Google has started indexing podcasts. At their recent conference they announced that podcasts and podcast websites are appearing in regular search results.
Don’t confuse Google podcasts with Google Play. Google is transitioning away from Play.
They explain how they index podcasts in their developer Docs.
Basically it says the podcast must have a dedicated home page, with a link pointing to your RSS feed.
What does this mean? Your podcast needs a website.
Google is actually transcribing the audio in the same way that they automatically do on YouTube, with the idea being that you would be able to search for something the podcast host said in the episode and it will show up in search results.
So I think we can expect that all of the search optimization tricks people are doing on YouTube, like putting keywords in their titles, making sure that they actually say the keywords out loud, especially at the beginning of their video, all of that’s going to apply to podcasts now as well.
Moving forward, you are going to really need to think through your podcast episode titles, as well as the first paragraph of text in your show notes, and what you say at the introduction of the show. Google is going indexing that.
So far Google has not been a big player in the podcast space. But that will change having podcasts show up in regular Google search results both on mobile and on the desktop. This could be a game changer. This could mean that podcasts get a lot more distribution.
I talk with long-time friend and colleague Chuck Francis. He is the owner of Take And Bake Marketing, as well as the owner of USAAccess, a web-hosting, video production and graphic design firm. My websites are hosted with USAAccess, full disclosure, but I bring him to the mic because of his knowledge around building websites, and how a website protects your podcast. We cover
- Importance of owning your own website
- Maintaining control of your own RSS feed(s)
- WordPress for site and show management
- Control your feed, and control where it lives