Metadata for the App Store. Why is it so important for app publishers and how to do it right.

Umberto Grimaldi — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 22:13:32 +0000

Every element of your App Store product page has the power to drive downloads of your app. Learn how to help customers discover your app and engage them through thoughtfully crafted METADATA, on your product page and in search results. — Apple website

What is app Metadata?

The Metadata of an app are basically all the images and texts displayed on your app page in the App Store. Name, subtitle, descriptions, keywords, age rating, screenshots and much more.

Why is app Metadata so important?

Optimizing your app Metadata is extremely important to make sure that the potential users that see your page on the App Store are going to be converted into real users of your product. To make this real, it is important to boost the app position on the search ranks (ASO) and make it appear on the first positions when someone search for a specific word.

Good Metadata = +Download = +Users = +Revenue

Having a good Metadata does not serve only to get more downloads, but also to make sure that your app is not going to be rejected on the App Review process. Apple has a rigid review process and a high number of apps are rejected just because their Metadata (texts and screenshots) are not in accordance to the thousand guideline articles specified by them. Yes, they are infinite! (To get more information about the app review process and the impacts of metadata, you can check this link.)

How can I increase downloads with app Metadata?

1) Create beautifully designed and appealing Screenshots for your app, calling attention to your product. You can create amazing screenshots using Jaamly. (more information can also be obtained on this post)

2) Be assertive and objective while writing the texts for your Metadata (especially the name, subtitle and description.) These are the first information your users will see when opening your App Store page.

You can use Jaamly to manage all of your metadata information and preview how it is going to look on the App Store. It is very helpful to understand what is the visible information and which phrases are hidden for the final users (the ones that he needs to press "more" to keep reading).

On Jaamly you can add your App project and start filling the fields related to your Metadata. It helps you to keep track of all information that you already have completed and the ones you still have to create.

3) Localize (translate) your Metadata — texts and screenshots- to the main languages and countries where your app will be available.

Studies have proved that localizing/translating the App Store information displayed on the app pages can increase the conversion and number of downloads in up to 74%.

On the other hand, localizing the app information manually is still hard to do and time consuming. The app store currently supports 34 languages and each language has 6 localizable texts (name, subtitle, description, promotional, what's new, and keywords). This means that to launch one app globally, with the app store information supporting all languages, you need to create 204 (6 x 34) different texts. It is a nightmare!

Well, it was. Because now you can simply use Jaamly to create your Metadata for one language and the app automatically translates and localizes all of the texts to all supported languages.

Ah… it also transfers all of the metadata information from Jaamly to App Store Connect in just one touch. So you don't need to spend hours on App Store Connect website anymore. You can just do everything in a couple of minutes using Jaamly.

Jaamly is the secret weapon of Developers, Designers, Startups, and Digital Agencies

People got tired of wasting to much time to manage App Store information manually, especially if the apps are available globally. To save time, now they can manage all metadata and screenshots for several apps in one single place.

The localization is handled automatically and all information can be transferred to App Store Connect in a matter of seconds. It works like magic!

Jaamly is a free iOS and more information can be obtained on the website: www.jaamly.com

CREATE LOCALIZED SCREENSHOTS

Umberto Grimaldi — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 14:04:26 +0000

Localizing your app to all languages in the App Store takes too much time. Not anymore!

Let’s start!

Jaamly is an iOS app that manages all the app information required to publish apps on the stores — including Metadata and Screenshots. All content created inside the app is linked to a project and a version.

On the example below we have Project X with a version 1.0 and English as primary language.

1) Tap on the screenshots icon to access the tool.

Choose your templates!

2) Tap on the “+” button and choose the templates you like most.

Jaamly provides thousands of templates, including Premium templates accessible by Premium users.

Once chosen the template will be immediately ready to be modified.

Fully customizable

At this point, you can leave space to your imagination and your artistic vein. The screenshots are fully customizable.

3) Add text, change the background color, add custom backgrounds, choose the font style and size.

Screenshots all set — Let’s import all of them to other languages

Once you have created your screenshots, all you have to do is import them to all the languages you want.

In this example, in addition to English, we also want to create material for the Italian language.

4) Tap on the flag at the top right of the screen and select the Italian language from the list.

5) Press "Import" on the popup to import the screenshots from English to Italian.

Now I have the same screenshots on English and Italian and I just need to Localize (translate) them.

How to translate screenshots texts

6) To open the translation tool, tap on the icon at the bottom of "+" button.

The ideal for a perfectly translated translation would be to remove the carriage returns, to be able to rearrange the text based on the length of the translation just performed, in this way:

Below each screenshot there will be a card with the translation tool.

7) Choose the source language to perform the translation to Italian (in this case the source language is English).

Once selected the language, the translation will automatically start.

8) To apply the translation on the Screenshot you only need to tap on the translated text and select “Replace text”.

9) After applying the translation, proceed to rearrange the text within the screenshot.

Export all screenshots

The hard work is already done and all you have to do is export. Jaamly allows you to export everything in a single zip by tapping on the button at the bottom right. If you want to export high quality images, Jaamly offers this option on the PREMIUM subscription.

10) Tap on the purple circle on the corner and then on the "share" button to export your screenshots. Choose the option that best fits your need.

As you can see, in a few minutes you will have created several screenshots for your app for several languages!

Give Jaamly a try!

Jaamly is available for iPhones and iPads.

DEV Community: Umberto Grimaldi