Rank Higher on Apple and Spotify | Anthony Nwaneri

Want more podcast listeners without paid ads or constant promotion? Podcast SEO is the key. In this episode, Anthony Nwaneri shares how to rank higher on Apple and Spotify so new listeners can find you organically. Learn how to optimize your podcast title, episode names, and descriptions to shortcut your way to more visibility. Get ready to apply these simple SEO strategies and start growing your audience faster!

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE: HTTPS://PODMATCH.COM/EP/330

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Podcast SEO
04:43 Why Podcast SEO is Essential
05:39 Steps to Improve Discoverability
09:02 Enhancing Visibility and Click-Through Rates
10:01 Maximizing Listener Retention
14:37 Recap and Final Thoughts

Takeaways

Podcast SEO is crucial for ranking on Apple and Spotify.
Ignoring Podcast SEO can hinder your growth strategy.
Discoverability involves ranking for relevant keywords.
Visibility is about being clicked on over competitors.
High retention time is essential for ranking well.
Specific keywords reduce competition and attract the right audience.
Attractive cover art can increase click-through rates.
Engaging intros can improve listener retention.
Analyzing listener drop-off points can enhance content quality.
Implementing these strategies can lead to organic growth.

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE: HTTPS://PODMATCH.COM/EP/330

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Podcast SEO
• 4:43 Why Podcast SEO is Essential
• 5:39 Steps to Improve Discoverability
• 9:02 Enhancing Visibility and Click-Through Rates
• 10:01 Maximizing Listener Retention
• 14:37 Recap and Final Thoughts

Transcript

You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple. What if you can be found by the right listeners who are literally searching for your content every single day? Now, most podcasters will call this a dream, but we call this Podcast SEO. And that's why today I'm going to be sharing with you what Podcast SEO is and isn't, why you can't afford to ignore Podcast SEO as a growth strategy, where most people go wrong when it comes to Podcast SEO.

And finally, the three simple changes you can start making today to rank your podcast higher on Apple and Spotify. So let's begin. Podcast SEO has nothing to do with Google websites, super long blogs and show notes, massive transcripts or tags. All of those things that I've just mentioned are all about optimizing a website for Google SEO.

But when it comes to podcast SEO, we're trying to optimize our podcast to rank higher on specifically Apple Podcasts and Spotify. There are over 20 million daily active podcast listeners alone in America. And I'm sure that number is growing day by day. Podcast SEO is the process of having your show rank higher on Apple and Spotify, the platforms where listeners go to to discover new shows. When you're able to rank

high on these platforms for relevant keywords and search terms. Search terms meaning the specific terms and phrases your listeners are typing in on Apple and Spotify to discover a new show. means your podcast now has the opportunity to be found by your idle listeners. So that's what Podcast SEO is. The second piece I wanted to share with you today is the reason why you can't ignore Podcast SEO as a strategy.

Look, the truth is, whether we like it or not, when it comes to promoting on social media or when it comes to getting high profile guests, whilst these are great ways to keep our current listeners engaged and maybe keep top of mind, they are an effective way of reaching listeners when they are actively looking for content to consume. Whereas with podcast SEO, you are literally reaching listeners when they are actively looking for your content. Just think about how much easier it is to turn these people into listeners of your show.

The second reason why you can't afford to ignore podcast SEO is actually to do with monetization because what people do when they are looking for podcasts to help them solve their problems, if you have an education based shows, if you're an entrepreneur, a coach, an expert in your field and you're sharing valuable insights and you want to use your podcast as a way to generate more clients for your business, oftentimes your clients are searching in on Apple and Spotify specific podcasts.

to help them solve specific problems. Let's say for example, I do SEO as a service for small businesses, and then I create a podcast talking, educating, and sharing stuff about SEO for small businesses. And if I'm now ranking highly on Apple and Spotify for the keywords, SEO for small businesses, and I have thousands of people searching in that keyword each and every month, and they're finding my podcast, which is all about SEO for small businesses, well guess what?

I am now being found by potential clients who were searching in looking for my podcast, searching most likely for a service that I can provide them. So it's great not just to attract more listeners to your show, but podcast SEO is also a fantastic way for you to be found by potential listeners. And finally, when it comes to podcast SEO, well, you can't afford to ignore it. It's because of this. Look,

This is something that most podcasters completely overlook as a strategy, which means there are far less people applying podcast SEO. So right now is the best opportunity for you to start ranking highly for these search terms, because with the competition being so low right now, it's an opportunity for you to take advantage of that. And I can promise you in a couple of months, in a couple of years, more people will start to know about podcast SEO.

