Podcast SEO Best Practices

You’re podcasting, and while your audience may not be growing as fast as you'd like, there’s a solution. Podcasting is a labor of love; you're ready to see your efforts pay off. By implementing podcast SEO, you can see significant growth in your podcast downloads and website traffic. It's time to take the next step and watch your audience expand. 

Why do you need to do podcast SEO anyway? 

Think of podcast apps as your familiar search engines like Google, YouTube, or Pinterest. Just like you’re used to doing SEO for these platforms, podcast apps work similarly. When a user searches for a new podcast, they’ll enter a keyword or a series of keywords. You need to optimize your podcast for search engines (SEO) to ensure it appears in these search results. This helps the podcast app understand the content of your show and episodes.

How does podcast SEO work? 

When you do SEO on your podcast, you make it easier for the app to understand your content. This also helps your potential listeners understand what your show and each of your episodes are about.

What do you need to do for podcast SEO? 

Like Google SEO, the starting point for podcast SEO is your SEO keyword. You’ll want to choose keywords your potential listener uses when searching their favorite podcast app. You can use keywords in several places with your podcast.

Optimizing your podcast name 

You can use SEO keywords in your show name. Think about your ideal listener and what they’re searching for or asking about. You want to use the same keywords they’d use when looking for a podcast like yours. Naming your show isn’t the time to be super creative or clever; don’t use misspellings or symbols instead of letters. Keep it simple, straightforward, and easy to remember; you’ll have more luck growing your podcast’s audience. Include a keyword or keywords that your customers/listeners use.

If your show name isn’t well-optimized yet, you can always change it to something that’s more SEO-friendly. When you have good SEO keywords in your show title, you’re more likely to show up in the Shows tab on Apple podcasts when someone searches for that keyword. It’s similar to Google SEO – we’re helping the podcast search engine understand what our content (in this case, our show) is about, and when they understand it better, they’re more likely to show it to people searching for the keyword you’ve used.

 Listen to the podcast episode here. 

Optimizing your podcast episodes

The next place you’ll want to use SEO keywords is in your podcast episode names. Using the keywords your ideal listener searches for will make it easier for your episodes to appear in the podcast app. It’s similar to Google SEO: When you have the keyword they’re looking for in your episode name, your episode may appear on the episodes search tab in Apple podcasts or other podcast players.

Some podcast hosting companies have AI tools to help you with your episode titles. I suggest you don’t use them and write your titles using your SEO keyword. I tested out the AI tool in my podcast host for a few months, and I saw much better downloads when I wrote the titles myself and focused on choosing keywords for the episode title. If you need a bit of help or inspiration, you can always use Chat GPT or another AI tool and ask it for ideas for a podcast episode title using the keyword you’ve selected. 

Optimizing your podcast description

Your podcast description is another place where you can use your SEO keywords. This will help the search engine and your potential listener understand what your show is about and decide whether to listen to it. Adding your keywords to your description will help with search engine optimization. 

Optimizing your podcast show notes

If you have a website or blog, you’ll want to make sure you’re creating podcast show notes and you optimize them for Google. It’s going to be a bit different here because you’re no longer optimizing for the podcast search engine but rather Google with your show notes. Your show notes can help drive more traffic to your blog via Google if you create them following Google’s SEO best practices and include your keywords in all the places that Google will look for information on your page. Rather than just creating a short show notes: page, if you create a blog post with the information related to your show and include your links; it generally works better for SEO than simply posting a short show notes page. You can also include your podcast episode transcript at the bottom of the page. If you want to see how I set this up, here’s an example of a podcast episode blog post I created.

Why do I care about Google SEO for my podcast?

Your podcast can benefit from Google SEO. Your show notes blog post pages can rank for the keyword you use in your optimization elements, which can help you rank higher in the search results and get organic traffic to your website from Google. If you’re not sure what to do for Google SEO, request a copy of my Beginner’s Step-by-Step Guide to SEO here, and I’ll walk you through it.

Google also indexes podcasts and shares them in the search results so potential listeners may find you via a Google search rather than searching in the app itself.

How does podcast SEO help grow your audience?

Following podcast SEO best practices and optimizing your show name, description, and episode titles makes it easier for new listeners to discover your podcast. When you also optimize your show notes page and turn it into more of a blog post style with content and helpful information, you boost your website or blog’s SEO, which can help drive organic traffic to you. When I started using podcast SEO best practices for my podcast, I quickly saw my downloads increase, and the number of visits to my website’s podcast episode pages also increased. My podcast downloads have more than tripled since I started doing podcast SEO. I’m creating fewer episodes and getting more downloads. I was recording and sharing two episodes a week in Q4 and switched back to one episode each week in Q1. My downloads are 60% higher now than in Q4, and I’m creating half of the content. If you want your podcast to grow, it’s time to learn podcast SEO best practices and get started.  

Podcast Episode Transcript

Hi, and welcome back to the Simple SEO Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Lindteigen, and I am so excited to have you here with me today. We're talking about something new today. It's still SEO (search engine optimization), but it's a new type of SEO, and I am thrilled to share it with you. If you're a podcaster or thinking about starting a podcast, listen to today's episode. Even if you're not considering podcasting yet, I highly recommend you listen because podcasting is huge, it's going to continue growing, and it's an amazing way to connect with your audience. Thanks to podcast SEO, it's easier and faster to connect with your audience than on Google. Yes, you heard that right. Podcast SEO, or podcast search engine optimization, is a thing, and it works. In my opinion, it's easier and faster than Google SEO. And while I tell you Google SEO is easy, if you have someone to teach you, this is even easier and faster. So, let's dive in.

