Podcast SEO: The Few Tricks That Actually Matter

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:05.639 Welcome back to my club, where we break down what's working with BEDB podcasting. 2 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:09.470 I'm Dan Sanchez, friends called me Danchez, and today I want to 3 00:00:09.509 --> 00:00:15.269 talk about podcast Seo and the few tricks that actually matter. Now, if 4 00:00:15.269 --> 00:00:18.390 you've been in podcasting for long, or maybe you're just getting started, there's 5 00:00:18.429 --> 00:00:21.500 one downside the podcast. Say It's one of the things that kept me from 6 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:25.100 podcasting for a long time. Now, of course it's pretty much my favorite 7 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:28.300 medium, but the one thing that kept me from it was its lack of 8 00:00:28.699 --> 00:00:33.500 discoverability. Yes, it is hard for people to find podcasts. It's not 9 00:00:33.619 --> 00:00:36.969 like a social channel where things are running through a feed and you're being introduced 10 00:00:36.969 --> 00:00:40.530 to new stuff all the time, and the primary way where people find podcast 11 00:00:40.689 --> 00:00:45.210 is just through word of mouth. Now, luckily, there are search engines 12 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:50.119 built into podcast APPS, so that is one of the main drivers for people 13 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:53.320 finding podcast we know, for be to be growth, for example, that 14 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:57.119 it's one of the biggest ways people have actually discovered our podcast. I mean, 15 00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:00.119 we're big on Linkedin and we promote the heck out of our podcast there, 16 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:03.590 but the way most people still find our podcast is by searching for bebb 17 00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:07.310 marketing, be tob sales or just be tob growth. And naturally, because 18 00:01:07.469 --> 00:01:15.430 our our podcast is titled that it's getting found whether they're searching in the podcast 19 00:01:15.629 --> 00:01:19.019 players or on Google or on Youtube. Like it's just getting found there more 20 00:01:19.099 --> 00:01:23.780 often because of SEO, and that's the reason why it matters. Would just 21 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:26.739 a little bit of thinking and a little bit of planning, we can make 22 00:01:26.939 --> 00:01:34.170 Seo go along way for your podcast. Yes, there's times for email marketing 23 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:37.930 and social media marketing and all kinds of there's so many different ways to eat 24 00:01:37.930 --> 00:01:40.930 your podcast found, but SEO is a great one to start off with. 25 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:45.010 If you're not promoting it anywhere else. Do this one right. And we're 26 00:01:45.010 --> 00:01:49.239 going to talk about two different types of SEO. There's what I'm calling podcast 27 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:53.719 Seo and Seo with a podcast, right ones focused on getting your podcast found 28 00:01:53.760 --> 00:02:00.239 within the podcast ecosystem, you know, apple podcast, spotify, stitcher, 29 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:06.109 Google podcast, like all those places. And then there's Seo with a podcast, 30 00:02:06.189 --> 00:02:08.189 which is kind of like your traditional Seo work that you're going to use 31 00:02:08.229 --> 00:02:13.550 to get found on Google, except you're using a podcast to make the content 32 00:02:14.030 --> 00:02:15.740 to get found on Google. So I'm going to cover both of those in 33 00:02:15.819 --> 00:02:20.900 those episode. Let's start off with podcast SEO, though, getting found in 34 00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:25.900 the actual players. This one's actually pretty straightforward. There's really three things that 35 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:30.610 matter the most. So let's dive into the three. First is the title 36 00:02:30.770 --> 00:02:35.050 of the PODCAST, the actual show, not the title of the episodes. 37 00:02:35.090 --> 00:02:38.370 Don't worry about those. Let those be what they are. Make those Click 38 00:02:38.409 --> 00:02:42.009 Batti, but still good. You know, the title of the show's matters 39 00:02:42.169 --> 00:02:46.360 tremendously and we consider it heavily when naming a show. Is What are people 40 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:52.039 searching for? Our people searching for any kind of keywords related to the content 41 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:54.240 of the show. There might be low volume, but we might look at 42 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:58.789 and be like, yeah, of course people are searching for this and depending 43 00:02:58.789 --> 00:03:00.110 on the name of the show, and we have a different a couple of 44 00:03:00.189 --> 00:03:02.949 different naming formulas we like to apply, and we're not going to go into 45 00:03:02.990 --> 00:03:07.710 depth in that of that topic here on the episode, but I will say 46 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:09.949 if it's the SEO isn't driven by the core name, like it is for 47 00:03:10.030 --> 00:03:15.939 our show bb growth, then it needs to be put into the subtitle behind 48 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:21.500 the core name. So, for example, even this show might club right. 