Podcast Best Practices Guide

Podcasts have become a popular medium for people to consume information and entertainment. If you're a podcaster, you’ll want your podcast to reach as many people as possible. One way to do this is to ensure your podcast is optimized for search engines. In this blog post, we'll share some tips on how to optimize your podcast. We'll cover topics such as how to write effective podcast titles and descriptions, artwork, and other do’s and don’ts.

Spotify and Apple Podcast Optimization

Spotify and Apple are the most popular platforms to listen to podcasts on. 

Show description

• Topics covered on the show
• The host’s name
• Any abbreviations of the show’s name
• Keep it around 100 characters, including spaces
• Use the main target keywords

Episode title

• Don’t put the podcast name in the title of the episode
• Use keywords
• Include the most important keyword(s) in the first 30 characters

• Spotify mobile shows approx. 30 characters in the “Top” section and approximately 60 characters in the Podcasts & shows tab.
• Apple podcast cuts at 30 characters on mobile

• Apple desktop cuts at 253 characters - so you do have more room if absolutely necessary
• Don’t include season
• Don’t include the episode number
• Don’t include the word “podcast”
• Don’t include publication frequency
• Do include the date if the content of your episode is highly time-sensitive

Episode description

• Don’t give away the takeaway
• Do include keywords (locations, names, topics) - unlike Search, Podcast platforms use the description to help identify and rank results.

• Evidence suggests the description is more important than the show title for search.

• Do use a maximum of 4 sentences
• Do prioritize the first 120 characters for keywords
• Don’t repeat the episode title’s information

• Do compliment the episode title

• Don’t summarize the episode
• Don’t Use generic language, “in this episode”
• It can be up to 4000 characters

Artwork:

• Spotify recommends cover art be 3000x3000 px
• Include name and/or logo

Podcast Page:

• On Spotify, include category tags
• Include links to social media
• Include the host’s name(s)
• Include podcast name

Remember that…

• Spotify & Apple podcasts serve shows and episodes in search results.
• Spotify is more tailored to the individual user
• Spotify’s results vary by device

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YouTube Podcast Optimizations

File Name

• Use your targeted keyword in your video file name

• Ex: Change “HSIEHLR48.mp4” to “what-is-podcast-seo.mp4”

Video Title

• Compelling video title
• Use your target keyword naturally in video title 
• Keep titles consistent - Use the same name of your podcast show as your podcast title
• Limit to 60 characters or less (including spaces)

Video Description

• Optimize your video description
• 1,000 characters are available, but important to keep in mind YouTube will only display the first 10 characters (then user can click “read more”)
• Add a call-to-action (CTA) 

Captions and Transcripts

• Adding captions or transcripts makes your content more accessible

Tags

• Tells YouTube and the user what this video/podcast is about
• Only use relevant tags 

YouTube Shorts 

• Try using shorts to promote your podcast 

Cards and End Screens

• Try adding end screens or cards with custom CTAs 
• Try posting on the YouTube community to promote the podcast
• Cards and End Screens Best Practices.

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