Do you have a podcast that's not growing? Are you thinking about launching a podcast but afraid it won't grow? A podcast can be an excellent nurturing tool for your business and can help your audience in so many ways, if you know how to help people find you in the podcast apps. Learn how podcast SEO can help your show be found and grow. And, if you don't yet have a podcast, find out why you should consider starting one to help your business.
Register now for the free live SEO class and find out the secrets to being found, generating leads, and making money from Google and in AI Search like ChatGPT.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-seo-class
My free resources, including the Beginner's step-by-step SEO Guide and my free class, are available here.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies
Learn more about 1:1 Elite Marketing Coaching, where we work together for 3 months on your business. I'll help you make more money.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/marketing-coaching
Join me in Simple SEO Content, my complete SEO and Content Marketing course that teaches you what to do step-by-step. It walks you through the entire process. (complete course)
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes
Join Simple Podcast SEO and learn how to grow your show quickly and easily in the self-study podcast SEO program.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/enroll
My favorite marketing tools (affiliate links)
Podcast recording and editing - Descript
Episode Transcript
Hi, and welcome back.
So today I wanna talk about yourpodcast and why it's not
growing, and if you don't have apodcast yet, I'm gonna just ask
the question, why not?
You're here, you're learningabout SEO, you have a website,
you have a blog, or you'rebuilding your website.
A podcast is the natural nextstep because my friend, you
(00:24):
already have the content.
If you have a blog, you have.
Content because all it is is youtalking to your ideal customer
and sharing the same informationthat's in your blog so that they
can consume it in whateverformat they prefer.
Some people prefer to, somepeople prefer to listen.
(00:46):
So if you don't have a podcastyet, I kind of am wondering why
not?
Because it is one of the bestways that you can connect with
your audience.
And nurture them and help themget to know you and build that.
And it can be an amazing way foryou, my friend, to grow your
business because people connect.
(01:07):
They start listening to you.
They start to look to you as aresource, and they want to then
buy from you.
I can't tell you how often I getinquiries to the website or new
students signing up for myprograms because they listen to
the podcast and I love.
Podcast for you.
I hope that you look forward toit each week.
(01:29):
It lights my heart up when youtell me, Rachel, I've binged,
I've listened to every episode.
I'm waiting for the next one.
The next one is always onTuesday, Tuesday morning.
So if you don't have one yet, goahead and get signed up for
Simple podcast SEO, because Iwill walk you through exactly
how to do it step by step bystep.
That page is on the website.
(01:50):
You can find it at etmarketing.com/enroll.
It also has a best practicesbonus, which will walk you
through how to actually set yourpodcast up, what to do as far as
like how I host it, where Irecord it.
Um, it gives you all of thatinformation along with some
affiliate, got some discountsfor the things that you'll need,
(02:12):
et cetera, et cetera.
So anyway.
Now we're gonna pretend you'rehere and you've got a podcast
and your podcast is not growingbecause that's a really common
issue that I see.
Most people I talk to reallykinda struggle with that,
especially in the beginning.
I did too.
I've been very honest aboutthat.
When I first started my podcast,it really didn't do a lot the.
(02:35):
Month that I went live and Irecorded, I had 121 downloads.
It's not bad, but it's notgreat, and 121 downloads isn't
really going to change the worldfor a business but reality,
realistically, it's aroundaverage.
The average podcast that's morethan like a month old gets 37
(02:58):
ish downloads per episode,meaning around 140 a month.
Average.
So if you are at that pointwhere you're getting a hundred,
150 downloads a month on yourpodcast, congratulations, you
are in the top 50% of allpodcasters.
If you've gotten past likeepisode number 10, you are in
(03:21):
the top, in the majority, in thetop.
What is it like 20%?
So many podcasts burn out.
Really quickly because theyhaven't done SEO, they haven't
optimized it.
They're not growing.
So if you're going to launch oneor you have one, or maybe you
had one and you haven't reallyprioritized it, I know I've.
(03:42):
Got a couple of friends that arein that position where it's
like, gosh, I have it.
And I would record it, and thenit wasn't taking off.
And then I didn't do it.
I didn't prioritize it.
And then my buzzsprout billwould come in and I was
embarrassed because I hadn'treleased an episode and I had a
bill to pay.
And it just reminded me that Ihadn't, and then it felt guilty.
Forget all that.
Okay, just commit to.
(04:05):
I better start releasing mypodcast again, and I'm going to
learn SEO so that my podcastwill grow.
So when you are optimizing apodcast.
It is easier than Googleoptimization.
It works faster.
And the thing that's really niceis that the key words, I
(04:25):
believe, are easier to find andfigure out than they are for
Google, because there's lesscompetition in the podcast app
than there is on the website.
And we can rank for differentterms in a podcast app than we
can in Google or even in AIsearch now.
So.
When you're optimizing yourshow, I mean, you already know
(04:47):
with Google, there are specificplaces where you use your
keyword to help Googleunderstand, excuse me, what that
page is about so they know whoto show it to, et cetera, et
cetera.
It's exactly the same with apodcast.
There are certain places thatthe podcast apps are going to
look for information as to whatyour show is about.
So those are gonna be your showtitle.
(05:08):
So when you are choosing a titlefor your show, think simple,
straightforward.
Um, not cute or clever.
You really want your person tobe able to understand exactly
what that show is about.
So my show is called Simple,SEO, and I give simple, easy to
use, actionable SEO tips eachweek if my show was labeled
(05:32):
like, get Your Business Found orThe Don't Be Invisible Podcast.
That would not actually tellanybody what it was about.
