Amit Singhal is Senior Vice President of Search at Google and he just dropped this bomb shell, “I love apps.”
This is huge news for us and our clients, and the fact that Google is turning to app content opens fantastic new opportunities for apps to present even more value! Google now, no longer just indexes web pages, it also indexes the content of mobile apps. What this means is that your app content can show in search results within Google.
If you’re lucky, visitors currently find your site by entering the address directly. More typically, however, they search for a service in Google and they visit the sites that rank the highest in the results. This has made the first page of Google some of the most valuable real estate in the world and companies spend a lot of time and money to secure their spot. Ask yourself, when last did you go to page 2?
This has already been a selling point of apps: if you aren’t realistically going to get on the first page of google search results, rather make an app take the steps to have it rank as high as possible in the various app stores because, in essence, they presented a less crowded search marketplace. Now, the benefit of mobile apps are doubled as with app content indexing you have the opportunity for your app and its info appearing right at the top of the Google search results. If your app shows in search results it will come with the ability to install directly, or, if the searcher already has your app it will open the content in the app.
If a user, for example, searches for ‘pizza specials cape town’ and Yummy Deals is presented in the results, clicking on the link will either open the app at the appropriate content or will link to the install opportunity in the appropriate app store for your device.
Google has already indexed over 100 billion links within apps and this is just the beginning.
Google Play and Apple App store are no longer the only way to find the apps you need, your app is now discoverable though the world’s number one search engine and practically everyone’s search starting point. Your app can reach a wider audience, quicker, can be presented as a result for any related search activity rather than an exact name search in the store and this will result in more downloads and a shift in the value of developing your own custom app.
Apps have already offered clear value for some time now, but it just got clearer (and bigger!)
Cheers
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