How do customers find my listing?

People look for apps and consulting services on the AppExchange in several different ways: entering search terms, browsing categories, and searching via an external search provider such as Google. Knowing how your listing is ranked in each of these scenarios helps you get the most visibility with potential customers.

• Most of the time, people look for apps and consulting services by searching for a term (keyword) on the AppExchange home page. The AppExchange returns matching results and sorts them based on keyword relevance. Here are some tips on how this works:
  • If you include a keyword anywhere in your listing, your listing will appear in the search results for that keyword.
  • Generally, a keyword's relevance is increased by appearing earlier in the listing.
  • Generally, a keyword's relevance is increased by appearing more than once in the listing. Note that listing a keyword multiple times in a row will not improve the listing's ranking.
  • When two or more keywords are searched, only listings with all keywords in the same order are returned. In addition, searches for multiple keywords will also match camel-cased words (e.g. a search for "Great App" will match "GreatApp").
  • Listings at the top of a search are the most relevant from both a keyword perspective and a popularity perspective (i.e., installed most frequently, etc).
• When people look for apps and consulting services by browsing categories (whether on the Home, Apps, or Consulting Services tabs), the listings in a category are sorted based on popularity during the last 30 days. Popularity is based on all of the actions customers can take: installing an app, taking a test drive, watching a demo or other resources, and clicking the Learn More link. Activities that show greater commitment, such as installing an app or taking a test drive, are weighted more heavily than activities showing less commitment, such as clicking screenshots. Note that the number of reviews and the average rating on a listing have nothing to do with the popularity of the listing.
• People can also sort results by rating, by release date, by name, or by provider name. Search results ranked by rating are sorted first by number of stars and then by number of reviews. Therefore, a listing with one review and five stars is ranked above a listing with 20 four-star reviews.
• Because the AppExchange is a public website, search engines such as Google and Bing index your listing pages and return them in their search results. To improve your ranking with external search providers, ensure that you cross reference your listing URL on your website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages.