Podcast Tips: 8 Ways to Gain Listeners in 2020

If you’ve decided to take on podcasting in
2020 (or already have one but would like it to reach more listeners next year),
let me welcome you to the flock of around 2 million other podcasts that Google has
already discovered, indexed, and ranked.

Podcasts are the ultimate multitasking
aid: they’re there to help you pass the time during a dreary commute, there to
keep you company while you’re scrubbing the bathtub, and can turn meal prep
into an educational hour spent in the kitchen.

Source:
screenshot from smallbizgenius.net (free to use and share)

Since some research has discovered that podcast
listeners tend to be well-educated, young, and affluent, podcasts can also be
turned into a great revenue stream – if you don’t make the mistake of turning
them into commercials, that is.

The key to a successful podcast is having
something to say, and presenting it in a voice that appeals to your target
market (pun intended).

Once you have that down, all that’s left
to do is let people find you, then watch as your brand awareness and revenues
increase, right?

Well – not quite.

To help potential listeners find your podcast, you first need to reach for some optimization tactics. To that end, let’s explore eight effective SEO tactics that will help you attract more listeners to your podcast.

Craft a great title

The first thing audiences (and search
engines) will see of your podcast is its title.

This is precisely why you need to make it
catchy, have it reflect what you will be talking about very clearly, and use the right keywords to help it rank
well in search.

Source: screenshot from ahrefs.com (free to use and share)

Services like Google Play and iTunes both have their own algorithms, and the
title of a podcast plays a large role in the way they rank it. Of course,
factors like the number of subscribers and the number of reviews also have
their part to play, but let’s just agree that the title is very important.

Of course, Google’s own algorithms
also take the title into high account when ranking podcasts, but that’s already
a given.

Let’s assume that you’ve done your
research well and that the topic you’re going to cover is of interest to your
audience. To help them find your podcast more easily, we’d suggest the
following keyword tactics:

• Focus on one keyword in the title
  – you can add others to the description of the podcast
• Go for a shorter keyword in the
  title and expand it in the description
• Know the language your audience
  uses: for example, Brits say rubbish instead of trash, so being aware of the
  gender, age, cultural, and geographical determiners of your audience will help
  you give it the right title
• Try looking for similar podcasts
  and see what kinds of keywords they are using
• Use a keyword planning tool: anything from Google
  Trends to a tool like Ahrefs or Moz should do the job well

Source:
screenshot from ahrefs.com (free to use and share)

• Monitor which keywords bring in
  which kinds of traffic, and update your title accordingly if it makes sense

Choose a different keyword
for each episode

Try to have different keywords for
different episodes.

This might be a bit trickier if you’re
talking about the same subject across several episodes. But it also gives you
the opportunity to test out different, related keywords, and see which one
brings in the best results.

As competition is already fierce out
there, you don’t want to be competing with your own pages as well.

Build a website for your
podcast

Source: screenshot from sitebuilderreport.com (free to use and share)

Or at least build a separate section of
your brand’s website that will deal with everything podcast-related.

The thing is, if you host your podcast on
a platform you don’t own yourself, you will not have any direct SEO benefits
from the promotion and traffic you drive to the podcast, as it will all be
going to a different website.

On the other hand, you can choose to build a website (which can be really
small) and promote it, using it to link to all the platforms where users can
listen to podcast episodes. That way, you will have full control of the
promotion medium and marketing channels, and can directly benefit from this.

Source:
screenshot from podcastinsights.com (free to use and share)

Your podcast website can link out to your
brand’s main website, and it will be much easier and less promotional in
nature. After all, you’re the one behind the podcast.

You can also use this website for email
marketing purposes.

Set up a subscription page and allow
users to sign up for the podcast, to receive notifications when you publish a
new post and when you have interesting company news to share.

All you need is a homepage, a general
“about” page detailing what the podcast is about, and a separate page
for each of the episodes.

Create a separate page for
each episode

Source: screenshot from sitebuilderreport.com (free to use and share)

You might be tempted to house all of your
podcast episodes on a single page, and this can work really well in terms of
user experience and recognizability. However, you should also create a separate
page (let’s say on your blog) for each podcast episode.

