Podcasting: 7 Ways to Boost Your SEO Growth
By Emily Moore
January 10, 2024 • Fact checked by Dumb Little Man
Building an audience for your podcast takes time, determination, and some awareness of business and marketing strategies. Although podcasts are now one of the most popular mediums online, this can make it difficult to stand out and build a loyal fan base. Surveys estimate that more than 68 million people now tune into a podcast on the regular. That’s an enormous number of people to draw your audience from!
However, lots of podcast creators don’t realize that you can use SEO techniques to help grow your podcast, just like you would with a blog or online store. One of the things that many people love about podcasts is that you can share information about anything. Podcast topics range from things like book and video game reviews to conversations about new interstellar technological advancements, like agriculture satellite constellation projects.
No matter how nice your niche is, there’s an audience out there for you. So, whether you’re aiming for SEO growth for a new podcast or you want to rekindle an old one, these tips will help you out. Here’s how to channel podcast SEO for growth across your online platforms.
What Is an SEO Growth Strategy?
You may be wondering what SEO actually is. What is SEO traffic, for instance, and how can it affect your page? SEO refers to the term ‘search engine optimization.’ If you’ve ever worked online or done any type of marketing role, you’ve probably heard this before. SEO is basically a set of techniques you can use to help your content show up on web searches.
One way that you can do this is to use SEO keywords. Keywords are popularly searched terms relating to certain topics. Because these words are commonly searched, search engine algorithms prioritize them and boost content that uses them up the search rankings. This gives your site a better chance of appearing when somebody searches for relevant content. Incorporating SEO is a must for anyone running any type of online media or producing any type of online content.
7 SEO Growth Hacks You Can Use to Promote Your Podcast
⓵ Verify Your Podcast with Google
One way you can boost your chances of being discovered on searches is to make use of Google Podcast Manager. By logging into your Google account and verifying your podcast with Podcast Manager, you increase the likelihood of your podcast or content related to it showing up on Google searches. Even though this isn’t the most targeted form of advertising, most people looking for a new podcast will head to Google first to research podcast channels and streaming services.
The verification process is pretty simple. You can have your podcast verified in just a few easy steps. Once you’ve done this, your Google presence, combined with other elements of your SEO strategy (like keywords) has a good chance of boosting your visibility.
⓶ Create Promotional Content
If you want to promote your podcast (clues in the name), you really should be creating promotional content. This can include social media posts with updates about your upcoming shows or even a blog that summarizes the content of your podcast each week. Promotional content, especially on social media, encourages audience engagement.
This makes your channel more likely to show up on newsfeeds and get recommended to more people. Creating regular updates also allows your audience to share your podcast by directing friends to your social media pages. It’s also a good idea to scatter this content across several platforms or channels to drive the most engagement possible.
⓷ Add Keywords to Promotional Content
You will also have more success promoting your podcast if your promotional posts are SEO-friendly. Try introducing some well-researched keywords into your posts and page updates to help increase your visibility online. You can find out which keywords are relevant by looking up the top SEO trends in your topic area and finding the most searched terms.
⓸ Use Audio Clips as Ads
If you want to get listeners hooked on your podcast, use audio snippets to entice them in. These snippets – or audiograms – can be run as ads on your social media pages and can showcase some of the funniest or most interesting moments in your podcast. Got on a special guest with some really unique expertise and opinions? Choose a highlight from your show and stick it in an audio ad. It’s a great way to give potential listeners a teaser and increase your reach.
⓹ Use Quotes as Visual Prompts
Another growth hacking SEO trick for podcast streamers is to create visual ads that appear on pages and newsfeeds. SEO trends depend largely on creating relevant content. If you use keywords randomly – stuffing them into content that is not relevant to the topic – search engines will generally weed them out.
However, turning quotes from your podcast into visual ads is a great way to use relevant keywords in an organic way. Just be sure to write your keywords into your podcast script so that you can pull them out as quotes. You can also use an appealing visual style in your ads to catch people’s eyes and help your promotional content stand out.
⓺ Use Meta Titles and Descriptions
SEO trends clearly show that using meta titles and descriptions can drastically improve your online visibility. Your meta title and description basically tell Google, and your audience, what your podcast is about. By using keywords in your metadata, you increase the sticking power of your content on search pages. Your description also provides a handy summary that can help reel listeners in.
⓻ Collaborate with Other Creators
Networking is a powerful tool for online creators. If you want to boost your podcast, make an effort to connect with other creators and guests on their podcasts. This is a great way to share notoriety and to generate relevant and authentic SEO content. These types of collaborations are great fodder for shareable quotes and posts that audience members from both sides can spread amongst themselves. Perfect for generating SEO organic growth, gaining more clicks, and potentially building your active listener base.
Conclusion
SEO industry growth is a vital part of most people’s journeys as content creators. It is difficult to get far without some sort of targeted SEO strategy or some know-how about search engines. When it comes to using SEO trends to boost your podcast performance, remember that organic content is key and that engagement encourages promotion. Essentially, the more people click on your links, the better. Even if you don’t expand your audience overnight, having a more active SEO presence will put you on the path to growth.
Final Call: Do you run a podcast? What topic do you focus on? What are your favorite types of podcasts to listen to? Tell us in the comments!
Emily Moore
Emily Moore is an English & programming teacher with a passion for space and blogging. She believes that current exploration and every business innovator should be focused on preserving our planet’s resources. With satellites circling the orbit, it is easier to get relevant data on any environmental changes. This, in turn, should help people quickly address any challenges.