Here are the steps:
- Define Your Target Audience
- Research Keywords
- Create a List
- Implement Keywords in Your Podcast and Marketing Content
- Track Keyword Performance and Adjust as Needed
Ready to get started? Let’s gooooo! 🚀
1. Define Your Target Audience
The first step to picking the best podcast keywords is to know who you want your audience to be. That way you can put yourself in their shoes and understand what keywords they may use to search for topics they care about. 👣
Demographics
Based on people’s lived experience of gender, race, age, region, etc., they tend to use or be comfortable with certain vocabulary. If your target audience falls primarily in one or two categories, consider picking keywords that you think would be authentic to them.
Level of Complexity
Is your target audience people who are new to the topic or people who have an expert level of understanding? This should determine how complicated or advanced your keywords will need to be. 🧠
Intent
Do your target listeners have the intent to be entertained? To learn? To take action and create change? They could all be interested in the same topic, but with different outcomes in mind. That will determine what kind of secondary keywords you want to pick.
Overall, the clearer you can define your target audience, the more powerful your podcast keywords will be. 💪
2. Research Keywords
Now that you know your target audience and their perspective, you can start to research keywords. 📚
Overall Strategy
The overall strategy to picking good podcast keywords is to find words that have high traffic volume and low competition. In other words, the best keywords are ones that are popular among people searching for your kind of podcast topics and content, but that most other podcasts don’t use.
With that in mind, let’s look at the steps involved in keyword research:
Look at Your Content
If you have already been making episodes for awhile, take a look at words you have used. Analyze your text everywhere: Title, episode description, audio transcription, etc. 🔍
Don’t limit your research just to your podcast content, take a look at your marketing too. Are there keywords that you have been using on your website and social media?
It is ideal if your keywords are ones that you have been using for awhile. Search engines like Google give preference to a site that has been using the keyword for a long time. ⏳
Examine the Competition
Next, look at your relevant competition’s content and marketing. What keywords are they using? Do you think you could build out your content enough to overtake them in the top search result ranking? Are there keywords that they aren’t using that you think you could use?
Another way to frame this step is look for inspiration or ideas. What keywords do you like and think are powerful? Do you notice any apparent keyword strategy in a podcast’s content marketing that you think is a good idea? 💡
Podcast Platforms
While it is good to keep broad Google searches in mind as you pick out the best keywords for podcasting content, you also need to hone in on search engines inside podcast listening platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.
A lot of podcast listeners find their next new show by searching for a topic using the listening platform’s search bar. It is critical for your show and episodes to rank high on these searches. 🆙
So run some tests using keywords that you think might be good for your show. Do a lot of podcasts pop up? Do only a few? How does your podcast relate to those?
If you have already been making episodes for a while, this research step can be really powerful. You can see what SEO (search engine optimization) you have already been building without even knowing it. If you are happy with your results ranking, keep using the same keywords you have been using! If not, analyze exactly what you need to change. 🤔
Keyword Tools
There are tons of SEO keyword tools out there, especially ones to help you get found on Google. Don’t be afraid to try out free ones, or at least ones that have free trials, etc.
However, there are very few SEO tools for any search engine outside of Google. What happens if you want to boost your SEO on other search engines, particularly the ones inside podcast platforms? Well, before you were basically out of luck, but now Ausha has a solution. 🥳
Drum roll please…
Ausha’s Podcast Search Optimization tool helps you find and analyze the best keywords for your podcast, specifically for search engines inside listening platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 🤩
Ausha’s Podcast Search Optimization tool’s AI feature suggests the best keywords based your podcast content. Then it tracks how you rank using those keywords over time. There is really no other tool like it in the podcasting world. 😍
So, as you do your research, take a look at this tool!
3. Create a List
Once you have gather all the information in the research stage, now make a list of your keywords. ✍️
Primary Podcast Keywords
First identify two to three of your top primary keywords. These are the ones you plan to use everywhere all the time. They are usually about the topic of your show. For example: Parenthood, raising a child, mom, etc. 👶
Then list other options that you may want to use in the future if these primary keywords aren’t successful in boosting your SEO. Of course you will want to do more research at that time since SEO factors are always fluctuating, but it is good to already have a list to test out.
Secondary Podcast Keywords
Create a second section of your list for secondary podcast keywords. These are ones that support the primary keywords. They are usually about the angle you are taking about the topic of your show. For example: Stories, tips, how to, etc. 🧑🏫
Again, even if you do not want to use these keywords right away, put them on a list so you can come back and reference them later as needed.
