app indexing: blurring the lines between your website and app
TRANSCRIPT
App IndexingBlurring the Lines Between your App and your Website
Juan Gomez
IntroWho am I?
• Mobile Engineer at Eventbrite
• Previously at OneLouder Apps
• Android & Python Developer
Agenda
• Implementing Deep Linking on your App
• Including your app in the App Indexing Program
• Surfacing your app’s content on Search Autocomplete.
Why deep linking?
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
Identify Deep Linkshttp://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-dickens-christmas-
fair-5-weekends-one-friday-tickets-11925103305
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
Add Intent Filter to Android App
Add Code to Handle Intent Filter
Test Intent Handler
Or you can use this website: https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/webmasters/test
Using ADB on the command line:
Success!
The downside of deep linking?
The evil chooser dialog!
App Indexing Checklist
1. Create URL format for App Indexing
2. Add App Indexing Markup to your website
3. Connect your app using Google Play Console
4. Verify Your App in Webmaster Tools
URL format for App Indexing
android-app://com.eventbrite.attendee/http/www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-dickens-christmas-fair-5-weekends-one-friday-tickets-11925103305
• 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
Add App Indexing Markup
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.
Connect your app using Google Play Console
Verify Your App in Webmaster Tools
• 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
Verify Your App in Webmaster Tools
Search results should now go straight to your app.
Success! (for real this time)
Adding Search Autocomplete1. 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
Verify Google Play Service Version
• The next thing we need to do is make sure that Google Play Services enabled for our app.
• The App Indexing API requires Google Play Services version 5.+
• minSdkVersion 17 or less.
Create an API Client
Record a Page View
Record a Page View End
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.
Useful links
• https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh_W82JgOms
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLJoMWSXts
