But if you want to stand out in the crowded world of podcasting, you need to be ranking high in Google search results. And that means understanding how SEO works and how to optimize your website and podcast pages for Google ranking.

Fortunately, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. By following a few simple tips, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in Google search results and gaining more listeners.

1. Submit your podcast to popular directories

One of the best ways to get your podcast indexed by Google is to submit it to popular directories like Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Stitcher, and Spotify. This will not only make it easier for people to find your show, but it will also help Google index your episodes.

Make sure your podcast is listed on Google Play.

It goes without saying that you should also list your podcast on Google Play. After all, it is owned by Google, and the more Google platforms your brand is present on, the better.

Don’t forget about Youtube!

Again, another Google-owned platform. You can upload your podcast episodes to Youtube and then embed them onto your website or blog. This is a great way to increase your reach and get more people to listen to your show.

2. Create a catchy and interesting show description

Your podcast description is one of the first things potential listeners will see, so making a good impression is essential.

Your description should be concise, engaging, and accurate. It should also include relevant keywords that people might use to search for your show.

For example:

• If you have a podcast about marketing, some keywords you might use in your description are “marketing,” “SEO,” “social media,” and “content marketing.
• If you have a podcast about sports cars, some keywords you might use in your description are “sports cars,” “luxury cars,” “exotic cars,” and “car racing.”

By including keywords in your description, you’re more likely to show up in search results when people are looking for a podcast like yours.

Why?

Look at the image below:

Image Source: The Podcast Host

In a recent study, podcast listeners were asked, “When considering a new show, how important to you is…“

This was graded on a scale from 0-10, with 0 being not important at all and 10 very important. The answers?

1. The podcast’s description – 7.8
2. The podcast’s episode titles – 6.3
3. The frequency of new episode releases – 5.6
4. The podcast’s ratings and reviews – 5.3
5. The podcast’s artwork – 5.2
6. The name of the podcast – 5.1
7. That you have heard of the interview guest – 4.6
8. That you have heard of the presenter – 3.7

As you can see, the podcast’s description is the most important thing a would-be listener pays attention to.

Keywords make the search engine world go round. Google and other search engines use these to index and rank websites and content in search results.

3. Use the right keywords in your title and description

When it comes to ranking high in Google, using the right keywords is essential.

Your podcast and episode titles should include relevant keywords that people are likely to use when searching for a show like yours.

PRO TIP #17

Your title is your show pitch in a nutshell. Make sure it showcases something key about your podcast

Think
– Content
– Format
– Topic
– Host
– Tone

Equally, literal titles can make for better search results #PodcastMarketing #PodcastPromotion #PodcastTips pic.twitter.com/NtkBAwUrKB

— Podspike (@podspike) June 29, 2022

Avoid the urge to create flashy or clickbait-y titles that don’t accurately reflect the content of your show. Not only will this frustrate potential listeners, it will also hurt your ranking in Google search results.

For example:

If your podcast is about car racing, a title like “10 Tips for Winning the Daytona 500” would be more effective than “How to Race Cars Like a Pro.”

The former title includes relevant keywords and accurately reflects the episode’s content. The latter title is misleading and won’t do anything to help you rank higher in Google search results.

In addition to using keywords in your title, make sure to use them in your podcast description. As we mentioned earlier, your description is one of the first things potential listeners will see, so making a good impression is essential.

Your description should be concise, engaging, and accurate. It should also include relevant keywords that people might use to search for your show.

For example:

Take our previous example about car racing. Some keywords you might use in your description are “car racing,” “NASCAR,” “Daytona 500,” and “auto racing.”

By including these keywords in your description, you’re more likely to show up in search results when people are looking for a podcast about car racing.

Remember, keywords are important, but they’re not everything. Your titles should still be catchy and exciting enough to entice people to click.

4. Upload high-quality cover art

Remember all of those podcasts we mentioned earlier? I’d be willing to bet that most of them have artwork that looks like it was created in Microsoft Paint.

Don’t be that podcast.

Your cover art is one of the first things potential listeners will see, so it must make a good impression.

Your artwork should be high-quality and eye-catching. It should also accurately reflect the content of your show.