You will want to come back to this list if the data shows the first keywords you picked aren’t really working (we will cover that more in the later data section).
4. Implement Keywords in Your Podcast and Marketing Content
Now that you know what podcast keywords you want to try, it is time to execute! ▶️
Metadata
The most important place for your keywords is in your podcast metadata. Metadata is the data that attaches to your audio file as your episodes are distributed across platforms. A lot of search engines specifically look at your metadata, searching for keywords. That’s why it is so important for SEO. ❗
You type in the metadata on your podcast host platform. The host should have fields for you to fill in like: Title, show description, episode notes, guest names, social links, website link, etc. Be sure to add your keywords in these fields.
Website
Every podcast should have a website. It is very important for SEO. 👈
Use all your keywords on your site.
Be sure to link to all your social media pages and listening platforms so search engines see that your show is everywhere. 🌎
If you have time, write blogs that use the keywords. At the very least, add text transcriptions for every new episode. Search engines like to see that you are constantly creating new content that include your keywords.
Audio
Believe it or not, a lot of folks often forget to include their keywords in the audio of their show. 🫣
If this happens to you, it could be a sign that your keywords aren’t a great fit. Or maybe you just to need to prepare for your episode recordings just a tiny bit more. Small changes can make a world of difference in getting your show found by new listeners!
More and more technology is being built with the capacity to process audio. So you can’t get away with leaving out keywords in your audio content any more! 🎵
Plus, if you use keywords in your audio content, then it will be easily accessible in your transcript, social media subtitle files, etc.
And finally, new listeners will probably be expecting to hear the keywords that they used to find you. So be sure to meet their expectations and keep them hooked by using your keywords in your episode audio. 🥰
5. Track Podcast Keyword Performance and Adjust as Needed
The final step is not just a one time task. It is an ongoing process. Depending how it goes, you also may need to redo the other steps we have talked about so far. 🔄
The final step is to track your podcast keywords’ performance over time. Are people using it as they search for their new show? Are you ranking high in their search results?
Ausha’s Podcast Search Optimization Tool
Remember how we talked about Ausha’s Podcast Search Optimization (PSO) tool in the “Research” step? How its AI feature would suggest keywords based on your podcast content? Well for this step, you can use the PSO to track the performance of the keywords it suggested.
Here at the analytics you will see:
Visibility Score 👓
The PSO Visibility Score gives you a snapshot of exactly how discoverable your podcast at that moment, based on its keyword performance across all the different podcast platforms.
Best Position 🏆
The Best Position metric shows your highest ranking keyword and which platform it is ranked the highest on.
Best Progress 🏅
The Best Progress metric displays which keyword has most increased in ranking and which platform it has most increased on.
Downward Trend 📉
The Downward Trend feature captures any keyword that your show is starting to rank lower for and which platform this is happening on.
All Trends 📈
Ausha gives you a nice line chart so you can visualize all your keyword data trends overtime.
Control Panel Table 😎
Perhaps the best feature on the PSO control panel is the table that shows each keyword, the podcast’s current rank for that keyword on Apple and Spotify, and the search volume of that keyword– how often potential listeners are using that keyword to search for their next favorite show.
Not hosted on Ausha ?
If your podcast isn’t hosted on Ausha and you are a Media or a Network, you can now take advantage of our Non-hosted PSO option! Traditionally, tracking your podcast’s performance without Ausha would involve manually searching for it across various platforms using specific keywords each day, and recording its ranking positions—a truly laborious process. 😅
To streamline this, Ausha’s technical teams have innovatively developed a solution that allows podcasters to connect their shows directly to the PSO Control Panel, without requiring their podcasts to be hosted on Ausha’s platform.
When to Change Your Keywords
Give your keywords a chance before you start changing them. But if a month or two go by and your podcast is trending downwards in certain keyword search rankings, then it is probably time to make a change. 📆
Go back to the list you made for step number three. As long as the back-up keywords are still relevant to your topics, and your research shows that they may help you get your show found, go ahead and sub them in!
Remember to update your metadata and website. Moving forward, include the keywords in your episode audio and social media posts. 💻
Final Note
Growing your show’s audience and making it popular is within your control in a lot of ways. As long as you are willing to put in just a little work, you can make sure your show pops up high in search engine rankings. 🙌
You can try to use free keyword tools, or, as we suggest, sign up for our Podcast Search Optimization tool.
For more tips and ideas, check us out on our socials! As always, enjoy the podcasting journey! 🪐 🧑🚀
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