SEO & podcast: the importance of referencing your podcast properly

13% of current podcast listeners say they started out in the confines of their homes.

Meanwhile, 61% of listeners who were already podcast consumers intensified their listening at the time of confinement (CSA-Havas, 2021).

Podcasting is far from being a niche dedicated to geeks with studios in their basements. 

On the contrary, listeners are growing, as are the brands that produce their podcasts, and with them the whole market. 

Over the past few months, SEO has become one of the leading methods for promoting podcasts. 

Keep reading, we'll tell you why and how... Let's go

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SEO & Podcast: a must?

Increased competition 

In 2020, a podcast is born every minute. 

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Worse still, according to the ListenNotes study, podcast production on their platform continues to grow exponentially with : 

• 197,000 products in 2018. 
• 316,000 in 2019 (double)
• 954,000 in 2020 (triple).

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And to be honest, these figures are similar on other podcast streaming platforms, as the adoption of podcasts is now a matter of course. 

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Ok cool but what do I care do you think?

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Quite simply, because competition for places is intensifying for all podcasts.

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You can imagine how difficult it is for new entrants to the podcast industry to position themselves). 

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It's a real drag, isn't it? So what can you do? 

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The solution? Optimize the visibility of your podcast in search engines! (Yes, SEO as the kids say)

Pleasing Google

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On the Internet, almost since its creation(see The Big Bang), Google has been making the headlines. 

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If Google decides, for X or Y reasons, that your website shouldn't be referenced, it's as if you didn't exist...

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And unfortunately or fortunately (depending on whether you like SEO), Google now indexes podcasts in its search engine. 

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In other words, when someone searches for "podcast ecole de commerce" they may come across your podcast on the 1st page of Google if it's well referenced. 

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Appealing to your audience

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All the studies confirm it... 

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Listeners find podcasts either by word of mouth or by searching the Internet. 

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Once again, take care of your free podcast SEO if you want to be found.

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The danger of podcast studios

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Podcast studios are very good at producing podcasts (it's their job, after all...).

The problem is that their approach is generally what we call "podcast first"...

As a result, they completely forget the best SEO practices for referencing your podcast!

So what's the problem, right?

Well, that's great for your audience, because the podcast will be well produced... 

But for the others, the "potential listeners" of your podcast, they won't even know it exists.

It's a bit embarrassing, isn't it?

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How do you reference your podcast?

Now that you understand the importance of referencing your podcast, we thought before letting you go, we'd give you a few tips on how to properly reference your podcast.

You can thank me later...

Your podcast must be eligible for Google Podcast. 

For a good natural, organic and free referencing of your podcast, be present on the "google podcast" platform. 

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Do a keyword search

Don't record your podcast until you've done some keyword research to boost its SEO. 

Determine exactly which keywords your audience is looking for and which themes interest them. 

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There are hundreds of tools for this... Here are the most popular (and free):  

• Google Keyword Planner
• Neil Patel's Ubersuggest tool

Define the titles of your podcast episodes.

To take your podcast's SEO to the next level, work on your titles! 

Your title will be useless if it doesn't make the listener want to : 

• Click to read the description, 
• Launch podcast 
• Add it to your backups to listen to later 

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Advice from the Calliopé team  

1. Spend time on it (almost as much as on your podcast)
2. Write at least 10 different titles before choosing one.
3. Don't make clickbaits if the content behind them doesn't follow

Make sure your podcast is well described.

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Make your listeners want to go further. 

The description of your podcast should be a clever mix of certain keywords found with

It's best to keep your description as long as possible, using synthetic sentences.

Advice from the Calliopé team  

Warning: don't put keywords everywhere. Google hates it and will punish you. Keep a balance between keywords and the actual content you offer. 

Optimize every "show note" in your podcast episodes.

Here's how it works. 

A listener will first look at the description of your podcast, find a podcast they like thanks to the title and learn more about the podcast thanks to the "show notes". 

What are show notes now?

Simply the footnotes. 

Often overlooked, they can help boost your natural referencing. 

To optimize it, do the following: 

• Be descriptive about the themes you cover in your episodes, 
• Include external links to your site, one of your studies, a case study, a landing page, 
• Space your text (use bulleted lists) 

The must: transcribe audio content into text. 

If, like us, you think organic podcast SEO is necessary... Go further! 

Indeed, it's often forgotten, but transcribing audio content into text is the way to give your podcast more power. 

Why? 

Simply because Google will index your podcast twice. 

Once your podcast itself (thanks to the description, the title, the show notes) and another time thanks to the text transcription of your podcast.

Ain't life grand?