I was on threads about a month ago, and I saw a creator talking about how she just found out she needed to be focusing on SEO for her podcast. And why do none of the podcasting gurus ever talk about SEO for podcasting? As someone that's worked in website development and SEO for over a decade, I'm gonna tell you right now it's because it's confusing and boring and generally hard to There is a lot that goes into it. But in today's episode, I'm gonna give you a brief overview of what SEO is, how it can be used for your podcast, and why it is vital to growing your audience and reach across the Internet. Hello, and welcome to Podcast For Profit.

My name is Morgan Franklin. I'm a podcast producer, strategist, and educator. This podcast will help you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of social media and speaks directly to your target audience. If you're ready to create a podcast that will align you with the experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted leader, and create another source of revenue for your business, you're in the right place. Alright.

So first things first, SEO. What is SEO? I remember this is a quick story about me. I remember I showed up to my first job interview straight out of college for a website development company. And I'm sitting there in the lobby, and the receptionist is talking to me and she says, oh, you're gonna be interviewing for the digital marketing assistant.

I was like, yeah, you know, I'm so excited. And she says, well, how long have you been working in SEO? And I said, oh, what's SEO? And she says, never say that again. So spoiler alert, I got the job.

And I never said that again. So if you're like little Morgan sitting in the lobby of her first job thinking, what is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. It's how we optimize content to be read, categorized, and filtered by any search engine, social media or operating system. But what does that actually mean?

That sounds like a whole bunch of gobbledygook to me. Basically, let's say you have a picture of an apple you're going to be posting on Facebook or your website or your blog or wherever. You can post the photo of that apple all day long. But when someone searches Apple, it's not going to come up because Facebook or Google or wherever you're searching doesn't know that that's an Apple. This is a very, very simple example, but I think it explains the point perfectly of technology only being as smart as the tools we give it.

So say, for example, instead of just posting a picture of an apple, you also caption the image enjoying this juicy green apple from grandma Jean's farm, and you create an alt text for that picture that says green apple on plate. Then when someone searches for apple, you're actually going to have a fighting chance of being shown in that search result for that search. Okay. So see, even in that very brief and simple explanation, we've already brought in some new terms that if you aren't in the digital marketing space, you might not know. The first being alt text, and that is short for alternative text.

Alt text is the description of a visual item, whether it's a graphic or a picture in a digital setting. So a website, Facebook, Instagram, wherever, whether it's for search engines or an e reader for the visually impaired, alt text has a lot of uses. If you've ever seen that little button that says alt on a picture when you're about to post it on Instagram or LinkedIn or anywhere else, that is what they're talking about. That is what that does. So that you can explain what that picture is.

Remember in the beginning when I said this was kind of boring and confusing? I was not lying to you. So let's talk about what podcasters need to know and how you can utilize SEO to help grow your podcast. There are over 5, 000, 000 podcasts worldwide. That means when someone searches for a podcast, over 5, 000, 000 results are coming back to them.

So how can we make sure the person who is looking for a podcast like yours actually finds you? And the answer is optimized SEO. SEO is a never ending rabbit hole of ever changing information and opinions because no matter what anyone says, no 1 knows totally a 100% what every algorithm is looking for, especially when best practices change so often for all of these different platforms. But there's always 1 thing that will remain the same, and that is that high quality content made for a specific audience is always gonna perform well. Content that is actually meaningful to the person consuming it, that will always be a value.

So when you're reading all these things, and you're learning about SEO, when you're getting stressed, because like me, you've had 10 years of information that you're constantly trying to just switch in and out of your brain. I want you to always remember that when you are making content to serve somebody, no matter what it is, that is always the most valuable. Let's start with how you can optimize and improve your SEO for a specific episode. The first thing is always the title of the episode or even the title of the podcast, what your podcast is named. Because this is going to tell any search engine what this episode is about, what this podcast is about.

