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Optimising your podcast is as important as your Google rank for your company’s website. By now, digital marketers know that the key to good SEO and doing well on Google (other search engines are available) is regular, unique, genuine, interesting content.
SEO for podcasts is no different from ordinary website SEO. Your title, keywords, and having a clear purpose are still the key drivers of success. By their nature podcasts should be perfect for SEO as they provide regular long-form content and in-depth analysis on subjects full of keywords and metadata.
If you’re looking to improve your podcast’s SEO (both in Google and on podcast platforms) here are some tips.
Be on the top platforms (it’s free!)
Perhaps your podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google… but people listen elsewhere! And if you’re not taking advantage of other sources, you’re missing a BIG opportunity.
Once your podcast is published and you have an RSS feed, most platforms are free to list on. Take some time to carefully distribute your RSS feed and you’ll be in a much stronger position.
Follow your theme or topic
Let’s say you have a podcast all about travel. That’s great, but you need to be clear about this – not only to your listeners but to Google and to podcast platforms too. If Google can’t work out what your podcast is about, you’re making it very difficult for search engines to share your content.
If your podcast is a bit more conversational, with a broader theme that covers a range of subjects, this is much harder for Google to make sense of. Therefore, your podcast needs to have a clear purpose, especially if it’s connected with your brand or company.
Website
Where is your podcast going to be online? Is it going to reside on your company’s blog or website? If so, this is the perfect place to then create extra content and, rather importantly, if your podcast is part of a branding exercise you can now use it to drive listeners deeper into your website.
On top of this, if your episode titles and the content of your podcast contain relevant keywords, suddenly this means you’ve got a heap of URLs and page content based around your keyword objectives. So, all in all, it is worth putting your podcast on your website and using it as a way to draw more people to your brand or company online.
Keywords and meta
Title is key. This is as true with podcasts now as it was for Google ranking back in the early 2000s. At least one of your keywords from an episode should be in the title and the description.
TOP TIP: You should be aiming for a clear title that gets straight to the point of your episode. Don’t make it hard for Google to work out what your episode is about – keep things concise and simple.
Your podcast may already have a clearly defined subject matter and it may be obvious what associated keywords you should be using. If not, you can use tools like Google Trends to identify words around your subject matter.
Make sure you’re not sticking to the same five keywords for every episode of your podcast. Broaden your reach with keywords around the things that your potential listeners, or customers, are searching for, or around your brand’s wider objectives.
Reviews
Similar to social media platforms (like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram), likes, subscribes and comments are hugely valuable when it comes to podcasts. The more people engage with your content, the higher it is likely to rank on platforms.
Although most podcast platforms are not particularly forthcoming on how algorithms work, it is widely understood that the rank is based on not only how many people listen to your podcast but also the number of people who subscribe and comment on your podcast.
Want to learn more about SEO for podcasting? Watch our video below.
