All Episodes

September 7, 2022 • 13 mins
Its an industry hot topic that usually focuses on episode numbers vs SEO, but not today. Let's face it, we all work for the Google machine so if we are going to invest time and money into a podcast then let's get every bit of value out of it and give ourselves the best shot at it. Episode numbers in the title of your podcast aint it, trust me.

Featured Book in this episode

Get Different: Marketing That Can't Be Ignored!
Mike Michalowicz
Check it here: https://gogetdifferent.com

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Instagram: @mollydruland
Website: https://mollyruland.com/

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Words from Molly

Thank you for tuning in to the next 100 sponsored by Heartcast Media. We are a digital media creative agency focusing on branding, marketing, strategy, and amplification for personal branding to podcasting. We've got you covered and to continue this conversation, join me on Instagram. My account is @mollydruland and of course, you can also find us at Heartcast Media. That's where the really good stuff is going down. So join me there. Let's continue the conversation. And until next week, have a good one.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:00 How podcasts are discovered
01:48 What is discoverability and searchability?
04:16 How to name your podcast episodes?
09:43 The book report for this week
12:46 Outro

Sponsored by Heartcast Media
https://www.heartcastmedia.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome back to the next one hundred. It's me Molly. Thanks for joining
me today. It's a beautiful Wednesdaymorning if you're listening to this right when
it comes out, But if you'renot, hopefully it's a beautiful day no
matter where you are. Today's episodeis all about naming your podcast. So
there's a ton of conversation around thisvery topic, and I think it boils

(00:36):
down to two things. I spenta lot of time thinking about this,
Right, should you put numbers inyour podcast episodes? Did you put the
season the episode number? Why doesit matter? Should you put the name
of the podcast in the episode?All? Right? There's a lot you
can find a million blogs written aboutthis stuff, but it really boils down
to two things. Right. Oneof the biggest conversations in podcasting is the

(01:00):
higher like visibility discoverable not visibility,but discoverability question, Like if you go
to iTunes and you want to searchfor crime podcasts, like a lot of
time it's going to just like searchfor podcasts with the word crime in it,
right, So it's it's very verydifficult where YouTube is like suggesting your
content based on the tags and thenother content that has similar tags and what

(01:22):
people are watching, like, theymake it much more fluid and easy for
people to discover your content that don'talready know about it. But with podcasts,
it's a little bit different aside frompodcasts on YouTube. And so there's
two conversations here. It's discoverability versussearchability. Okay, and these are two
very different things, Like being visibleand being discoverable are two very very different

(01:46):
things. So let's talk about thisfor a minute. Like one is really
SEO, right, discoverability? Whatare the words that you're using in your
title? What is the description about? Like are you using Search Engine optimized?
You know, words for you inyour titles, in your description and
everything else in order for people todiscover you. Right, That is why

(02:08):
you would never put a number ofyour episode in the title. And a
lot of people will argue that,like, Okay, you know, my
concept here is it's SEO and youdon't need to put the number in there
because it's chronologically already listed. Andunless people are searching for episode forty three
of whatever podcasts, they're not gonnafind you because you are using very valuable

(02:32):
characters that you're given in that titlefor SEO and you're wasting it on an
episode number, or you're wasting iton the name in the podcast. That's
the worst. When people put thename in the podcast on every episode in
the beginning, and then when yougo to their iTunes or your podcast player,
they all look like the same thingbecause they all start with the name
of the podcast. Right, that'sreally bad discoverability. You are making it

(02:58):
really, really hard for people tofind. Now, the flip side to
that argument is that if you putthe numbers, it makes the searchability more
appealing. So if somebody listened toone of your podcasts and they want to
recommend it to a friend, andthey say, oh, it's episode number
thirty three, and they say,well, it's easier to find. But
here's the thing. If we're creatingcontent and we want it to be discoverable

(03:23):
and we want to reach new people, right, naming a podcast with the
numbers so that the buddy of yourbuddy can tell you which episode to watch
kind of misses the point because yourbuddy has already told your buddy to go
listen to that podcast, So ifhe has to search for the title or

