Are you taking advantage of the long-term marketing efforts that search engine optimization can provide for your podcast? I think it’s so important, especially for business owners, to be optimizing their podcast show notes for search engines. Today, I’ll be sharing who should be optimizing their show notes, why they should be, and how you can implement this into your content planning.
Clocking In with Haylee Gaffin is produced and brought to you by Gaffin Creative, a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. Learn more about our services at Gaffincreative.com, plus you’ll also find resources, show notes, and more for the Clocking In Podcast.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Chasing Simple: The Summit. In this free virtual summit, I’m joining 17 others who are sharing how course creators can use content marketing to prepare their audience for their next course launch. In my talk, I’ve dug a little deeper into the content planning process that’s optimized for search. So, if you enjoy today’s episode, you’ll want to make sure you’re signed up because I’ll be sharing the approach you should be taking to planning your content. Chasing Simple, the summit is open for registration today! Join us online April 19-21st, plus you can grab the Course Creators Launch Toolkit with over $5,000 in tools and resources for just $147! Head to the show notes for today’s episode at gaffincreative.com/056 to register!
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What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is, in my opinion, one of the most overlooked tools that can help podcasters.
So, what is SEO? Basically, SEO is the strategy you take to help your podcast be found on Google. Specifically, helping your website be found. The goal is to rank highly in a Google search when people are looking for products or services you provide. This is so important because, let’s face it, no one is looking past page one in Google results.
Search engines offer organic searches based on website content. You probably already know this as a business owner and, honestly, as a Google user. Search engines are doing the behind scenes work of marketing for you! So rather than putting in a ton of money and time in creating advertisements, you can set your website up to be optimized for search engines to find you easily. Ultimately, you will also be bringing in people actually interested in your brand and offerings.
On top of all of this, SEO is a long-term play. You will see long-term results from great SEO.
Why You Should Have a Podcast Website
I know quite a few podcasters who aren’t yet utilizing a specified site for their podcast, which is totally fine. But I want to share with you why you definitely should create a site for your podcast.
When you upload your episodes to a podcast hosting platform, you’re including a description of your episode to encourage people to listen. These descriptions get uploaded to players like iTunes or Spotify. You can use these descriptions to drive traffic to your website. And for many of my clients this is their goal. You can drive your listeners, thereby explaining that your full show notes and resources can be found on your website.
On your site, you can provide fully optimized show notes for the episode within a blog post. Now, if this isn’t your goal, don’t worry about it. But, as of right now, podcast players are not optimized for search. A description isn’t helping you rank in any way. In this area, it’s all about episode titles.
Optimizing Your Show Notes
Now, here, I am specifically talking to business owners and those wanting to drive traffic to their sites where people can find their products and services.
We’ve all considered what blogging can do for our website. Blog posts serve as a great medium for keyword-rich content that search engines love. Podcasting can do the same thing. You’re going to want to set your site up for success. Create a styled page for your episodes. This is typically a blog post for all of my clients. You’ll also want to highlight specific sections and create graphics.
The content and show notes you create here can show up for years after your episode airs. This is the real value of great SEO. When you prioritize SEO in your content creation, you’re creating a long-term benefit for your business.
If you’re creating a course and you publish blog posts that navigate someone to this course, how are you driving people to this blog post? This may be from newsletters or social media. But a month later, are you still driving people to that post? Probably not. Google can do this for you if you are optimizing your posts for search.
Do the work to utilize the correct keywords and Google could be pushing your content to the first page of results three years down the road.
How to Optimize Your Content
So, how should you be doing this?
To start, you should be correctly titling your podcast episodes with the phrases or keywords you’re going for. Write keyword-rich descriptions that highlight what you’re covering while enticing people to listen.
The language you use on your pages is what drives listeners to take action, whether you’re moving them to listen to the episode or encouraging them to purchase your products, services, courses, and more.
I like to encourage my clients to write very detailed, keyword-rich show notes. Not just the description, but summarizing in sections what the episode is about.
