New App Store Changes Includes 50 Character Limit on App Store Titles

Apple's latest App Store update takes aim at zapping the practice by developers and marketers of leveraging extended titles (Apple previously provided up to 250 characters for a title) to take advantage of how an app's title gave the highest keyword ranking strength for keywords in the title.

Starting next week, however, Apple will begin limiting app titles to 50 characters. What does this mean for app marketers and developers? Let's take the popular photo editing app, Prisma for example.



Image Credit: Prisma App Store Listing

Prisma's previous title was: Prisma - Art photo editor with free picture effects & cool image filters for Instagram pics and selfies

With an enforced 50 character limit, Prisma's title becomes:  Prisma - Art photo editor with free picture effects

You can see how Prisma loses out on a good many important modifier terms and must now debate between several of the most important keywords to place in the title, while also ensuring to write a readable title.

Possible title #1: Prisma photo editor - Instagram picture filters
Possible title #2: Prisma photo editor - Instagram picture effects
Possible title #3: Prisma photo editor - Picture effects & filters

Part of Apple's new guidelines also include not using  the word "app," not using the plural/singular form of a singular or plural word already used and also promising to strike down apps using competitor app or trademark words.

Other changes include an effort to remove no longer supported or broken apps to improve discoverability for actively supported apps and improve user satisfaction.

If keeping track of App Store changes and optimizing your iOS app for keyword rankings based on the optimal value-per-character isn't quite your thing, contact Incipia for a quote on optimizing your app listing. We're a team of app store optimization experts well-versed and well-equipped to identify and set up the optimal keyword mix for your app.

The Bottom Line: Optimizing an app for relevant and high volume terms just became a bit harder as Apple continues its pledge to improve the App Store experience by enforcing a 50 character limit on App Store titles.

Original Source: Apple Insider