What is meant by Podcasts?
The equivalent of a radio in the streaming era is a podcast. A podcast is a digital sound file that can be downloaded or listened to online, according to the dictionary definition. Its fascinating history explains why it is named a podcast in the first place.
When former MTV video jockey Adam Curry & software engineer Dave Winer created the “iPodder” in 2004, they created a new type of media material called a podcast. A user could download internet radio programs to their Apple iPod using the program known as The iPodder. Here, the word “podcast” and its meaning were first coined by fusing the words “iPod” and “broadcasts.”
Podcasts have developed far beyond downloadable radio shows and are an immensely popular form of audio entertainment. Each podcast is a series produced by a host and then made available online, episode by episode, for subscribers to download and listen to as they are released.
Podcasts are indeed an accessible approach for content producers to communicate with an audience, in contrast to more conventional content production techniques like TV and radio programs. You don’t need a broadcasting license to broadcast podcast content because they are unregulated.
What does a podcast serve as?
There are several reasons why someone might desire to create a podcast. Perhaps someone has a passion for a particular subject and wants to learn more and spread their knowledge. The majority of podcasts begin as side ventures. A podcast will be started by someone who is passionate about a certain subject or character, or simply sees it as a chance to communicate.
Most users of this platform do so since it is easy to get started but doesn’t require a lot of initial resources in terms of tools or equipment. An alternative would be to view a podcast as a direct sales channel with marketing potential.
For a variety of reasons, podcasts make excellent marketing tools. They give your customers a consistent point of contact. It may do wonders for company sales whether you’re promoting a single product or using a podcast as just a platform to encourage a variety of goods. Additionally, podcasts are more well-liked than Catholicism, according to Forbes.
The advantages continue beyond that as well. You can utilize this to truly target your desired audience because there are so many different types of podcasts accessible. This tendency doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.
Various types of Podcasts
Discussion-based Podcasts
The most well-liked podcast format is conversational. These are typically the most relaxed kinds, with everything from lone hosts to roundtable conversations. Numerous of these programs are interviews podcasts, which are conversations among one or more hosts & their guests and typically delve deeply into the guests’ personal histories or areas of expertise.
A fairly well-known example of a conversational podcast is Stuff You Should Know. Every episode hosts Chuck & Josh spend time educating themselves (as well as the viewer) on a general interest topic. Because to their very laid-back nature, listening to SYSK is like overhearing a relaxed discussion between two friends.
Nonfictional Narrative
Another format that works well for podcasting is long-form storytelling. Narrative nonfiction refers to anything that tells a true story about a real event or problem.
These podcasts cover a wide range of topics, from poetic, topic-based individual stories such As this American Life to in-depth investigations into esoteric riddles like Wind of Change to the perennially popular true-crime podcast S-Town.
Scripted Literature
Most people associate fictional entertainment with television or movies, but scripted podcasts also are becoming more and more popular.
Fiction does well in podcast form, just as the serial structure of podcasts work well for long-form nonfiction narrative. Every week, new episodes of everything from experimental sci-fi fantasies such as Edith to historical fiction comedies will be available to subscribers.
Adapted Content
Podcasts are a popular way for content producers, including brands, bloggers, and TV shows, to repackage their work. The Daily Show Starring Trevor Noah: Ears Edition allows listeners to catch highlights from their preferred late-night Comedy Central program.
Do podcasts have an impact on my SEO?
Continuing with the marketing theme from earlier, podcasts might be beneficial for SEO. Backlinks are a term you’ve probably heard of if you know anything about SEO. Both the podcast host as well as the guests will enjoy these. When someone appears on your program, you’ll almost certainly include a link that directs viewers to their website. The link will improve their SEO even if no one clicks it.
You can begin to rank for particular keywords as a podcast host on the itunes, on Google, and other places. Just bear in mind to concentrate on a few niche terms that are relevant to you and your program.
How to Improve Podcast Ranking
Search engine optimization for podcasts
Text search and user reviews form the foundation of podcast search engines. Their algorithms just don’t have as many parameters to consider as traditional search engines, which can include factors like the copy on a webpage and the links leading to and from it.
The titles of each show and episode are crucial to ensuring that podcasts can be found. This means that titles should be as near to the search terms as feasible.
Request ratings and testimonials
Another important ranking criterion for podcasts, including iTunes and Apple podcasts, is reviews and ratings. A podcast’s exposure in directories could be raised by boosting the amount and quality of listener evaluations.
Asking for feedback and ratings from listeners throughout your podcast episodes is the simplest approach to promoting them. The closing credits of each episode make a wonderful location for a callout.
Monitoring will enable you to ascertain the success of your attempts to increase the number of reviews, regardless of whether you utilize a free tool or even a subscription-based solution. When they discover fresh reviews of your shows, you receive incredibly helpful email notifications, which is quite helpful.
Using social media to advertise podcasts
Social media links can increase a podcast’s visibility on traditional search engines, increase traffic, and raise brand awareness.
