When you want your websites to get optimized on the search engines then why not the mobile applications on store? You can easily code your application so as to boost your app to lead the board.
What exactly is App Indexing?
It helps connect specific pages / content of your website with that of the application. This means that when somebody searches for something over Google, it shows a normal list of websites, but if the mobile app is linked to your site being displayed then it will also include relevant content in the app. In case the app is not installed then it’ll provide the “Install” button to install the application.
Apart from that, Query Auto-complete option is an added advantage. While searching, the app indexing helps in suggesting deep content from your app.
How to execute? It’s straightforward!
- Setup you application with app indexing
- Setup a website with content corresponding to your app
- Connect both and verify
- Done!
You see, it’s so simple! Well, there’s a bit more to it and you’ll be done.
1. The first step says you have to setup your android app for indexing.
- In setting up a normal application for indexing, the developer needs to add intent filters to the app manifest.
- The filters include <action>, <data> and <category>
- These filters are meant to define the method to reach the content in your app.
2. Next, you must link the website to your application: There are 3 ways in which you can map your page to the app.
- One says use a <link> element in the <head> tag
- Use <xhtml:link> in Sitemap <url>
- Use Schema.org for a potential Action. [ViewAction]
- Later the App URI must be defined and tested, Format for the App URI must be :
android-app://{package_name}/{scheme}/{host_path}
Here package_name is the Application Id, Scheme is what scheme to pass to the application and host_path analyses the accurate content in your application
3. Finally Connect both app and the website
- For cases where app is installed in the user’s mobile, then Google will automatically start indexing the data of your app.
- In situations where the app isn’t installed, you can still
So to sum up:
- Application supports deep links which opens the home screen of the app.
- The Search performance can also be tracked by the android app
- The deep link annotations added to the web pages help in linking the site to the app and thus the search to the app whether installed or not.
