Audio SEO - are you paying it enough attention?

SEO, “searchable engine optimisation,” is a native language to anyone working in digital marketing and, in the main, is used in context when talking about websites and search rankings. SEO can seem like a dark art at times and the term “keywords” is considered a golden route to good SEO.

In its simplest of descriptions the term “keywords” is used to describe words that are highly searchable and relevant to your brand. The more keywords you can integrate within your website and digital comms the better for your SEO and the higher your website will appear on google equaling a higher engagement or customer conversation.

So what has this got to do with podcasting?

Relevant and highly searchable keywords will help make your podcast easier to find and give it a higher chance of appearing in the right user searches. On top of that, as more and more podcasts are on the market, over 4 million and still counting, users search within the streaming apps under topics in the same way they use search engines like google.

In a nutshell, keywords link your podcast to your desired audience, so it’s worth paying them some attention.

What words are classed as keywords?

In the context of talking about podcasting, keywords will likely be found in your themes, topics and conversations and you should use a mix of long and short-tail keywords.

So what do we mean?

If, for example, your podcast is covering mental health or wellbeing then words like mental health or wellbeing would make “short tail” keywords (1-3 words), similarly if your podcast is about business then short tail keywords could be ”business” or “entrepreneurship.” They would appear in a generic user search and are broad which means a lot of other podcasts will be under that umbrella. You’ll want to mix your short tails keywords with more specific “long tail” keywords that consist of around 5 words and drill down into specific topics and detail of what was discussed on your podcast. In the wellbeing example if strategies for coping with anxiety were discussed then in your keywords use something that users may search for, e.g “coping strategies for dealing with anxiety” and, in the business example, if sustainability in business was discussed then something like, “building a sustainable business” would work.

Audio SEO health check

Take a look at some key areas below where keywords will help with your podcast SEO.

1. Make a podcast website or page.

2 Optimise keywords in your show’s description.

3 .Optimise keywords in episode titles.

4. Optimise keywords in your show notes.

5. Syndicate to Google Podcasts.

6 .Write blog posts based on the episodes - a transcript of your episode helps with this but don’t make the blog a post of full transcript.

7. Use social media to promote your podcast.

8. Get guests to share your show.

9. Make sure your press releases are optimised with keywords and backlinks as most publications are digital.

10. Youtube, the 2nd largest search engine - film your podcast and post it on your own Youtube Channel

If you would like more information or to discuss any of this in depth then get in touch [email protected]