Posted by Laurence Moroney, Developer Advocate.
App Indexing helps you get your mobile app found in Google Search. Once your app is indexed, mobile users who search for content related to your app can be guided directly to your app, helping you to increase your install base and improve user engagement.
In this episode of Coffee with a Googler, Laurence meets with Jennifer Lin from the App Indexing team, who demonstrates the possibilities!
Jennifer shares that Google has indexed over 50 billion deep links into apps, with searches returning these links to users, taking them directly into your app. She shares how the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK saw a 22% boost in search impressions, and app users spent around 20% more time reading and sharing articles when they came in via a deep link from Search. Additionally, Tabelog, a premier restaurant review app and site in Japan, saw an increase of 9.6% in page views within their app, and a 63% increase in Search impressions after adding their app to the index.
When searching with Google Search on your phone, if the app is already installed, and has content that matches what you’re looking for -- you can be directed straight into the app to get a very rich experience. Alternatively, if the app isn’t yet installed, but has matching content, you can be guided through an install experience for the app, without losing context, so that when the app launches, you’ll go straight to the content you were looking for! Jennifer demos both scenarios using real apps, showing how straightforward the user experience is.
You can learn more about App Indexing, including how to get started on the Google Developers App Indexing site. For more information about other Google Search for Developers APIs, check out g.co/DeveloperSearch.