Marketing

As you saw in the Extras section, TurboStarter comes with a lot of tips and tricks to make your product better and help you launch your app faster with higher traffic.

The same applies to submission tips to help you get your app approved by Apple and Google faster.

We'll talk more about the whole process of deploying and publishing your app in the Publishing section, here we'll go through some guidelines that you need to follow to make your store's visibility higher.

Before you submit

To help your app approval go as smoothly as possible, review the common missteps listed below that can slow down the review process or trigger a rejection. This doesn't replace the official guidelines or guarantee approval, but making sure you can check every item on the list is a good start.

Make sure you:

• Test your app for crashes and bugs
• Ensure that all app information and metadata is complete and accurate
• Update your contact information in case App Review needs to reach you
• Provide App Review with full access to your app. If your app includes account-based features, provide either an active demo account or fully-featured demo mode, plus any other hardware or resources that might be needed to review your app (e.g. login credentials or a sample QR code)
• Enable backend services so that they're live and accessible during review
• Include detailed explanations of non-obvious features and in-app purchases in the App Review notes, including supporting documentation where appropriate

Following these basic steps during development and before submission will help you get your app approved faster.

App Store (iOS)

Apple reviews are much stricter than Google reviews, so you need to make sure your app is ready for the App Store.

Guidelines

Apple has a set of guidelines that you need to follow to make sure your app can be accepted in the App Store.

These include:

• Safety: Your app must not contain content or behavior that is harmful, abusive, or threatening.
• Performance: Your app must be performant and stable, with a smooth user experience.
• Business: Your app must not engage in unethical or deceptive practices.
• Design: Your app must have a clean and intuitive design.
• Legal: Your app must comply with all relevant laws and regulations.

You can read more about each guideline in the official App Review Guidelines.

Search optimization

App store optimization is the process of increasing an app or game's visibility in an app store, with the objective of increasing organic app downloads. Apps are more visible when they rank high on a wide variety of search terms, maintain a high position in the top charts, or get featured on the store.

There are a few actions that you can take to improve your app's visibility in the App Store:

• Choose accurate keywords: Use relevant keywords in your app's store listing.
• Create a compelling app name, subtitle, and description: Your app's title should be catchy and descriptive, the same applies to the subtitle and description.
• Assign the right categories: Make sure your app is categorized in the right category, this will help you reach the right audience.
• Foster positive ratings: Ratings and reviews appear on your product page and influence how your app ranks in search results. They can encourage people to engage with your app, so focus on providing a great app experience that motivates users to leave positive reviews.
• Publish in-app events: You can publish in-app events to promote your app and encourage users to engage with your app. (e.g. game competitions)
• Promote in-app purchases: Your promoted in-app purchases appear in search results on the App Store. Tapping an in-app purchase leads to your product page, which displays your app's description, screenshots, app previews, and in-app events — and lets people initiate an in-app purchase.

Read more about App Store Optimization in the official documentation.

Google Play Store (Android)

Google reviews are less stringent than Apple reviews and usually take less time to review, but you still need to make sure your app is ready for the Play Store.

Guidelines

Google has its own guidelines that apps must adhere to. Some important aspects to consider include:

• Spam, functionality, and user experience: Your app must not be spammy, must work as expected and must provide a good user experience.
• Restricted content: Before submitting an app to Google Play, ensure it complies with these content policies and with local laws.
• Privacy: Apps that are deceptive, malicious, or intended to abuse or misuse any network, device, or personal data are strictly prohibited
• Monetization: Your app must not engage in unethical or deceptive practices.

For more detailed information and an interactive checklist, check the Google requirements page.

Search optimization

Ensuring that your app and store listing is thorough and optimized is an important factor in getting discovered by users on Google Play.

Follow these steps to optimize your app's visibility on Google Play:

• Build a comprehensive store listing: This includes providing accurate title, description and promo text.
• Use high-quality graphics and images: App icons, images, and screenshots help make your app stand out in search results, categories, and featured app lists.
• Diversify your audience: Google provides automated machine translations of store listings that you don't explicitly define for your app. However, using a professional translation service for your Description can lead to better search results and discoverability for worldwide users.
• Create a great user experience: Google Play search factors in the overall experience of your app based on user behavior and feedback. Apps are ranked based on a combination of ratings, reviews, downloads, and other factors.

Common mistakes

There are a few common mistakes that you should avoid to make sure your app can be accepted in the stores. Apple reports that, on average, over 40% of unresolved issues relate to guideline 2.1: App Completeness, so make sure to avoid these:

• Crashes and bugs
• Broken links
• Placeholder content
• Incomplete information
• Privacy policy issues
• Inaccurate screenshots
• Repeated submission of similar apps

Don't worry if your first submission is rejected, improve it, fix all the mentioned issues and try again.