212. This Podcasting SEO Mistake Is Killing Your Discoverability

Are you publishing great podcast episodes but struggling to get new listeners? In this episode, I'm breaking down the simple podcasting SEO strategy that can boost your visibility inside Apple and Spotify search. You’ll learn how to choose the right keyword for your podcast, where to use it for maximum discoverability, and how repetition (not variation) is the secret weapon for growth.

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Transcript

When someone types in your podcast's topic inside Apple Podcasts or Spotify, will you be one of the top results? If the answer is no or you're not sure, keep listening. Because today we're diving into the number one mistake podcasters make with discoverability and the simple fix that can get your show in front of more people. Starting now. Hey there. I'm Julia Levine, AKA the Podcast Teacher, and you're listening to Podcasting for solopreneurs, the show that helps online business owners grow their podcast to get more listeners, leads and sales. Today, we're talking about something that can completely change the growth trajectory of your podcast, and yet most podcasters don't even realize that it exists. It's something that I teach in depth inside the Podcast Growth Collective, and it's helped my own show appear near the top of the search results week after week. This isn't about adding more platforms, spending more time on marketing, or even changing your content.

It's about being strategic with something you're already doing. Let me start by identifying the problem. Most podcasters don't optimize their shows for podcast player searches. Maybe they don't think about it, or they assume podcast search engines work the same as Google or YouTube. But they don't. Podcast apps are much more basic, and that's actually a good, good thing because it means that you don't need fancy tools or technical SEO knowledge to make it work. You just need to understand how these platforms read your show and how to signal to them what your content is about. So here's the secret.

Podcast SEO rewards repetition over variation. That's probably the opposite of what you've heard in other content spaces, right? On blogs or YouTube, you're encouraged to vary your language and try and capture as many keywords as possible. But podcasting is different. People typically don't type full questions into their podcast app search bar. They type in short phrases like weight loss crypto podcasting. And so that means that your goal isn't to be clever or varied. It's to be consistent with a single audience centered term. So let me share a quick story with you.

My client, Dr. Lisa Olson, host of the Smart Weight Loss Coaching Podcast, had only a handful of people listening to to her show. She likes to say that it was just her mom, her sister, and her cat. Fast forward a few months and after applying what I'm teaching you here today, she has now passed 17,000 downloads. We didn't overhaul her content. We didn't suddenly do a ton of marketing. We didn't Run paid ads. We simply focused on podcast SEO, and the results speak for themselves with her show's growth.

So how can you do this too? Step one is to pick your keyword. This is the one that you want to be known for, the word that your ideal listener is typing into that search bar. This is the trickiest part, and choosing your word requires a mix of all audience research, SEO data, and content analysis. But a good gut check is to ask if you can naturally use this word in 80% of your episode titles going forward. If so, that's a good word to start with. Step two is to optimize your show title. Once you have your keyword, the most important place to use it is in your show title. This is the single most heavily weighted area in podcast search algorithms.

If your keyword isn't there, you're basically asking the podcast player apps to guess what your show is about. So make sure it's in your title. And step three, use it in your episode titles as well. Once your overall show name is optimized, the next step is to repeat this keyword throughout your your episode titles. And this is where that repetition really starts to pay off. Remember that podcast apps reward shows that are consistently aligned with a topic. So if you use your keyword in episode after episode, you're signaling that this show is reliably about this topic, and that builds trust with the algorithm and and with your listeners. I recommend aiming for at least 80% of your episodes to include your keyword in the title.

So here's why all of this matters. If you're creating amazing episodes but your ideal listener can't find them, your podcast is like a billboard in the middle of the desert. Podcast SEO is how you move that billboard to the highway. And the more episodes that you publish with this keyword strategy, the more data the podcast apps have and the more likely they are to display your show in relevant search results. I've had dozens and dozens of listeners tell me that they found podcasting for solopreneurs by searching terms in their podcast player like podcasting tips, podcasting strategies, or podcasting podcast. And the visibility that I have in those searches didn't come from luck. It came from this intentional SEO strategy. So, to recap, you want to choose one clear keyword that reflects what your audience is searching for, and then use it in your show title, and then reuse it in your episode titles again and again and again.

So creating an episode title every week is something that you're already doing. If you are just a little bit more intentional about it. By incorporating SEO strategy, you can have dramatic results without adding additional work to your plate. And if you want more support with podcast SEO strategy and other growth strategies, I'd love to invite you to join the Podcast Growth Collective. It's my membership community for business owners who are ready to grow their shows in a way that is simple, strategic and sustainable. Inside, you'll get step by step frameworks done for you, templates and personalized feedback to help you attract more listeners. With out the guesswork, you can head to the podcastteacher.com collective to join us. I would love to support you.

Until next time, happy Podcasting.