Podcasting and SEO: How to SEO your podcasts
There has been plenty of discussion in the blogosphere about blogs and search engine optimization (SEO). Google in particular seems to love blogs. Blogs are rich in content, heavily linked, with links that tend to be contextual, and without much in the way of code bloat or gratuitous flash animation. In short, blogs are search engine friendly out-of-the-box.
But what about SEO'ing a podcast, the blog's newest cousin?
Podcasting (where anyone can become an Internet radio talk show host or DJ) presents unique opportunities to the marketer/content producer that blogging does not. I expound on this a bit more in my recent MarketingProfs article but the benefits of podcasting from an SEO standpoint wouldn't seem as obvious. Podcasts are usually audio content, so you don't get all this rich textual content that the search engine spiders can snarf up. You also don't get the rich inter-linking that happens with blogs because you can't embed clickable URLs throughout your MP3 files.
Nonetheless, I believe you can SEO your podcasts. Here's how:
- Come up with a name for your podcast show that is rich with relevant heavily searched-on keywords.
- Make sure your MP3 files have really good ID3 tags — rich with relevant keywords. ID3V2 even supports comment and URL fields. The major search engines may not pick up the ID3 tags now, but they will! And besides, there are specialty engines and software tools that already do.
- Synopsize each podcast show in text and blog that. Put your most important keywords as high up in the blog post as possible but still keep it readable and interesting.
- Encourage those who link directly to your MP3 file to also link to your blog post about the podcast.
- Consider using a transcription service to transcribe your podcast or at least excerpts of it for use as search engine fodder. Break the transcript up into sections. Make sure each section is on a separate web page and each separate web page has a great keyword-rich title relating to that segment of the podcast. And, of course, link to the podcast MP3 from those web pages. There are many transcription services out there, where you can just email them the MP3 file or give them an URL and they send you back a Word document. Here's a partial list of transcription services .
- Submit your podcast site to podcast directories and search engines such as audio.weblogs.com.
- Let people in your industry, such as bloggers and the media, know that you have a podcast because podcasting is quite new and novel. It will be more newsworthy and linkworthy than just another blog in your industry.
- Don't just get up on your soapbox. Have conversations with others, in the form of recorded phone interviews, and podcast those as well. Pick people who have great reputations on the web and great PageRank scores, and ask that they link to your site and to your podcast summary page.
This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of tactics. It is simply meant as a catalyst for creative thinking. SEO, in particular the link building aspect, isn't about just following a set list of formulae. It is about creatively thinking outside the box and differentiating yourself in ways that make your site eminently more linkworthy than your competitors.
11 comments, 4 pingbacks
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Stephan,
Great article. I have been doing a lot of this already subconsciously, almost. Few people are aware of the power of describing what's in an .mp3 file. Otherwise it's hard to tell other than with the ID3 tags as you mentioned. Both of these techniques are in the realm of the esoteric for most people, but they need to learn. I inadvertently discovered this through a series of CEO interviews which were initially transcribed, with links to .mp3 files tacked on as an after-thought. To my surprise, all the interviews and virtually every word in them could be found at the top of Google, and many other search engines - and here's the best part - without submission!
If nothing else, enterprising companies can save thousands on SEO outsourcing and staff and pay-per-click if they use relevant written articles with .mp3 files. Additionally, the .mp3 file enclosures should be iTunes-friendly.
Thank you for a great article.
Jerry Wilson
Editor/Producer
Vegas Buzz News
Vegas Buzz RadioComment by Jerry Wilson [Visitor]
· http://www.vegasbuzzz.com —
10/14/05 @ 16:48
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[...] Podcasting and SEO: How to SEO your podcasts by Stephan Spencer 04/17/2005 [...]
Pingback by blogä¸æ–‡ç¿»è¯‘ » æ’客网站如何优化 [Visitor] — 10/29/05 @ 18:42
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Hi Stephan,
To help podcasters work smart, not long, in SEOing their podcasts, I've created a directory of pocast directories at Podcast Optimization. There you'll find over 60 listings with Alexa rankings and links directly to the submission pages.
Best wishes,
Dan SafkowComment by Dan Safkow [Visitor]
· http://www.PodcastOptimization.com —
12/20/05 @ 03:10
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SEO is complicated...:)
Comment by Won [Visitor]
· http://www.searchxp.net —
02/19/06 @ 06:06
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[...] Stephan Spencer also wrote up an informative list of Podcast SEO tips on his blog. [...]
Pingback by Podcasting and SEO » Online Marketing Blog [Visitor] — 04/16/06 @ 08:54
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Stephen,
I completely agree. We include a textual script with each podcast we produce. While we've seen big leaps in audio search, nothing at all compares to what is out there in textual search. So, until the technology catches up, we'll have to make podcasts as Google-friendly as possible.Comment by Robyn Tippins [Visitor]
· http://podcastpublishing.com —
04/17/06 @ 09:55
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I was wondering if it is possible to turn your podcast into a transcript with "Naturally Speaking" or some other voice recognition software. If this is possible, I think it would be great because you could get the textual indexing. So, does anybody know about this or if it's possible?
Comment by Matt [Visitor]
· http://www.daterater.org —
04/20/06 @ 22:19
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Hi Matt,
I've never tried voice recognition software. I understand from others that there's a significant time investment required up-front in training the software to your voice. So if that's the case, then the software wouldn't be of much use for interview podcasts, only for monologues where you are the only speaker.
StephanComment by Stephan Spencer [Member]
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04/26/06 @ 00:44
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Thank you for a great article.
SEO is complicatedComment by feng7 [Visitor]
· http://www.feng7.com/ —
07/25/06 @ 03:26
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[...] Stephen Spencer on How to SEO Your Podcasts [...]
Pingback by Podonomics » Blog Archive » Day 15 - Optimizing Your Podcast [Visitor] — 09/05/06 @ 15:25
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[...] Usually, when discussing Search Engine Optimization, the site in question consists of mainly text. With the ever increasing popularity of podcasting, the demand for improving your podcasts find ability also increases. Are there any special considerations that you should keep in mind when optimizing your podcast website or blog for search engines? Of course there are. Stephan Spencer has a great article discussing why you should optimize your podcast and lists some things to keep in mind. Here is a summation of his tips for SEO optimizing your podcast. [...]
Pingback by Finding icespide » Blog Archive » You Got SEO in My Podcast [Visitor] — 02/09/07 @ 23:52
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Great article...I would like to emphasize the need to put transcripts of ones podcasts on the net. Podcasts searches are still in a nascent stage.Many podcast search engines like in Blinkx use speech recognition software to index keywords. Taking into account the inaccuracy of these softwares,it is still the best option to transcribe your podcast to get higher ranks. Also,podcast search engines are yet to catch the fancy of the general public who still do most of their search in search engines like google,yahoo etc. Go for podcasting transcription services over general transcription services as they have specialization in getting podcasting transcription done and can also advise you in seo for podcasts...
Comment by Swapna [Visitor]
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05/01/07 @ 03:31
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Is there any software that will automatically transcript your podcast?
Comment by Pete [Visitor]
· http://www.businessservicesuk.com —
09/02/07 @ 08:18
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Pete this is something I have been recently looking into, so far I have not been able to find anything
Comment by Nicki [Visitor] · http://www.diversehampers.co.uk — 01/04/08 @ 05:02
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There are some podcasts experts hanging out at 4Networking, try there
Comment by David [Visitor] · http://www.giftexposure.co.uk — 05/05/08 @ 16:07
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