So, obviously, I have a podcast—you’re listening to it. You may have been here long-term or found me recently, thanks to podcast SEO. When we're podcasting, especially when starting out, we sometimes struggle to build an audience. Has anyone experienced that? Do you feel frustrated, stuck at 30 or 40 downloads per episode? You get to the point where you wonder if it's even worth putting out another episode because it feels like a giant waste of time and effort. You might feel frustrated when you get the bill from Buzzsprout or your podcast platform and realize you didn’t even release an episode this month, yet you're still paying.

It doesn't have to be this way. I know that most podcasts, on average, get around 30 downloads per episode. If you're in that 30, 40, 50 range, don't feel bad or demoralized. The reality is that you're average, similar to what other people get. We also hear that most podcasts don't make it past episode number 10. So, if you can find a way to grow consistently, you can really set yourself apart and establish a great position in your niche from a podcasting standpoint. Podcasting can help you with your Google SEO if you do it the way I’ll be teaching in the new podcast SEO course I'm working on. I'll be releasing it very soon. I'll teach you how to use your podcast to help with your Google SEO because we’ll get a quicker win from podcast SEO than from Google. In the end, we'll use both together to drive additional organic traffic to your business, whether from your website, Google, or podcast apps.

Let's talk about this. You can change, increase your downloads, and build the podcast you dream of, where you can truly connect with your listeners and generate leads and sales directly from your podcast. It can be monetized long before you get thousands of downloads. You don't need a huge audience to have a profitable podcast. You can make money by sharing your products or services on your podcast, and you’d be surprised how well you can do with a small audience because it's more intimate. When people hear your voice, or see your face if you're recording on video, it helps build that know, like, and trust factor.

So, if you've been podcasting for a while—let's say you've been doing it for a year, but you're not consistent because you're stuck at 30, 40, 50 downloads, and it's frustrating—I want you to understand there is a huge opportunity for you if you learn about podcast SEO. I will be teaching about it very, very soon. I'm putting the final touches on the class right now. We'll look at how to work with the podcast search engines to make your show more discoverable. We’ll work with SEO keywords, make edits, and look at your show name, images, episode titles, and the type of content you create.

For now, I want you to commit to releasing your podcast episodes on a more regular basis if you're not doing that today. Whether it's once a week, twice a month, or once a month, commit to being consistent. With podcasting, we want to become part of someone's routine and habits. So, by showing up every Tuesday (like this podcast usually does), you allow yourself to be part of someone's weekly routine. That makes it easier. What I want you to do for now, while getting ready, is to commit to releasing one episode a week or every other week and get into that cadence.

The Simple Podcast SEO course will teach you what type of episodes to create and how long they should be. Then, we’ll dive into the actual optimization of your show and episode titles. If you have an existing podcast that hasn't gotten many downloads, you can go back and fix things retroactively and get traffic for episodes you released six months, a year ago, or even longer by doing SEO on them.

For today, I just wanted to ensure you're aware that SEO (search engine optimization) is possible for your podcast. It's easier and faster than doing it on Google, and it works fantastically well. I've been doing it on my podcast, and I have 5x'ed my downloads in the past six months. Initially, I was able to double and triple them; now, we're at five times the downloads. You don't need a huge podcast. I'm not a top half percent podcaster, but my podcast connects with the right people, and I'm getting leads and new students. I love it, and that's what I want for you as well. I'll be teaching you all about this.

For today, understand this is here. If you've got a podcast, are getting ready to create one, or want to launch one, I'll walk you through how to do it and optimize it in the new Simple Podcast SEO course. For today, download my podcast growth plan at etchedmarketing.com/freebies. Get the free podcast growth plan to get you started. It'll walk you through how this works and what you can do. We're going to optimize your show and episodes and maybe update some of your old content. We'll talk about keywords and your show notes because we'll use them to optimize your website for Google and get Google traffic to help boost and grow your show.

We're going to get your business going in multiple channels—podcast and Google. There's so much goodness, and I can't wait to dig into all this with you. I have seen the power of podcast SEO. I've done Google SEO for 15 years, and while I love it, podcast SEO is a great starting point. It's easy and quick, and the class is shorter and less expensive than the full Simple SEO Content class. You're going to learn so much and get excited about working on your Google SEO because we'll get multiple marketing channels going for you this year. We don't want to rely on just one. We want to have the website and the podcast and build an email list. We'll work on all of that this coming year.

For today, your homework is to download the podcast growth plan at etchedmarketing.com/freebies. Get on the list, and you'll learn about the course as soon as it's ready for enrollment, which should be very soon. I cannot wait to share this class with you. It's amazing, and I can't wait for you to see the results possible with podcast SEO. My mind was blown by how quick and easy it was after being used to the long-term investment of Google SEO. This is amazing. Stay tuned; I will be in touch. That’s it for this week. I'll see you back here next week. For now, go get the podcast growth plan. Get on the list, and you'll learn about the course as soon as it's ready for enrollment, which should be very soon. Alright, bye for now.