There is a growing listener base for podcasts across the world. In the US and South America, there has been a surge in the number of listeners of podcasts. Outside of the Americas, there is an upward trend for podcasts as well. However, the number of podcasts has reduced, which might make some podcast hosts believe they don’t have to compete too hard.
However, with more than 320,000 business podcasts out there, getting found, especially when new and unheard, can be challenging. Therefore, you have to make your podcast discoverable. So, in this article, we will look at how to appear high on every podcast search, regardless of whether you’re a seasoned podcast host or a new entry.
Why is Podcast Search So Important?
The most popular podcast platform is Spotify, with numerous listeners using the search feature to find the content they want to listen to. Search results are determined through several criteria and features.
Therefore, to ensure you meet the criteria, think carefully about how you market your podcast across Spotify and other platforms. You want to ensure you’re sending out the right keywords, trust factors, and other ranking factors that will help you improve your positioning on podcast search results.
And the higher you appear, the higher you will rank. And this can be important. Research has shown the top three search results will get the most traffic. So you need to appear in these three to get the most listeners.
How to Appear High on Every Podcast Search
Getting high on every podcast search is a careful balance of taking time to ensure you have the right criteria without going against your core principles. There are many different aspects that you should look at. Here are some of the features that you should consider.
Podcast Title
The first thing that you need to look at is the podcast title. You need to ensure your podcast can be connected to the topic. Using keywords or something associated with the industry/topic you’re talking about is most important. Using your name might sound personable, but there is a smaller chance for new podcasts to be found using this information.
In contrast, using a title containing the keyword can be found through the podcast directory search function, as well as increasing the chance of being found using Google and other search engines.
If you’ve already got a podcast going, this might be something you can’t change.
Podcast Description
Another factor is the description of the podcast show that you’re recording. Using the same podcast keyword as you would in the podcast title can be important. It allows search engines, and the search feature on directories, to know what your podcast is about, and therefore, you will appear in search results.
However, relying on these elements won’t help you rank highly. These are just the basics and give your podcast a chance to display when someone enters the turn. However, you might appear very low in the search, and statistics show that 70% of the traffic from a search will go to the top three results.
Quality Content
So, the content in your podcast doesn’t help to control the ranking position on your website, but it does affect several elements that can help you rank high. Therefore, we recommend you study how to create a better podcast that can improve elements such as audience numbers, reviews, and more, which will have an impact.
To help, you might want to talk to Produce Your Podcast about the Sound Quality check service.
Reviews
It can be hard to get listeners to review your podcast. Research has found that it can take several attempts to get someone to leave a review. Asking at the end of the podcast episode is a great way to keep reminding people to review your podcast.
In addition, if you have a mailing list or social media accounts, you can also use these platforms to request reviews. Email requests can be one of the most effective options.
Episode Titles & Descriptions
Each episode title and description should be linked to specific keywords. If you’re talking about SEO in your podcast, for example, you should have that within the episode title. This allows your specific episodes to rank on search results for audiences. It helps with getting your general show displayed as well, or when someone is looking for a specific topic.
Descriptions should have the keyword mentioned between two and three times. However, this should be done naturally.
Don’t rely on AI to complete the work for you. Google is penalizing businesses that use AI-generated content, which can reduce your ranking potential by 40%. It isn’t known whether other platforms will follow the same procedure, but this potential drop would significantly lessen traffic from Google sources, which might be a major contribution to traffic anyway.
Tags
Some platforms might allow you to use tags for each episode. Therefore, if you can add these, think carefully about the tags you’d like to use. You might want to use between three and five tags per episode and use different tags for each podcast episode.
One recommendation is to have two main tags that you might use, like ‘Business Leadership’ and ‘Management tips’, and then have between two and three tags that change based on the content in the episode.
Doing this establishes the pain topic of your podcast, while at the same time promoting the specific subject of each episode.
Use Social Media
Using social media to promote your podcast might not sound like it’ll help your podcast episodes rank high, but it can do a lot for the ranking. There are many ways to build ranking, such as indicating to Google and other search engines that your episodes are popular. It can also help to build traffic to your episodes to improve your podcast’s popularity.
In addition, social media accounts have search features that can display your page with the right terms. You can use common terms inside your posts to grab your audience’s attention and rank when users are searching for general terms.