49 00:03:22.219 --> 00:03:24.539 That has nothing to do with Beb podcasting, which is the term. 50 00:03:24.659 --> 00:03:29.250 So I'm going to load BEDB podcasting or a show for bb podcasters is going 51 00:03:29.289 --> 00:03:30.770 to be right behind the the title of the show if you look at it 52 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:35.729 in your player right now. That's intentional so that people looking for BEDB podcasting 53 00:03:35.770 --> 00:03:38.090 or Beb podcast is going to it's going to rank this show much more highly 54 00:03:38.129 --> 00:03:44.400 because of that. So be intentional. You get one shot at having you 55 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:49.240 one title, so put the keyword either in the in the name or in 56 00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:53.000 the subtitle of the name and order for your podcast to rank. Now one 57 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:57.949 thing you can do after that. That kind of tells the player where to 58 00:03:58.150 --> 00:04:00.590 like, where to rank you for but it doesn't actually get you to the 59 00:04:00.669 --> 00:04:02.870 top. Right. If you understand SEO, there's kind of two factors. 60 00:04:03.069 --> 00:04:06.389 Where do you get ranked and what order do you get into the ranking right? 61 00:04:06.469 --> 00:04:11.300 So having the right keyword in the title is going to get you into 62 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:15.300 the right place, but where you get in the stack of all the other 63 00:04:15.580 --> 00:04:19.579 shows in that rank order is going to depend on a few things. One 64 00:04:20.660 --> 00:04:25.529 two of them you just don't have as much control troll over, and that's 65 00:04:26.050 --> 00:04:30.529 reviews and downloads. But you can influence it's it right if you're doing a 66 00:04:30.569 --> 00:04:33.810 lot of other good marketing, then downloads should take care of themselves. Right. 67 00:04:33.850 --> 00:04:39.000 If you're putting out good content promoting it regularly, then downloads is probably 68 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:41.879 one of the biggest factors. But since you have less control over that, 69 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:45.000 let's talk about the things. You do have control over. Reviews, right, 70 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:46.839 and actually you don't have control over this to some degree. You can 71 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:49.759 have all your employees start with a view. Great place to start. I 72 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:54.870 know we mobilize our whole sweetfish team to help bog customers with this and we 73 00:04:54.949 --> 00:04:58.310 use are every we assign a test all our employees to leave a review to 74 00:04:58.350 --> 00:05:00.910 kind of kickstart it. But just asking for reviews at the end of every 75 00:05:00.949 --> 00:05:04.829 show, asking reviews of the people you know are listening to the show, 76 00:05:04.829 --> 00:05:08.019 who or who mentioned the show. Be Like it. As soon as they 77 00:05:08.019 --> 00:05:11.339 see something, ask them to leave a review or, even better, ask 78 00:05:11.379 --> 00:05:15.019 them to leave a rating, because it's much easier to leave a rating and 79 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:17.740 actually I'd say ratings probably matter more than reviews. So ask him to leave 80 00:05:17.740 --> 00:05:21.930 a rating. If they leave a review, that's great. So start with 81 00:05:23.050 --> 00:05:25.649 that. You don't have control over it, but you can heavily influence it 82 00:05:25.730 --> 00:05:29.250 if you're asking for it all the time. And last one is just sheer 83 00:05:29.290 --> 00:05:32.329 amount of episodes. The more episodes you publish and are and the more consistent 84 00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:34.490 you are with them, the more it's going to push you to the top, 85 00:05:34.569 --> 00:05:39.000 because a lot of shows that are currently ranking, and whatever Nitt you're 86 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:43.680 trying to rank for, probably aren't. Probably are outdated or they haven't been 87 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:46.720 published in a few months or they've been years before it since it's been published, 88 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:48.199 and maybe they were really relevant in their heyday, but now they're it's 89 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:51.829 kind of old, it's kind of a dead podcast. You can outrank those 90 00:05:51.910 --> 00:05:56.750 just by publishing more staying consistent and you will slowly rise up through the ranks. 91 00:05:57.870 --> 00:06:00.470 So that's podcasts and probably the few factors that really influence. At the 92 00:06:00.550 --> 00:06:03.620 most you have full control over the title, you have full control over the 93 00:06:03.660 --> 00:06:09.180 amount of episodes you publish, reviews, you can influence downloads, you can 94 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:13.019 influence to honestly, to a lesser degree. You're going to do everything you 95 00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:15.819 can to get as many downloads, but the downloads are what they are. 96 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:20.970 Let's move into Seo with a podcast. Now I talk to a lot of 97 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:27.009 our customers at sweet fish media about this and there's a lot of confusion about 98 00:06:27.009 --> 00:06:30.730 how to do proper Seo with a podcast. A lot of people think that 99 00:06:30.850 --> 00:06:34.519 if you just you just do your normal thing with the podcast and post it, 100 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:39.120 maybe turn it into a trans you