The SEO Benefits of Branded Podcasts

Want SEO success? Think podcast marketing! Here’s why... 

There are A LOT of reasons why brands want to rank high in the search engine listings. This page details most of them, but here’s a quick summary:  

• Search engines matter. Search engines are vital for driving traffic to your site. They account for 300% more traffic than social media.  

• High rankings matter. 75% of people only look at the first page of results.  

• Search engine visibility matters. 50% of people are more likely to click a result if a brand appears multiple times in their search engine results.  

Here’s the second thing to note: Google is far and away the king of the search engines. Check out the stats:  

• Of searches done on mobiles and tablets, 94% of the traffic comes via Google.  

• Google also holds 75% market share of desktop and laptop searches.  

• Google processes over 57,000 searches, every second.  

Third thing to note: podcasts boost your search engine rankings.  

The SEO Benefits of Branded Podcast #1: Increased Search Engine Visibility 

Podcasts increase your search engine visibility – and therefore increase your ranking.  

Google now surfaces individual podcast episodes in its search results. Why does that matter? Because this means that every episode of your podcast increases your chances of Google ranking you. 

Google has had the tech capacity to index your audio since 2019. This means the search engine isn’t reliant on your podcast’s title or subtitle or meta-description: it’s looking content. So, if you create a podcast (or a podcast series) that focuses on aspects of your business or industry in which you have core expertise, that valuable content will be recognised and surfaced: enhancing your SEO.  

The other takeaways?  

• The more episodes your branded podcast has, the more likely it is that your content will reflect popular search results.  

• The quality of your podcasts will count. This is about content but it’s also about the quality of your audio. Great audio = easy transcription = enhanced results.  

• Podcasts with expert guests will boost your results. Google will pick up their presence on your podcast and surface you in response to searches for those guests. 

Underlining Google’s commitment to podcast, in 2018 the company’s Podcasts Product Manager Zack Reneau-Wedeen said that his team’s mission is, ‘...to help double the amount of podcast listening in the world over the next couple of years.’ In other words, the biggest search engine in the world is actively trying to grow your podcast audience.  

The SEO Benefits of Branded Podcast #2: Greater Brand Awareness and Reach 

 Podcasts are a popular and evergreen form of customer-attracting content.  

Why does any piece of branded online content matter? You know the answer: it’s because it gets the brand exposure; highlights your areas of expertise; builds your credibility and extends your reach. In this sense, podcasts are another channel for your quality content. And the benefits they bring in this regard are three-fold:  

1. Podcasts give you the opportunity to present the same content in two forms – audio and written. You can multiply the content from your podcast in very simple ways. You can create a transcript. You can use extracts from your podcast as a springboard for blog posts. You can tweet about upcoming episodes. You can even create visual content off the back of your podcast, by creating click-worthy episode art. These are all avenues that use your podcast content in slightly different ways to broaden your reach.  

2. Podcasts reach a different audience. People listen to podcasts on the go: often when they’re moving or driving. At these times, it’s not possible to engage with written content. So, podcasts reach an audience who want to consume information in a different way. Your audio content complements your written content and grows your audience.  

3. Podcasts take you to new (online) places. Podcasts are hosted in spaces that are not reached by other means! With a branded podcast, you find a home on channels like Apple Podcasts and Spotify (plus a plethora of other hosts). New audiences have a chance to discover you in these locations by using a podcast app search, which scours titles and episode descriptions for relevant content. It’s yet another way of building your base.  

The SEO Benefits of Branded Podcast #3: Attract Quality Backlinks 

Podcasts attract the backlinks that build your base and boost your ranking.  

People link to your page when they feel that your page is providing quality information that matters to their audience. To put that another way, every link you attract has the potential to grow your audience. And there’s another reason why backlinks scatter gold dust over your brand: they function as a powerful search engine magnet. Search engines love sites with lots of links because the links tell them that your site has content that people value.  

What does that have to do with podcasts? Everything!  

When you create a quality branded podcast, you are creating content that ticks at least one of the following link-attracting boxes. A podcast that’s... 

• Informative 

• Entertaining 

• Useful 

  OR 

• Newsworthy 

...will entice people to link it to their website. This builds your brand in three ways. Firstly, it feeds into brand awareness and reach. That website’s followers become aware of your brand. Secondly, it allows you to create clever internal links. Your podcast page; your transcript; your show notes; your podcast-related tweets can all lead to your website or even to your website’s conversion pages. Thirdly, it builds your search engine visibility. SEO appeal!  

Want to know more? At Message Heard, we make podcasts that help your brand to reach new audiences. Find out what we can do for you. Call today: 02081036034 or email us at: contact@messageheard.com.