Will App Graphs Be The Next Big Idea In Search?

Twitter announced this week that the company will be tracking which mobile apps its users download as a way to improve its ad targeting capabilities. For users of Twitter’s mobile app, they will soon see a prompt within the app that reads, “To help tailor your experience, Twitter uses the apps on your device.”

Users can choose to go into their settings to opt out, or they can ignore the prompt and allow Twitter to see which apps they download to their device. The concept is for Twitter to create an App Graph to better understand user behavior and interests.

Twitter clearly understands that mining a user’s app downloads will improve its advertising capabilities. Facebook already does this with apps that use its developer’s kit, and it’s highly likely that Google is utilizing this opportunity as well, considering the fact that it owns the Android platform and has some of the most popular apps on the iOS platform. However, does Google use its own App Graph to improve organic search?

Some industry experts believe this is the case for several reasons. Google already personalizes results, with the understanding that personalizing results leads to a better search experience. An App Graph would help Google better personalize the results and it would therefore make perfect sense to utilize that data.

Another great value of an App Graph is the accuracy that it provides in comparison to other data, such as Facebook “likes.” Unfortunately for marketers, many people like all sorts of businesses on Facebook that they don’t truly like or use in the real world, making this data difficult to utilize. On the other hand, mobile apps are very different. Users have a limited amount of space on their phones, and will be more selective about what they download. If a user isn’t using an app, they will be likely to delete it in order to make space for something new. Additionally, the fact that downloaded apps are more private than social actions such as Facebook “likes” allows for more honest data. Marketers will gain much more accurate insights by analyzing the apps that users have downloaded to their mobile device.

An App Graph is also very valuable to Google as it faces the challenges of spam in its search rankings. Many marketers and webmasters have become experts in creating artificial links to their sites as a method to manipulate search rankings and get higher in the results. Apps are very different, and it would be difficult to convince users to download an app that they don’t actually want to try.

For marketers, it’s important to understand these developments and to ensure Google understands who their site is actually for. For example, as opposed to trying to rank for “luxury cars,” it may be more beneficial to focus less on writing content that talks about luxury cars and more on content that actually appeals to the lifestyle of the sort of person who buys a luxury car. By using this model, Google will start to understand that your website is geared toward a particular type of user. When that user searches for related content, Google should give your site a ranking bonus. The data gathered from an App Graph plays a part in helping Google to better understand the user. This approach can work exceptionally well for marketers who understand the concept and use this understanding to properly develop their content.