If you’re serious about ranking your podcast, then you need to pay attention to SEO. Here’s a quick podcast SEO guide on how to rank your podcast and optimize your podcast.
Since Google stated in 2019 that it will expose podcasts in the search results and make them playable, podcasts have grown in popularity as a component of an all-encompassing SEO strategy.
The fact that prospective listeners may now find podcasting material when searching with the term “podcast,” as a consequence of this change, dramatically increased the exposure of podcasts in search results.
Podcasts that help you to find new ideas
Each of iTunes and Spotify have more than 4 million podcasts available as of April 2022.
You can use podcasts for more than just passing the time at home or in the car. Podcasts are becoming a more popular choice for informational purposes.
Over 50% of British podcast listeners aged 25 and older said that they were more inclined to listen to podcasts to learn something, according to research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Oxford University.
That is consistent with Edison Research’s results on podcast listeners in the US, who ranked learning new things as their top motivation for listening to podcasts.
While listening is still mostly for enjoyment, the tendency toward learning new things—both in terms of current events and timeless subjects—makes podcasting an important medium for exchanging knowledge, just like writing articles and making films does.
Any topic is possible for a podcast
Because content consumers hunt for knowledge wherever they happen to be, which implies across a range of media formats, one can get podcasts on just about every subject.
Here are a few examples:
Interview listeners
A fantastic method to make your podcast interactive and offer your listeners an opportunity to contribute their own experiences with your subject is to do listener interviews.
- The Birth Hour
- Monsters Among Us
Rock climbing, rappelling, and caving
If you love to go on adventures, you may be a great resource for people who want to start doing the same things. Together, sharing your knowledge and experiences will build a community.
- Climbing Gold
- The Caving Podcast
Retirement
People who are approaching retirement often seek guidance on a new pastime or simply life in general.
You may provide information to assist retirees in finding employment, managing their money, or beginning a new project.
- The Retirement Answer Man
- Make it Last
Even while every niche may not have a large audience, it’s still a good idea to have a podcast available when a possible customer is looking.
Additionally, as was briefly discussed before, podcasting provides advantages in terms of fostering relationships with people and providing chances to spread knowledge.
Podcast SEO guide and optimization to rank your podcast
Let’s get into the specifics of optimizing for podcast SEO now that we have a better understanding of how to apply Rank Math for podcasting.
Create a website just for your podcast
A podcast may be stored anywhere and disseminated through a variety of platforms, so having a specific page or website for it is not a need.
But even without a dedicated website, it’s still a good idea to have a page where you can list all of your podcasting episodes.
The user experience for your audience is significantly improved by a well-designed podcasting page or website.
From a marketing standpoint, it’s a terrific chance to present your branding aspects and establish a long-term connection with your audience.
Craft your podcast description
As previously said, a strong podcast description is essential for your show since it appears in your podcast’s RSS feed.
Beyond that, your podcast description is certain to show in multiple locations when you distribute your Podcast RSS feed.
A quality podcast description ought to,
- Describe yourself and the other show speakers.
- Be brief and to the point; it is quite doubtful that your listeners would want to read through lengthy passages of text only to uncover the essential information about your podcast.
- The podcast’s description should make clear what it’s about, who it’s for, and what the audience may anticipate from your episode.
Above all, thoughtfully include keywords to your podcast description to increase the likelihood that it will appear when your audience searches for podcasts on these subjects.
Syndicate your podcast to services like Google podcasts
Choosing the best podcast distribution strategy might be difficult since there are so many options available.
Where does your target audience often access podcasts, you may wonder?
You should aim to get your podcasts over here so that your audience can quickly locate your program, whether it be on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, or anywhere else.
Fortunately, the procedure is simple.
You simply need to setup and publish your Podcast RSS feed once to these sites.
When you publish a podcast episode in the future, these services will automatically pull the information from your RSS feed, and from this point on, everything is hands-off.
Use podcast Episode schema markup
You simply need to submit a Google-compliant Podcast RSS feed in order for Google to showcase your podcast which will help to rank your podcast.
However, because search engines can read and understand structured material effectively, it is advised to do so.