For example:

If your podcast is about fishing, your artwork might feature a photo of someone fishing on a lake.

If your podcast is about business, your artwork might feature a corporate headshot or an image of the skyline.

Some other things to pay special attention to with your artwork are:

• Your brand’s colors: Use colors that match your brand’s identity. This will help people recognize your podcast more easily.
• Your title: Make sure your title is easy to read and understand. No one wants to spend hours trying to figure out what your show is about
• The format: Most podcast directories require artwork of a specific size and format. Make sure your artwork meets these requirements before you upload it.
• Professionalism: Your artwork should look like it was created by a professional. This doesn’t mean you need to hire a designer (although it certainly couldn’t hurt). Just make sure your artwork looks polished and well put together.

But it’s more than just creating artwork. You also want to ensure that these images are optimized for SEO.

Google loves images, and they love it when those images are tagged with relevant keywords.

When you upload your artwork to your website or hosting platform, make sure to include keywords in the file name and fill out the alternate text field with a brief description of the image.

This will help Google index your image and could even help you rank higher in image search results.

I’ll repeat it for those in the back…

Use keywords in your image title, description, and alt-tags.

Your cover art is also an excellent place to include relevant keywords. This will help you show up in search results when people are looking for a podcast like yours.

When you include descriptive alt-text in your cover art, Google can index it and use it to determine what your show is about.

Plus, your cover art will appear in Google’s image index, which can help you attract even more listeners.

5. Have a website and RSS feed for your podcast

Here, I’ll tell you a story:

There were two podcasters – we’ll call them Jon and Ron.

Jon had a website for his podcast. He made sure to include relevant keywords in his website’s title and description, and he included high-quality cover art.

He also promoted his show on social media and submitted it to popular podcast directories.

Because of all this, Jon’s podcast was easily found by potential listeners. His show quickly gained popularity and soon had a large and engaged audience.

On the other hand, Ron didn’t have a website for his podcast. He didn’t think it was necessary, and he didn’t want to put in the extra work.

As a result, Ron’s podcast was much harder to find. Potential listeners had to search long and hard to find it, and most of them gave up before they ever found it.

Ron also boasted that posting links on Facebook to his shows on Youtube and Itunes was all the promotion he needed.

But because no one could easily find or subscribe to his podcast, Ron quickly lost listeners. His show faded into obscurity, and he wondered why he thought podcasting was a good idea.

Moral of the story: If you want people to listen to your podcast, you need to make it easy for them to find it. And the best way to do that is to have a website for your show.

Your website doesn’t need to be elaborate or fancy. A simple, clean design is all you need. Visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

Does your podcast have a website?

But there are a few things your website must have:

What every podcast website needs

To be competitive in the search engine results pages, there are a few things that every podcast website should have:

• Your podcast’s name and logo: Make sure these are prominently displayed on your website so people can quickly identify your show.
• Your podcast’s description: Give potential listeners a brief overview of your podcast. Include relevant keywords so people can find your show in search engines.
• Subscribe links: Include links to your podcast on popular podcast directories like iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play Music. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your show.
• Social media links: Include links to your podcast’s social media accounts so people can follow you and share your episodes with their friends.
• RSS feed: Include an RSS feed of your podcast so people can subscribe using their favorite podcast app.
• Episode transcripts: Include transcripts of your episodes so people can read along as they listen. This is also helpful for people who are hard of hearing or prefer to read instead of listen (more on that to come).
• Embeddable player: Include an embeddable player on your website so people can listen to your episodes right on your site.

Bonus tip: If you want to really optimize your website for SEO, you can also include a blog on your site. This gives you another opportunity to use relevant keywords and attract new listeners (again, more on that to come).

6. Optimize your website for SEO

If you want people to find your podcast on Google, you need to optimize your website for SEO.

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s the process of making your website more visible on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

There are a few things you can do to optimize your website for SEO:

• Use relevant keywords: Include relevant keywords in your website’s title, description, and blog posts. This will help people find your site when searching for those keywords on Google.
• Submit your site to podcast directories: Submitting your podcast to popular directories like iTunes and Stitcher will help people find your show.
• Promote your podcast on social media: Posting links to your episodes on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will help people find your podcast.