Now, the Don't Be Invisiblepodcast could actually be about
SEO, but nobody searching tolearn how to get website traffic
or how to build their businessis probably searching.
(05:52):
Don't be invisible because thatcould be about 9 million
different things.
So we really wanna be verystraightforward.
SEO friendly.
Ideally, we wanna use a keywordin our show name.
In our podcast title name, justbecause that's going to make it
even easier to rank.
The next place that you can doit is in your name, so when you
(06:13):
are in your Buzzsprout accountor whoever your host is, and you
are putting your name in there.
Use a key word, do it the sameway that we do like on
Instagram, where we'reoptimizing our profile and we're
using whatever term we wanna goafter.
SEO coach, um, small businessowner, small business coach,
whatever it is.
(06:33):
Put it there as well, becausethat's another place that they
look for information as to whatthis show is about, who it's
from, all of that.
Then in your show description,you're going to want to also use
your keywords because that'sgoing to help you to be more
visible because now theyunderstand your content and
(06:55):
they, it makes it easier forthem to understand what your
show is about.
Then when we get to your actual.
Podcast episodes.
We also want to optimize those.
Now, we may use the same keywordthat we've used, like to
optimize your show name inepisode titles, but we also can
use secondary keywords.
(07:15):
So this is where, like for me,SEO is one of my core keywords.
It's everywhere.
But I also do episodes like thison podcast, SEO.
So this.
Episode is optimized for podcastSEO.
If I do one on email marketing,it's optimized for email
marketing, or it's optimizedfor.
(07:36):
Find marketing.
So I really want you to thinkabout who are you trying to
attract?
What words would they be using?
And I want you to go ahead anduse those words in your episode
titles and your episodedescriptions for each episode.
The more content you create thathas the key words, the bigger
(07:58):
your foothold is, the biggerthat the podcast apps see you
and they realize that, oh, youreally are about this, and then
you have a better chance ofmoving up.
What I found when I starteddoing this.
I had my, like I told you, I hadmy podcast for a few months.
It was growing, but it was notgrowing as quickly as I wanted
(08:20):
and it was giving me a lot ofcollege radio vibes.
So, you know, I went to Cronkiteschool at a SU and I studied
broadcast journalism and Iworked at the student radio
station.
And there aren't a lot of peoplewho listen to student radio AM
radio, even though it was thelate nineties, like AM radio in
(08:41):
the dorms.
A SU.
It really, we didn't have thebiggest listenership, and so I
would be there and I was a newsanchor and I would do the news
updates one night a week, andthen I was a DJ and I would DJ
like on, I don't even rememberif it was like Sunday afternoons
or something.
It was not a primetime slot, butit was college radio.
There were no primetime slots.
(09:02):
But I would be there and I'd berecording in the studio and I'd
be doing the news, flirting withthe cute boy.
I'm gonna be really honest.
There was a really cute boy thatwas on the radio station with
me, and we did a lot of flirtingand it was very, very fun.
Anyway, I digress.
We all have those moments, thosememories from college, right?
But we'd be there and we'd berecording and you kind of
(09:24):
wondered, is anybody out there?
Is anybody listening?
And once in a while you mighthear from somebody, but it
really gave you that feel of, Iam out here, I'm doing this.
I don't know if anyone'slistening.
So in the early days, podcastingfelt that way because I was
getting, like I said, 30, 40, 50downloads per episode, which,
(09:46):
yes, people were downloading it,but it was such a small number.
It didn't feel like it wasreally growing.
Having been in SEO for so manyyears.
I, it was just like, there hasgot to be a way to optimize this
thing.
Like there has to be a way.
So I dug in, I figured out whatthe best practices were and I
started doing it and within 90days my show downloads were five
(10:11):
times what they had been.
I.
Like they just started to spikeand then it continued and
another like five x above that.
And I have continued to grow.
Now my show passed the two yearmark, um, in February, so we're
about three, four months intothe third year.
I.
And my downloads continue togrow each month, every week I
(10:33):
see more and more people comingin.
I have new listeners.
I have, you know, looking at allthe engagement metrics that I
teach you to look at in simplepodcast, SEO.
Everything is there.
Everything's trending the rightway.
But the other thing that I knowis that a lot of you who listen
to the podcast, join the course.
You reach out and you ask meabout business coaching.
(10:53):
'cause I am, I don't know ifI've told you, but I am doing
just a little bit of businesscoaching, taking on a handful of
clients at a time, working withyou one-on-one over a course of
12 weeks, really helping you tofigure out what you are doing
with your business.
So if you wanna launch a course,but you're not sure how to do it
or you're not sure how to put amarketing plan together, you
(11:13):
don't really know who your idealcustomer is.
You really just wish you had.
The budget to hire a marketingdirector or A-C-M-O-I am
offering that, but like I said,very small, very select group of
people.
I'm not really advertising it onthe website, but it's for you
people in my world who listen tothe podcast, et cetera, because
we have a better relationship.
I love you and I love getting toknow you and know more about
(11:36):
your businesses, so I love it.
When you tell me, I listen tothis podcast all the time and
it's so helpful, and that's whata podcast can do for you, for
your business as well.
So if you are ready to work onyour podcast, you want to launch
one, you want someone to helpyou and walk you through the
process of launching a podcast,we can do that.
(11:57):
You want to learn how to do itand take the course.
Simple podcast.
SEO is there for you.
We can get this going whetheryou have one now or not.
We can get this going andgrowing and turn it into one of
the best marketing and nurturechannels for your business.
It is amazing the differencethat a good podcast can make.
(12:20):
I wanna thank you for being hereagain this week, and I will see
you next week.
Bye for now.
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