4 Tips to Improve Your Podcast Part 1: Discoverability Within the Algorithm
In our age of continuous technological advancements and unparalleled access to knowledge, podcasting has evolved beyond simply entertainment to enable convenient ways for learning. These days, launching a podcast is relatively accessible; however, as content marketing specialists, we know that establishing and growing your platform, plus retaining a community, is the challenge all podcast creators face.
Algorithms are key to gaining organic visibility beyond your existing database and social media audience, so understanding them can help you achieve success with your podcast. In this article, we’ll share four tips to help improve your podcast’s discoverability within the algorithm and by extent your social media discoverability strategy
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1. Understand the Importance of User Engagement
Platforms such as Spotify and YouTube, love engagement. If a podcast has high engagement, whether through repeated listens, downloads, or episode completion, there is a higher chance of the podcast being recommended to users with similar interests.
User Interactions Fuel the Algorithm
All interactions contribute to a podcast’s visibility. Encouraging your listeners to follow, leave reviews and share episodes on social media will power the algorithm. Polls and Q&A functionality have risen in popularity as an interactive podcast feature. We advise polls that leave little time to think and encourage an instant, honest reaction. For example ‘Should our next episode be a deep dive on AI or encryption?’.
Allowing listeners to place their input makes them feel like they are part of a community. Spotify’s algorithm favours podcasts with high levels of user engagement, so by initiating these simple actions, you can significantly impact your podcast’s visibility.
Listening Durations and Completion Rate
The amount of time listeners spend consuming your podcast and the completion rate of episodes are crucial factors in an algorithm’s ranking. To ensure your episode keeps a listener’s attention, the content must be compelling. A high completion rate (75%+) proves to platforms that the content you are producing is valuable and worth recommending to similar users.
There is no perfect length for an episode. The optimal episode length depends on your listeners. Analyse data to find out the length that keeps your listener’s attention, because maintaining listener interest is what improves completion rates. For our Cyber Made Human podcast, we learned that the most engaging episodes were 25-30 minutes long, so we’ve tailored Series 2 to ensure episodes remain within this length.
Attraction and Retention
Algorithms also reward podcasts that can attract and retain new listeners. The more users you attract, and the better you keep them, the higher your podcast will rank. Methods of attracting new listeners include turning episodes into blog posts, social media clips or YouTube videos. This helps your content reach new audiences on multiple platforms. Within these posts, share content developed specifically for them. For example: introductory episodes, FAQ, or compilations of your past content. This ensures your new audience won’t feel behind on topics covered in previous episodes.
Audiences, especially niche audiences like cybersecurity, love to feel part of your community. Welcome new listeners by acknowledging them; this makes your podcast feel more personal and connected. This, along with providing exclusive content, such as early access to episodes, can influence new listeners to subscribe and remain invested in your episodes.
Another method that affects the algorithm is releasing episodes on a consistent schedule. This keeps the audience engaged and signals to the algorithm that your podcast is active and worth recommending. For example, sharing a new episode every Monday, or on the last working day of the month allows your audience to expect and seek out your content.
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2. Utilise Metadata
Metadata is the information, like title, description, keywords and categories, that accompany your podcast audio files and helps a potential listener discover and understand your content.
Optimising metadata includes creating engaging titles and descriptions, selecting relevant tags and categories to ensure optimal targeting and visibility. Understanding the importance of metadata will improve your podcast’s searchability, therefore broadening your reach on every platform.
As an example, an episode on the ethics of AI will likely reach a niche audience. To ensure discovery, metadata is key. The episode could be categorised into Technology and Education, with the title including keywords such as: AI ethics, responsible AI, artificial intelligence etc.
3. Leverage SEO of your Podcast
SEO is usually focused on website development, but podcast platforms also operate like search engines with algorithms using metadata. Around 52% of listeners discover podcasts through search engines. With over 5 million podcasts worldwide, effective SEO is crucial to stand out. To ensure your podcast is searchable, start by understanding your audience: What topics are they interested in? What questions are they asking? How are you positioned to help them?
