Antennapod: SEO : Help raise awareness of AntennaPod in Google Play Store

[tonytamsf]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Search for podcast in Google playstore
2. There are a bunch of apps and AtntennaPod is below many other apps with lower rating and with less downloads
3. I notice AntennaPod does not include the words podcast in the name or in the publisher

Suggestion

1. During the publication to the Google Play store change the name to include the work podcast
   name : AntennaPod - Podcast Player : Free, Fast, No Ads
   Publisher: AntennaPod - Podcast For Everyone, community supported

---

I think this will help with Google search ranking in Google Playstore

[tonytamsf]

Searching for podcast

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3 (where AntennaPod is)

[ByteHamster]

@mfietz

Woah, Google recently changed the search ranking. When searching for "podcast", AntennaPod was on the first page in Germany. Now it is just gone. I have scrolled pretty far down and did not find it...

@tonytamsf
The names you suggest feel a bit sketchy to me, to be honest. Other apps do similar stuff, too, but putting many keywords in the title does not look trustworthy, I think.

My suggestion:
Name: AntennaPod - Powerful Podcast Player
Publisher: AntennaPod Contributors

I think "contributors" might be a hint for someone looking for open source apps. Open source seems to be a reason why current users like AntennaPod (play store comments).

[Pentaphon]

How about:

Name: AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player
Publisher: AntennaPod Contributors

As you said, contributors is a hint for open source users, but ad-free is an even bigger draw for normal users who don't want ads cluttering their podcasts like they do in most free players.

[tonytamsf]

@ByteHamster I understand you don't want to be spammy, but AntennaPod is one of the few free and Ad-Free podcast players.

I 2nd @Pentaphon's suggestion

[tonytamsf]

@ByteHamster could you let me know the top 10 countries by total and by new downloads in the last 6 months.

I will take a screen shot and capture the current search ranking for those countries in order to see if SEO helped

[ByteHamster]

I will take a screen shot and capture the current search ranking for those countries in order to see if SEO helped

For the next release, I plan to replace the screenshots: #3757. I think we should wait with renaming to have clear separation between both impacts. Also I want to give the translators some time to translate the app title.

[keunes]

Name: AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player

I'm not a huge fan, but I guess you're right about the ad-free point :/

[ByteHamster]

I'm not a huge fan

What do you suggest instead?

[keunes]

What do you suggest instead?

Nothing, 'cause I still think it's the best option. I'd personally favour "AntennaPod - Podcast Player" (like Pocket Casts) as it's less 'promotional', but I think mentioning Ad-free is a good move to attract non-tech users :)

[GoLWD]

Adding "open source" somewhere can be a way to attract "power users" too. As far as I remember I tried searching for something along the lines of "podcast open source" when looking, don't remember if I found this though, since it was long ago. I think I may just have searched online at first for "top open source podcast players" or something too.
Also agree that having "ad free" somewhere might be good idea for attracting regular users.

[tonytamsf]

How about:

Name: AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player
Publisher: AntennaPod Contributors

I still like this proposal by @Pentaphon

[keunes]

Adding "open source" somewhere can be a way to attract "power users" too

I think the power users will be able find us, eventually. Either via blogs, F-Droid, or a web search. I think 'the wider public' is more valuable for AntennaPod at this point (thus the 'Ad-free' that appeals to this group).

[Pentaphon]

I think the power users will be able find us, eventually.

I think if anything, Antennapod is close to reaching its saturation point for use among open source aficionados, which is why it's more important to stress the ad-free part of Antennapod. Have you ever tried to use an ad-supported, proprietary player? It's quite annoying which is why a lot of people pay to get rid of the ads, but there's still a lot of people who will never pay to use an app that want an alternative to the ad-ridden players.

[tonytamsf]

@ByteHamster A call out here. When are you thinking of changing the title?

Name: AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player
Publisher: AntennaPod Contributors

https://podnews.net/article/best-android-podcast-apps

By average rating: AntennaPod. A German podcast app, which is also open source, seems to have a small but fiercely loyal userbase, and an average rating of 4.71*. However, with ten larger apps out there, its popularity isn’t reflected in its download numbers.

[ByteHamster]

Yeah, sorry. Still on my to-do list.

In the meantime, I think I like "AntennaPod Open Source Team" more (like AnkiDroid does it). Discussing with mfietz about changing it (I don't have the permissions).

I still do not really like the "Ad-free" part. It feels so spammy (but I can change that without mfietz)

[Pentaphon]

I still do not really like the "Ad-free" part.

I can understand why you wouldn't like it. I'm not sure there's a better way to express that quality, though and I can't deny that that is what normal users will respond to the most. "Open source" just means something to FOSS enthusiasts, but not having ads in your client is a universally accepted good. We want Antennapod to serve everybody, not just FOSS fans.

[keunes]

@ByteHamster I guess it's not possisble to do a test with the app title, like it is possible to test the images? (Whether adding "Ad-free" would actually improve pick-up)

[ByteHamster]

Oh, good idea! Then I would say let's test the following 3 variants:

• AntennaPod
• AntennaPod - Podcast Player
• AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player

I think testing in German would be best because most downloads come from Germany.

[Matth7878]

Not directly related but to temporarily help awareness some tech blogs / sites could be contacted. We could ask if they are willing to publish a news or review for version 2.0 release.

I think those sites may be likely to do it :
In English : Ghacks.net ; AndroidPolice.com ; Xda-Developers.com
In French : frandroid.com

[keunes]

@Matth7878 @ByteHamster Maybe we can discuss this more directly in a 'team' or on Riot or whatever? Might be easier to coordinate outreach efforts.

[tonytamsf]

* AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player

Could we test this one first?

[keunes]

Could we test this one first?

@tonytamsf I believe the idea of the test is to display either of the three options to users (served by Google Play at random), and to see if there's a difference between the three titles in terms of installs. So it's all at the same time, not sequential.

[tonytamsf]

Oh, the A/B test is a fantastic idea @keunes

[ByteHamster]

Oh, good idea! Then I would say let's test the following 3 variants

Oh, I was wrong. You can test everything except the title :(

[keunes]

Then I'd go for @tonytamsf 's option (even though it's no longer a teast really but just adapting & hoping for the best)

* AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player

Could we test this one first?

[antennapod-bot]

This issue has been mentioned on AntennaPod Forum. There might be relevant details there:

https://forum.antennapod.org/t/translation-of-screenshot-titles/62/18

[tonytamsf]

@ByteHamster with 2.0.0 out, will you consider testing

AntennaPod - Podcast Player
AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player

[ByteHamster]

I still have this issue in the back of my mind. I would wait a little bit though, until we can see the effect of the new icon and screenshots on Google Play before we start changing more things.

[Pentaphon]

I still have this issue in the back of my mind. I would wait a little bit though, until we can see the effect of the new icon and screenshots on Google Play before we start changing more things.

Are you guys still going to add Antennapod to the https://subscribeonandroid.com/ page?

[keunes]

Thanks for the reminder @Pentaphon. That was certainly in the planning. In fact, would you mind to help out? AntennaPod is a community project, so you're very much encouraged to jump in. Currently that task is not on the top of our to-do list, so your help would speed things up :) Please let me know if you're interested to step up. I'd be happy to provide the relevant materials and answer any questions.

[Pentaphon]

Thanks for the reminder @Pentaphon. That was certainly in the planning. In fact, would you mind to help out? AntennaPod is a community project, so you're very much encouraged to jump in. Currently that task is not on the top of our to-do list, so your help would speed things up :) Please let me know if you're interested to step up. I'd be happy to provide the relevant materials and answer any questions.

Sure, I'll do it.

[keunes]

@Pentaphon Great, thanks! I see that the only thing they need is URLs and an image. The app icon is here: https://github.com/AntennaPod/Branding/blob/master/Logo/logo_512.png
(If you didn't reach out to them yet, would you mind adding me in CC? (GitHub username [at] mailbox.org) Then we follow up if anything pops up.) Thanks again!

[Pentaphon]

@keunes Sent!

[keunes]

I saw it. That's great, thanks a lot!

[tonytamsf]

I am reminded that we should get a tag line with the word 'Podcast' so on Google Play it is easier to find.

AntennaPod - Podcast Player
AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player
AntennaPod - Community Built Podcast Player

@bytehamster

[tonytamsf]

AntennaPod - Open Podcast Player

[Pentaphon]

AntennaPod - Ad-free Podcast Player

This is the only one that normal people care about. They don't like banner and fullscreen ads. They will at least try anything that doesn't have those.

[ByteHamster]

I just set the title to AntennaPod - Podcast-Manager for German users. Let's see if that changes the download numbers :)

[tonytamsf]

I just set the title to AntennaPod - Podcast-Manager for German users. Let's see if that changes the download numbers :)

Great that we are trying something new https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.danoeh.antennapod&hl=de_de&gl=de