A Better Description for App Store Optimization

Written by Kaysie Green

It was Thanksgiving morning. I had spent all night making enough pies and desserts in enough flavors to guarantee my entire extended family’s happiness. The panic had set in for yet another family event that would fully occupy my next two days. Then I got the call.

My client’s game had been removed from the app store for inappropriate language. 

You may have gotten this notification or something similar before, and I hope it’s never happened over a holiday. But this was the exact case for my client. One of the 19 languages they had submitted to the Google Play store had been flagged as containing a profane term. I immediately jumped onto the nearest computer and reached out to the senior linguist, answered calls, text and emails from my panicked client. Within an hour, we found that in this case, thankfully, it was a false positive. This experience really made me think: what are the challenges that game developers face with mobile game releases, and how can Glyph’s Games Localization and Consulting team help?

Your App has been Optimized but has it been Internationalized?

Character Limitation

Glyph understands all the work that goes into an App or Google Play Store release. The videos and images have to be a certain size, length, and file type. Your game name and description, which your marketing teams spend months developing, are limited to a 30 character name, 80 character “short” description and a 4000 character “long” description. And on top of that, you are expected to translate them.  Did you know that once translated, languages such as French, Spanish and Italian are on average 20% longer than English… and languages like German are closer to 35%?! This means whatever copy you’ve painstakingly crafted in English is going to be much longer once localized. And the clever name you’ve spent time picking out for your game? It may not work when translated.

A playful cartoon monster peeking behind a cluttered closet door, showcasing various items like a bowling ball, hanger, and books, symbolizing the unexpected surprises in game localization
A playful cartoon monster peeking behind a cluttered closet door, showcasing various items like a bowling ball, hanger, and books, symbolizing the unexpected surprises in game localization

Character Limitation

Glyph understands all the work that goes into an App or Google Play Store release. The videos and images have to be a certain size, length and file type. Your game name and description, which your marketing teams spend months developing, are limited to a 30 character name, 80 character “short” description and a 4000 character “long” description. And on top of that, you are expected to translate them.  Did you know that once translated, languages such as French, Spanish and Italian are on average 20% longer than English… and languages like German are closer to 35%?! This means whatever copy you’ve painstakingly crafted in English is going to be much longer once localized. And the clever name you’ve spent time picking out for your game? It may not work when translated.

App Store Optimization and Keyword Research

When you write an app description using keyword-rich search terms, be prepared to do additional keyword research for other markets. For example, in an App Store Optimization evaluation for a Solitaire game the top clicked term for English-speaking markets is “solitaire”.  In Spanish, the top searched phrase was actually “De Tres Picos” (Tripeaks), and it had a higher density by a significant amount.  Make sure to select a localization provider that understands games and knows the market, as well budget accordingly for multilingual App Store Optimization.  It makes all-the-difference with your game’s app store success to take the extra effort for international keyword research to achieve the top score for every game!

ASO and Keyword Research

When you write an app description using keyword-rich search terms, be prepared to do additional keyword research for other markets. For example, in an ASO evaluation for a Solitaire game the top clicked term for English speaking markets is “solitaire”.  In Spanish, the top searched phrase was actually “De Tres Picos” (Tripeaks), and it had a higher density by a significant amount.  Make sure to select a localization provider that understands games and knows the market, as well budget accordingly for multilingual ASO.  It makes all-the-difference with your game’s app store success to take the extra effort for international keyword research to achieve the top score for every game!

Localization vs. Translation

It pays to know the difference between localization and translation. These are TOTALLY DIFFERENT services. Translations are direct, and often literal – meaning that if you want to say “Play game” in Spanish, literally translated it would be “JUEGA JUEGO”. We can do that for you, but so can Google translate, and a translation as literal as that isn’t at all likely to be well received in the market. Instead, we localize. Our expert localization team will research and compare the latest trends, and marketing strategies used by other games, to ensure your message is reaching as many people as possible. This replaces the need for a localized copywriter writing in the local language. 

A cartoon monster with a single eye and devilish horns holding a game controller, representing the target audience of game localization services and app store optimization
A cartoon monster with a single eye and devilish horns holding a game controller, representing the target audience of game localization services and app store optimization

Localization vs. Translation

It pays to know the difference between localization and translation. These are TOTALLY DIFFERENT services. Translations are direct, and often literal – meaning that if you want to say “Play game” in Spanish, literally translated it would be “JUEGA JUEGO”. We can do that for you, but so can Google translate, and a translation as literal as that isn’t at all likely to be well received in the market. Instead, we localize. Our expert localization team will research and compare the latest trends, and marketing strategies used by other games, to ensure your message is reaching as many people as possible. This replaces the need for a localized copywriter writing in the local language. 

Spending Growth of the Top Game Genres in Each Country

A graph showing the popularity trends of different mobile game genres like RPG and casino across various countries, illustrating market research for game localization

Reaching the Right Markets

When you look at specific games that have widely different sales figures in different markets… it poses the question “what markets do I localize this game into?” More generally, it’s important to think about the type of game you’re marketing. For example, according to Sensor Tower, casino mobile games are widely popular in North America, but not so much in Europe or Asia. If you’re planning to localize your casino game into Spanish,  you might want to consider Spanish US rather than European or Castilian Spanish.

Spending Growth of the Top Game Genres in Each Country

A graph showing the popularity trends of different mobile game genres like RPG and casino across various countries, illustrating market research for game localization

Reaching the Right Markets

When you look at specific games that have widely different sales figures in different markets… it poses the question “what markets do I localize this game into?” More generally, it’s important to think about the type of game you’re marketing. For example, according to Sensor Tower, casino mobile games are widely popular in North America, but not so much in Europe or Asia. If you’re planning to localize your casino game into Spanish,  you might want to consider Spanish US rather than European or Castilian Spanish.

Why Glyph

Preparing your mobile game for release in other markets merits consideration of a number of factors: externally-imposed character limits, keyword research, taking care not to translate literally, and focusing your effort on the right non-American market to target. These are all things we at Glyph Language Services have a proven track record of getting right. If you’d like to know more please reach out to sales@glyphservices.com.

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To our valued community,

With the inevitable measures that all businesses need to undertake to support staff and clients, I would like to provide you with an update on our operations. For over 5 years 100% of our staff have been trained and able to work remotely while still maintaining weekly office days for collaboration and team building. We have cultivated business platforms and operations that run digitally without sacrificing security, service quality or capabilities during the better part of the last decade. As of March 9th, all company operations were transferred to work-from-home with no expected change in services, capacity or staff availability.

We understand that many of our partners have experienced challenges due to having a large international presence and multilingual employees. As a result, we are extending our help by monitoring requests after business hours and on weekends for projects associated with the coronavirus. This is to ensure we provide you with the best possible support and the fastest turnaround possible.

If you do have time-sensitive requests associated with the coronavirus, please send them to newrequests@glyphservices.com and include a clear subject line or title so we can act accordingly “COVID-19 Translation”.

We encourage you to reach out if there’s anything we can do to help you and your team during this difficult time. We sincerely hope you, your family, and colleagues remain safe and healthy.

Best wishes,

Viktoriya
CEO

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