So let's say, for example, if you have an episode about finding the perfect office chair, bad SEO would be naming that episode, rethink how you sit at work. And I'm gonna explain that in just a second. A good title would be the best office chairs of the past decade. SEO normally does not reward creativity because again, it only knows what you tell it. So if someone is searching for podcast episodes about office chairs, it's not impossible that your episode would show up that doesn't say anything about office chairs in the title, But it's much, much, much more likely that the best office chairs of the past decade is going to come up because it has the keywords the user would actually be searching.

Before we get any further, let's talk about keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases that are used in a specific search, either individually or together, that will help a result rank. So think about this from the past example. Office and chair are both 2 different keywords. But if you put them together, office chair, it creates a new keyword with a totally different meaning and context.

So you always have to be thinking, okay, not only what are my keywords, but what order would someone be searching this in? Because like I said, office and office chair, those are 2 totally different things. So you always want to be keeping the user in mind. The first thing I do when looking at a specific episode or your podcast overall is figure out what keywords you'd like to rank for. What will people be searching when they're trying to find an episode or a podcast like the 1 that you make?

From there, make sure that there's at least 1 of the keywords that you're trying to rank for in the title of your episode. So when someone is searching for it, they'll have a much better chance of finding it. And very quickly, if you haven't heard the term ranking as it pertains to SEO, that just means what results are coming in in the order they're coming in. So ideally, we all want to rank first. But pretty much ranking is just what number you are in the search results when a certain search comes in.

The exact same logic goes for keywords in your episode descriptions, show notes, and any content surrounding the episode. So make sure that you know what kind of questions and keywords and generally anything anyone would be searching for so you can include that in your episode content. That will take you so far because as you can imagine, your title can only be so long. So how do you get all these other things in? It's through your episode descriptions, it's through your show notes, it's through everything else that you're posting about this episode online.

For example, when you're publishing an episode, instead of writing a few random sentences about that episode that basically tells me nothing about what I'm about to listen to, take a minute and think about why you made the episode. What are the main themes? What would someone that you want to find this episode be searching for and include that? Alright. So at this point, you might be thinking, well, how do I find the keywords?

How do I know what people will be searching for? And there are an infinite amount of ways to find keywords and the related phrases that people are searching for. But the easiest and free way, in my opinion, is just to go on Google or do a test search of episodes about what your episode is gonna be about. See what people are searching for. Let's say you're on TikTok.

I always love to do this. I'll get on TikTok, I'll search the phrase or topic of the episode that I'm making, and I'll just see what kind of videos come up. I'll see what kind of content already exists so that I can either add to it or create something that I feel like will fill a gap in that topic. So see what keywords are being used to see what kind of questions people are asking in the comments of those videos. That can be so incredible because you know, people are interested in these questions.

These are the keywords that they're looking up to find these different things. And this is what they still want to know. So make sure that you're doing the research not only just to find the keyword, but also to find the questions that people have so that you can include that in your content. Next thing, and this is something I haven't really heard that many people talk about as it pertains to podcasting maybe ever, but it's using the long form of your names and the episode titles and keeping things very consistent every time you share them. So use your full podcast name when you're typing it out.

Use the full exact name of your episode. Take the time to write out this extra content. For example, I have a podcast called better together with Kosta Yefafonciv. It would be so easy for me to just write better together on stuff. But when someone is searching, that will not help them get to that podcast.

So kind of keep that in mind too is like if you a podcast that maybe a lot of other people have something similar to it either as a podcast or a website or whatever it may be, taking that extra step is going to really help when people are searching for you. Speaking of taking the time and going the extra mile, which is pretty much all SEO optimization is, by the way, this is not rocket science. It is just spelling out literally word by word what each episode is, what the podcast is, what any piece of content is for a search engine. But if you are going to grow a podcast on a larger scale, you have to start blogging your episodes. And this doesn't have to be difficult.

This can practically be automated and there are tons of options to do it for free. So don't freak out, I'm going to walk you through exactly what I do. It is super easy, but it will change the reach you have across the internet because it is going to give you so many more opportunities to be found when people search. I blog every single 1 of my podcast episodes and it takes me about I'd say 20 minutes on average, not long at all. This is exactly what I do.