transcribe it and have a good transcription, 101 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:41.240 or you turn it into a blog post, that that's enough to get 102 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:45.600 rankings. But it's not. It's not enough to get rankings if you really 103 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:47.829 want to do seo well with the podcast. I have seven steps that you 104 00:06:47.949 --> 00:06:53.750 need to take and most people are skipping steps. The force four steps and 105 00:06:53.829 --> 00:06:59.589 it's getting them in big trouble. This essentially just like you plan your Seo. 106 00:06:59.750 --> 00:07:01.259 It's like it's not like you could just write random blog post that you 107 00:07:01.379 --> 00:07:03.699 think. Need to go out there, publish a blog post then hope it 108 00:07:03.740 --> 00:07:08.100 ranks, and it might rank for something that no one searches for, but 109 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:13.339 if you're doing seo, you need to actually find where the volume is and 110 00:07:13.500 --> 00:07:16.050 how to actually answer the intent behind that. Otherwise Google is not going to 111 00:07:16.089 --> 00:07:18.689 rank and if they do their ranking, it for something that no one's searching 112 00:07:18.730 --> 00:07:23.529 for, or they won't even index it because they know no one searching for 113 00:07:23.569 --> 00:07:26.250 it. They know it's not relevant, so they don't even index it right 114 00:07:26.689 --> 00:07:30.600 so here's the seven steps to take if you act truly want to really enhance 115 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.759 your seo strategy with a podcast. Number one, find the right keywords. 116 00:07:33.959 --> 00:07:36.639 Right. This is Seo one hundred and one, and it's amazing to me 117 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:40.360 how many people don't think through even this first step when it comes to their 118 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:44.550 podcast. So first, find the right keywords. You probably have a keyword 119 00:07:44.589 --> 00:07:46.910 list already of things you'd love to rank for, so come up with that 120 00:07:47.110 --> 00:07:53.430 list. You know twenty, thirty, the fifty keywords. Analyze step to 121 00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:59.459 analyze the intent behind those keywords. What are they actually looking for? What 122 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:03.579 do they want? And maybe there might be multiple intense pick one, two. 123 00:08:03.779 --> 00:08:07.459 You might be able to answer multiple with one episode, but pick and 124 00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:11.259 intend to find an angle. And then step three. Create an intriguing headline 125 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:16.329 that has the keyword in it and then outline the whole blog post. Member 126 00:08:16.370 --> 00:08:18.569 not even think a podcast yet. How would you outline a blog post to 127 00:08:18.569 --> 00:08:24.250 ring for this? Right, this is Standard Seo Procedure and you're following through 128 00:08:24.290 --> 00:08:28.959 it, but for a podcast. Step four, this is where it gets 129 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:33.879 fun. Turn that outline into questions. Turn the outline into questions. Blog 130 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:39.159 at writers and SEO experts are usually experts at writing and Seo. They don't 131 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:43.269 necessarily have the expertise in what they're writing for, which is why it takes 132 00:08:43.309 --> 00:08:46.870 so long to write a blog post sometimes because they're not the expert in it, 133 00:08:46.909 --> 00:08:48.750 which means they have to do an absorbit a amount of research. But 134 00:08:48.909 --> 00:08:52.750 using a podcast can quickly cut down on to cut down on that research by 135 00:08:52.830 --> 00:08:58.580 just doing step five, asking those questions a lot or not live but recorded 136 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:03.980 on a to a subject matter expert on a podcast. You can actually just 137 00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:07.980 sit down with them and walk through the questions, which again you turned into 138 00:09:09.019 --> 00:09:11.409 questions from the outline. So you're going to ask him in the exact order 139 00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:15.450 that that would have been the outline of the blog post. It makes for 140 00:09:15.610 --> 00:09:22.769 great podcast. Usually makes for great podcast material as well as the kind of 141 00:09:22.850 --> 00:09:30.480 content you needed write seo or rankworthy content. Step six, have a writer 142 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:33.759 fill out the outline you made with the answers the subject matter gave and of 143 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:37.669 course they're they're turning it not it's not a transcription. You want to write 144 00:09:37.669 --> 00:09:41.110 it in such a way that makes sense for a blog post, because that's 145 00:09:41.149 --> 00:09:43.590 where, if people want to read it, then there's a certain way they 146 00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:46.070 want to consume it. So don't just transcribe it. You might be able 147 00:09:46.070 --> 00:09:50.149 to pull some pull quotes from the subject matter expert and, honestly, it's 148 00:09:50.190 --> 00:09:52.179 even better if you ghost write it on behalf of the subject matter experts, 149 00:09:52.220 --> 00:09:56.059 part because you can label their byline, which gives a little bit more credibility 150 00:09:56.100 --> 00:10:00.460 