In our guide to the top 7 SEO benefits of podcasting, you'll learn how content creation can open the doors to a better search engine experience for you, your website, and your audience.
We all know that podcasting (when done right) can be an efficient way of spreading your original content out into every possible corner of the internet. But did you also know that the act of regular podcasting has amazing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) applications?
Let’s test your knowledge and go over some of the main SEO benefits of podcasting and what to do to in order to experience them in your own streams:
1. Higher Organic Search Traffic Thanks to Keyword Phrases
While every podcast has a topic, not many of them leverage keywords or relevant terms the way they should. That’s because in the not-so-distant past, keywords and search terms spoken within the recording weren’t as important as those placed within the written episode titles themselves.
Why? Up until recently, major search engines weren’t attuned to scan through recorded speech. But thanks to Google’s evolving technology in subtitling, transcription, and audio content indexing, that is changing. They can automatically convert audio into metadata in order to compare and rank podcast topics and keywords, with many other software developers quickly following suit.
SEO Pod-Hack: When picking a podcast episode topic, run a quick search of related key terms and keep them handy so both you and your guests can mention them casually throughout the podcast. Make sure to also include them in the episode title and description for the best SEO results.
2. More Site Visitors Courtesy of a Posting Schedule
What do audiences and search engines have in common? They both appreciate regularity and a predictable schedule. Whether it’s a podcast episode a day, a week, or even a month, regular user traffic to your podcasts and website signal search engines that you are a trusted content creator in your area of expertise. This improves your website’s overall search rank and reputation over time. While many internal and external factors can influence how often a podcast goes live, the key is to find a cadence that works for you and then stick with it as much as humanly possible.
SEO Pod-Hack: Run a quick poll by your audience to gauge how often they want new episodes and also observe how often your 2-3 closest competitors post. Use that combined intel to develop a content calendar that you know you can (and will) maintain.
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3. Build Better Links and Closer Relationships
Developing strong backlinks (i.e. links from other websites to yours) is the cornerstone of every successful SEO strategy. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more authoritative and trustworthy your site is considered in the eyes of search engines and potential listeners alike. Plus, it helps everyone’s SEO efforts, putting you in your guests’ good graces.
SEO Pod-Hack: When you co-create a podcast, invite guests, or appear on someone else's podcast, be mindful the show contains links to every participant’s pages in order to boost your outbound and inbound link-building efforts.
4. Better Scannability via the Right Content Format
Finding keywords in a raw data-dump is time-consuming and imprecise. Avoid forcing search engines to sift through 20+ pages of error-riddled transcripts per podcast, or, letting them make their best guesses as to what visual content you’ve posted. Instead, help them by tagging and labelling everything properly on the backend of your website.
SEO Pod-Hack: Organize written articles and site pages with the correct keyword-rich titles, H1, and H2 tags. Using alt-text to label images or visual resources is an easy best-practice to organize assets in a way that users and AI alike can easily discern. This can lead to more organic traffic and higher-quality referrals.
5. More Social Media Engagement
Give your audience even more ways to connect with you by plugging your social media channels in spoken and written form. That creates virtuous circles of engagement that will keep people cycling through your official pages over and over again.
SEO Pod-Hack: Keep your social media up-to-date and backlink to your website and podcast regularly. If you have too many channels to handle, cut down to just one or two and focus your efforts on them.
6. Content Building with Repurposed Resources
Your podcasts can provide the building blocks for lots of other content, including blog posts, infographics, white papers, presentations, ad reels, and so much more. It’s always more efficient to repurpose existing content than to make up new content from scratch, so make the most of the resources you already have. Check out our Content Stacking series for an in-depth look at this strategy.
SEO Pod-Hack: Outsource having your podcast episodes turned into SEO-optimized blog posts for instant sharing. You might use a service like Podcast Bloggers, or a Fiverr freelancer such as mediasips or mabendroth15. Or if you have the time and bandwidth to do so, write them yourself for even more attractive site-content.
7. Synergies Through Stacked SEO Efforts
The more SEO-boosting strategies you implement at a time, the greater the cumulative results to your total SEO scores and rankings. So don’t be afraid to experiment and discover for yourself which solutions work best for you to take your website and podcast visitation to incredible new heights.
SEO Benefits of Podcasting: Next Steps
- Don't have a website yet? We have a free podcast websites course that'll help you get set up.
- Not launched your podcast yet? Check out our Launch Essentials course.
- Looking for some other ways to stack conditions in your favour? Check out our book Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience