One of the essential elements for optimizing your podcast for search engine optimization is keywords. There are many types of keywords, and there is a variety of strategies you can use to make the best out of podcast SEO. The goal of today’s talk will be to teach you how to choose the best podcast keywords and grow your brand’s authority.
It is important to understand that you can optimize your podcast for text and audio keywords. While this was not possible until a few years ago, it is trendy now, and it brings fantastic results. Voice search is already a huge trend. This opens many doors because you can now reach a wider audience. You are not strictly limited to your listeners.
What is podcast SEO and why you should use it?
Podcast SEO is an SEO strategy that relies on using audio keywords to rank your website. Google is now using podcast SEO as a part of SERP (search engine results page) optimization, and that’s why a podcast is a lot better option than an audiogram or a webinar.
Another reason why you should use podcast SEO is that the number of listeners is rapidly growing. People want to focus more on listening, and they want quality conversations. That’s why Google values podcasts so much.
Want to learn more about podcast SEO? Read our article How to Make Your Podcast SEO-Friendly
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The technical side of podcast SEO
It all starts with choosing a podcast topic and defining keywords. This depends on your niche, but the SEO will directly be affected by the topic. Unlike a website where the keywords are pretty much the same in 90% of cases, you will have to find new keywords for every podcast episode.
When we talk about the actual optimization process, there are a couple of things to understand.
- Use written keywords, even if you are targeting audio content. Google is getting better at transcribing audio recordings, but you don’t want to risk your SEO this way. On-page text is still an essential part of web optimization.
- Create a podcast landing page with a podcast description, helping users know what to expect. Furthermore, know that Googlebot uses this description to target the correct users and bring them to your page. Creating a dedicated landing page for each podcast episode is a good practice.
- For SEO structure, focus on using the right elements. For example, your description heading should be an H2 element. Make sure to also add bullet points and lists when possible because these elements also affect SEO.
- Make sure to add internal links to other landing pages and external links to other websites.
- Include timestamps in your podcasts, leading to important keywords or crucial topics of discussion. This both improves your SEO and user experience.
Understanding and implementing podcast SEO means discoverability. People who have never heard of your podcast can accidentally find it on Google. This is the power of keywords.
How to choose the best keywords for your podcast?
As we mentioned at the beginning, there are numerous ways to choose keywords. However, you need to know that there are some common pitfalls when it comes to keyword research. It is easy to make a mistake, so it is crucial to think in the right direction.
The first thing you need to do is to put yourself in the shoes of your listeners.
Think like your audience
We hear many times that marketers all around the world suggest that we need to think like our customers. This is very true, and you need to apply the same principle when picking the right keywords for your podcast.
If you were a listener of your own podcast, what would you like to hear the most? If you had the option of calling in and asking questions, what would you ask? Would you be disappointed if a specific topic was skipped?
All of these questions are very important. Answering them will give you a general understanding of what your listeners want to hear. That’s how you will come up with the best keywords.
The second thing to consider is the tone of your podcast. Are your listeners expecting a more dramatic discussion? Furthermore, what is your speech pattern? Are you using complex, professional words, or are you speaking in common slang? Also, are your listener’s professionals, or common people? A lawyer looking for a podcast about the law will Google professional terms, but an ordinary person cannot do that because they don’t know the fancy words.
The nature of your podcast will tell you a lot about the type of keywords you need to use to increase your search ranking and get more listeners.
What are your competitors doing?
Following competitors’ podcasts is a very important step in this process. Spend some time searching for other podcasts in your niche. Did you have a hard time finding them, or was the search easy?
If you are just starting with your podcast, it is a good idea to observe what others did before you. Take a look at the names of their episodes and the most important subjects they covered. The idea is not to steal their content but to understand their thought process. There is no need to reinvent the wheel all over again. However, you want to improve it to the best of your abilities.
Write your content and analyze it
You cannot choose keywords before knowing what your content is.
