Choosing the right name for a podcast can help your show grow and build an audience easier. What makes a great name for a podcast? There are different things to consider and questions to answer when trying to choose a name for your show.
First, what’s your niche? Who are you trying to reach, and what is your show about? Are you creating a podcast for your business, or is this just for fun? If it’s for business, you want to think about your niche and what information your audience is interested in. If it’s for fun, you can cover anything you want.
What do you want to talk about on your podcast? It can be easier to choose a name that’s going to tie well to your show if you know what you’re going to cover.
Podcast apps are search engines, which means SEO works very similarly to how it works for your website or blog. The difference here is that you’re trying to rank in the podcast app rather than on Google.
But like Google SEO, it’s all about keywords when we’re talking about podcast SEO.
And the first place you can use a keyword is in your podcast name. When your show name includes a keyword, it’s more likely to show up when a potential listener searches for that keyword in the podcast app. For example, my show is Simple SEO, and it ranks in the podcast apps for SEO, along with other terms like SEO keywords, SEO 101, Google SEO, organic marketing, etc.
Using keywords in your podcast name can help grow your show by boosting your visibility in the podcast apps.
Try to choose a name that your ideal listener would search for. If you have a podcast about sourdough bread making, you might want to incorporate the word sourdough or even sourdough bread or bread baking into your podcast name to help with SEO. If you want to learn more about how podcast SEO works, I have a blog post here that goes in-depth on podcast SEO best practices so you can learn what else to do for visibility.
Don’t choose a podcast name that’s super close to one that’s already active in your niche. Don’t choose one that’s being used by a show that’s not currently active because you never know if they’ll decide to start up again, and then you might be fighting with them for an audience.
Don’t go for super clever or vague podcast names if you want to be discovered organically and have visibility within the podcast apps. Simple is better than cutesy when it comes to naming anything with SEO in mind. Cute names can be fun, but they’re not going to tell the potential audience or the search engine what the show is about, and that will limit your visibility.
Don’t ignore your audience. If there’s a way to help them self-identify with your show name, that’s going to help you grow. For example, Sourdough Bread Making for Beginners is great; you can immediately tell that it’s going to be about bread making, and it’s geared towards beginners, not advanced bread artisans.
Help your audience see themselves in your show name. It will help you grow your new podcast.
It may sound silly, but I think creating mock-up cover art and seeing what the words look like in print can help you determine if it works or not. Also, how do you feel when you share the name you’re thinking about using for your show? If you have an audience now, you can survey them and see what they like. Maybe give them 2 or 3 options and see if the name you’re considering is the same one your audience likes.
It’s OK. If you find that you hate the name you’ve chosen or it brings in the wrong type of listener, you can always change your podcast name. You don’t have to stay with the same name forever. It updates quickly in the podcast apps. But ideally, if you can launch with a good, strong, SEO-friendly show name, it will be best for your new podcast.
Do you want to learn how to launch a new podcast or grow your show’s visibility? I have guides to help you with both. If you want to learn how to launch a podcast, request a copy of the podcast launch checklist here and check out the blog post on how to launch a podcast here. And, if you’ve already got your show planned out or live and you want to learn how to grow your audience using SEO, then check out the podcast SEO best practices post here and request a copy of my 3-step podcast growth plan.