(03:44):
take a second to scroll down tothe thirty third podcast you know, like
you already got him, right,Your buddy's buddy, he's already gonna listen
to your podcast. You already gothim. Who you should be worried about
is Google, and who's gonna discoverfor your podcast? Not who's going to
be able to search quickly? Who'sgoing to be able to find episodes that

(04:05):
they like again quickly? Yes,you're serving value to your current audience,
But isn't the point is to getin front of new people. Don't you
want to be discovered by new people? Right? So something to consider is
your podcast titles should always, always, always be search engine optimized, okay

(04:25):
always, So that means no numbersin the titles, no name of your
podcasts in the title, and moreimportantly, what are the keywords in that
episode? And so a lot oftimes you know you'll see, you know,
even at hardcast Media, some ofour clients like to name the episode
after the fact, which I understand, right, But the keywords attached to

(04:47):
that episode don't change based on theconversation. And I'll explain what I mean.
If I'm interviewing somebody who's a youknow, expert in flowers, right,
and we're talking about wedding season.It doesn't matter how that conversation is
going to go down. I knowin advance we're talking about wedding season,

(05:08):
We're talking about flowers, and thoseare going to be my keywords. So
the title is going to be somethinglike, how to navigate this season,
this wedding season with a flower shortage? Right, it doesn't matter if me
and that Flora's talk about roses andpenies and whatever, it doesn't matter.
That's not going to shape the conversation. It's not going to change the keywords.
And so you know, you knowme, I'm really big on strategy,

(05:31):
production and amplification, right, Andso if you are dialed into the
strategy, then you really want toname your episode based on those optimized keywords
so that people when they are googlingfor these things or searching on YouTube.
You know, YouTube and Google,you know number one and two search engines
in the world, are going tosuggest your content because you have those keywords

(05:56):
in it. And so I thinkwe need to get away from this.
Should you what numbers in your episodetitle or not and really dial in on
it, you know, the otheron the searchability, on the discoverability not
searchability on the discoverability of your contentto new eyes, to new people,
right. And a lot of times, you know, people get really cryptic
and like inside joke kind of withtheir episode titles, and you're really missing

(06:23):
the mark there because it's just notgoing to get it done. So,
for example, last week's episode wasnever Underestimate the value of a small audience,
right, And that was the nameof my title because I wanted value
and small audience to be in thattitle because that's what we talked about.
But when I wrote the email blastright, and I wrote the email LinkedIn

(06:44):
the LinkedIn newsletter, the tagline theheadline says does size matter? Right now?
In this clickbait world, you mightthink putting to size matter on the
podcast would have made it more likeclickbaity or whatever. But that could be
in relation to everything other than valuablesmall audiences, if you know what I'm
saying. So I wouldn't want toput that on there. That's not going

(07:05):
to lead me to the it's notgoing to bring the new audience that I'm
actually going for. I'm looking totalk to small business owners, entrepreneurs,
ceo as founders. Right. Peopleare trying to expand their business, their
revenue, their their brand identity,right, And so if I put a
podcast out this is the size matter. It is not going to be appealing
to anybody, but it might makeyou open that email because you what is

(07:29):
Molly talking about? Right? That'swhere you want to save your little kitchy
inside joke, you know, clickbaity kind of headlines is for that opening
line. Or for example, ifyou are doing YouTube videos, you know,
the title of your video would benever underestimate the value of a small
audience. But you're the graphic shouldsay something completely different because it's not SEO

(07:54):
searchable, So that's an opportunity toput does size matter, But the name
of the actual video EO itself forSEO purposes would be never underestimate the value
of a small audience. So yousee where I'm going with this. You
always want to make sure that you'redialing in on the strategy, you know,
and the amplification of this content,because if not, what's the point.
And you want to make sure you'regetting the right eyes on your content

(08:16):
and not mislead eyes. So Iwould say, be very very intentional with
how you're naming your podcast. Reallytry to avoid things that are inside jokes.
For the love of all things podcasting, please stop putting episode numbers in
there. I get you want tomake it easy for your buddy's buddy to
find that one episode that you guyswere talking about, But like I'd much
rather have Google will be interested inmy content and sharing it with more people