You can have short summaries or episode
descriptions on each page. Even better, you can also add a transcription of
each episode. That way, those who prefer reading to listening (and skim instead
of focus) can do just that.

In terms of SEO, having a separate page
for each episode means you will be increasing your chances of ranking for
episode-related keywords, but you will also be increasing your website and
podcast authority.

As you publish articles (i.e. podcast
transcripts), search engines will view you as more of an authority, and know
exactly what kinds of search terms to show you for. The more authority you
build, the more likely people are going to find you when looking for a podcast
in your niche.

Of course, you should also focus on the on-page
optimization for each of these pages:

• Optimize your meta elements for an
  episode-specific set of keywords
• Add a link back to the podcast
  episode
• Add relevant images to the page
• Make sure the page has a high word
  count: aim for 1000+ words per page
• Make sure you have a couple of H2s
  and add in H3s where needed

Share your content on social
media channels

You may think that social media has
nothing to do with SEO, and in a way, you would be right.

However, social media engagement and
search engine rankings are
connected – and the more people engage with your podcast on socials,
the more traffic you stand to get. Naturally, this will result in higher
rankings, as search engines prefer websites with more traffic.

Source: screenshot from podcastinsights.com (free to use and share)

When promoting a podcast episode, make
sure you use more than one type of content, and focus
on the posts and engagement times your audience prefers.

“One
of my favorite podcasts is Intelligence Squared. They don’t have the best
social media following, but I really like their communication (AND their
guests). What’s more, their social posts are a great reminder for me to catch
up, or to discover past episodes that I’ve also missed.”
—Clément René, @Mention

You can utilize Mention to explore what
your competitors are doing and what people are saying about you, then use the
acquired data to craft better social media posts and
strategies.

Submit your podcast to
directories

There are tons of podcasting directories out there you’ll want
to get listed on.

This will not only help users find you,
but it will also boost your rankings, especially if you include a link to your
podcast website in the directory.

Source:
screenshot from podcastinsights.com (free to use and share)

The more relevant links you have, the
better you’ll rank overall, and taking some time to build some directory links
will be worth your while. Make sure that the data you provide across all
directories is uniform, and above all, correct. Don’t type in URLs manually –
you never know when you can mistype something.

Build links to your
podcasting website

If you’ve decided to create a website for
the podcast, the best SEO tactic you can use is building links back to this
website from reputable and relevant blogs that are frequented by your target
audience.

It’s very easy to add a link back to a
certain podcast’s transcript in a guest post: just quote something from the
podcast and add in the reference link.

Make sure you don’t over-optimize for
certain keywords and don’t use the same or similar keywords as anchors over and
over again. Search engines prefer varied and natural anchors, so try to craft a
different one every time.

Source:
screenshot from shoutmeloud.com (free to use and share)

You can also do some comment linking – leave
a link back to your podcast in the comment sections of popular blogs that
discuss the subject you’ve also covered. Make sure you do this unobtrusively,
as you don’t want to seem too pushy and sales-y. You want to provide value, so
taking the time to actually get people interested in what you have to say will
always trump leaving a naked link for people to click on.

Always put your listeners
before SEO

Source: screenshot from podcastinsights.com (free to use and share)

Whatever you choose to do in terms of
SEO, make sure you’re not putting these efforts above your audience. What may
seem like a good decision for charming a search engine may not always prove to
be the best choice for user experience.

And since user experience is a major ranking factor, you
have another compelling reason to think about humans first, and robots second.

This is especially true when you think of keyword research – don’t try to optimize for something no one is ever going to look for just because you can rank for it easily. True, when you rank one page well, others will follow, but your goal is to use SEO to attract listeners, not to win at SEO. Don’t forget that.

Final thoughts

Source:
screenshot from smallbizgenius.net, (free to use and share)

Podcasting is yet to become more popular
– and in anticipation of audio competing with video in 2020, it’s important
that you understand all the tools at your disposal to reach podcasting success.
Make sure you’re doing what you can to improve your rankings and get your
podcast out there.