Overview of deep links and app indexing for iOS and Android apps on both Google and Bing. Includes implementation details on setting up deep link support in mobile apps and annotating a website to expose these URIs for app indexation.

1. Justin Briggs, Briggsby
How to Setup App Indexing
for iOS & Android

2. Justin Briggs
Founder, Briggsby
Justin@Briggsby.com
@JustinRBriggs
Say Hello!

3. Welcome to the future of search

4. Turn of the Tide
Mobile Moment

5. Turn of the Tide
Mobile App
Moment

6. Radically changing role of search

7. Current Discovery Model
App
App
App
Content
Action
Content
Action
Content
Action
Search

8. New Discovery Model
App
App
App
Content
Action
Content
Action
Content
Action
Search

9. Deep links & app indexing are
making app content accessible

10. Drive App Engagement
App launch
can be default
behavior
Clicking this
launches the
app!

11. This is supported by Google & Bing

12. For both iOS & Android
(And Windows Phones on Bing)

13. 15% of Google searches on
Android return deep links to
apps through App Indexing

14. Search as an Interface
Visits to app,
not websites
Takes action on
your behalf
Hands free UI
(wearables)
Solutions, not
web pages
Search examples: http://blog.tackmobile.com/article/android-wear-gui-elements/

15. Evolution of technical SEO

16. App Deep Links
android-app://{package_id}/{scheme}/{host_path}
ios-app://{itunes_id}/{scheme}/{host_path}
 package_id - app ID in Play Store or iTunes App Store
 scheme - http or custom scheme
 host_path - specific content within app

17. App Indexing for Android apps
(Google)

18. Intent Filter: AndroidManifest.xml
Defines the structure of your
app URIs
<activity android:name="com.example.android.GizmosActivity"
android:label="@string/title_gizmos" >
<intent-filter android:label="@string/filter_title_viewgizmos">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<!-- Accepts URIs that begin with "http://example.com/gizmos” -->
<data android:scheme="http"
android:host="example.com"
android:pathPrefix="/gizmos" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>

19. Mange the Intent
Passes the incoming Intent
to a helper method
...
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_gizmos);
onNewIntent(getIntent());
}

20. Mange the Intent
Verify the deep link and
display the gizmos content
protected void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
String action = intent.getAction();
String data = intent.getDataString();
if (Intent.ACTION_VIEW.equals(action) && data != null) {
String gizmosId = data.substring(data.lastIndexOf("/") + 1);
Uri contentUri =
GizmosContentProvider.CONTENT_URI.buildUpon()
.appendPath(gizmosId).build();
showGizmos(contentUri);
}

21. App Indexing for iOS Apps
(Google)

22. Custom URL Scheme in Info.plist
Define {scheme} and gsd-{scheme}

23. Setup Inter-App Communication
openURL: method launches the app
with the registered scheme and
passes your URL to it

24. Setup Google’s SDK
This is required to have iOS deep links
#1 Install CocaPods
#2 Add GoogleAppIndexing Pod
#3 Add GoogleAppIndexing post to your Xcode project
#4 Update your code to use SDK and to make API call to handle
back button

25. Express Interest to Google
https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/ios/interest-form
iOS App Indexing is a limited release

26. Keep it “First Click Free”

27. Allow the back button

28. Don’t block crawl in robots.txt

29. Test With Android Debug Bridge
This will kick open “page” on
mobile device from console
adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d
"http://example.com/gizmos" com.example.android

30. Test With Xcrun Tool
This will kick open “page” on
mobile device from console
xcrun simctl openurl YOUR-DEVICE-UUID gsd-
gizmos://123456/?google-deep-
link=gizmos%3A%2F%2Fabcd&google-callback-
url=googleapp%3A%2F%2F&google-min-sdk-
version=1.0.0

31. Test In The Wild (HTML)
Opens app from web page
<a href="intent://example.com/gizmos#Intent;scheme=http;
package=com.example.android;end;">http://example.com/gizmos</a>
<a href="gsd-gizmos://123456/?google-deep-
link=gizmos%3A%2F%2Fabcd&google-callback-
url=googleapp%3A%2F%2F&google-min-sdk-version=1.0.0">
gizmos://abcd</a>

