Did you know that Google also indexes podcasts? Stay with us to learn how to display podcasts in Google results.
Your podcast may have great content, but if someone searched online for anything related to your audio content until last year, they would never have known you had a podcast about it. Google started indexing podcasts in its 2019 update, but many podcasters have not taken advantage of the opportunity to optimize their podcast SEO since then. Let’s change that. In this article, we want to tell you about what you need to know about podcast SEO and how to rank for podcasts.
Before we go any further, remember that all of the suggestions and tips in this article assume that your podcast is really good in terms of content quality. Just like other non-audio content models, searchers need to know that your content is relevant, or they will ignore you. You can also read the digital marketing article to learn about all areas of digital marketing.
Table of Contents
Show the podcast in Google results
How to show our podcasts in Google results?
1- Create an effective podcast title and description
Just like with non-audio content, you need to do some keyword research to get your podcast SEO started. Knowing what your potential podcast listeners are searching for, how they write it, and how often they search for it is vital to the rest of the tips we’ll tell you next. When choosing a name for your podcast, consider including a main keyword. Most importantly, the podcast title should tell potential listeners what your podcast is about. It also helps Google rank your podcast more easily on the results page. In the digital marketing course, you will improve the ranking of your website by SEO training and gain skills in other areas of digital marketing.
If you have a title that doesn’t refer to the topic of the podcast, use a descriptive subtitle with a keyword. This text increases the podcast’s chances of ranking because it provides critical information to Google so that it can better index the podcast. Meta descriptions of podcasts are very important not only for Google but also for appearing in the search results of podcast platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Use your main keywords only once in this description. Be specific about what your podcast is about and for whom it is produced.
In terms of how long the description should be, Google usually displays something between 155 and 160 characters, but don’t just go with Google. Consider podcasting platforms as well. Dan Meisener tested this theme seven times to see how many characters it would take for a visitor to finally click on a particular option to see the rest of the description. Apple Podcasts has the maximum number of characters i.e. 150 while Stitcher has the lowest number of characters i.e. 72. Other platforms such as Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castbox, and Breaker are in between these two.
2- Produce each episode based on a keyword
Once your title and description are optimized, you should begin your keyword research to schedule podcast episodes. Build each episode around a targeted keyword. Doing so will increase the chance of said episode showing up in the ratings. The more specialized the topic, the more likely it is to attract educational searchers.
The keyword for the episode must be written in the title and description of the episode. Just like the description and title of the podcast, the title and description of each episode should be able to clearly define the topics covered in that episode, because it is directly related to the user’s search intent.
3- Say the keyword
Just like YouTube, saying keywords during a podcast helps to optimize its content. Search engines listen to your content to decide if it is good enough for a specific search topic. Of course, this does not mean that you should repeat the keyword as much as you can in your podcast, but it is better to use synonyms of your other keywords to get better results.
4- Publish a transcript
Google scans written documents much more easily than audio content. Although Google is starting to automatically annotate podcasts, it’s still best to publish a transcript as well. You can import your audio file into one of the audio converter tools like Wavve, which, as it turns out, will convert the sound of your audio file into a postable text.
Then you should update your transcript based on the mentioned podcast SEO, i.e. title, description, etc., and also include text-based SEO items such as subtitles, internal links, backlinks, etc. Then publish the copy on your site, this copy itself can be considered a blog post, and finally, you register the copy in the Google search console to be indexed.
5- Don’t forget Google Podcast
Google has its podcast app. You can use Google Podcast Manager to see the different stages of this platform. This helps Google return audio snippets from your podcast to the results page. The platform can also help you monitor your podcast’s rank to further optimize its content.
See your audio rank on Google
More than half of Americans over the age of 12 have listened to podcasts. 55% in 2020 against 40% in 2017. This growth in podcast listening, with 850,000 active podcasts in 2020, a 70% increase from 2018, means you need to do more to get your audio content seen. Now that Google’s search algorithm is also recognizing podcasts, it’s more important than ever to take the time to plan and publish your podcast and optimize it for search engine rankings.