Have you heard of podcasts? I’m joking — of course you have! Great tool to scale your traffic. They have exploded in popularity in just the past year alone. The trend is going to continue to increase, as well.
Why?
Because podcasts are a huge hit right now — that’s why everyone and their mother has a podcast these days. The reason is quite simple. There is no barrier of entry. You can have a professional setup at your disposal for a few hundred dollars. You can even start with zero dollars and create and publish your episodes from your mobile phone.
Best of all — there is a massive audience just begging for more podcast content to consume.
But what about podcasting for you — is it worth it? Is there an audience for your business? More than likely, because more than 3 out of every 10 adults listen to podcasts. That is a huge percent when you think about it. Some experts predict that by the end of the near nearly 40 percent of the population will be listening to podcasts.
Why are podcasts so popular?
It really comes down to convenience. There are answers to any question you could imagine available online. A simple Google search will pull up plenty of options. But people are lazy. They don’t want to read when they can listen. It requires less “work” and less of an attention span.
They are also very portable and act as a great time filler. When someone is driving to work or in the car, they can listen to a podcast. When they are on the cardio machine at the gym they can listen to a podcast.
Podcasts sound great, so how can you get highly targeted website traffic from your podcast?
It comes down to producing great content that helps build your reputation, listener base and credibility. Over time, you create enough trust and curiosity that your visits will start to increase, but there are also some ways to naturally earn links that will contribute to your domain’s authority and help you pull more organic traffic without actively seeking out to build or buy links.
Let’s dive right in and see how Podcasts can help you scale your traffic and business.
Think of a Relevant Topic that is Interesting and Limitless in Terms of Topics
I imagine that some people reading this are already asking themselves whether or not the possibility exists within their niche to start a podcast. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that yes, there is an opportunity to start a podcast in every niche or industry imaginable.
The key is to think of an angle or topic that is number one, interesting, because you want to lure listeners in and keep them entertained, and two, has unlimited topics. Also, podcasts don’t have to be as frequent as you might think.
There are several very popular podcasts that are monthly or bi-monthly, and they do very well. It’s better to release podcasts full of information on a monthly basis than it is to record and publish a few each week that are just rambling with little to no value.
Now, when it comes to thinking of a topic you have to be a little creative and think about what would appeal to your target market. Let me use an extreme situation as an example. Let’s pretend a pest control company was interested in starting a podcast. Some people might think that there is no way to create a popular podcast in that niche.
This is where creativity comes into play. Rambling on about how to kill bugs isn’t going to pull listeners in, but a podcast that talks about how to use DIY remedies to protect your home in the different insect seasons is something that people would listen to.
This is a podcast that could be created monthly, and as the season changes, discuss what they most common insects are and how to use home remedies to prevent them from being a nuisance.
The content can be hyper targeted to the local market, because they would be looking to just pull in local customers. If they provide helpful information they are going to build trust within the community. Now, when a pest control problem is out of hand who are the locals going to contact? This company, because they have provided value.
For this to be successful the podcast hosts would need to be entertaining and have a good sense of humor. Pets aren’t a fun topic, but with some humor and personality the show could become a local hit.
Create a Title Using a Highly Lucrative Keyword in the Beginning
Podcasts have become so popular now that Google is starting to show them much higher in the search results. Since they are something that people are consuming at a much higher rate now, they hold more weight in the algorithm.
So, your podcast title gives you an opportunity to have another owned property that ranks high in organic search without having to do any link building. Also, while iTunes will typically be the top ranked podcast format, there are many other popular podcast platforms that you can leverage.
Once your podcast hits iTunes, many of the other platforms will syndicate it form that feed, or you can contact them and see if they are interested in picking it up, often only requiring you submit that iTunes RSS feed.
It’s important to fully build out your profiles, because this is an automated link earning strategy, and as more podcast platforms hit the market, the more links you will earn without having to lift a finger.
This benefits you two ways. You build links without having to actually build links, and you have the opportunity to be found for keywords that you otherwise wouldn’t rank for. Google is rolling out a “Podcasts” results section, which sits at the very top of the SERPs.
Now, this isn’t fully rolled out, but it’s present on the Chrome browser and on Android devices, which is where Google typically tests new features before the full roll-out happens.
This is yet another way to occupy the top of the SERPs without doing any link building. If someone finds your podcast listing this way and click over you might grab a new listener, and they might even click-through to your website.
An intelligent SEO strategy these days involves much more than just ranking your website at the top of the SERPs. You now have to take other things into consideration, like podcast and video, as Google favors these and places them at the top of the SERPs within their own sections.
Create Episode Titles and Descriptions Optimized for Google Search … and Publish Them on YouTube
Podcasts are so popular now that many searches on Google now return podcast episodes. This is a newer feature (not available in all regions) but something I expect to be standard across the board shortly, as mentioned above.
