In such a competitive environment where each one of us wants to rank highest on a search engine results page (SERPS) of popular podcasting apps like itunes you need to adhere to some techniques to make your comedy podcast more visible to your audience. The common practice of making your podcast optimized is referred to as comedy podcast SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation”. In layman terms it refers to some set of techniques that one opts for making the site rank higher on Google search engine result page or search engine result pages of any other search engine.
Simply it is the practice of improving quality and quantity of traffic on your website and improving the visibility of your website.
The history of SEO tracks back to year 1991 when the first ever website was launched and then this one converted into thousands very quickly.
The importance of SEO was first felt in 1996 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin came up with a search engine that continues to prosper even in today’s time, “BackRub”. Were you going to say “GOOGLE”? Well, you aren’t wrong as BackRub was eventually renamed as Google and was registered as a domain in 1997.
A practice that many used in those days was to push as much content as possible not taking into consideration the quality of content that they were providing. This was a hack for ranking higher on the search engine results page.
This made Google more anxious so they came up with an algorithm that would reward quality over quantity and relevant content to connect users for what they were actually trying to find.
Till date these algorithms have been modified multiple times and alongside that SEO has also changed a lot. SEO has always taught us one thing, believe in giving the best content to your readers, never compromise on quality.
In this article I will be restricting myself to SEO for your comedy podcast but you should have a clear idea of how SEO works and what are the key elements of SEO.
To go in little detail of SEO, it is broadly divided into two categories: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO. Both are equivalently essential for optimising your website.
On-page SEO simply refers to all techniques that one can implement on the podcast show to improve ranking on SERPS of podcasting apps like itunes, spotify, etc.
Off-page SEO refers to all those techniques that you can implement outside your podcast to improve your site’s visibility on itunes/spotify/etc. Results.
On-page SEO
We have already differentiated on-page seo and off-page seo. Let us now talk about how you should optimize your podcast internally i.e, key elements of on-page seo.
1. Quality content
An essential component of optimisation is content. This is important for search engines as well as for you as this determines to what extent you can keep your audience engaged.
Your comedy podcast should be basically funny, something that will make someone laugh, people should not hear poor noises during the podcast, and basic things like that.
Through many analysis the longer your podcast the better chances of your content being ranked higher. However many podcasts often fail to keep the listeners engaged. Make sure that your audience is engaged throughout your podcast.
2. Keywords
Keywords are the terms that the reader searches for on google. Having the relevant set of keywords is a must for you to be found in search engine results.
A good keyword for your content is the term that has been frequently searched and is also closely related to your niche.
Common advice to all is that you should try to integrate the keyword in your podcast title and in the description of your podcast. This integration gives best results if it can be found in the beginning of your content as it looks more genuine and natural.
Off-page SEO
The main techniques of off-page seo for comedy podcasts or any kind of podcast are listed below:
1. BackLinks
There are mainly three types of links – Inbound(Backlinks) links, Outbound links, and Internal links.
Inbound links are those links which direct traffic from another website to your website. These are extremely important for enhancing your ranking on search results. This gives the search engine an idea of your domain authority. Also consider only quality inbound links. By quality I mean the website that links you should have some authority.
Outbound links are those links that are directed to another website from your own website. These links are important for a better user experience. Linking to another website with the same niche will direct the users to access some other relevant content which might not be able on your own website.
Internal links are links that link one article on your website to another website on the same website. This is done to link similar topics. This may help you in increasing the user time on your website.
Try building all the three types of links discussed above.
2. Share on Social Media
Another very powerful platform for you to interact with your audience. You can give frequent updates on any news from your business.
These were some of the most important elements of Search Engine Optimisation for your podcast. I hope that by now you have had a sufficient amount of knowledge of basic SEO.
In the article to follow we will be strictly considering comedy podcasting SEO.
You may wonder that your comedy podcast is an audio which Google might not be able to index yet, but you can still get your episodes ranked. For doing so you need to optimise your content by implementing some simple techniques.
Below are some suggested some best techniques that could optimize your podcast.
