Is extensive SEO worthwhile for podcasts?
Being straightforward, not really, at least for ranking on Google. Podcasts usually don’t compete for significant keywords. Enter the subfolder URL for any podcast into SEMrush, Ahrefs or Google’s free keyword planner to confirm this for yourself.
However, keeping in mind basic SEO principles will help your podcast do better for organic search incidentally.
- Title your podcast, and each episode, with some broader, field-defining keywords. However, ensure your name is unique, focusing on creativity over keyword use.
- Include a transcript to facilitate keyword rankings for non-branded, long-tailed phrases that cannot be predicted.
- Focus on entities meaning proper nouns that include famous people, in major on-page SEO elements like titles, headers & meta descriptions for your episode pages.
- Add schema for PodcastEpisodes if self-hosting, even though Google doesn’t officially support this yet.
- Repurpose content into brief, specific & timely soundbites. These segments could entice listeners more easily while ranking for related queries.
- Syndicate through Apple, Spotify & Google to borrow their authority, ensuring you meet prerequisites for each. If using a podcast hosting service, ensure it’s incorporated within your own site.
- Share your podcasts. Upload to relevant podcast directories. Post on social channels and industry forums.
- Spread link equity from podcasts to key pages, via internal linking, to boost keyword rankings. Use keywords in your landing pages not so much to rank your episodes but to relate to your audience and provide context for these internal links. This also helps users to quickly find more info on topics you mention, just don’t link excessively.
Nonetheless, those claiming SEO expertise is vital for everything (like startups too) are just biased, not considering opportunity cost.
However, these podcasting SEO essentials are worth the effort, so you can then focus on higher return elsewhere!