When you take the time to optimize your website, you’ll increase the chances that your podcast shows up when people are searching for shows like yours.

Need help promoting your episodes? Visit our social media marketing for podcasters service page to learn how we can help.

Provide accurate transcriptions of your episodes

Remember how I said including transcripts of your episodes is good for SEO?

Well, that’s because transcripts give you another opportunity to use relevant keywords on your website.

Including transcripts also has other benefits. For example, it allows people to follow along with your episodes if they’re hard of hearing or prefer to read instead of listening.

Now, transcribing your show can be time-consuming. But there are a few ways you can make it easier on yourself:

• Hire someone to transcribe your episodes: You can use a transcription service like Rev.com or Fiverr.com to transcribe your episodes for you.
• Use speech-to-text technology: There are a few speech-to-text programs you can use to transcribe your own episodes like Dragon Naturally Speaking.
• Use a SaaS platform online: There are also a few SaaS platforms that offer transcription services like Otter.ai.

One more important note. Ensure your transcriptions accurately reflect what was said on your podcast episode. If not, you could end up with a lot of angry listeners!

Write blog posts about your show.

Another often-overlooked way to optimize your website for SEO is to write blog posts about your podcast.

This gives you another opportunity to use relevant keywords and attract new listeners.

I see it all the time; A podcaster who would rather people hear his voice or see his face instead of reading a blog post. But the fact is, not everyone wants to listen to or watch a podcast. Some people would rather read about it first.

And that’s perfectly fine!

If you can reach those people with a well-written blog post, you’ve increased your chances of getting new listeners.

So, how do you write a blog post about your podcast?

First, decide what angle you’re going to take. Are you going to write a review of a recent episode? Or, are you going to share some behind-the-scenes information about the show?

Once you’ve decided on an angle, start writing! And don’t forget to include relevant keywords throughout your post.

Not sure what to write about? Here are a few ideas:

• Episode summaries: Write a summary of each episode and include a link to the episode.
• Guest interviews: If you have interesting guests on your show, write a blog post about the interview. You can even include a transcript or audio clip from the episode.
• Show notes: Share some of the highlights from each episode in a blog post. This is especially helpful if you have a long-running podcast with hundreds of episodes.
• Podcast reviews: If you’re a new show, consider writing reviews of other podcasts in your niche. This will help you attract listeners interested in that type of content.

7. Promote your podcast on social media

Social media is a great way to promote your podcast and attract new listeners.

After all, that’s what social media is for – sharing content with your followers!

When promoting your podcast on social media, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Share each episode: Share every new episode on social media. You can post a link to the episode on your website or blog or share it directly from your podcast hosting platform.
• Use images and videos: People are more likely to pay attention to your posts if they contain pictures or videos. So, add an image or video to each social media post about your podcast.
• Include a call-to-action: Tell your followers what you want them to do after listening to your episode. Do you want them to subscribe to your podcast? Leave a review?  Share the episode with friends? Make sure your call to action is clear and concise.
• Use hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to reach new people interested in your content. When promoting your podcast on social media, use relevant hashtags so people can easily find your posts.

Here are a few ideas for promoting your podcast on social media:

• Facebook: Create a Facebook page for your podcast and share each new episode. You can also join relevant Facebook groups and share your episodes there (but please don’t abuse the @everyone tag!)
• Twitter: Tweet about each new episode and use hashtags to reach new listeners.
• Instagram: Share images and videos from your podcast episodes on Instagram. You can also use Instagram Stories to promote your show.
• Pinterest: Create pins for each podcast episode and share them on Pinterest.

Promoting your podcast on social media can reach a wider audience and attract new listeners.

8. Engage with your audience and encourage reviews

Dear Podcaster,

You’re not a freaking rockstar.

You’re not Joe Rogan.

You’re not Theo Von.

You’re not even Tim Ferriss.

You’re just a regular person who makes a podcast, so act like it.

Be engaged with your audience.

Reply to their tweets.

Answer their questions.

And for the love of God, encourage them to leave reviews!