We have begun trying this with Clocking In’s show notes. You’re actually reading those optimized show notes right now.
Optimizing your show notes means using header tags and keyword-rich posts.
Now, please note that there is a huge difference between keyword-rich and keyword stuffing. Google pays attention to this and does not promote content that doesn’t make sense just for the sake of including a bunch of keywords.
This also includes transcripts. This isn’t necessary for SEO if you are doing the optimized show notes.
The main takeaway of using these optimized show notes is that a listener can take away the most valuable aspects of your episode without having listened to it. That isn’t to say you don’t want them to listen to your episode. But that is what Google will be crawling – text-based content. As of right now, Google isn’t crawling audio.
These show notes are also great for listeners who want to go back and review without having to relisten. Or, maybe you have an audience that loves your content but doesn’t enjoy podcasts. Your show notes provide that content in a form that they may enjoy more.
Repurposing for More Content
One final thought that I want to share on SEO benefits is that you can create additional content from this content. Pulling from this content, you could create social media elements, blog posts, or even future newsletters. You can come back later and find the content easily within your optimized show notes.
Optimizing your podcast show notes isn’t just about improving your SEO—it’s about creating a resource that continues to drive value for your audience and your business long after an episode airs. By implementing these strategies, you’re setting your podcast up for sustainable growth and making the most of your content.
If you’re ready to dive deeper into strategies like this and connect with other podcasters who are growing and scaling their shows, Mic Check Society is here for you. This membership community offers educational trainings, live Q&A calls, and a network of podcasters who are all focused on taking their shows from good to great. Join us today and take the next step in your podcasting journey!
Time-stamps:
What is Search Engine Optimization (2:00)
Why Your Podcast Needs a Website (3:08)
Optimizing Your Show Notes (4:17)
How to Optimize Your Content ( 6:21)
Transcript (9:00)
Creating More Content by Repurposing (9:25)
Chasing Simple (10:30)
Mentioned in This Episode:
Optimize Your SEO with the Gaffin Creative Team
Review the Transcript:
Are you taking advantage of the long-term marketing efforts that search engine optimization can provide for your podcast? That’s why I think it’s important, especially for business owners, to be optimizing their podcast show notes for search!
Today, I’ll be sharing who should be optimizing their show notes, why they should be, how to track it, and a few tools you can use in planning your content.
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Before we jump too far into today’s episode, I want to invite you to join me online at Chasing Simple – The Summit. In this free virtual summit, I’m joining 17 others who are sharing how course creators can use content marketing to prepare their audience for their next course launch. In my talk, I’ve diving a little deeper into the content planning process that’s optimized for search. So if you enjoy today’s episode, you’ll want to make sure you’re signed up because I’ll be sharing the approach you should be taking to planning your content. Chasing Simple the summit is open for registration today! Join us online April 19-21st, plus you can grab the Course Creators Launch Toolkit with over $5,000 in tools and resources for just $147! Head to the show notes for today’s episode at gaffincreative.com/056 to register!
https://hayleegaffin.krtra.com/t/Ie4aRVuOxDa4
Now let’s jump into today’s topic. I think Search Engine Optimization is one of the most overlooked tools for podcasters.
First and foremost, let’s chat about SEO which stands for search engine optimization. It involves strategies you can implement in your online content to help it get found on Google. The goal is to rank highly in a Google search when someone looks for your product or service because let’s face it, no one clicks on links past page one on Google.
Search engines offer organic searches based on website content—you probably already know this as a business owner and probably as a google user. Search engines can do behind the scenes marketing work for you. Rather than going out and spending a ton of money on advertising your business, you can set your website up to be optimized for search without having to spend advertising dollars AND it’s bringing in people who are truly interested in your brand.
I know there are a number of podcasters who aren’t even utilizing a website for their podcast, which is totally fine—but let’s talk about this.
