Podcast Episode Titles That Get Clicked

You’re not creating a podcast for fun. You’re doing it to grow your business.
But if your downloads aren’t growing, there might actually be an easy fix to start turning things around. Are your podcast titles designed to be found and clicked?

You might not know it yet, but podcast episode titles are a powerful tool you can use to help grow your show’s audience. If you include keywords that your ideal customer might be searching for when they’re looking for a new show to listen to, you improve your chances of being found in the apps.

Using SEO keywords in your title can help you be discovered more often in the podcast apps, which increases your downloads, listens, and hopefully followers (if they like your show).

It’s easy to do and can have a large impact on your visibility, so in my book, that’s something to prioritize. And, you can start now with your new episodes, but you can also go back and update the titles on old episodes and boost downloads to them, too.

What are Podcast Episode Title Mistakes Podcasters Make?

Most creators write podcast titles that aren’t optimized and don’t really tell us anything about the episode. They also don’t necessarily entice you to click to listen. They’re too vague.

Examples:

• Let’s Talk About Confidence
• What’s Really Holding You Back
• Behind the Scenes of My Launch

These sound nice. However, they don’t tell search engines or potential listeners what the episode is actually about. There’s no way to know if these episodes are really for you as a listener. They’re too generic.

Remember: your audience is skimming, and search engines are scanning the episode name for information. These titles aren’t helping either one understand what your episode is about. 

If your title isn’t clear as to what it’s about and who it’s for, it’s not likely to get clicked by a listener. And, if it doesn’t include keywords and isn’t easy to understand, it’s not likely to be shown to anyone by the podcast app. 

How to Write Podcast Episode Titles That Get Clicks 

Think about your ideal customer. What questions do they have? What information do they want that you can help them with? 

If you’ve already recorded the episode, then I want you to think about what you covered in the podcast and have that guide you to the right episode title. If you haven’t recorded yet, you have more room to adjust your title and content plan.

If your ideal listener were searching for a podcast to listen to, what words might they use? If they were searching for information on Google or ChatGPT, what might they search? Those are going to be the keywords you want to use in your episode title so that it has a better chance of being found by new listeners.

It’s better to be simple and straightforward than cutesy when you’re trying to grow your following. Use the words your ideal listener uses, and it will help. 

What is a Good Podcast Episode Title?

A good podcast episode title is one that tells the listener what they can learn by listening to your show, helps them identify who the episode is for, and shows up in the podcast app so that it can be found easily.

Examples of good episode titles include:

• How to Start an Email List When You Have No Audience
• SEO for Coaches: How to Get Found in Google Without Social Media
• 5 Opt-In Ideas That Convert and are Easy to Create

How to Create Great Podcast Episodes for Your Show

Now that you know how to title your episodes so they get clicks, let’s talk about how to create episodes that new listeners like. Getting people to click and give your show a listen is only the first step of growing your show. You also need to make sure that your content is helpful to the people who find it.

The podcast app’s ranking algorithm takes show performance into consideration when deciding which shows to rank higher in the app. If you have great titles but your content isn’t good, you won’t stay at the top of the app for long, even with great podcast SEO.

Be sure you’re covering topics your ideal listener is interested in and wants to learn about. Keep your episodes short, especially for discoverability. Episodes that are under 15 minutes tend to get more downloads from new listeners because there’s less commitment to listen to a short episode than a long one.

Stay focused on your listener. Don’t meander through your show. I personally prefer to outline my show rather than script the whole episode, but you can do whatever works best for you. Don’t let yourself go off on tangents or spend a lot of time talking about unrelated topics, especially at the beginning. You only have a short time to capture your new listener’s attention, so don’t waste it talking about something that’s unrelated to the topic, or they’ll likely switch off and not come back.

How do you know if you’re creating the Right Episodes?

 You can find out whether or not your audience likes your episodes by checking the data inside your Apple Podcasts Connect account. You want to see if they’re listening to the entire episode or only part of it. You also want to see if your followers are growing. This will tell you a lot more than your download numbers will. You want to make sure you’re creating the right type of content for your audience by reviewing your content performance. If you have an average consumption below 70% on any of your episodes, it tells you that particular topic isn’t super interesting to your audience. If you have an average consumption over 100% that tells you it’s very interesting to your audience because people are listening to it more than once. Let the data in Apple Podcast Connect help teach you what to create more of and what to do less of each month. 

Final Thoughts on Creating Podcast Episode Titles that Get Clicked

Getting clicks on your podcast episode title is only the first step. You want to make sure the episode itself is great and is closely aligned with the title, or you’ll hurt yourself in the long run. Podcast episode titles can help your show grow if they’re SEO-friendly and use keywords your ideal listener would search for.

If you’re ready to learn how to do podcast SEO and grow your show, join Simple Podcast SEO today, and I’ll walk you through what to do for your show.