When to Avoid Over Saturated Categories

When it comes time to submit your app to the App Store, you'll be asked to select an appropriate category to place it in. Sometimes the most obvious choice is not always the best choice.

When researching similar apps in the App Store, take a good look at what categories they're located in and how well they are faring in those categories. Just this little bit of detective work alone can help you choose the best category that will give your app the greatest chance for exposure in the App Store.

A good example of this is DistinctDev's best-selling novelty app, The Moron Test. Even though the app includes several levels of game play, the developers made a conscious decision to avoid the massive Games category, opting instead to place it in the smaller Entertainment category. This turned out to be a smart move. The Moron Test quickly rose to the number-one paid app in Entertainment. That exposure as a top Entertainment app fueled even more sales, which in turn elevated its position to the top of the U.S. App Store's Top 25. Would The Moron Test have sold as well if placed in the Games category? Maybe not. Even though the main Games category is divided into 19 subcategories, such as Action, Arcade, and Board Games, it still would have proven difficult to compete against the immersive, high-action 3D games that dominate the overall Top Games chart.

Depending on the kind of app you have, sometimes this strategy can work against you. Obviously having the right keywords in your app name is vital so that you're included in related App Store searches (which I discuss later in this chapter), but people also like to browse their favorite categories to find new apps. With this in mind, don't pick a category just because it's smaller. It's important that you choose the category where most people will think to look for your type of app. So, even though DistinctDev bypassed the large Games category, placing The Moron Test in the smaller Entertainment category instead, it's still a very appropriate and intuitive location for this app.

For apps that would fit well in several different categories, the decision may not seem so obvious. When this happens, it's best to investigate the categories that similar apps have chosen, especially the apps that are selling well. For example, there are dozens of note-taking apps in the App Store, but would that kind of app be best placed in Utilities, Productivity, or Business? Do a quick App Store search for notes to see where most of those apps reside.

It's highly recommended that you use the desktop iTunes for all your competitive research since it displays much more information than the iPhone version of the App Store. For example, if you click an app from the search results, the app's category is not displayed in the iPhone's App Store listing, but it is displayed in the desktop version of iTunes (see Figure 2-2).

Figure 2-2. If accessed from search results, an app's category Is not listed In the ¡Phone's App Store (left), but It Is listed In the desktop version of the App Store In ¡Tunes (right).

When I shop for writing software, my goal is to find writing tools that will help me be more productive as an author, so instinctively, the Productivity category would be my first choice to look, and it would appear that I'm not alone in that thinking. Although some note-taking apps are located in Utilities and Business, the majority of them reside in Productivity.

Sometimes, a particular category can limit your potential audience. In the case of Bump, the contact-swapping app I mentioned earlier in this chapter, the developers wanted the app to appeal to more than just business users. Although similar apps are rooted firmly in the Business category, the simplicity of Bump made it an easy data-sharing solution for anyone, so the decision was made to place it in the Social Networking category.

"At its core, Bump is much more than contact information exchange; it is a technology that lets two devices intuitively interact. We didn't want to pigeonhole Bump as a business app, nor did we want to position it as an iPhone-only utility," says Lieb. "By choosing the Social Networking category, we positioned Bump as a tool for connecting with the people around you. Also, we knew that if we were successful, being in the Social Networking category would put us right next to world-class brands like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, AIM, Yahoo, and Loopt."

So when in doubt, check out your competition's category choices and the possible advantages they may gain from those locations.

Continue reading here: Analyzing App Ranking Statistics

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