Because of this, Rank Math includes a special podcasting module that allows for the addition of PodcastEpisode Schema.
Structured data may help search engines better comprehend your content and assist you in ranking for relevant searches.
Optimize the titles of your Episodes
Titles are biggest things to rank your podcast. Without a optimized title all the podcast SEO guide may go in vain.
Every episode offers a chance to focus on a certain subject (or keyword).
A properly-optimized episode title will help your episode pages rank for relevant keywords in search, as well as making your episode discoverable across a variety of podcast directories.
Thus, it’s a win-win approach. Although there are no strict rules for writing episode titles, some best practices to rank your podcast include;
- Be short and concise
- Avoid losing space for obvious terms like ‘Season’, ‘Episode’ or your podcast name, as they are likely to appear once again on your podcast description and podcast details.
- Use keywords for your audience to find your episodes.
Optimize your show notes
The Show Notes are more akin to the descriptions of videos on YouTube. It could include all pertinent information about the episodes, but not just;
- A summary of the show’s important points
- Introduce your visitors and provide a brief rundown of where they are and what they do.
- Include the show’s transcript
- Any links mentioned in the episode that are relevant
- Links to your podcast episode on social media to rank your podcast better
- Include relevant keywords without overusing them
In addition to all of this, it’s a fantastic chance to include your call to action. It may direct viewers to your affiliate link, product, deals, newsletter signup, or anything else.
The most popular podcasting websites
A 2022 Edison Research found that podcast listeners access their favorite programs on a variety of media.
The percentages of respondents who selected “yes” for each service are shown below. The numbers won’t come up to 100% since listeners utilize a variety of providers, therefore
In a survey, participants were asked to choose from a list of listening services that they utilized.
The top five places to listen to podcasts are;
- YouTube – 55%
- Spotify – 49%
- Apple Podcasts – 38%
- Amazon Music – 27%
- iHeartRadio – 27%
The sixth to 10th most popular places to listen to podcasts;
- Facebook – 27%
- Pandora – 25%
- Instagram – 24%
- Google Podcasts – 22%
- Audible – 19%
The top 11 to 20 websites and services for listening to podcasts are;
- The podcast’s own website – 18%
- SoundCloud – 17%
- NPR One – 10%
- The podcast’s own mobile app – 10%
- Stitcher – 7%
- TuneIn – 7%
- Wondery app – 7%
- Pocket Casts – 6%
- Castbox – 4%
- Luminary – 4%
Podcast SEO guide for YouTube
Perhaps the most common place for people to listen to podcasts is on YouTube (followed closely by Spotify).
Therefore, it’s crucial to post a copy of the podcast on YouTube.
Make sure to provide a detailed title and description, as well as keywords that will aid listeners in finding the podcast.
Podcast SEO guide to rank your podcast on Spotify
It’s crucial to know how to optimize a podcast so that more people can discover and listen to it since Spotify is the second most popular platform for listening to podcasts.
A helpful essay regarding podcast optimization that Spotify released is really worth reading.
The following are some key lessons:
Podcast show page on Spotify
There is a show page for each podcast. The show page is the homepage (or landing page) of a podcast where the podcaster describes the subject matter of the series.
A display page is made up of five components:
- Title
- Logo design.
- Description
- The follow button
- Episode index.
Podcast artwork
It is advised that the artwork for the Spotify show page be high quality (3000 x 3000 pixels). On its Anchor website, Spotify provides a tool for creating art (registration required).
The artwork must to stand out. Useful color combinations are those that stand out and draw attention to themselves.
Bright colors may be useful for this, but color schemes with great contrast also work well.
Promote your podcast on Spotify
The keyword terms that a prospective listener would use to locate the podcast are advised to be included in the podcast description, according to Spotify.
Optimize the descriptions to rank your podcast
By employing keywords that hint at the subject, Spotify advises using the first 20 words to draw the listener in.
Avoid wasting time by restating the title or by introducing the listener to a new episode. When discussing the particular episode subject, be brief and to the point.
Make A podcast trailer
Podcasters are encouraged by Spotify to make a trailer for their shows and to divide them into seasons. For each new season, make a new trailer.
