How Podcasting and SEO Intersect
Did you know there are more than 2 million podcasts on the web today? It’s evident, podcasts are here to stay and any online marketer should consider starting one.
If you have a podcast or are thinking about starting one, you might want to learn about its relation to search engine optimization (SEO). Do podcasts need SEO? How does a podcast affect SEO and vice versa?
We’ve put together answers for popular podcast-related questions:
How do podcasts impact SEO?
Google released a statement saying it will index and display playable content from podcasts on search engine results pages (SERPs) along with images, videos and text. This means your podcast offers you more ways to optimize your website for search engine visibility. To better understand the content of the podcast, Google may begin creating transcripts of the podcast. In this way, the search engine can decide which podcast is relevant to which search terms.
Why is optimizing your podcast important?
As you optimize your blog posts for searchability, optimizing your podcast is essential for people to discover your content. Although your podcasts are not optimized the same way as a blog post or your video content, the goal is the same. Your overarching goal is to get more traffic to your website and you can achieve this by optimizing all of your content, including podcasts.
How do you optimize podcast audio for SEO?
The experts recommend you optimize your podcast for search by employing a few basic search tactics. First, build a dedicated website for your podcast. This allows you to add keywords, links and information about your podcast that helps Google and other search engines understand your content. Second, use keywords in your episode titles, metadata and transcripts. Keywords for podcasts show up on SERPs just like other keyword-optimized content. Finally, use social media to boost audience engagement with your podcast episodes and hopefully encourage shares from your listeners. An active social media presence increases your content’s credibility and helps get your podcast on the first page of Google SERPs.
Are there any secrets to making your podcast appear on Google’s podcast playable episodes section?
Podcast SEO won’t work if you don’t have high-quality, engaging content. Focus on creating a podcast about a specific topic that is relevant to your audience. Make sure you produce your podcast with high-quality sound so your audience finds it easy to listen to and understand. When you prioritize your content and optimize it for search you get better results.
How do I ensure my podcast SEO strategy works?
Podcast SEO is a relatively new method of content marketing and not everyone gets it right on their first try. Researching and implementing different strategies work well if you have the time and resources to do so. However, if you want a sure-fire way of deploying a successful podcast SEO strategy, hire one of the best SEO companies with expertise in this field. You won’t need to do any guesswork because you will have a team of podcast SEO experts doing all the heavy-lifting to guarantee podcast excellence.
Conclusion
Podcast SEO is fast becoming a staple in any content marketing strategy. Anyone promoting a product or service can greatly benefit from adding podcast traffic to their existing user numbers.
For audiences, podcasts are consumable content they can engage with on-the-go. The content is easier to absorb and often, podcasts are a more effective way of businesses getting their brand messaging directly to their target audience. Podcasts can be an important source of traffic, so podcast SEO should be prioritized for businesses to drive engagement, leads and sales for their brands.
