully launch a product in other countries’ online environments and make conversions without advertising costs, you will need to develop and implement an optimization strategy designed to grow organic traffic.
ASO, or App Store Optimization, is the process of optimizing mobile applications for search and download. It improves product visibility among similar offerings driving higher download rates.
The search algorithms for an app store are similar to other search engines. Their primary goal is to ensure a great user experience, i.e., to provide relevant search results and display the highest-quality and top-rated products first.
ASO includes working with semantics and metadata (titles, keywords, and descriptions), optimizing page content, and editing graphic elements. The key performance metrics are the number of times the app is shown in search results, the description page views, and conversions (install rates).
What to Keep In Mind When Choosing
a Localization Language
When it comes to choosing localization languages, the app download rates in a given country are not the only metric to consider. It is important to analyze the region’s international and linguistic diversity, as well as to assess how the chosen language influences rankings within the region.
Statistics by Regional Language Groups
Your choice of localization language should be guided by regional statistics on users and the languages they speak. For instance, when localizing for the US market, you need to remember that around 10% of the population speaks Spanish. Considering the total US population, this is one nation’s worth of users.
Some examples of the recommended language versions for different regions include:
- US—English and Spanish.
- Switzerland—German, French, Italian, and English.
- Cyprus—Greek, Turkish, and English.
Language Variability
For historical reasons, the populations of some countries around the world communicate in different dialects of one language. Distance and cultural norms set the language on different evolutionary paths in each region, leading to differences in vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. Some examples of this phenomenon include the use of English in the UK and Australia and Portuguese in Brazil and Portugal.
The difference between dialects might not be obvious to those who did not study a particular language. However, a native speaker will easily spot any inauthenticity. During localization, particular attention is paid to names, promotional text, and CTAs, because any discrepancies in these areas will be especially glaring.
On-page Elements That Require Optimization
App page localization resembles the website localization process. Some of the benefits that localization provides include:
- Displaying text in the language that the reader understands while considering details specific to their country, including cultural norms, data formats, etc.
- Encouraging action.
- Optimization and promotion in the app store.
How to Implement Localization
Services that help app developers configure the necessary regional settings are available. Let’s take a look at some of them. App Store Localization: The App Store Connect console (formerly iTunes Connect) contains metrics on key optimization KPIs, such as impressions and installations with time and download rates.
Google Play Localization: The Google Play Developer Console offers comprehensive ASO statistics, information on keywords, and visual element testing results.
App store localization using App Store Connect and the Google Play Developer Console helps developers evaluate optimization metrics and work to improve them. For semantic selection, some of the available solutions include free services such as Yandex Wordstat or search requests in Google Ads settings.
Who Should You Entrust Localization To?
To localize an app page, simply translating the text is insufficient. High-quality text modification requires great attention to detail, knowing how to use and adapt all of the page elements, leveraging techniques to engage and draw users’ attention, configuring the optimization, and ensuring that all project details have been fully addressed before international release. To ensure comprehensive and detailed app adaptation that addresses all linguistic and marketing subtleties, entrust your project localization to a translation agency.
Signs of a High-Quality Localization
To assess the localization quality and completeness, you should consider the following:
Description
Only a limited number of characters are allowed for any app description. You want to ensure that you make the most of the space available for your text. Ideally, it should include the essential product information, keywords, and a call to action. The result will be a description that sells and is optimized. When using keywords to optimize a description, be mindful of the “spam score.” Search terms should complement the text organically without overloading it.
Visual Elements
Banners, screenshots, pictograms, and icons all affect the overall text readability and may become user engagement tools. You can use marketing text to complement any large graphic elements. The image text must be translated properly and fit the image dimensions. Do not use a font that is too small.
A/B Testing
To assess how well your text and graphic elements perform, it is important to conduct А/В tests. For example, a special Google Experiments service included in the main Google app console allows you to evaluate the impact of visual blocks on the overall statistics.
Videos
A short, fast-paced video is a great way to introduce an app; an opportunity to quickly showcase your product’s strengths compellingly. Despite its effectiveness as an attention grabber, however, few people will watch a video all the way through. Any key information must be presented in the first couple of seconds. A video included in the app description will be displayed as a screenshot. You need to prepare your starting image just as you would a banner, by including text blocks and choosing a compelling color scheme.
Ratings and Reviews
These are factored in to determine the app ranking. They can be influenced by rating requests in Android and iOS. You should also reply to reviewers and manage negative feedback by resolving legitimate issues users report and challenging unwarranted complaints.
Top Mistakes in iOS App Store
and Google Play Store Localization
Using Machine Translation
Automated translation tools might help you translate a text quickly or find a word’s meaning, but you will be shortchanging yourself if you decide to use them for your app. Most automated translation tools process text word by word and, thus, tend to choose incorrect synonyms in the target language, ignore the overall context, leave out negation particles and prepositions, etc. An application page offers little space, so make it count. To ensure the text is impeccable regarding language rules, structure, and style, and doesn’t seem off to the reader, you should reach out to experts.
Failure to Build a Semantic Core
Content is not only a way to inform prospective users but also a powerful promotion tool. During translation, most people don’t consider the presence of keywords in the text or they expect the search terms used in one country to work for another. For your app to appear in search results, you need to know what queries your target audience uses most often. A full semantic set must be built based on geography and used without exceeding the maximum permitted keyword density in any given text.
Improper Optimization
Knowing relevant keywords in your subject matter and region is not enough—you should make good use of them too. A text that is overloaded with repetitive phrases may decrease the app’s chances for high visibility and popularity. All key phrases must be optimally distributed on the page. Having doubles, for instance, in the title and the description reduces the number of queries that can be captured. Search terms used in titles and subtitles are more heavily weighted than those in the description. You should maximize the available space in the page blocks and include the most targeted and most promising requests.
Half-Baked Visual Elements
A common issue that plagues translated descriptions is only working with the text and failing to adjust images that include text the intended reader cannot understand. To ensure 100% localization of the app description, you should address all of the additional elements, images, and screenshots. When adapting images or UI elements, it is not uncommon for a translated word or phrase to be longer than that in the source text and take up more space on the image. In this case, the app page translation requires further editing. Localization services, which include translation, editing, and desktop publishing all in one package, can be provided by a translation agency.
Benefits of Localizing Apps
in the Google Play and iOS App Stores
- Reach a larger target audience and make your product more attractive.
- Make your clients aware of the strengths and benefits of your app.
- Improve prospective users’ trust and loyalty.
- Attract organic traffic from foreign countries.
- Increase download rates.