and more people start applying the strategies I'm going to share with you today. You're going to be playing catch up instead of being years ahead, you might be years behind. Instead of ranking on page one and having that ease when it comes to ranking, show higher on Apple and Spotify, you might find it way more difficult. So now is the perfect time to act whilst this is something that people aren't properly applying. So without further ado, let's dive straight in. Why is it that the strategy podcast SEO

isn't really applied very often. And it's simply because of this. Number one, most podcasters think it's too hard or too complicated to actually apply. Number two, they think you need to be an expert, which builds on to point number one. Number three, they think it takes way long for it actually take effect, which is incorrect. They're confusing podcast SEO for Google SEO, which is a more of a long-term strategy. With podcast SEO, things can happen quite fast. It can move up your rankings pretty quickly. And finally,

They aren't even aware that podcast SEO is a strategy. They aren't even aware that there are specific steps that you can take. I'm going to share with you today that you can use to shortcut your way to rank and hire an app on Spotify. And that's why most people totally ignore it. But as you are about to discover, it is super simple if you have the right steps. It can happen really quickly. You don't need to be an expert. You just need to understand the fundamental basics, which I'm going to break down in just a moment.

And finally, you don't need to be someone who's a technical guru or wizard. Again, you just have to focus on the fundamentals. So with that being said, here are the three steps that you can start taking today in order to rank your show and shortcut your way to ranking higher on Apple and Spotify in order to be found organically by hundreds of new listeners each and every week. Step number one is called discoverability. Discoverability is all about ranking your podcast for highly relevant keywords.

So if your podcast, as an example, it's all about SEO for small businesses, is making sure that you're ranking for the keywords SEO for small businesses. Because when you do that, it means when people searching your topic or search terms or keywords onto Apple and Spotify, you're ranking for the show. They're placing you as part of the search results for those main keywords. So right now you might be thinking, that sounds fantastic, it sounds great, buddy, I get it, but which keywords should I actually rank for? And I promise you it's super simple.

You start by firstly asking yourself what are all the search terms my audience will search in on Apple or Spotify in order to discover and find my show. So if you have a podcast that's all about SEO, then make sure to rank for SEO. If it's all about, you know, if you're talking about websites, you can talk about how to rank your websites higher, how to rank your blogs higher. And then what you want to do for every podcast, this keywords will be different because everyone again, everyone has different show, but figure out right down.

five of these keywords that you always might search in on Apple and Spotify to find your show. And then you want to use a free tool like Ubersuggest. What Ubersuggest allows you to do is it allows you to have a look at the search volume for these keywords. And you want to then order these keywords from the highest search volume to the lowest search volume. And then you want to pick the top three that have the highest search volume. Those are the keywords you'll add into your show name, into your future episodes.

into your show notes. The more times those specific keywords you want to rank for shows up in your show name, in your episode titles, in your show notes, and even in your description, the more times it shows up on your podcast, the quicker you can rank for that keyword. You're giving Apple and Spotify the information they need to index your show, to say, yes, this show is about X, Y, and Z. Let's show it to people who are searching in these relevant keywords.

And that was important when you think about these keywords, that you make them specific. So instead of just having, you know, a general, let's say your business was just a general business podcast, you spoke about SEO, you only just want to rank for business. You'd want to rank specifically for SEO for small businesses, because the more specific you are, the less competition you have, because there are going to be less shows trying to rank for those specific keywords. That's number one. Number two, the more specific your keywords are,

It means that if a listener is searching in SEO for small businesses and they find your show, which is rank for that keyword, only the people you want to listen to your show will listen to your show. So that's the first piece, discoverability. The second piece is all about visibility. How do we make sure we're being seen and clicked on over the competition? Because now you are being discovered, people can find you. But when your results show up, it's going to be you versus everyone else. So how do you make sure that your podcast

is being clicked on over the competition. This is the part where you start to prioritize having an attractive cover art that turns that stranger, peas their interest, turns them into a listener. This is the part where we to focus on having attractive episode titles where you're integrating your keywords, but also integrating the benefit listeners will gain and telling them how you're to alleviate the pains and problems they might be going through, how you're going to help them solve these pains and problems. Because once you are being discovered,

is now about the conversion piece and that's the visibility part being seen and clicked on over the competition. So updating your cover art and really focusing on having highly attractive episode titles that show the listener the benefit they'll gain and show them the problem you're going to help them solve. And then the third and final piece. So we're being discovered, we'll rank up the highly searched keywords, we're being seen and clicked on over the competition, so we're visible, our visibility's up. The final stage is making sure we have a high listen time.

a high retention time because Apple and Spotify, they're not going to get adjudged by a young black British guy adding a bunch of keywords into clients' titles or for you, adding a bunch of keywords into your title. Apple and Spotify want to make sure they're sharing podcasts that are good, that are high quality to the right listener. They want to make sure that they're serving their audience. And how they do that is by ranking shows that have a higher retention time higher on Apple and Spotify.

because if you have a low retention time, meaning on average, people aren't listening to the majority of your show. A low retention time would be something that's below 70%. For myself, encourage podcasts, I encourage you to aim for at least 80 % or above because when you have that, it means that the quality of your content is objectively speaking, high quality.

