Crafting the Perfect Podcast Title

Your podcast title is the first thing potential listeners see—so make it count! Here’s how to create a title that’s clear, searchable, and compelling:

•  Keep It Short – Stay under 40 characters so it doesn’t get cut off in directories.
•  Use Keywords – Think about what your audience is searching for and include those words.
•  Prioritize Clarity – Avoid overly clever names that don’t immediately explain your show.
•  Optimize Episode Titles Too – Every episode title should help listeners (and search engines) find your content. Want the full breakdown? Listen to this week’s episode of Podcasting Tips Weekly!

 Questions? Email [e-mail]. See you next week! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello everyone, Welcome back to Podcasting Tips Weekly, the show
where we break down one actionable podcasting tip in ten
minutes or less, or at least that's what we hope
to do. This is only our second show, so who knows.
I'm Ryan Tillotson, and today we're talking about one of
the most important but often overlooked aspects of launching and
growing a podcast. Your title. Your podcast title is the

(00:30):
first impression your show makes. It needs to be clear, searchable,
and compelling. In fact, it's more important for discovery than
your description or even the content itself. So let's break
down why your title matters and how to get it right. Okay,
let's think about how people find new podcasts. They're scrolling

(00:53):
through Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Google sing only a
few words of a title, you know, maybe searching something specific,
and if your title isn't immediately clear, they are going
to move on. Not only that, but search engines, including
podcast platforms, weigh the title more heavily than the description.

(01:13):
So if you want people to find your show when
searching for a topic, your title needs to include the
right words. And I am not talking about just the
episode title. I am talking about the show title, the
name of your podcast. This podcast is called Podcasting Tips Weekly.
Do you have any idea or question what's going to

(01:35):
be covered in it each week? I think you can guess, okay,
But let me give you a real example. We were
producing a show called the bomb BOM, which stood for
the Bill of Materials. And if you're an engineer, you
know a bill of materials. It's a key document in
building things. But here's the problem. No one was searching

(01:57):
for bomb bom in podcasteries. It's just not something anyone
was typing in. Not only was that abbreviation something we
made up and thought was cute, it's just I don't
even know if people would search for bill of materials
in podcasting directories if they wanted a podcast about engineering.
But even though the content was great and like highly
relevant to engineers, it was so hard to find. Anyone

(02:19):
looking for an engineering podcast was probably searching terms like building, engineering, design, manufacturing.
I mean, had the title been something like the Engineering
Blueprint or how Things Get Built, it would have been
far more searchable and discoverable. And this was a lesson
that we learned early on the company that we were
producing the podcast for Siemens. They, however, just did not

(02:40):
want to change it. Once we discovered that it would
be better if we did, they didn't want to change it.
They actually just added a subtitle. And we're going to
get into issues with that a little bit down the
way here, but yeah, so it just stayed the bomb
with a subtitle. And the lesson here, don't get too
clever or obscure with your title. Clarity beats creativity when
it comes to just discoverability. And I'm gonna repeat that again,

(03:02):
Clarity beats creativity when it comes to discoverability. Okay, with
that story said, I'm going to now give you three
best practices for podcast titles. Are you ready? Number one,
keep it under forty characters. When scrolling through Apple or Spotify,
titles get cut off after about thirty to forty five characters,

(03:24):
including spaces. If your title is too long, listeners will
only see a fragment of it, which can be very confusing.
For example, if your show is called the Revolutionary Guide
to Online Business Success, it might just show up as
the Revolutionary Guide to instead of something like Online Business Playbook,
which is very clear and much more concise. So keep

(03:46):
it to thirty five to forty characters, including spaces. This
is hard. It's a hard thing to do. It's hard.
I feel like our team has spent weeks and months
pitching titles. And it's even more tough when you're working
with other brands because they, you know, they definitely want
to get creative. But it's like, hey, listen, if we
want this to be searchable and discoverable and people to
find this thing, let's keep it tight. Okay. Number two,

(04:11):
use searchable keywords. Think about what your ideal listener would
type into a search bar. I mean, that is so
important to be thinking about. For example, say you have
an entertainment podcast about artificial intelligence. Instead of calling it
the chat cast, go for AI Conversations something like that.
Sounds like it would be easier to find. You have

(04:31):
a better idea of what that is. Say you have
a podcast about freelancing or the gig economy. You know,
instead of calling it the Daily Hustle, try Freelancing for
Beginners or like the Gig Economy something like that. Include
those words that people will be typing in in the title.
Be literal, be descriptive rather than abstract. Okay. Number three.

