Statistics show that podcasts are growing in popularity. Your metadata determines whether your podcast shows up in relevant user searches. High-quality metadata will help prospective listeners discover your podcast and grow your audience.
Your podcast uses audio to send a message to your audience. Search engines don’t have the ability to scan the content of an audio file. So, you might ask, Where can I place the data relating to my podcast? A podcast is organized and distributed through a feed which contains information in the form of cryptic tags. Since search engines are capable of scanning these tags, it is important to provide as much information as possible about your podcast to increase its discoverability.
What Is Metadata?
Metadata might sound like a term invented by computer geeks, but it simply means data about something. In this case, “something” relates to the information you supply about your podcast. You should provide as much data as possible when you upload episodes to your host service. This information becomes part of a tag system that will tell your potential listeners about your podcast. For example:
- Author. Your name (or the name of your company, network, or brand).
- Description. Many podcast apps are unable to show more than the first sentence or two. Pacific Content’s Dan Misener advises to “front-load the most important details and include the hookiest, most important human-readable details at the beginning of your show description.” Important to note, keywords in your show description for iTunes do not rank in a search.
- Categories. Choose up to three. Apple has a full list of categories and keeps it updated. By putting your show in the most appropriate category or categories, you naturally increase the probability that the people who are most likely to love it will find it.
- Episode title. Pick one memorable or interesting word or phrase that best exemplifies the episode. Avoid redundancy by not including the word “podcast,” the title of your show.
- Episode number. If you run a serialized podcast, each episode needs to have a number. You don’t want your audience to listen to your podcast in the wrong order. Also provide the publication date of each episode.
- Important links. Always include a link to your podcast’s website in every single episode description. The same goes for your podcast’s socials.
- Clean or Explicit. There are no restrictions on swear words, but you must label your podcast as such.
Don’t Just Set It and Forget It
The overall information about your podcast, as well as information applying to each particular episode, may change and evolve over time. Be sure that you are still in the correct category or if an explicit tag needs to be adjusted.
If you need some help navigating your podcast’s metadata, Podcast Taxi is happy to lend a hand! Our team of experts provide metadata for each episode we produce. Sign up for a discovery call today to see how we can help.