Podcast topics
Understanding the best practices for optimizing podcast episodes for search is crucial whether you currently have a podcast or are interested in beginning one.
Read about 50 best podcast ideas for you to explore more.
Podcast episodes are content – that’s all it is.
There are at least two categories of topic matter for podcast episodes:
- Topics that are timeless or important at all times.
- Trending themes are subjects that are popular right now.
- Interviews: Interviewing well-known persons might draw in more viewers. This is not only ego bait.
The purpose of the evergreen subject matter is to appeal to content consumers who may be unfamiliar with the subject and wish to learn the fundamentals.
The benefit of trending topics is that they immediately gain popularity, especially in Google Discover, by tapping into what the general audience is thinking about at the time.
Be original with your podcast subjects
People listen to podcasts for a variety of reasons, including learning new topics, as was noted at the beginning of this article.
It’s simple to get upset while coming up with podcast themes, particularly if your industry doesn’t really lend itself to podcasting.
For instance, how might personal injury law be made into a podcasting subject that draws listeners? How is plumbing relevant to podcasting?
Storytelling is one podcasting subgenre. People like hearing tales and stories.
So, one way to approach the issue is to think about all the tales associated with the profession or line of work.
In the end, the objective for certain podcasting subjects, particularly those that are business-related, may be as straightforward as conveying qualities like honesty, sincerity, and a desire for performing a good job.
Look into popular topics to rank your podcast easily
Building an audience and appealing to Google’s algorithms that prioritize trending topics involves addressing what people are currently interested in and worried about.
A smart approach to rank well via Google’s freshness algorithm and to be found in Google Discover is to create material surrounding a current event.
It’s not necessary for a hot subject to be “news” in the sense of traumatic occurrences.
The launch of a new product can be a trendy issue, in which case it would be wise to utilize.
Search your podcast topics on Twitter
Examining Twitter’s trending topics, which are categorized into Hot, News, Sports, Entertainment, and Covid-19, is one approach to find the most recent trending topics.
Trending Searches on Google
Another option is to go to Google’s Trending Searches page, which displays the current top search terms.
Trends on Google
The next step is to monitor Google Trends once the topic has been determined.
Use Google Trends‘ “categories” drop-down to locate trends relevant to your subject area to uncover fascinating insights.
Google news’s popular topics
Check Google News to discover what’s popular as an additional research method.
A strong motor to attach your podcast to is breaking news.
It’s critical to move quickly with the production of podcasts on current events since people are eager to learn more about significant happenings.
Week after week, current events cannot be the only source of content for a successful podcast.
The next kind of material to use is evergreen subject matter if current events are not pertinent to a topic.
Utilize a feed reader
Using a feed reader to categorize sources of breaking news makes the task of staying current on emerging subjects simpler.
Find the category the post is in and then search for an RSS feed to follow it whenever you come across an item that is on the proper subject.
Reminder: If relevant, provide a link to the article in your audio summary so that listeners may access it directly.
Some feed readers allow you to follow a page by its URL alone.
It’s simple to follow a subject on Google News.
Simply enter the subject in the search box, and links to follow a more focused topic will appear on the right side of the search results.
Creating evergreen content may be the best podcast SEO guide
Evergreen subjects are those that are relevant year after year.
Common evergreen subjects often include answers to how-to, how does, how can I, why, where can I, and similar queries.
Finding subjects for evergreen content may be very simple.
Find on Wikipedia
A fantastic place to find subjects for evergreen content is Wikipedia.
Then, using a list of subjects from Wikipedia, you may search for those topics on YouTube to discover what perspectives other people are taking.
Book chapter names
Searching for themes that have been covered in published books on Amazon.com is one of the finest ways to come up with ideas for evergreen content.
This is a method I’ve been using and presenting at search conferences for more than 15 years, but it should also apply to podcasts.
Pay close attention to the chapter headings since they might provide you with a wealth of ideas for podcast episodes.
Discussions that have been pinned in forums
Of course, discussion groups on a particular subject might be helpful.
The identical inquiries are often posted on forums.
