Podcasts have risen in popularity over the years and tools like Riverside and Audioboom now make it very simple to launch your own podcast. The success of a podcast is tied to the number of listeners it receives which is why it's important that your podcast show finds an audience of loyal listeners. Making your podcast findable in search results is the key objective of podcast SEO. This article shares podcast SEO tips to help your podcast episodes appear in search engine results, boost your website search traffic and acquire new podcast listeners effectively.
What is a podcast?
A podcast is an audio broadcast that people can listen to. Podcasts can be found on podcast hosting platforms like Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts and cover a diverse array of topics ranging from business to history. Podcasts usually last between 20 minutes and one hour and involve a podcast host interviewing a guest. Podcasts have also become a popular content marketing strategy for online businesses as the audio content offers an opportunity for the business to prove to prospective customers that they exist and are credible in their area of expertise. Visit the Legislate podcast to learn about the latest trends and insights in property, technology and contract drafting!
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves making your website more findable to search engines so that they are more likely to present your website to your target audience in search results. In order to appear in search results, it's important to do keyword research and optimise your content for the keywords which will resonate the most with your customers. SEO traditionally involves optimising a blog post as opposed to a podcast episode. However, podcasts offer a new opportunity to boost a website's organic traffic and in turn SEO can improve a podcast's success.
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What is podcast SEO?
Podcast SEO involves making your podcast more searchable in podcast hosting platforms and on traditional search engines. Podcast SEO focuses on podcast episode titles, descriptions, show notes and transcriptions. Each of these elements of the podcast can include relevant keywords which can be searched by your target audience. Implementing podcast SEO is also good for your audience as it provides more elements to keep your audience engaged. Podcast SEO can also be improved with content marketing as it offers an additional dimension to the episodes. For example, a blog post can describe key insights from some of the episodes which will in turn give readers a reason to listen to the episodes.
How to optimise podcast episodes for search engines?
Each search engine will have its own rules for ranking podcast content. For example, a podcast hosting platform may consider total followers and listens as a key factor for surfacing episodes whereas a podcast will only feature in Google searches if the episode is described with a sufficient amount of text which includes relevant search terms. Whilst it might be tempting to stuff titles and show notes with keywords, it's essential to remember that people will read these so the content must be human readable. One tip for ensuring both the search engines and listeners digest the content easily is to adopt a content structure which has headings. For example, organising your transcript in sections makes it easier for listeners to jump between sections and for search engines to understand how the audio content is structured. After you've optimised your podcast, it's then important to distribute the episodes on multiple channels such as email and social media channels. An effective tip for reaching new listeners is to ask your guests to share the episode on their own social media accounts. Sharing episodes online will also help search engines discover them and in turn rank them.
In conclusion, podcast SEO is a great way to boost your website's organic traffic and reach new listeners. If you are thinking of hiring a consultant to launch your podcast or work on your Podcast SEO, ensure you have a consultancy agreement in place to ensure that the work is delivered on time and the payment terms are clear. To create your consultancy agreement now, create an account now!