keywords and app search, search result

Hello,


I had published two similar apps named at iTunes with the same keywords. Their keyword lists included both brand names of the client, let's say "brand A" and "brand B". Typing "brand A" into the search engine shows both apps in the search results, the same happens with "brand B".

Now, my client does not want that both of his apps show up in the results at the same search result list, i. e. Typing "brand A" should not show the app "brand B", but only "brand A".

The other key words of both apps are almost the same, they have many keywords in common.


I published a new build of both apps and deleted the respective keyword ("brand A", or "brand B") at the same time. However, both apps are still showing up in the search result.


My question is now: Is there any caching of meta data? How long would it take until this cache is cleared or the meta data updated?

Is it due to the keywords which both apps have in common?

What would you recommend to solve my problem?


Thanks in advance for any hint and thoughts.


Berenike

Accepted Reply

This thread has been deleted

You haven't mentioned anything about app category, etc., so there may be other factors at work besides account.


As for caching, because the app store and search are one big black box, it's not possible to do more than guess. My opinion is yes, sure, there are caches, but those are unique to the mid-stream servers a given user is tapping when looking at the store. User A hits servers A and gets cached data A. User B goes thru servers B and gets cached data B, etc. etc. Users in Belgium are pulling from different servers than users in Korea.


A cache's shelf life/validity etc. can vary depending on when new data is walked on the main servers (and that new data depends on how much work the main servers are subjected to), and frequency of pulls from users. The time to refresh, and the results, in those examples would vary, of course.


All of this rides on the algorithms involved, and that's where the blackbox effect kicks in. Only Apple knows their details.


When dealing with updates and concerned about old metadata, I've heard some devs do as many back-to-back searches as they can once the update goes live, over a given short period of time, on those app(s) to help flush/renew the index that helps fill the cache - no idea if that works, but hey, can't hurt.

Replies

Sounds like this has less to do w/your client, and more to do with those apps belonging to the same account, which in this case belongs to you.