How a Branded Podcast Can Boost Your SEO

Did you know that a well-planned podcast can help you boost your company’s SEO?

While this isn’t the first thing most folks think of when it comes to the benefits of a branded series, it is a huge perk that can impact several facets of your business.

A search-engine-optimized podcast won’t just improve the performance of your series…

It can help drive traffic towards your website, boost conversions, and foster your online performance as a whole.

But how do you optimize what is basically just an audio file? You’ll find every step of our process below.

Prioritize your keywords

As you develop your series, you should keep your existing SEO strategy in mind, including the keywords you target as a brand.

This can be a bit more complex than it seems, simply because your podcast might focus on topics related to — but not explicitly focused on — the product or service you sell.

Take Saje Natural Wellness for example. A brand best known for its aromatherapy products, Saje’s series Well Now actually focuses on all things holistic health.

SEO becomes a bit more complex (and strategic) when it comes to this type of series.

That said, you can absolutely perform in this space even if your podcast is related to, but not exclusively focused on, whatever you aim to sell.

Here are some helpful questions you can ask yourself:

• Will my primary keywords be relevant in the niche I’ve chosen for my podcast?
• What episodes connect with which keywords?
• What peripheral or secondary keywords can I relate to each episode?

The answers to these questions will help you decide if you’re on the right path.

Create episode pages

If you want your series to boost your SEO, you should also be creating an individual webpage or blog post for each and every episode.

The reason for this is pretty simple.

Your series is made up of audio files and, without extended written and visual content to support it, it won’t perform to its full potential.

If you really want to smash SEO, you have to give the search engines you rely on content to crawl that appears on your website and connects to your show.

Optimize every page

There are some basic rules you’ll want to follow for the pages or posts you create for your show.

Here are some important items for your checklist:

• Make sure the body text is at least 300 (but ideally 500) words in length
• Include a clear, optimized heading that features your keyword(s)
• And insert a well-named image with the alt text field filled out

If you follow these steps, you should end up with a well-optimized, high-performing webpage or blog post.

But here’s one thing you won’t want to forget…

Embed each episode

If you want to boost your SEO, a link that leads readers to your series or episode is not the best approach.

Instead, you should embed each episode on its corresponding page or post.

The server you choose to host your podcast should offer an easy-to-access embed code for both individual episodes, and a full-series player.

When you do this, search engines can see important metadata including your…

• Show title
• Episode name
• Episode number
• URL
• And show notes (which should include content designed to boost SEO)

Transcribe your show

Many of our clients also like to include a transcript with each episode.

This doesn’t just boost SEO — it improves the accessibility of your series, making it available to folks with disabilities including auditory processing disorders, and partial or total hearing loss.

And here’s more good news. This is actually an automated process. You can easily capture your transcript using services like Rev and Omny Studio.

Put content first

While we do think that SEO is a great way to boost series performance, bolster your business, and enjoy returns from your branded show, there is one important thing we should remind you of.

With great content marketing, substance and quality should always come first.

Yes, relating your branded podcast to your keywords is a smart move — and you should optimize the content you create around each episode — but SEO should never compromise the quality of the content you put out.

Your performance on search engines is important. What’s more important is the experience of your readers and listeners.

And here’s the thing — a disappointing reading and listening experience will ultimately hurt your SEO.

The time folks spend on your website impacts how search engines “see” you — and whether they prioritize your content and website — so this really is a balancing act.

Readability and suitability should never be compromised so you can overpack your posts or series with keywords you think will benefit your brand.

If you want to create high-performing branded content, make the audience experience priority number one.

A useful metric

SEO is one of the metrics our clients choose to measure the performance of their podcast — and the returns they receive from the time, money, and effort they invest in it.

When executed correctly, this medium has the potential to positively impact several areas of your business, extending far beyond conversion and sales.

To explore the laundry list of benefits a branded series can offer, download our free resource, The Ultimate Guide to Podcast ROI.

Written by Roger Nairn, JarAudio.com