The bCast Blog

Let's welcome our guest writer Nico Prins

As a podcast creator, you always seek ways to increase your reach and expand your listener base. Fortunately, there are many ways to do so. One method we'll look at today is search engine optimization (SEO).

Developing an efficient SEO strategy for your podcast will help you reach more prospective listeners and establish a solid online presence.

Read on as we cover six actionable tips that will enhance the organic visibility of your podcast.

1. Research your keywords

Researching the right keywords is critical in growing your audience. With thousands of podcasts out there, you want to ensure yours is easily discoverable by potential listeners.

The first step in researching ideal keywords is identifying your topic. Your topic will give you a starting point in determining the keywords that your audience might search for. For instance, if your podcast is about technology, your possible keywords might be "gadgets," "laptops," "mobile phones," "software," etc.

You can create a robust structure for your podcast using relevant keywords. Also, you can craft attention-grabbing titles around a specific focus keyword or phrase for maximum impact.

For example, “How SEO Influences Your Organic Revenue Growth” is the title of one of Marketing School’s podcast episodes. It influences the episode’s discoverability for search queries on “SEO” and “Organic Revenue Growth.”

You can use keyword research tools like Ahrefs and Google keyword planner to look for search queries to capitalize on. They can also help you decide which one you will focus on by displaying how competitive a search term is according to its volume. Here is an example of how these tools work.

In addition, you can research your keywords by spying on your competitors. You can use the same tools to analyze the top podcasts within your niche and see what keywords they are targeting.

Furthermore, it is essential to search for long-tail keywords. These are longer, more specific phrases that may not have high search volumes but can be highly effective in targeting niche audiences. 

For example, if you have a podcast about SEO, targeting a long-tail keyword like "link-building for SaaS" may be more effective than targeting a broad keyword like "link-building or SaaS Link building agency."

You’ll need to use the identified keywords to optimize your podcast. There are different ways to go about it. If you’re just starting and haven’t come up with a podcast name yet, you may want to include a relevant keyword; for example, “conversations with women in sales.”

If people search for “women in sales,” then this podcast would probably turn up.

Other places to use the keywords include the podcast title and description. You should also optimize each episode for the relevant keyword. Doing this increases your chances of your podcast appearing in the search results when someone searches for a relevant keyword on Spotify and other podcast streaming platforms.

That said, avoid keyword stuffing. The landing page for your podcast should be easy to navigate and scannable. Include critical information like the podcast title and a description on the page.

2. Add metadata

Having metadata for a site is a standard SEO best practice. Metadata is a label for every element on your website, such as text, images, and links. It provides valuable information for search engine crawlers and shows valuable data for users scrolling through SERPs. These labels are called meta tags.

There are many meta tags, more than can be covered in this section. But here are some of the more essential meta tags that you may want to use:

• Meta title - This is the title of a search result on the SERPs. Often, this is the first thing searchers read. If your meta title is compelling and descriptive enough of your podcast category, users will click through it without even reading the meta description.
• Meta Description - This supplements the meta title. They follow up the information provided in the Meta title with more detailed information. Here is an example of a podcast’s meta title and description.

Think of it as the synopsis you read on the back cover of a book.

• Header tags - Header tags H1, H2, and H3 tell search engines what the headers are on your landing page. It allows the search engines to determine the weight and importance of a specific text group. That gives them a higher keyword weight on larger tags, allowing your content to rank higher for relevant search terms.
• Alt Image Text - Alt image tags provide an image description. See the example below. Your alt text helps Google understand the image, which supports search rankings on Google Images.

Use a generative Artificial Intelligence tool like Ask Writer to write your meta title and meta description. A good meta title will improve Click Through Rate (CTR) from the search results to your page.

3. Provide transcripts for each episode.

When you upload your podcast on a platform like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts, these platforms generate podcast transcriptions. 

Automatic transcriptions can miss keywords that would otherwise benefit your podcast SEO. Consider the last sentence of the following transcript. Instead of stating the original phrase, the algorithm has written "single sentence."

The best approach is to use a solution like Shownotes Generator to transcribe your podcast. You can then manually edit the transcription. That allows you to add target keywords to your copy or edit the transcription for clarity.

Adding the transcription to the bottom of the landing page is good for podcast SEO. The copy will help a search engine like Google understand your content. Your podcast content and transcript should contain keywords to improve your podcast’s search visibility on SERPs. 

Podcast transcripts are also helpful when repurposing podcast content into other formats, such as blogs and social media posts.

4. Use social media to extend reach.

Podcasters have mastered the art of using social media to extend their reach. It’s virtually impossible to scroll through Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Twitter without coming across podcast excerpts. It’s a simple technique, yet it generates impressive results.

For example, Joe Rogan shares interesting excerpts across social media. He also shares a link to the full episode alongside these clips. This makes it easier for interested people to find the podcast.

But what does this have to do with SEO?

Social media can support your podcast SEO efforts in several ways. First, it can help you attract backlinks. Think about it. When you share interesting audio content from your podcast, it attracts the attention of different people, including website owners. Some webmasters can end up citing your podcast and linking to it from their blogs. That’s a backlink, which will have a direct impact on your SEO.

There’s more. Hootsuite has found a link between promoting content through social media and that content's ranking ability on search engines.

Hootsuite saw a 12% increase in search visibility from blogs shared on Twitter over blog articles that weren’t shared on Twitter (or any social media). Hootsuite saw an additional 10% increase in traffic from blog articles shared and boosted for $100 on Twitter.

So if you want an increased ranking in the SERPs for your podcast, share excerpts and links to your podcast episodes on different social media channels. That will increase your reach as more people see your content.

5. Guest post and pay for features.

Sometimes, searching for podcasts will bring the user to a blog article instead of a podcast. The following blog articles, for example, are lists of podcasts an editor would recommend to their audience.

Getting a link from these third-party sites will build your domain authority. That can help your podcast's landing page to rank higher on SERPs. Additionally, you’ll get referral traffic, which means more listeners.

You can do this by:

• Guest blogging. Write engaging blogs for third-party sites in exchange for a do-follow link back to your podcast's website.
• Paid features. Pay for a third-party site to feature or mention you.

You can do the same for individual episodes on your podcast. Have your podcast episode's keyword appear as an anchor text on various third-party blogs to build the domain authority of these episodes.

This tactic increases search traffic to your podcast.

6. Break the podcast into mini-episodes.

Let’s say you have a podcast on SEO. "SEO" is a vast topic. If you discuss SEO with small businesses, you should break your SEO podcast into mini-episodes.

These mini-episodes can target long-tail, more specific, and less competitive keywords. For example, you could split an SEO podcast into these smaller topics:

• How to research your keywords?
• How to create a high-converting website?
• How to create a compelling title tag for your website?
• How to get started with guest blogging?
• How to write B2B company blogs?

Applying this tip will also allow you to create podcast content more frequently. 

Conclusion

Whether it’s a passion project or your business's main product, podcasts should have dedicated and loyal listeners. One of the best ways to generate a quality niche audience is through SEO.

Research your keywords and strategically target the ones your audience searches for. You want your podcast's homepage and landing pages to target relevant keywords. 

Add metadata to label your websites and pages so that they instantly catch the attention of search engine users. Provide text transcripts for your podcast audio. Podcast platforms like Google podcasts don't have perfect transcription algorithms, so transcribe your episodes manually.

Improve the domain authority of your podcasts. Generate backlinks from both social media and third-party blogs. Finally, break your more extensive content into mini-episodes targeting specific subtopics.

Applying these podcast SEO tips will increase your listener base and take your project off the ground.