(08:39):
than your buddy's buddy, you knowwhat I'm saying. So, you know,
really think about your episodes. Makesure you're really maximizing that opportunity on
YouTube to have two different sets oftitles there to bring people in repetitive information
as a social media killer. Sotake a look at the content you've made.
But I would really really say,you know, if you're going into

(09:00):
doing some podcast interviews, be asprepared as possible and have that title in
advance based on the keywords that aregoing to be the anchors of that podcast.
And then your description and your socialmedia post and your marketing efforts can
have that little funny inside joke doessize matter kind of tagline to it because
it might get some new ball eyeballson it. Right, So, so

(09:26):
on that note, I'm going tokeep it short and sweet. Hopefull I
gave you something to think about butremember, you know me, the three
pillars man, strategy, production,and amplification. And it's relevant to all
digital media. And so you're goingto hear this a lot from me,
So I hope it was helpful,and I'll catch you on the next one.
All right, as promised, it'stime for the book report. All
right. So this week's book reportis Get Different by Mike mcaalowitz. And

(09:52):
he's a super solid dude. Ilike him. He's very positive. I
don't know I said that like Iknow him. I don't know him,
but I've read a couple of hisbooks, maybe two or three of them
them. M fixes Us Next isone of his. But um, I
just love his super positive, quirkylike take on things about getting different with
your marketing and being different than otherpeople but also being logical about it.

(10:13):
And I think there's real value onthat, right, Like we just talked
about like how to name your podcast, and it's really easy to get caught
in this, like Gary d likehundred pieces of content and everything has to
be clickbait and listen when everybody isdoing that, right, when everybody goes
right, you should go left.And the reason why is because you got
to stand out a little bit,right, Like Mike says in the book,
you know, if you're in ifyou're in a room with a hundred

(10:37):
gray suits, then to be theguy in the blue suit, right or
be the woman in the blue suit. And so I like this idea of
standing out and doing things differently,but also doing it with intention and not
just integrity, but with a strategylike SEO and making sure that you're creating
content that people are actually looking forand being really intentional, but also being

(10:58):
different. You know, stand outis something a little different get people's attention,
right, Like if you think aboutpeople like Gary the why do they
like him? Because he stands out. He's different, He's not the normal
h you know YadA YadA that youhear all the time and business meetings.
He shakes things up a little bit. People like that. People kind of
want to be like him in asense, and so that could be very
different for you. But you wantto create these you know, memorable,

(11:22):
unique experiences that make people feel connectedto you in some kind of way.
And the book is full of ideasto do that. So um and he's
full of like bad dad jokes,but he's you know, it's nice.
It's kind of nice. He orsomebody doesn't take himself too seriously, but
also is a like legit dude,and he talks about his failures, what
worked, what didn't work, allthat. I really it's a good book.
It's an easy read. He seemsto be a nice guy. Everybody's

(11:46):
fun to hang out with. Heprobably doesn't take himself too seriously, and
I appreciate that about him. Sogood book. I would definitely recommend it.
You know, if I'm get outof five stars, i'd probably give
it a four, you know,four. You know I regret reading it.
I didn't love it. I youknow, it was a good book,
right when you when you try toread a book a week, they
can't all be like super winners,right, And I probably got a little

(12:07):
jaded. There's a lot of repeatinginformation. But I'm talking about this one
this week because it's good and Iliked it, and I'm definitely recommend getting
it. So the link is inthe description there you can head on down
and get you a copy of that. I'm a big fan of audible,
real big fan of audible because Ilike to listen to things. Because I
find that the hardest thing to do. I'm Irish and Catholic. Wait,

(12:30):
we don't listen so good, soAudible is the life lesson for me and
a great way to learn. SoI hope you enjoy the book. If
you've already read it, let's talkabout it and uh yeah man. Until
next time, be good and catchyou on the flip side. Thank you
for tuning into the next one hundred. Sponsored by heartcast Media. We are
a digital media creative agency focusing onbranding, marketing strategy and amplification for personal

(12:56):
branding the podcasting We've got you coveredand continue this conversation. Join me on
Instagram. My personal account is Mollyd Rulin and of course you can also
refine us at hardcast Media. That'swhere the really good stuff is going down,
So join me there. Let's continuethe conversation and until next week,
have a good one.
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