Don’t be afraid to use hashtags to highlight the most important terms within the posts. But limit hashtags to about 2-3 per post.
You might also want to experiment with publishing content in Facebook groups. You can join groups where you can discuss important topics that are related to your podcast.
Use Email Marketing
Using email can help you build a loyal following. Each email can be used to recommend the latest episode and get people to listen to it. The more people that go from the email to the podcast episode and listen, the more popular your podcast will be according to the distributor, and, therefore, you will get ranked higher in search ratings. In addition, email marketing is a great place to request reviews and social media shares, to improve listener numbers.
Professional Artwork
Whether you’re looking for a new logo for your show or an episode thumbnail, you want to ensure you have the best graphical designs. You can hire professional artists to do this for you on places like Upwork and Fiverr. The rates for these designs can be relatively cost-effective, especially when compared to hiring a graphic artist full-time.
The professional artwork should also have the right meta information inserted into the tags. This way, it helps with the SEO, bringing your logo up on the right searches.
Blogging
Blogging about each episode can be very important because you can use the keyword that can help you rank on Google and other search engines. You can also use image meta tags to help improve the ranking potential of the blog post.
There are many ways to blog about the episodes, but it’s important to remember the goal is to get more people to listen to the podcast.
Blogging about each episode can also help with internal linking (getting people to other podcast episodes) or linking to the podcast itself, helping with the ranking. Blogging can also help with your general website SEO.
Promotion
There are normally ways that you can promote your podcast episodes using sponsorship options. You can promote your podcast to audiences, targeting those with specific demographics (such as location, age, gender, and income). You can do this on distribution channels such as Spotify or you can do this on Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other channels.
The costs for this one can be high, and there is evidence to suggest that nearly two-thirds of audiences will avoid advertised slots, which is one of the reasons why paid promotions are mentioned here and not further toward the top of the list.
Consider a Podcast Schedule
Another factor you might want to consider is ensuring your content is connected to local, national, and cultural events. For example, using St Patrick’s Day, Earth Day, seasonal holidays, and others within the podcast episodes. Connecting these events can help you be more relevant to the event being celebrated.
However, to achieve this, you must be prepared, recording episodes weeks before the special occasions. This might offer some funny moments, such as celebrating Christmas on the podcast when others are celebrating Halloween.
For this to be a complete success, you need to ensure that you have a podcast schedule where you’ve got every part of the podcast production schedule written down and organized.
Get People to Subscribe
Podcasts with higher subscriber numbers are likely to rank higher because platforms will know these are more popular and will want to demonstrate their best shows. Getting people to subscribe to platforms such as Spotify and Apple can be challenging. However, you could always ask them at the beginning and end of each episode. Remember to thank them for taking this action.
Get Linked On Other Websites
When you bring a guest to your show you should get them to put on their website that they’ve been seen on your podcast. A simple link with your podcast’s logo can help you build more links to your website. And with more links, you will rank higher on Google.
This might not help you on other platforms like Spotify, but many people use Google to help them find a podcast.
FAQs: How to Appear High on Every Podcast Search
Does it matter where I get positioned on podcast search results?
Yes, research has shown that 70% of users will visit the top three results on a search results page. From there on, only a maximum of 5% of users will click on a link. Therefore, appearing in the top three is critical for success.
Does sponsored placement count as a high placement?
Research has shown that one in four people tend to ignore sponsored content, so being placed at the top or on the side of results might be costly and not very effective.
What keywords should I use in the podcast titles and descriptions?
Each episode should have its own set of keywords, to ensure they’re not competing. You can use a keyword generator tool to help you determine the best keywords for the brand.
Final Word: How to Appear High on Every Podcast Search
To ensure you’re bringing in new listeners, you need to find a way to be discovered. Appearing high on every relevant podcast search is a critical factor to success. One in four podcast listeners use the Spotify platform to search for and find new podcasts. Using some of the tactics above, help you to appear high on every podcast search.
Produce Your Podcast is a premier podcast consulting, production & marketing agency. Our team of experts provides comprehensive, full-service quality solutions for B2B clients to incorporate podcasting into their overall marketing strategy. If you’re looking for a reliable partner to help launch or grow your business-branded podcast and boost your sales and marketing goals, we’re here to help.
Click here to schedule a conversation with our team today. Let’s work together to create a high-quality podcast that takes your business to new heights!