and authority to the blog post, and Google's looking for stuff like that too. 151 00:10:01.299 --> 00:10:05.820 And then step seven published that blog post with the episode embedded in the 152 00:10:05.899 --> 00:10:09.490 top of the page. It's if you took the time to record the episode, 153 00:10:09.529 --> 00:10:13.169 publish the episode and then publish the blog post. Put them together like 154 00:10:13.330 --> 00:10:18.090 don't publish the up the audio somewhere else on your website and then publish the 155 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:20.129 blog post in a different location. Put them together in the same place, 156 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:24.960 because they help each other. People that you want to listen can listen, 157 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:28.000 people who want to read can read. And, honestly, because some people 158 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.440 will want to listen to it right there on the page and just play it 159 00:10:30.519 --> 00:10:33.320 there, and this this happens all the time. It's going to increase the 160 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:37.190 amount of time they spend on the page, which is going to help with 161 00:10:37.269 --> 00:10:39.190 the ranking of the blog post, because Google is looking for a time on 162 00:10:39.269 --> 00:10:43.029 page as an indicator of how good the content is. So they both go 163 00:10:43.309 --> 00:10:48.350 well together. Those are the seven steps. If you follow the seven steps, 164 00:10:48.470 --> 00:10:52.860 you will create much better blog content that is much more likely to actually 165 00:10:52.940 --> 00:10:58.179 rank for keywords that actually matter bring the right kind of traffic to your website. 166 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:01.019 If you do it consistently, it'll get better and better and better as 167 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:03.450 your some if your domain authority grows, as you get better at doing this 168 00:11:03.570 --> 00:11:07.610 process, as your writer gets used to translating the episodes into blog content. 169 00:11:09.649 --> 00:11:13.730 One Caveat, one little tip for the end of places where I've personally gotten 170 00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:18.639 stuck in this process is to be careful in the type of outlines you make, 171 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:24.120 because not all great blog posts translate well into episodes. Specifically listicles. 172 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:30.279 Okay, listicles. Sometimes we know as SEO experts, that what people are 173 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:33.909 looking for in a search intent is inspiration, which is often answered by a 174 00:11:33.070 --> 00:11:39.190 listicle. So they're looking for top business podcasts. Okay, and you know 175 00:11:39.429 --> 00:11:41.669 a top maybe you kind of saw what everybody else did and you're like no, 176 00:11:41.789 --> 00:11:46.429 I'm going to do a top twenty, the top twenty business podcast or 177 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:50.659 the the top twenty email marketing podcast or whatever that is. That does not 178 00:11:50.820 --> 00:11:56.620 make for great EP episode content and you need to take a different approach for 179 00:11:56.659 --> 00:11:58.980 those kinds of blog posts. Do not you use it, do not use 180 00:11:58.019 --> 00:12:01.970 a podcast to create that kind of content. I've tried it. It just 181 00:12:01.090 --> 00:12:05.610 makes for really long episodes. It's weird. Even the subject matter expert just 182 00:12:05.690 --> 00:12:09.009 gets tired of going through a list of twenty kind of answering the same question 183 00:12:09.129 --> 00:12:13.809 twenty times in a row. Now you can still do it to inform it, 184 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:16.559 but if you, if you take that route of creating a listical with 185 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:24.679 the podcast, make the podcast episode top five and then maybe continue recording the 186 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:26.720 episode with the subject matter expert, but like end of the episode, and 187 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:30.830 then continue continue the rest of the content for the sake of the writer, 188 00:12:30.950 --> 00:12:35.389 making it easy for the writer. I'd prefer not doing these kinds of blog 189 00:12:35.470 --> 00:12:39.029 post with podcast, but if you were going to do it, that's how 190 00:12:39.029 --> 00:12:41.789 I would do it. I was just make the podcast episode a top five 191 00:12:41.789 --> 00:12:46.860 or less top three, top five, and then go no more. Every 192 00:12:46.899 --> 00:12:50.139 time I've done more than a list of five on a podcast for like a 193 00:12:50.259 --> 00:12:54.500 listical style content, it's just too long. It's too boring. Cut that 194 00:12:54.580 --> 00:12:58.370 sucker short. So that's it. That's what I have for you when it 195 00:12:58.450 --> 00:13:03.610 comes to podcast SEO. Follow those tips and you will watch your organic rankings 196 00:13:03.649 --> 00:13:09.809 rise in both the PODCAST APPS and in Google itself. So that's it for 197 00:13:09.889 --> 00:13:13.600 today. Remember that the first rule of Mike Club is to talk about MC 198 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:18.399 club. Tell a friend, leave review or send me a DM on linkedin 199 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:24.200 about this episode. At linkedincom I end slash digital marketing Dan. Connect with 200 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:26.960 me. I love talking to all of you.