While you can create a list of general keywords, this will not always give the best results. While you probably won’t write the actual sentences because the podcast is more about the natural flow of conversation, you might have some questions prepared. You also know the general direction of the podcast.
That will all give you a lot of material, and you should get your keywords from there.
While writing your content, it is also essential to think about how to use the content to improve SEO. This is where structured data comes into place. Structured data is a fixed piece of data that will repeat on all your landing pages.
For podcasts, providing the following details are recommended, among others:
- Information about the people featured in the podcast
- Episode number and season number
- Series name
- Mention of the production company
- Episode duration
- File format
- URL
- Content preview
- Credits for any music used
By providing this data, you are helping Google to obtain important information about your podcast.
The information for podcast structured data can be found at Schema.org. It’s worth reading all the details you can provide. |
Work on your long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords consist of three or four words. You need to create phrases that will bring the most results.
Long-tail keywords are also important because they attract more relevant traffic. They are more specific than short keywords. For example, a short keyword would be “music podcast.” It defines a precise category, but it is broad, and there is a lot of competition for this keyword. But, if you change that to “best rock music podcasts on Spreaker” you are focusing on a specific music genre, and you are defining the platform.
It is generally a bit more challenging to come up with long-tail keywords. However, they are crucial for your podcast, and they are less competitive.
Use keyword research tools
While you can do your keyword research manually, it is imperative to use keyword research tools. SEO technology is very advanced, and there is no way to achieve the same results on your own.
There are a lot of different keyword research tools out there. UberSuggest and Wordstream, for example, are free tools. Just be forewarned that Ubersuggest only gives 5 free searches every 24 hours, but that should be enough to get you started. Other keyword research tools include KeySearch, Semrush, and Ahrefs
Search for each of the keywords you want to possible rank for and make a note of these two key metrics:
- Search volume – the number of Google searches a keyword gets per month
- Difficulty – how hard it will be to rank for that keyword, or how competitive it is
Basically what you are looking for is a decent amount of search volume and a low difficulty so that you can easily rank for your identified keywords.
Besides Semrush, you should also try Voxalyze; a tool created explicitly for podcast keywords. It focuses on tracking keywords by listening to apps or the country. Furthermore, you can see week-to-week rankings and check competitor podcast keywords.
Is it possible to do this on your own?
If you are running the podcast on your own, you might discover that you don’t have enough time to do everything. Keyword research is a very challenging and slow process:
- Analyze competitor podcasts to see what keywords they use;
- Research their keywords, and find ways to make them better and more suitable for your podcast;
- Rely on your content, and extract the most important keywords that define your topics;
- Use tools to analyze keywords throughout various categories, and see how they rank based on different factors;
- Tweak your keywords depending on the performance and results;
It is a good idea to find help for keyword research. Starting a podcast could be difficult, especially if you don’t have money to hire SEO experts. However, you should take your time. T
he most important thing is to produce quality content. Once you have your initial financing, you should invest in search engine optimization. It’s best to get the right people who will do the SEO part for you, so you can focus on creating content and doing the good stuff.
You also need to advertise your episodes
Besides doing SEO, you need to advertise your podcast on social media. This will boost your SEO substantially. Once people hear about you, they will start to research your podcast. It is another good idea to advertise on YouTube as well.
Wherever you do the advertising, you also want to use the same keywords. That way you are covering every area, and increasing the chances of people searching for your podcast.
Podcast Keywords: Focus on the content
We hope that these tips for picking the right keywords for your podcast helped you understand how to approach this process. It all revolves around quality content. Spending time and resources on advertising a podcast that no one will listen to is a recipe for disaster. With that in mind, focus on your content at the same time. SEO and content need to work together.
John Matthews is a marketing and SEO expert with over 10 years of experience. He is a professional blogger focusing on online advertising and content creation.
John’s goal is to help young professionals create a solid base for their brands.