Podcasts in Search, Done Properly
How podcast episodes and shows appear in search results, and what makes them findable.
Samir Haddad
The key figures
- Feeds
- podcast distribution relies on RSS feeds
- Episode pages
- text pages make episodes indexable
- Transcripts
- provide indexable content and accessibility
- Structured data
- can describe podcast episodes
Why this is worth getting right
Podcast audio is hard for search engines to index, so the surrounding pages do most of the work.
Do this, not that
Do
- Publish an episode page for every episode
- Include transcripts
- Use descriptive episode titles
- Keep feed metadata accurate
- Link episodes from related articles
Don’t
- Audio published with no page
- Episode titles with no topic words
- Missing transcripts
- Feeds with stale metadata
When to bring in help
Our advice Bring in help when podcasts should drive search traffic.
Where this comes from
- Apple Podcasts for Creators — Podcast RSS feed requirements
- Google Search Central — Structured data general guidelines
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
Working on something like this?
We take on SEO Services work for teams who want it done once, properly. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right studio for it. Start a project.
Where to go next
Spotted something wrong? Report an error on this page. We correct on the page and say what changed.
