Google just took its App Indexing initiative to the next level with the announcement that it is bringing app indexing to iOS apps.
This is huge news considering that many app developers build for iOS before Android if they even bother to build for Android at all. Google recently named app indexing as a ranking signal in mobile search results as well.
Product manager Eli Wald says in a blog post:
We’ve been helping users discover relevant content from Android apps in Google search results for a while now. Starting today, we’re bringing App Indexing to iOS apps as well. This means users on both Android and iOS will be able to open mobile app content straight from Google Search.
Indexed links from an initial group of apps we’ve been working with will begin appearing on iOS in search results both in the Google App and Chrome for signed-in users globally in the coming weeks.
Google says it wants to make the technology available to more app developers ASAP, so if you want to get a head start, you should add deep linking support to your iOS app, make sure it’s possible to return to search results with one click, provide deep link annotations on your site, and let Google know you’re interested.
For Android, read: How To Set Up App Indexing For Ranking In Google
Google I/O is about to begin this week, and you can count on there being plenty of content related to this coming from there.
Last week, Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) added new reports to show how Google understands and treats app content in search results.
Image via Google