Application does not appear in searches

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Advertising Networks
1

Hi, my app does not appear in google play searches, even when I search by its name, this happened after I updated the app
but I have not changed name or description.

It was coming up first in this search till yesterday and had increasing number of downloads (more than 100k in total).
The same happens with all kind of keywords searches that it was coming in the first 10 before
now it does not appear even in the first 250 results. The application is live so it is not a matter of being
suspended. Any ideas?

2

Looks similar to this:

http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/marketing-methods/20728-ranked-app-has-disappeared-update-top-entertainment.html

3

it looks similar to the thread mentioned by Goddard. Please, contact Google about it as they state they “haven’t heard of any similar reports from other developers”. If people start notifying Google about it, maybe something will change…

4

Yannis can you give link to your app?

If you don’t want to, please answer those questions, maybe we can find something:

  1. What sdks are you using?
  2. Have you used fake reviews / review exchange?
  3. Your app avg rating and number of ratings.
  4. Do you try keyword spamming? Naming your app similar to some other known app, excesive keywords?
  5. Store category?
5

1)Appbrain
2)no
3)4.06 1850
4)I don’t think so
5)Photography

I just made a small change to the app description, let’s see if this somehow re-kicks indexing.

Something else, if I search the app name in another language it appears in the search results. But not if I search with the default name in English

6

I just wonder if the Review of Google Play now has anything to do with this phenomenon. Google Play now will review the app and game before publish, including automatic and manual.
Here’s the report:App Submissions On Google Play Now Reviewed By Staff, Will Include Age-Based Ratings | TechCrunch

7

no need to worry about that, the same thing happened to me few weeks ago.

you don’t need to change anything your app list will return normal in the next few hours

8

Well it’s a couple of days now. I contacted google support by chat, the representative gave me the
typical response “app rankings change all the time as new apps are added blah blah”. Then they send me
a mail:

“After investigating your issue further, it seems your app’s change in rank was probably more drastic than is normal.
I have escalated it for further investigation just to make sure that everything is working as intended.”

So I’ll wait and see. If i don’t see any change I’ll have to unpublish and republish as new application.