Therefore, they place perennial questions to the top of each forum category to prevent the forums from being overrun with people debating the same topic over and over again.
The most significant, perennial subjects that people find interesting are often those that have conversations anchored.
Questions and answers
Searching on Google and Bing for your topic’s keyword phrase adding the phrase “often asked questions” can help you find ideas for evergreen podcasts.
How to (subject phrase) often asked questions is another version. Then, for even more variants, repeat the process with the what, where, who, and when type queries.
New to topic
People who are unfamiliar with a subject often seek for themes that will endure.
Finding evergreen subjects is quite easy if you search like someone who is unfamiliar with the issue.
Use phrases and words like these while searching:
phrases and words like these while searching:
- New to.
- Basics
- Beginner
- Beginner’s advice
- Training for.
- How to start.
Search segments by TLD
By segmenting your searches to certain top-level domains, you may do the aforementioned study and find excellent evergreen themes (TLD).
This could lead to various yet intriguing perspectives on the subject which is helpful to rank your podcast.
segmented searches, for instance:
- Site for searching:.edu
- Website for searching:.gov
- Website for searching:.gov
Remember to use YouTube
Another search engine is YouTube. Finding evergreen themes there might be quite helpful. Use YouTube to get more follower and rank your podcast there.
Comparing interesting evergreen subjects to keyword inventory
If it works for you, add everything you learn to a detailed list of subjects in a spreadsheet.
Some people may wish to visit Google Trends to filter the list based on the most popular keyword combinations or subject areas.
The conventional approach to choose what evergreen subjects to discuss in a podcast is to concentrate on keywords with the biggest search inventory.
But I have another idea: Concentrate on the intriguing stuff.
Choosing engaging themes over keyword research might make the podcast more engaging since it will take listeners on a discovery trip.
It’s fun to listen to issues one hadn’t considered; along the process, listeners could develop a passion for the podcast and excitedly recommend it to others.
Interview influential and well-known people
An excellent technique to maintain the podcast’s material self-generating is to interview intriguing individuals.
This is perhaps the most efficient way and podcast SEO guide to promote your podcast among their followers.
A good strategy for attracting an audience, though, is much more crucial.
Even if the podcast is about home remodeling, talking to a famous person about their preferred furniture, flooring, fixtures, or anything else may be fascinating.
In keeping with the idea of home remodeling, one may speak with persons who produce programs about the subject or installers of dishwashers to acquire advice on the best dishwasher to purchase.
Interviewing experts is a terrific method to provide informative and engaging material and relieves the host’s burden of having to speak nonstop week after week.
Podcast transcription
Transcribing is the process of translating a podcast’s spoken remarks into text.
This is crucial since it will enable the podcast to reach a deaf audience, making it an accessibility issue.
Making an audio transcription will provide the search engine new content to rank your podcast.
For doing this work, there are several applications and services available.
Users of Microsoft 365 may play the audio straight in Word and upload it to convert it from audio to text.
Five hours of audio may also be uploaded for transcription using Microsoft 365. Here is further information.
Google Docs includes a function like this.
The simplicity of paid services like Rev and Temi, which need simply the upload of an audio recording, may make them more handy.
Final thoughts
Everyone would want to be featured positively on a podcast, which is an intriguing approach to consider how valuable a podcast is to a company.
So it makes sense to produce the finest podcast on a certain subject and promote the company at the start and/or finish of the podcast.
Making relationships with the larger community that the issue belongs to via podcasting is a terrific approach to connect with an audience.
By include interviews with well-known individuals and celebrities, the podcast may quickly expand its audience via word-of-mouth and connections.
Everyone enjoys the process of discovery, therefore focusing on being fascinating (instead of keyword search volume) may be a smart strategy.
Reaching out to content websites like online magazines to inform them about a podcast or that an intriguing person was interviewed is a straightforward way to promote the show.
Don’t wait for several rival podcasters to build their authority.
It’s always ideal to get a head start on developing brand loyalty and creating popular signals.
However, I think you have got the detail idea about podcast SEO guide as well as how to rank your podcast.
Now its time to share your experience and thoughts with the readers in comment section bellow about this trending topics.
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