Learn More: Check out our article on how to Increase Podcast discoverability via social media.
Creating Episode Titles
Episode titles should combine clarity with curiosity. They should entice listeners while incorporating relevant keywords.
There is divided opinion on including guests’ names or episode numbers. Ultimately, the content of the episode should be the main focus, never the afterthought.
A guest is brought onto a podcast to bring insights on the topic being discussed. Although important, the guest’s name is not necessarily always the main focus, unless it’s a personal interview. Some podcasts follow a chronological format or develop a short series. In these situations, episode numbers can be helpful; however, if not, they can negatively impact discoverability and engagement.
Overall, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘What is the most valuable part of the episode?’ and develop your title around that. Favour more descriptive and intriguing titles that will catch the eye of a possible listener.
We believe episode numbers take up valuable space, and guest names should only be included if they are the draw to the episode.
How to Write Engaging Descriptions
Podcast episode descriptions have huge impacts on algorithms and can impact a podcast’s visibility. Descriptions serve as metadata, helping platforms categorise content, therefore influencing discoverability and ranking. By including relevant keywords to describe the episode’s topic and identify the target audience, descriptions improve SEO, making your podcast more visible to potential listeners. However, don’t force these keywords in. Include keywords to ensure your content is discoverable while still sounding natural and engaging.
The description is where you can expand on your title; a place to highlight any notable guests or discussions, providing a brief summary of what was covered in the episode.
Choose the Correct Categories
Platforms allow you to choose categories or tags for your podcast. This helps the algorithm on the platform to understand your content, therefore helping your podcast appear in more selected lists and related searches.
These tags need to be specific and relevant to your podcast so that it is recommended to users of similar interests. You can choose primary and secondary categories, so choose them wisely. For example, if you have a marketing podcast, “Business” could be your primary category and “Education” as your secondary category.
As your podcast grows and changes, ensure your chosen categories still relate. If not, update them as needed and adjust categories to maintain relevance.
Utilising Show Notes
Show notes are an underutilised resource for SEO that provides additional content for listeners. They are made up of summaries, supporting materials, links to resources mentioned and sometimes more guest information. Within the summary of the episode, include timestamps for key moments/topics to direct listeners to specific parts of the episode. Something that improves accessibility is including a full transcript within the show notes. This also helps with keyword density, increasing visibility within a potential listener’s search.
4. Creating a Podcast Website / Social Media
Podcast Website
A website or web page dedicated to your podcast is essential for improving the reach and discoverability of your show. As a centralised hub where listeners can access everything related to the podcast, a website can be a place where your listeners look for information. From blog posts, transcripts, host/guest biographies, full episodes, contact information, etc., developing a website supports your long-term growth and branding as a podcast.
Social Media for Podcasts
Leveraging social media to share content creates a loyal community surrounding your podcast while boosting discoverability. Depending on your audience and topic, your social media presence will not be the same as other podcast shows. If your podcast is linked to a company, LinkedIn is possibly the platform to share, so you can attract a more corporate audience.
However, as we have recently discovered, TikTok creates a huge boost for discovery. 75% of podcast listeners aged 13-24 reported using TikTok. Among them 80% discovered podcasts through their feed, making it the second most popular social media app for podcast discovery after YouTube. Podcasts need to grab this opportunity, no matter your category. As podcast specialists working with companies to develop their own podcasts, we understand how even a 20-second clip can catch a user’s attention, possibly leading to a new audience member.
To Summarise: Social Media Discoverability Strategy
Discoverability doesn’t happen overnight. Algorithms reward quality and engagement. Focus on developing content worth being recommended by the algorithm and increasing your visibility. But crucially, don’t spend time on creating an incredible episode without optimising and promoting it, as your target audience will struggle to know it exists.
Whether you’re aiming for huge popularity or just trying to build a loyal community, these tips will help your podcast beat the algorithm and reach your target audience with ease.
Are you ready to launch a successful business podcast?
JACK
Digital Content Producer
SPECIALISMS
+. Writing
+. Video editing
+. Photography
+. Social Media Management