32. Testing Deep Links
Will launch
app deep link

33. Verify site with
Google Play Developer Console
& Webmaster Tools

34. Connect in Google Play Console
Verify the
app’s website

35. Annotate site for app URI
discovery via crawl

36. Three Ways to Expose App URI
<html>
<head>
...
<link rel="alternate" href="android-
app://com.example.android/http/example.co
m/gizmos" />
...
</head>
<body> … </body>
Rel=“alternate”
ViewAction
XML Sitemap

37. Three Ways to Expose App URI
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "http://example.com/gizmos",
"potentialAction": {
"@type": "ViewAction",
"target": "android-
app://com.example.android/http/example.co
m/gizmos"
}
}
</script>
Rel=“alternate”
ViewAction
XML Sitemap

38. Three Ways to Expose App URI
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<urlset
xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitem
ap/0.9"
xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<url>
<loc>http://example.com/gizmos</loc>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" href="android-
app://com.example.android/example/gizmos" />
</url>
...
</urlset>
Rel=“alternate”
ViewAction
XML Sitemap

39. Very similar to a mobile
separate-site setup

40. Launch App From Search

41. App indexing is now
a ranking factor

42. Average Lift of 0.29 Positions
0.19
0.48
0.29
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Rank Lift Over Desktop
App Indexing Ranking Boost
Mobile (Not Installed) Mobile (Installed) Net Benefit

43. No longer limited to users
with installed app

44. Drive app installs by leveraging
your existing SEO visibility

45. Manage indexing with robots
noindex in app

46. Indexing Control for Apps
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<search-engine
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
>
<noindex uri="http://example.com/gizmos/hidden_uri"/>
<noindex
uriPrefix="http://example.com/gizmos/hidden_prefix"/>
<noindex uri="gizmos://hidden_path"/>
<noindex uriPrefix="gizmos://hidden_prefix"/>
</search-engine>
App Resource
Directory
Android Manifest

47. Indexing Control for Apps
<manifest
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.android.Gizmos">
<application>
<activity android:name="com.example.android.GizmosActivity"
android:label="@string/title_gizmos" >
<intent-filter android:label="@string/filter_title_viewgizmos">
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
...
</activity>
<meta-data android:name="search-engine"
android:resource="@xml/noindex"/>
</application>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
</manifest>
App Resource
Directory
Android Manifest

48. Push to Google with
App Indexing API

49. Autocomplete App Suggestions

50. Only the beginning…

51. Search as an interface
with app actions

52. App Actions
App Indexing Knowledge Graph App Actions+ =

53. Leverage Schema.org Actions
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "MusicGroup",
"name": "Weezer", "potentialAction": {
"@type": "ListenAction",
"target": "android-app://com.spotify.music/http/we.../listen"
}
}
</script>

54. App Actions

55. Building an Action Graph
Play the Taylor Swift song about haters
Action Entity Listen Action Traditional Keyword Match

56. 55% of teens and 41% of adults use
voice search more than 1 time a day
- Google’s Mobile Voice Study

57. Building an Action Graph
Order me a pizza? Schedule my meeting? Drive my car?
Ok, Google

58. Bing Supports iOS & Android
App Indexing

59. Bing’s App Indexing
AppLinks.org Schema.org&

60. App Links Markup
<head>
<meta property="al:ios:url" content="example://?id=12345678" />
<meta property="al:ios:app_store_id" content="12345678" />
<meta property="al:android:url" content="example://?id=12345678" />
<meta property="al:android:package" content="com.example.www" />
</head>

61. Schema.org App Actions
<script type="application/ld+json">
{ "@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "Book",
"additionalType" : "http://www.productontology.org/id/Audiobook">
"name": "Coraline",
"author" : "Neil Gaiman",
"isbn" : "9781937091415",
"potentialAction":
{
"@type": "PlayAction",
"target": [
"http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/Coraline-Audiobook/B0036GTJ48",
{
"@type": "EntryPoint",
"urlTemplate": "audible://listennow?asin=B0036GTJ48&title=Coraline",
"application": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"@id": "bdc813dd-c20b-41f8-8646-de72fa0b365d"
"name": "Audible",
"operatingSystem": "Windows Phone 8.1"
}
] } } </script>

62. Thanks!
hello@briggsby.com