(04:55):
Subtitles can help, but they have limits. A subtitle can
provide extra context, but it's not always visible when browsing.
Here's an example that I think works. You have a
podcast called The Startup Playbook. I think you might have
an idea of what that's about. It's probably about starting
a business, and maybe the subtitle is how to Launch

(05:15):
and Scale your Business. I think that's a great title
and subtitle because both of them explain what it is about.
The subtitle just explains further what your title is already
hinting at, and that is a good example of a
subtitle use. You just really want that title to explain
the essence of the podcast. And for people that are

(05:38):
wanting to start a business, I feel like a searchable
word is startup. I think business is probably another one,
so that podcast would probably come up in the algorithms.
But this helps clarify what your show is about without
cluttering the main title. But honestly, like I said, do
not rely on the subtitle alone. Your main title needs

(05:59):
to be strong enough on its own. Okay, so all
those examples were about the show title, which is so, so,
so important, But honestly, these rules really do crossover into
your episode specific titles. Two so it's really important to
be thinking about these episode titles just as much. Use

(06:20):
searchable words. What are people typing in that you talk
about in this show so people can find it? Is
it a particular name of a guest. Do you have
a big celebrity on there? You should probably put that
person's name in there, because someone might just type in,
you know Brian Cranston and want to listen to a
podcast with Brian Cranston. And then obviously you should include
a little bit more information other than Brian Cranston's name

(06:41):
in your podcast. But the episode title really matters. Yes,
say your podcast is about startups. Yes, your podcast will
cover a lot of things. Be specific about what each
episode is about in the journey of a startup. Here's
a bad example. Let me share this with you, calling
an episode so episode twelve a chat with John Smith,

(07:03):
assuming John Smith is a celebrity. That's the only reason
someone's gonna probably tune in to listen to this because
episode twelve doesn't help me at all, and a chat
with doesn't help me at all, Like, what are we
talking about? Seriously? You know, if I'm looking for a
specific thing to learn, something very specific, and I don't
see the title of the show. I'm just looking at

(07:25):
episodes with people in it. John Smith. It's just gonna
be hard. Why would I click on that? Why would
I click on that same thing? Episode five? Let's talk
about branding. I mean, that's a little bit better. But
there's so many things within branding that you could be
specific about. So I think these are two bad examples.

(07:45):
But here are better examples. How to build smarter machines
with John Smith, or branding secrets to stand out in
twenty twenty four, those are better examples. I want to
know what the branding secrets of twenty twentyve four are.
Tell me. I hope you see the difference. Make every
title work for you in search results, and I think

(08:06):
that those examples do that. Don't do episode twelve that
kind of crap? All right? With that all being said,
keep it short and clear under forty characters when possible.
Use words your audience actually searches for. Avoid abstract or
overly clever names that don't communicate your topic. I made

(08:26):
this mistake. I don't want you to. I make the
mistakes so you don't have to. Subtitles can add context,
but don't rely on them and make sure your episode
titles are just as strong. Okay, I hope that that helps,
and that is actionable, and I hope you can take
that and use it for yourself when starting your podcast,

(08:49):
and if you are starting a new podcast or thinking
of rebranding, take another look at your title. Does it
clearly tell people what your show is about? Would someone
search for it if they didn't already know about it?
A strong title can be the difference between a show
that grows organically and one that struggles to be found. Anyway,
that's it for today's episode of Podcasting Tips Weekly. If

(09:10):
you found this helpful, subscribe, leave a review, and share
this with a fellow podcaster. It really helps us so much.
I'll see you next time with another quick, actionable tip
to improve your podcast. See you next week.