Those in the SEO industry know who Neil Patel is. Well, he has a podcast that will now show up in the SERPs for some of the most competitive keywords, and these results are on top of everything else.
Then, under the “Podcasts” results are video results, and you guessed it, his videos all show up there as well. He is double-dipping, and it’s a very smart strategy.
So, what he is doing is creating titles and descriptions that are optimized for Google. They are very keyword heavy and it becomes crystal clear that Google pulls directly from the title and description when ranking YouTube videos, as well as the tags. Yes, tags — like old school blogging tags in WordPress.
YouTube is still the second largest search engine and since so many people use it as that, you would be crazy not to re-purpose your podcast episodes, turning them into YouTube videos.
Will most people listen to podcasts on YouTube? Sure, some will, but it’s more of an awareness strategy, and a way to get people to click-through to your website or a specific landing page.
The YouTube description’s first part should be text optimized to rank for the target keyword, but after that you can include CTAs and offers, directing those video viewers to a very targeted and relevant offer.
Another simple strategy that can drive heaps of traffic to your website without building a single link.
Consistency is Key Just Like it is with Any Content Marketing
No matter what strategy you use when marketing your business you have to be consistent. Whether it’s blogging, posting on social media, or performing outreach to secure links — being consistent is the only way to find success.
The same applies to podcasting. There is a lot of competition now, and so many people are starting podcasts, but most eventually quit. Just like most blogs fizzle out and most link building campaigns cool down.
Why is that?
Because people get frustrated. They want instant results. Go ahead and do some podcast research in your niche. At first glance you might think that there is too much competition and it’s a crowded space. But, then look at the date of the last episode on those podcasts — you will see some have been idle for several months to several years.
If you are going to do it, you have to be willing to record episodes for a while without seeing it snowball. You might be recording your first dozen episodes for a couple listeners. But that is fine! It allows you to perfect the process, be more comfortable with recording yourself, etc.
Also, when it does pick up steam you are going to see people start to go back and listen to your older episodes as well. If you are expecting to record a few episodes and then watch your listener count shoot to the moon you are in for a rude awakening.
I feel like I have had this conversation before — and I have — back when I wrote some posts about how blogging requires consistency and a long-term approach. The same applies to podcasts. It’s the exact same thing in terms of consistency and being a long-term play.
If I’m being honest, I would tell you that you should go into this expecting momentum to be slow for the first year. If you are fine with that and willing to put in the work then your chance of finding success through a podcast is going to be much higher.
Consider a Co-Host or Regular Guests with Large Audiences to Help Promote
Traction is key for any podcast, and while it will take the majority of podcasts a while to start to attract listeners, there is something you can do that will give you a major head start — and that is to bring on a co-host or regular guests that have large audiences in your niche.
The more people that come in contact with your podcast the more traction it will gain. Take advantage of any time you can give yourself an edge, and when it comes to podcasts, having an extra person to promote helps.
This is why you see so many successful podcasts have one or two co-hosts with large social media audiences, and any guest will typically have a large following as well. Why? Because the podcast knows that the people they bring on and feature will announce it to their followers and share the episode when it goes live.
While it might not be feasible to have a special guest on every episode, you will want to work them in — the mostar often the better. To line up guests you will want to do outreach, the same way you would go after securing guest blogging opportunities, or securing infographic placements.
It’s a numbers game. When your podcast is new you will have to aim a little lower in terms of guest quality and star power. As your podcast grows, you can then use your stats to lure in more prominent guests.
Remember, the guest needs to have incentive in order for them to take time out of their schedule to do your podcast. If you have a large audience and allow them to pitch something, there is a much better chance of them accepting your invitation.
Final Thoughts
If this isn’t further proof that SEO is constantly evolving I don’t know what is. Look at all of the top companies or influencers in any niche. They have a podcast, and they aren’t doing it out of boredom. They are dedicating time and resources to producing podcast content because it helps them in their business.
Any time you see people jumping on a trend and being consistent with it, you can be fairly certain that there is a direct benefit. I can promise you that none of the people doing daily podcasts and putting in all of that effort are doing it just for fun.
They are benefiting from it.
You can too, but you have to act quickly. Just like how content marketing took off, and everyone was publishing daily content, podcasting is following a very similar path. If you snooze on this you are going to miss out.
Do you have any questions related to podcasting or using it to help drive traffic to your website? If so, drop a comment below. Also, I’d love for those currently podcasting to chime in with their experience so far. Do you see it helping your business directly in terms of increased website traffic?
Tommy McDonald
Tommy is an SEO professional with years of experience running highly successful SEO companies, founded SerpLogic after noticing there was a major void when it came to options for SEO agencies needing a reliable and professional one-stop outsource solution.You can read all about me in the “About” page here on our blog!