The more reviews you have, the higher your podcast will rank on iTunes (which is still the number one way people discover new podcasts).

So, how do you encourage people to leave reviews?

It’s actually pretty simple:

Just ask!

At the end of each episode, tell your listeners that you would appreciate it if they left a review on iTunes (or whatever platform they’re listening on).

You can even give them a specific reason to leave a review, like “it helps us attract new sponsors” or “it helps us get featured in iTunes”.

Whatever your reason, make sure you let your listeners know why reviews are important to you.

9. Monitor your rankings and make necessary adjustments

Lastly (and here’s where most microphone jockeys fail), you need to monitor your rankings and adjust your strategy accordingly.

This means paying attention to where your podcast ranks in iTunes, Google, and other directories.

It also means keeping an eye on your listener numbers and social media engagement.

If you see a sudden drop in rankings or engagement, look at what you’ve been doing lately and see if there’s anything you can change.

Maybe you’ve been slacking off on social media promotion.

Or maybe you’ve been using the wrong keywords in your show notes.

Whatever the case may be, it’s essential to monitor your progress and make necessary adjustments along the way.

Use actual data, not a “gut feeling,” to guide your decisions.

By following these simple tips, you can rank higher in Google search results and attract more listeners to your podcast. Just remember to be patient, consistent, and engaged with your audience. With a bit of time and effort, you’ll be on your way to success!

Hire a professional digital marketing agency.

BlakSheep Creative can help you increase your podcast’s visibility online and attract more listeners. We offer various digital marketing services, including SEO, social media promotion, and website design.

We can help you create a website optimized for SEO and designed to promote your podcast. We can also help you create social media posts that will reach a wider audience.

If you’re ready to take your podcast to the next level, contact us today!

This is good news! With such a saturated market, you need to make your podcast stand out in the SERPs.

For Example: Here is an example of the Joe Rogan Podcast showing up with a new knowledge panel on the right-hand side of the desktop Google search results page:

This feature isn’t showing up for all podcasts, but just most other Google updates, it’ll likely be rolled out a little at a time.

Also, as usual, Google has yet to announce this new feature officially, so it’s unclear if every one of the 2 million+ podcasts will see it.

While most podcasters haven’t noticed the new knowledge panels, you can bet that we in the SEO community have:

Here are some more examples the SEO community is talking about on Twitter:

Google podcast knowledge panels go live https://t.co/9p2YkU9R53 via @jasonmbarnard @AzeemDigital @MattArtzAnthro and more pic.twitter.com/CrC9DPdthr

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) October 14, 2021

Podcasts Google Knowledge Panels Go Live https://t.co/yb6kI888Ys #seo pic.twitter.com/KdoRUzlOB3

— CaptureHits (@capturehits) October 14, 2021

What does this mean for podcasters?

We’re excited to see this! If you are a podcaster, check to see if you’re noticing this new knowledge panel in Google’s search results. If not, it could be related to the RSS feed that your podcast is produced on.

Unfortunately, as we mentioned earlier, Google is tight-lipped on the subject.

So, in their silence, we tell our clients to stick to the basics:

Stick to the basics of podcasting SEO

Have a great podcast title and description, including the keywords that you know people are searching for in Google.

These knowledge panels seem to be showing up in search results with keywords and phrases like “podcast,” “how-to,” and even just plain ol’ generic terms like “podcasts.”

So by having these keywords in your title and description, it’ll likely help you appear higher in Google’s search results.

Do all of the things we tell every SEO client to do:

• Be active on social media
• Have links throughout your website (if you don’t have a website, you might want to get one ASAP if you want to compete in the podcasting market).
• Promote your podcast or episodes everywhere
• Have a link to your website from somewhere on every episode
• Have links to Amazon, iTunes, etc. in your website’s store section.
• Help us promote your podcast!
• Incorporate podcast schema into your website

Here’s a secret: even if you have a podcast, there’s a high chance that Google doesn’t know it.

SEO for Podcasters

Podcasting is a great way to connect with your audience, but Google doesn’t always show the best podcasts in their search results.

We can help you get more listeners by making sure that Google shows your podcast at the top of its search results.