When you upload your podcast to a hosting platform like Acast or Libsyn, you’re including a description of your episode to encourage viewers to actually listen. This description is what shows up on podcast players like Apple, Spotify, etc. Now you can drive traffic to your website from that description, which for many of my clients is the goal of their podcast. Your products, services, and courses that you want to sell live on your website.. You can drive them there by explaining that full show notes and resources can be found on the website.
If you’re not trying to drive traffic to your website, you don’t have to do this! You can simply add those notes to the podcast player, but as of the time of recording this, podcast players aren’t optimized for search as well as we would like them to be.
So now that we’re highlighting the show notes that you’re including on your website, let’s talk about why they should be optimized for search engines.
I’m specifically speaking to business owners and those who are trying to drive traffic to their site to set themselves up to be the expert in their field or sell their products and resources. We’ve all considered what blogging can do for our websites and search results—and podcasting can do the same.
You’ll want to make sure that you’re setting your website up for success here, which means that you have a styled page for each episode, which typically is a blog post. You’ll have specific sections that you want to highlight, and graphics added to each.
Content you’re creating today and optimizing for search engines can show up for years and allow you discoverability long after you’ve put in the work for it—this is the value that SEO adds to your podcasts and your business.
When you’re prioritizing search engine optimization in your content creation, you’re investing in a long-term funnel for your content and products.
Think of it this way, if you’re selling a course and then you’re creating blog posts that help navigate someone to your course, how are you driving people to that blog post?
Usually it’s from newsletters, social media, etc.. but what about a month after the blog has published… are you still pushing people to it in your marketing plan? Probably not—but Google can if you’re optimizing it for search.
How should you be optimizning your content? To start, you should be writing keyword rich descriptions that highlight what you’re covering, along with enticing people to listen. While your SEO work get get people on the page, the language you use on the page is ultimately what drives then to take action.
Additionally, I like to encourage podcasters who are trying to optinize for search to write really detailed show notes. This year, at Clocking In, we started better optimizing our own show notes when we saw value in traffic from search engines coming to our blog posts. We had valuable content on our blog that wasn’t getting the attention from Google that it deserved, so we decided to add optimized show notes to the posts on our website.
This means using header tags in keyword rich blog posts, but lease note there is a big difference in keyword rich and keyword stuffing as Google will penalize you for that.
In addition to this, we also include a transcript. Now the transcript isn’t necessary on your podcast blog post for SEO if you’re writing optimized show notes, but it does provide accessibility. You can also create a downloadable PDF for your transcript as well!
I think the thing to consider when writing these essentially blog posts, but podcast show notes is that someone can take away the most valuable pieces of the show just from reading—as that’s how Google will be crawling your content.
In addition, optimized show notes are great for listeners who want to go back and review without having to relisten, but also for those who don’t enjoy podcasts but may enjoy the content and education you’re sharing.
One final thought on the benefits is that by creating optimized show notes, you’re also able to pull from that to create additional content. Whether you want to make a carousal that covers a specific section of the show, build out additional content for blog posts that you can point back to this show, or even inspire future newsletters or Linkedin Posts. Having the optimized show notes will really help you to repurpose your content today and in the future.
Make sure you take a look at today’s podcast show notes at gaffincreative.com/056 to see what optimized show notes can look like so you can start planning for your own. And if this is something you want to hand off, our team is here to help! Head to gaffincreative.com to inquire.
Now I know this was somewhat of a shorter podcast episode in comparison to what I’ve been putting out this year, but I want to remind you about Chasing Simple – The Summit, where I dive even deeper into planning your content in a way that is optimized for search!
If you enjoyed today’s episode and you’re ready to start planning content that is optimized for search engines, register now for Chasing Simple – The Summit. In this free virtual summit 18 professionals and experts are sharing how course creators can use content marketing to prepare their audience for their next course launch. Chasing Simple the summit is open for registration today! Join us online April 19-21st, plus you can grab the Course Creators Launch Toolkit with over $5,000 in tools and resources for just $147! Head to the show notes for today’s episode at gaffincreative.com/056 to register!
Thanks guys and I’ll see you next week for another episode!