SEO Techniques For Comedy Podcasts
Use these SEO techniques for your podcast and surely your podcast is going to rank upper and you’ll get traffic.
1. Selecting the right keyword for each episode
The first tip for you is to work on deciding an appropriate short keyword for each episode.
Apps like itunes have reduced their reliance on keywords as many podcasters used to play with keywords manipulating the search engine crawler. Although they hold significance in terms that they help the search engine identify what your podcast is all about.
Try making up short keywords as it makes your episode more favorable to come in multiple search results. Playing with the keywords in the sense using multiple keywords together is highly vulnerable.
2. Use a Good Cover Art
Make a good cover art for your podcast episode, it is very important as it attracts people. Search for ‘Comedy podcasts’ and see if you find any episode with a poor quality cover art in the top 5 listings?, the answer is NO!
You will only open a podcast if its cover art is good. If your cover art is not good, not appealing, then no one is going to open it. It will give a clear signal to the podcast app that your podcast is appearing in the search result but no one is clicking on it, which means your podcast is not good.
Hiring a freelancer from Fiverr to create a cover art is often a simple and effective option as they are specialist in that and can do a far better job than you if you don’t know much about designing a cover art.
3. Ask Website Owners to Link to You
Search the web for “Comedy Podcasts” and you’ll find many articles on “Top 20 Comedy Podcasters” and others like that. Contact each of those site owners through their email. And, ask them to link to your comedy podcast, tell them why you deserve to be in that list.
You can find their emails or social media accounts from the contact page of their site. The more personal you’ll be, the more are the chances, they’ll include your podcast link. This will not just help in rankings but will also help you to get more traffic from that site.
4. Submit Your Podcast to All The Podcast Sites
This is very important. Submit your podcast to Google Podcasts, Spotify, iTunes, Castbox, Podbean and others. I highly recommend you to submit your podcast to Google as many people search for podcasts on google instead of using other apps.
5. Use a Good Podcast Host
Don’t use free or very cheap podcast hosting service providers as they reduce the quality of your podcast. There are many podcast hosting providers but if you are a beginner, pick a low-cost hosting and then migrate as you gain subscribers and downloads.
6. Share Your Podcast in All the Social Media Sites
This will not only help in SEO but also provide you some extra traffic. Share your podcast on Facebook Groups, Create a Facebook page for your podcasts, Share it on twitter, Instagram, and all other social media sites.
Also social media helps your audience stay updated of all your recent activities. Social media has proven to be a great optimising tool as well a great traffic generator for many.
Now, the other methods are optional but they can help you a lot. Above techniques were a must.
7. Create A Blog Post For Each Episode
On your website you can create a section where you write the script about each episode of yours. This will make your comedy podcast more visible and will be an advertising tool for your comedy podcasts.
Through this article people may reach out to your comedy podcast on iTunes or even you could give the link to your podcast in your article itself. You can write blog posts on the topic you create podcasts on.
Another reason why you should maintain a blog is that it gives your audience an idea of existence. They can read more about your niche. Running a well maintained blog can drive a lot of traffic your way. Devoting a sufficient time on your blog can yield exceptionally good results in future.
8. Convert Your Podcast Into A Youtube Video
This is not that easy but has more benefits. What you can do instead of this is, you can create a Youtube Channel and upload comedy videos. Then convert the video in audio files and edit them in Audacity.
Then, upload it as a Podcast. In this way, you have double earning probabilities, you can earn from Youtube as well as podcasting.
9. Tell Other YouTubers About Your Podcast
Find some Youtubers and tell them about your podcast. Tell them that you own a comedy podcast and ask them if possible, please tell your audience about it.
Small Youtubers can do this but don’t expect someone with more than 100k subscribers is going to do this. Don’t ask youtubers with more than 15k subs. This will also help you get some additional traffic.
These were the top comedy podcasting SEO techniques. Understanding of each one of them is critical. Hope you got a deep insight into how to make your comedy podcast optimised and rank high in search results.
If you follow these techniques you will be able to grow your podcast quickly and much easier than other podcasters. The growth will not be immediate so keep putting out content on a regular basis and keep your format consistent.