Our SEO for podcasters services will make sure that your podcast gets found when people are searching for it online.

We’ll also optimize your website so that it’s easier to find on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. This will boost both traffic and sales!

If you don’t have a website for your show, stop what you’re doing and contact us today. You can look at our pay-per-month website options or visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

Contact us to learn how we can help today!

Some Podcast Websites We’ve Created:

Related Articles:

A recent webinar from Edison Research explained how podcast listening is on the rise, with a 150% increase since 2014.

Because of this increase, you can expect podcast SEO to be a growing term among digital marketing and SEO professionals and podcast hosts.

“Podcast SEO” is now a popular term, and there is an excellent opportunity for successful podcasts to build their audience through search traffic.

So what is Podcast SEO, and how can you optimize your podcast for search engines?

We’re glad you asked. Here’s everything that you need to know.

Podcasts are displayed in Google searches.

Potential listeners can search for a podcast and find episodes to listen to right there on the search results.

The podcast’s indexing will return audio content for listeners to listen to directly.

Google and other search engines’ can analyze your show’s audio and automatically transcribe it to highlight a specific podcast in relevant search results.

Google Podcasts already transcribes the podcast to use the content as metadata to help people find specific information that’s part of an episode without knowing about the podcast before.

This is huge because it shows Google’s hand. Although Google is super-secretive and never tells us exactly how their ranking algorithm works, sometimes they’ll give hints or suggestions (such as automatically transcribing podcasts or their helpful content update) that help us SEO professionals make changes to gain their favor.

Google is going to start indexing podcasts and return audio results in SERPs. That means voice answers are going to be direct clips from audio content at some point soon.

— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) May 7, 2019

How does this tie into podcast SEO?

Keep reading, you’ll see.

Think of SEO when structuring your episodes

So, how do these hints and changes from Google affect your podcast?

Let’s start by talking about the structure of your pieces of content.

Although a podcast can feel like a casual conversation between friends, it should have a structure and a theme.

Whether you’re producing formal or informal content, you must have a clear theme.

Think about what topics you want to talk about and how your questions can flow from one to another.

Keeping things flowing smoothly helps Google understand and index your show’s content.

Plus, having a clear theme will help your listeners to understand your primary focus and not get lost in the conversation.

Creating a website for your podcast

It’s not required for you to have a website to start your podcast; however, it’s beneficial.

Learn the benefits of having a website for your podcast and why it’s a must. If you’d rather have a professional create one for you, visit our podcast website service page to learn how we can help.

All you need for your podcast is a hosting provider like Audioboom or Libsyn.

However, if you want to succeed, you’ll need to start thinking of SEO more seriously and make sure that you own your data and relationship with your subscribers.

Having a website for your podcast will help you build an email list to grow your fanbase. Plus, a website can help you improve your podcast’s SEO because it’s easier for search engines to discover and understand your episodes when you provide additional context to them.

The best way to give search engines more context is by publishing a new blog post for each audio or video episode.

Having posts for each episode is a great way to build your podcast’s content and makes it easier for search engines to understand your central theme and target keywords.

Treat these posts for your podcast just like you would any other blog post, and make sure to link from one episode to another. The goal is to keep your audience engaged.

Since we mentioned it, let’s dive deeper into how keywords and podcasting go hand-in-hand.

Add keywords to your podcast episodes.

First, your podcast’s title is your number-one keyword. But that’s not the only thing you want to rank for in the SERPS. If you only ranked for your podcast’s name, people would have to be already searching for it specifically to find it. That won’t help you grow your audience, now will it?

Instead, when creating content for your episodes, choose one primary keyword to describe it.

Consider the episode’s theme, structure, topics, guests, etc., and choose a keyword to describe it.

Don’t optimize every episode for the same keyword.

Using the same keyword on each episode increases your risk of what we SEO professionals call cannibalization. Cannibalization is essentially competing against yourself, having two separate pieces of content ranking for the same phrase, topic, or keyword.

Instead, perform keyword research and find keywords with a high search volume and (preferably).

Consider shooting for long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are broader keywords that are easier to rank for.

We discuss long-tail keywords more in-depth in our super SEO post….

