Webcasts are becoming another form of well-known media that clients access on a regular basis, since they provide content just as convincing and varied as what you can discover on tape or read on the internet. The forthcoming upgrade will be a significant step forward in establishing an effective Podcast SEO strategy, while also increasing their online reach.
Podcasts are one of the most popular types of internet media content, with millions of podcast episodes available on numerous platforms. With a constantly rising number of listeners and programs, podcasts have evolved into a viable platform for discussing a wide range of themes including current news and events, music, politics, comedy, and more.
Despite the growing popularity of podcasts, one issue that many of these shows confront is promoting their podcasts outside of their platform. It might be difficult to make podcasts more searchable on search engines like Google while there are so many listicles, videos, and other podcasts that aid in the spreading of the news. Unlike videos, where you can instantly click on a video snippet to view it instantly, podcast episodes rarely appear, with shows linked to Google Podcasts mostly being prominent in that area.
This makes podcast SEO an area with so many challenges from the get-go. However, things are about to change, as Google has announced in I/O 2019 that podcasts will soon become indexed in Google SERPs. This announcement is not only good for the podcast community, but this also opens up more opportunities in promoting a different kind of content to the users. Here are some things that you should know about Google’s announcement, along with our thoughts and some tips that can help you optimize your podcasts for SEO.
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How will it work?
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Similar to how videos are being shown on Google’s desktop and mobile search results, podcasts will have their own media snippet, which also allows you to play or download the episode without having to switch to a new page. Using Google’s ability to search the audio in a podcast episode, you can even skip to the part of the episode which mentions the topic that you have searched for.
This works in the same way that voice search results would yield video snippets that have been timestamped to the relevant section. A lot of podcast users listen to their podcasts on the go and having the feature to download and listen to specific sections of an episode helps optimize the experience.
Our Thoughts
With podcasts becoming present in Google search results, this makes promoting podcasts much easier, while making them more accessible to a wider audience thanks to the increased searchability. The increased convenience helps make the listening experience more efficient while making more users discover new podcasts without having to browse and search through hosting platforms.
To an extent, podcast episodes have become as significant as standard and live video content, with some shows having loyal and dedicated listeners. Having podcasts appear on search results helps expand a show’s online presence, which in turn helps the listener base grow. This update also helps Google Podcast become one of the biggest podcast hosting platforms, helping it compete against the likes of Apple podcasts and Spotify. The prospect of increased searchability and users being able to instantly listen already makes Google’s platform attractive enough for users looking to start their own podcast.
The platform also allows users to publish their episodes that come from other hosting sites, which makes it even more convenient for established podcasts yet to use Google. With this amount of functionality and increased potential to generate more traffic and plays, podcast SEO will something that would be more significant in the near future.
Podcast SEO Tips
While podcasts appearing on SERPs is still an update coming within the next few months, you can still optimize your podcasts and make them more searchable with a few handy tips.
Make sure every episode is transcribed
One of the ways that your podcast can be understood by search engines much better is through the use of transcriptions. This not only helps users be able to have a text version of your podcast episode, but also allows Google to understand the content in the same way that video transcriptions on YouTube help do the same, thus improving its searchability. Based on the demonstration at Google I/O, it looks like Google’s way of picking parts of the episode related to a keyword is through reading audio transcriptions.
While podcast transcriptions can cost a significant amount, it is an investment worth making, as you are helping your podcast get more listeners to discover your content.
Migrate your episodes to Google Podcasts
Google Podcasts looks to become a bigger presence in the podcast market as soon as the update rolls out, and fortunately, the process to migrate your episodes to the platform is a simple process that only takes a couple of minutes to finish. All you have to do is to copy the URL of your podcast’s RSS feed to apply your podcast. After verifying that the account is yours, all you have to do is fill up information about your podcasts and then you’re set.
While the option to view podcasts in SERPs and snippets still hasn’t fully rolled out yet, you can still view podcast episodes on Google Search, provided that they have migrated their episodes on Google Podcasts. It may not be as dynamic as what the update would present, but it’s a good first step towards optimizing your podcast for SEO.
Key Takeaway
Podcasts have become another form of popular media users access on a daily basis, as it is a platform that provides content that is just as compelling and diverse as what you can watch on video or read in blogs. The upcoming update is a huge step towards developing a proper Podcast SEO strategy, helping to establish their online presence along with growing their audience.
If you have questions and inquiries about podcast SEO or SEO in general, leave a comment below, and let’s talk.
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