When I literally search for Find Kitties, I do not see my game pop up in the results at all. I am not talking about it not even showing up in the top 10 or 20 or whatever results, which are reserved for more high ranking highly downloaded games with similar names and description. I mean it’s not showing up in the results at all.
I can find my game searching for my company name. But that’s it.
I uploaded my game nearly 10 days ago. I thought it could take some time for Google Play to recognize the game in searches, but I see nothing yet.
Anyone know what’s up or can help me better understand why my game isn’t showing up?
I’m not sure what could cause it, perhaps there is some gap of time between certain regions seeing updated stuff… but I’m in Ohio, EST time zone.
EDIT: I do have another theory, and probably a more accurate one… which is that google play targets results to certain users doesn’t it?.. so a search from one account probably gets different results than a search from another account, because I think there is some “targeting” going on behind the scenes.
Ok I got feedback from Google Play developer support.
I am clueless on how you are finding my game.
But I do understand why I am not finding my game. I was told I need to add quotations around my title to find my game. As Find and Kitties are way too common words to actually find my game using Google Play’s search algorithm.
I brought up the concern that most people who search for apps will not search for app titles using “Find Kitties” but rather Find Kitties, but I was directed to a source/app that gives ideas on how to improve my apps visibility. So I have to spend time doing that, because my name and description are currently worthless on Google Play.
For the past 10 days I have not had a single download of my game(other than from people I know personally). So this was a great learning experience for me. I know my game is not the most super awesomest game in the world, but I think my screenshots and description are enticing enough to get a few random downloads here and there.
(Score one for iOS though, I didn’t have to do anything fancy to increase my visibility, and my game actually shows up when I type in Find Kitties, and man, I already have 183 downloads --Even though my Unity Ads are broken, because Jesus, Unity Ads Window service at this time is broken, and Ads need to implemented using the SDK…) Anyway…
Yes it is tricky to get visibility on play, and a big thing is to make sure you app icon (the 512x512 one on google play) is really really good looking, because kids often ignore titles and look straight at the icon! This is something I am far from mastering, but I’d recommend looking at a few of the big titles similar to your app, and try and borrow some ideas for the way the art is done!
My game is now published for over a month and I still don’t see it in search results, nor do I see any reviews in the direct link (and I know that there is at least one review already).
Every time I contact Google support, I get the same, annoying, copy-pasted reply:
“Because your app is NEW and don’t have many installs or ratings, it can take some time for our algorithms to detect your app and properly include it in search results. The search algorithm will look at how your app performs based on installs, user ratings, and it will rank accordingly to similar apps. Apps with higher data will rank higher than other apps will lower data.”
@johndgn
In case there are lots of games with a similar name, what does the avatar pic of your Cube Hero game look like? If you tell or show us a pic of it, or even tell us the name of your game studio etc, it will be easier to identify.
Tried to search information on how long you have to wait for an app to be listed on google play store search, but cannot find any information. Does anyone know what is required for an app to be listed on search?