It means that when someone discovers your show while typing your keyword, when they look at your card right and find it attractive, when they see the title and they click play, they listen to the majority of the show, which means the keywords you're ranking for are highly relevant. But if they don't listen to the majority of the show, it's an indication that you're ranking for the wrong keywords. It's an indication that the quality of your show isn't as good. It's an indication that you're not keeping users engaged. And Apple and Spotify, well,

They're in the game of keeping people's attention. They're in the game of keeping their users happy. They're in the game of keeping users on their platform. And if your podcast isn't doing that, well, why would they share it? And even if they did share it and people aren't listening to the majority of your show, well, the show itself won't do a good job of keeping them coming back for more. So this is why it's so important to have a higher retention time above 80%. So great, I get it. Amazing, and I totally get it, but.

How do I make sure I have a high retention time? How do I make sure that I do stay ranked high on Apple and Spotify? That I don't add all the right cute words to my show name, episode title, show no description. That I don't make the changes to my cover art and my episode titles to make it super attractive and invisible. But I'm not able to keep listeners engaged. Therefore, I'm not able to rank my show higher and have more of those listeners coming back for more. So how can I actually make sure, and how can you ensure, that you do have a high retention time?

Here are the specific steps you can take today. Number one, discover your attention time. Go on Apple Podcast Connect and you can have a look at your consumption time. That's what they call it, the consumption time. If it's below 80%, ask yourself why. For the most part, most podcasts struggle with their intros. So their intro isn't value driven enough to give people a reason to listen and stick around. So here's what you can do. At the start of your intro, always start with a powerful hook. Start with a question.

Have you ever wondered whether podcast SEO can make a difference to your podcast growth? That could be a question or it could be a statement. In this episode, you will discover the simple steps you can take today to rank higher on Apple and Spotify without being an SEO expert. You start with a hook. This will grab their attention. The next thing you should do is to state three benefits your audience will gain from this specific episode. And you want to, again, say this in the intro. That's three benefits they'll gain. What you want to do here is to

inject massive curiosity to these benefits. An example could be the hidden secret about podcast SEO and how to use to grow faster. Why you can't afford to ignore podcast SEO if you're trying to grow and monetize your show in 2024 and beyond. And finally, a common mistake that most podcasters make that means their show never breaks into page one of Apple on Spotify. When you do this in your intro, what happens is you are piquing someone's curiosity.

you are opening a loop that they have to close by consuming the entire episode. And when you do this, you increase the likelihood that they stick around, that you have a high retention time. So that's with your intro. Then in terms of the body, make sure to keep it engaging, keep it fun, keep it exciting. And make sure to also look and see where do people consistently drop off? Did I go off on a tangent? Did I tell an irrelevant story? Maybe if I have an hour long show and everyone's consistently dropping off on a halfway point.

you can actually split up the episodes into two parts, part one and part two, because your audience might just be consuming the podcast on a 20 minute or 30 minute commute. So no matter how amazing content is, when they get to their destination, they stop listening and they might not remember to pick things back up. So those are simple things you can do to increase your retention time. So to recap, Podcast SEO is a process of ranking your podcast higher on Apple and Spotify. There are really three parts you can focus on in order to shortcut your way to ranking higher on these platforms.

so can be found by new listeners. Step number one, discoverability. Adding highly searched and relevant keywords to your titles. The more specific your keywords are, the better. You want to add that to your show name, episode titles, show description, show notes. The more places that appears, the better it is for your show. Number two, visibility. Great, we're being found organically, but now are we being seen and clicked on over the competition? This means having an attractive cover art and having episode titles that are irresistible.

focusing on the benefit your episode will give your audience and focus on the pain it will take them away from. And then finally, increasing your retention time above 80%. Making sure that people, when they click and listen to your show, they consume the majority of it. That's how you get your show recommended to new listeners and that's also how you ensure listeners are satisfied and they're happy and they come back for more. This is how you shortcut your way to ranking high on Apple and Spotify.

This is how you can be found by hundreds of new listeners each week, organically, active listeners who are searching for your content. So hope you've enjoyed this. I'm looking forward to you applying this and seeing the magic work for yourself. more episodes, please visit podmatch.com forward slash episodes. Thank you so much for listening.