So step 1, I take my audio file, the finished audio file of my podcast episode and I transcribe it. For transcribing my podcast episode, I used to use otter dotai. Now I use my hosting. They have a built in function that is amazing when you host your podcast with transistor.fm, and I would highly recommend them. But if you don't host with transistor, otter.ai works just as well.

So transcribe your episode and take it over to chat GPT. Once you're in chat GPT, this is what you're going to type or something like it. Also, if you want this prompt, it is going to be in the blog post for this episode. I will tag it in the show notes because I know that this is way too long for you to just kind of pull out of thin air. But I kind of want to explain to you the different parts that I give it so that I can have an optimized blog post.

Alright, so say, I'd like you to work as an SEO expert and help me write a blog post to accompany this podcast episode. Use relevant keywords for x, y, and z. That's where you put in yours. Be sure to include optimized h1 and h2 and keep yapping to a minimum. The title of the episode is x, y, and z.

And here is my transcription. This is where you're gonna put your episode transcription. I want this blog to sound like I wrote it. Please refer to my tone of voice and the way I speak from my transcription. Amazing.

From there, take the blog post it has written you, tweak it to make it sound a little bit more like you, make sure all the information is correct, Include anything that it didn't and you're ready to make a blog post. Oh my gosh, so easy. What did we do before ChatGPT? I don't know. If you have a website amazing, there is no reason you should not be blogging your episodes, especially now that you know that chat GPT prompt.

This is gonna make it so easy for you and make it so that people when they search on Google for an episode like yours, it is actually popping up. If you don't have a website and you aren't ready to commit to 1, maybe you don't want to pay the money, maybe you don't want to take the time, that's okay. But you should know if you are building a blog that is on a free website, it is borrowed land. If you are okay with that, I'd make it on Substack or create a LinkedIn newsletter. Either work.

I've used both and I think they're great. Whatever works best for your brand and where your current audience is as well. Let's say that you have a huge LinkedIn following. Absolutely make a LinkedIn newsletter. Do that even if you have a blog.

But either of these Substack or LinkedIn will be searchable by Google, and that will just give you that extra chance of someone finding your podcast if they're searching for it. There are 400, 000 ways that you can use SEO for your podcast. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg, and I'm gonna do a whole another episode on rebranding your podcast, if you should rename your podcast because that is so significant. This is really just about giving you some actionable steps for your episodes that you're going to make in the future. Or if you want to go back and optimize episodes that already exist.

I just wanted to kind of give you a little something to start with because you want to start 1 step at a time or else you are going to drive yourself crazy. And it's just gonna be so much work that you won't know where to start. So that's kind of why I did this. We'll talk about rebranding your podcast in another episode. But my best advice on an episode to episode basis is to think about what your listener is searching for and make sure you're including those words or phrases everywhere you can.

That makes sense. Again, that makes sense. The listener always comes first. I think that's where a lot of SEO experts and digital marketers start to get it wrong. There has to be a harmony between something being optimized and making it attractive to the person who's gonna consume it.

We are not robots. We want creativity. We want fun. So always keep that in mind for the end user because something can be optimized into infinity and be absolutely perfect, but no 1 wants to click on it. Then what use is it?

If you're gonna take 1 thing away from this episode, let it be this. Whether it's a search engine or AI or any software or technology in general, the results we get from the tech around us are only as good as the tools and information that we can give it. So even if you're starting with episode titles only to optimize, Take a minute to think. Is this something someone would search for? Would this make sense for someone to find in the search results?

Would they listen to it? Would you listen to it? How could you improve it? Take the small steps. If you're optimizing something, do it 1 piece at a time.

And as always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast. Hey. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If you enjoyed the podcast and you'd like to hear more episodes like this 1, go ahead and subscribe to the show. New episodes air every Monday morning.

And if you found this episode valuable and you wanna help other business owners and podcasters, will you leave me a 5 star review? It helps the show rank higher in the charts and brings more entrepreneurs the information they need to start making money on their podcast.