Typos and lack of keywords mean top UK travel brands hard to find in app stores

Yodel Mobile, which analysed the brands throughout March, examined how they used keywords in three different ways: capacity (how many of the permitted total keywords were used); relevancy (how successful were each of the brands at connecting the app with relevant, travel-related keywords); and typos (how many keywords were misspelt).

It was found that seven of the 11 travel brands analysed used between zero and five keywords, despite the app store allowing 20 words to be used to describe the app.

Keywords help users find an app through search, yet it was found that only 30 per cent of the keyword capacity was used with two leading brands not using any keywords at all to assist users in finding and downloading their app.

Of those who did use keywords, six failed to use relevant keywords relating to the company’s core business, such as flight, cruise, cheap, holiday, family, and hotel.

Tim Pemberton, media operations director at Yodel Mobile, said: “It’s clear that travel brands need to up their game when it comes to the App Store. Casual search for lifestyle, utility and entertainment mobile apps is a mainstream activity and often the consumer’s first touch with a brand. Strong use of keywords is just the start of the optimisation journey.”

When using keywords, Yodel Mobile points out that a misspelled word is a missed search opportunity, with five of the 11 brands analysed seeing typos on their keywords, with one misspelling ‘airways’ and another adding a rogue ‘i’ to the end of London.

“Getting the creative right (icons and screengrabs for example) are crucial, as well as introducing ‘beyond the download’ tactics. These include contextual push messaging to help re-engage consumers with your app and grow positive ratings and reviews – in turn helping to tune up app discoverability,” Pemberton concluded.