There are many ways to advertise a podcast on social media, such as:
Create a profile just for the podcast
Posts on a connected company profile should be used to promote the podcast
Streaming live podcasts on Facebook
Create a Facebook group for the podcast’s listeners/subscribers; increase visibility with such a sponsored post
The likelihood that podcast listeners will follow their favorite companies on social media is relatively high. This shows that creating a community around a podcast on social media would be a worthwhile strategy to investigate.
Check the effectiveness of each episode in Apple Podcasts Connect.
Continuous measurement is essential to knowing how podcasts are succeeding and what has to be changed to support their growth, as is true of any digital marketing activity.
Apple’s tool for managing and submitting podcasts to iTunes is called Podcasts Connect. It has analytics capabilities that provide information on things like the number of distinct devices that have to listen to a show and episode, the average length of time spent listening on each device, and the overall amount of time spent listening.
Encourage listeners to become subscribers
Regarding their impact on podcast rankings as well as plays, engagement, and brand loyalty, subscribers are more important than occasional listeners. The better a podcast is, the more subscribers it has.
The greatest way to promote subscriptions is to constantly invite listeners to subscribe throughout your episodes, much like it is with reviews and ratings. The strategies for doing this include addressing subscriptions in your symbol, outlining the subscription process, and other similar actions. Offering instant access to your episodes to customers is an excellent method to encourage subscriptions. Just make sure to inform the audience that you were doing it.
Make excellent content
The topic of “how to make excellent podcast material” is in and of itself. Success may be achieved in many different ways, depending on your brand, market, topic, and hosting style.
For the majority of podcasts, it’s wise to pay attention to optimizing your show scripts or script, since they will determine your capacity to hold listeners’ interest and effectively deliver your content. We advise modifying your notes with the free Google Docs extension SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant, which may help you optimize your material with search keywords, remove phrases and sentences that are excessively complex, and modify convenience to your audience. This will keep your material focused, relevant, and well-tailored.
Bring in influencers
Both the promotion of a podcast as well as the podcast’s content can benefit by inviting guests to appear on it.
Having a guest on the show can increase the podcast’s visibility within that person’s following, which is obviously beneficial for marketing. You can introduce your program to new listeners who could end up subscribing & tuning in frequently by interviewing knowledgeable individuals from pertinent areas of life.
Get as many websites as you can to list your show.
One of the most popular ways to locate podcasts is through online directories. There are several of these, therefore podcasters must submit their episodes to a number of directories if they wish to reach the widest audience possible. Professional podcast hosting services will make this simple. We host all of our podcasts on Libsyn, which is great for distribution but labor-intensive if you really want to host somewhere else.
Make a website or webpage for the program.
Some consumers who use search engines like Google and Bing to find podcasts may be more likely to visit a specific website than a media player like iTunes. You must therefore offer your program its own website if you want to maximize the volume, plays, and subscribers you receive from organic search. You’ll receive a dedicated podcast show site from the majority of dedicated podcast hosting firms. If your company currently has a website, you may like to use it as a homepage for your podcast.
Publishing often
It is possible to turn listening to a show into a regular activity by releasing new episodes of the podcast at regular intervals—daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly at a predetermined time.
This promotes listener retention, which is essential to expanding a podcast’s audience and prominence. Regular episodes promote regular listening, which increases the value of each new listener you gain for the expansion of your podcast.
Listen intently
Everything you do to make your podcast better has the potential to boost its search exposure since play counts and listener responses account for a major portion of podcast search visibility.
In light of this, taking inspiration from as many high-caliber podcasters as possible is one of the greatest things you could do to increase the ranking of your podcast. Listening to anything from the wacky Stuff You Should Know to the gripping, realistic true-life tales of S-Town & Serial to the insightful tech development analyses you can get on Exponent is one way to do it.
Improve your photos
The speed at which a podcast website loads is important for both listeners and search engines.
Optimizing your website’s episode-related pictures and show artwork is a reasonably simple technique to increase loading performance. You can begin by utilizing Google’s free tool to compress your photographs, which gives you a real-time preview of the effects your selected compression settings will have on the image you are reducing.
Conclusion
Creating a podcast will greatly benefit your marketing plan. To increase its exposure and improve your chances of getting found, you must have it rank higher. The use of effective keywords, the development of a focused website, the production of quality material, or encouraging your users to subscribe & post reviews are some strategies you can employ to rank higher in SERPs. Hiring individuals with relevant experience in podcast SEO is a smart idea if you find it challenging to complete the task on your own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts if you need an app with the most podcasts available. Try Spotify if you really want to listen to podcasts while listening to music. Audible is a terrific option if you’d prefer to mix podcasts and audiobooks.
mostly yep While some private or exclusive podcasts are paid subscriptions, most podcasters offer their programs for free on their websites and on mobile apps.
A podcast host is indeed a location where podcast material is kept. The video and audio files kept just on the hosting platform are accessible to listeners via RSS feeds.
A network of podcasts is a group of programs that the same organization produces and develops. Crooked Media, Gimlet Media, & Earwolf are a few well-known podcast networks.
Podcasters can fine-tune the recording using a mixer, which is a component of recording devices. Podcasters would most likely prefer to use a mixer if they want to record many guests or have precise control throughout their audio editing.
