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App Indexing: Blurring the Lines Between Your W...

Juan Gomez
November 20, 2014

App Indexing: Blurring the Lines Between Your Website and App

You worked really hard to create a great Android app that provides a better experience for users accessing your content from their mobile devices. And yet most of your users still find themselves on your website being sent there by a Google search or a link they clicked on in an e-mail or another app (like the browser).

Don’t you wish there was a way to send those users back to your app instead?

Well, there is a way to do this, and it’s called App indexing. App Indexing allows you to connect pages from your website with specific content within your Android app. This enables users who have your app installed to open it directly from relevant mobile search results on Google.

Juan Gomez

November 20, 2014
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Transcript

  1. Intro Who am I? • Mobile Engineer at Netflix •

    Previously at Eventbrite and OneLouder Apps • Android & Python Developer
  2. Agenda • Implementing Deep Linking on your App • Including

    your app in the App Indexing Program • Surfacing your app’s content on Search Autocomplete.
  3. Deep Linking Checklist 1. Identify deep links 2. Add Intent

    Filter to Android App 3. Add Code to Handle Intent Filter 4. Test Intent Handler
  4. 1. In your AndroidManifest.xml file, add one or more <intent-filter>

    elements for the activities that should be launchable from deep links. 2. Add an <action> tag that specifies the ACTION_VIEW intent action. 3. Add a <data> tag for each data URI format the activity accepts. This is the primary mechanism to declare the format for your deep links. 4. Add a <category> for both BROWSABLE and DEFAULT intent categories. • BROWSABLE: is required in order for the intent to be executable from a web browser. • DEFAULT: declares your app can accept an implicit intent. (not required if you’re only providing deep links from Google Search results) Add Intent Filter to Android App
  5. App Indexing Checklist 1. Create URL format for App Indexing

    2. Add App Indexing Markup to your website 3. Verify your website on Webmaster Tools* 4. Connect your app using Google Play Console * if your website/page is brand new.
  6. • For each of the deep links identified earlier, we

    need to add additional markup. • This markup allows the Google crawler to use deep links to send users to your Android app. • For most modern web application frameworks, this should only involve changing a single template. Add App Indexing Markup
  7. Verify Your App in Webmaster Tools (for new websites) •

    Go to Google Webmaster Tools. • On the left menu, click All Messages. • Open the verification request message (example: "Google Play: Link http://www.yourwebsite.com to Android application com.yourpackage.name"). • Click Approve the request. • Review the information in the dialog. • Click Approve
  8. Connect your app using Google Play Console • Sign in

    to your Google Play Developer Console. • Click All Applications • Select the application you'd like to verify. • On the left menu, click Services & APIs. • Under "App Indexing from Google Search", click Verify website. • Type your website address. • Click Verify.
  9. Adding Search Autocomplete 1. Implement App Indexing 2. Verify Google

    Play Services Version 3. Create an API Client 4. Record a Page View 5. Record a Page View End 6. Test
  10. Verify Google Play Services • The next thing we need

    to do is make sure that Google Play Services is enabled for our app. • The App Indexing API requires Google Play Services version 5.+ • minSdkVersion 10 or above. • If using selective API on GPS: 
 com.google.android.gms:play-services-appindexing:7.0.0
  11. Summary • Use deep linking to redirect traffic from the

    web to your app • Implement App Indexing to allow Google search result to send users directly into your app (and not your website) • Use the App Indexing API to expose content from your app in Google’s query autocomplete.