Choose episode titles carefully.

Your episode titles will determine whether potential listeners will actually listen to them.

Even when someone discovers your show, they aren’t guaranteed to listen to every episode if your titles aren’t appealing enough.

Keep your titles clear and descriptive, and keep character limitations in mind. 

 Podcastwebsites.com has an excellent article about titling your episodes that’s worth a read.

Adding your keyword in the title is a must, but make sure to add it in context with the rest of the content.

Should you include the episode’s transcript?

Yes!

Even though Google transcribes the podcasts, they aren’t perfect.

Providing written content of your episodes helps search engines understand them in more detail. Written content can drastically improve your episodes’ discoverability by focusing on keywords, content structure, and topics.

Plus, a transcription makes your podcast more accessible to people (especially your hearing-impaired fans). If you want to get fancy, you can split the topics that you’re discussing into time brackets to help all listeners find them easily in the audio or video content.

We realize that podcast transcriptions can be time-consuming and that not every host might be ready for this step. Still, if you’re serious about building your audience and improving your podcast’s SEO, we advise you to consider it.

You’ll benefit in the longer term, we promise.

Podcast Metadata

Just like any other content on the web, metadata can provide additional details about your content. For example, your episode description should explain what the episode is about and offer potential listeners more insight into the topics covered.

Plus, the meta description (metadata) is great SEO real estate to allow search engines to comprehend your episode’s topic.

Add your primary keyword, but don’t get carried away. Unnatural use of your keywords repeatedly is known as keyword stuffing, and Google hates keyword stuffing.

Another piece of metadata, tags, are also helpful for your SEO. Tags allow people to discover episodes by looking at specific genres or categories.

Feel free to add several tags, as long as they are relevant to your podcast.

Think of your potential audience and what terms they’ll likely type in search boxes to find your podcast.

Link to your podcast on all social media

Link building is at the crux of any SEO, be it a syndicated blog or a small local podcast.

Plus, sharing is caring.

An indication of any podcast’s success is the number of shares and comments it receives on social media.

You don’t have to be as big as Joe Rogan to benefit from positive comments or shares on social media.

By the way, search engines take note of people engaging with your podcast on social media; this is called social signals. Google loves user engagement.

Back to linking your podcast on social media.

Like any other content online, content marketing is a vital way to ensure your success.

Choose social media channels and other forms of promotion based on your topics and target audience.

For example, An auto mechanic podcast might not benefit as well from Pinterest as they may from Facebook.

Next, encourage people to share the link if they’ve enjoyed your show and create tracking links (GTM) to find the best performing channels.

Sales Pitch Alert!

Data and analytics are kind of our thing. We can help you track and analyze your podcast data and show you ways to expand your reach. Contact us if you’d like to learn how we can help you.

End sales pitch.

Need help promoting your episodes? Visit our social media marketing for podcasters service page to learn how we can help.

Reviews make for great social proof.

Reviews from listeners play a massive factor in your podcast’s success. It’s not just an indicator of your podcast’s quality but improves your social proof.

Encourage your listeners to leave you a review if they’ve enjoyed the podcast.

Start with your current subscribers, and make it as effortless as possible.

Social proof is beneficial for your podcast’s SEO because it informs search engines of the most successful and engaging content pieces.

Add your podcast to Google Podcasts.

This one’s kind of a given.

Google Podcasts is owned by… you guessed it…. Google.

So, uploading your podcasts to Google is another way to show up on their radar.

If you’re not uploading your podcasts to Google Podcasts yet, it’s fast and easy to do. Just add your podcast’s RSS feed.

By uploading your podcast to Google podcasts, you’re more likely to show up as an audio snippet in the coveted rich snippets.

Quality content first, SEO next.

Creating quality content should always be your focus.

Always.

Content and audio quality are the main factors in your podcast’s success. Promotion and search engine optimization will only work if you have a good starting point for your podcast.

Come up with a creative title, a unique topic, and pay attention to your sound quality. Focusing on these things will help your audience connect with you, and you can work with that to increase your success with SEO.

Let us know if you have any comments or questions about Podcasting SEO or anything we can help you with.