How Does AppExchange Search Work?

Search is one of the most popular ways that Salesforce customers find solutions on AppExchange. Learn how keyword relevance, engagement, listing experience, and machine learning influence the search results that customers see. Then apply tips to help customers discover your listing when they search for a solution to a business problem.

What Influences AppExchange Search Results?

When someone searches AppExchange, four factors influence the results they see. Keyword relevance is the most important factor, followed by engagement, listing experience, and machine learning.

Keyword Relevance

Keyword relevance considers how closely customers’ search terms align with text on your listing. The more that the search terms align with your listing text, the higher its keyword relevance. Title, tagline, and brief description text are weighted more heavily than other listing text.

Example: A customer visits AppExchange to find an app for administering surveys. Their search includes the words feedback and collection. AppExchange listings that include these words have a higher keyword relevance than listings that don’t.

Engagement

Engagement is informed by your listing’s popularity and considers customer activities like screenshot views, test drives, and installs. We measure these activities daily and in aggregate over the past 30 days. The more customer activities that occur on your listing, the higher its engagement.

Example: A customer visits AppExchange to find a document generation app. After performing a search, they visit two listings. The first listing has only a few low-resolution screenshots, so the customer leaves without interacting. The second listing has high-resolution screenshots, a video, and a free trial, and the customer interacts with each of them. In this scenario, the customer’s behavior contributes to higher engagement for the second listing than the first.

Listing Experience

Listing experience considers other aspects of your listing that aren’t included in keyword relevance and engagement factors. Some of these aspects relate to your Salesforce partnership, such as participation in the Pledge 1% program. Others relate to customers’ experiences with your solution, such as the number and quality of reviews on your listing or when your solution was last updated.

Example: A Salesforce partner lists a new telephony app on AppExchange. To promote awareness and installs, the partner launches a marketing campaign. Then the partner sends follow-up emails to customers who installed the app. The email thanks customers for trying the app and asks them to share their feedback on AppExchange. The number of reviews grows and listing experience increases.

Machine Learning

Machine learning uses AI to improve the search experience on AppExchange. Like other search providers, we don’t share details about our machine learning algorithm. But trust and customer success are central to the design of the algorithm. Trust means that the algorithm continuously tunes search results to ensure authenticity. Customer success means that the algorithm makes inferences about a customer’s search intent and prioritizes the results that are most likely to drive positive outcomes.

Example: A customer visits AppExchange and searches for a solution called Appy’s Maps. In the search results, a competing solution appears alongside Appy’s Maps. This solution appears because some who searched for Appy’s Maps eventually installed the competing solution. The machine learning algorithm considers this outcome positive and associates the competing solution with Appy’s Maps.

How Can I Make My Listing Easy to Find When Customers Search AppExchange?

Here are some tips to help your listing stand out in the AppExchange search results.

Factor	Tips
Keyword Relevance	Identify the business problems that your offering solves, then select keywords for your listing. When you incorporate keywords into your listing, focus on the title, tagline, and brief description. Avoid keyword stuffing. If you pack your listing with too many or unrelated keywords, it’s difficult for customers to understand the value it provides. Plus, it negatively affects the machine learning algorithms. Review the keywords that drive your listing activity by using Marketplace Analytics visualizations. These visualizations help you determine the keywords that are associated with the highest number of tile, video, and demo views. To gauge engagement, regularly review your analytics and improve your offering.
Engagement	Be sure that your listing features screenshots, graphic tiles, a video, and a demo. Engagement is enhanced when customers interact with your media, so focus on quality, not quantity. Entice your customers to scroll through screenshots that describe your solution’s benefits. Add a call to action or a visual aid that directs customers to watch your demo video. Use your video to advertise your solution. Use your demo video to provide an in-depth look at your solution’s features.
Listing Experience	Monitor the feedback that your solution receives. Respond to positive feedback with a thank you, and respond to negative feedback with helpful tips and solutions. AppExchange doesn’t edit published reviews, but your customers can edit them based on their positive interactions with you. Keep your listing fresh. When you upload a new package and release a new version, review your listing content. Make sure to describe your current features and use the best-fit keywords. Keep up to date with Salesforce releases. Check that your solution works with our latest technology and update your listing accordingly.

Maintaining a strong search position is a marathon, not a sprint. All search factors work together, and can change over time. Periodically review your listing’s keywords, content, and analytics so that they contribute to machine learning. Make updates to those factors that you control.

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