How Podcasts Help Your SEO

For today’s post, I am pleased to welcome guest blogger Phil Singleton, one of my fellow Duct Tape Marketing Consultants and an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Considering all of the Google algorithms we’ve all experienced in recent years including Penguin and Panda, it is evident that SEO is no longer all about volume based link building and “tweaking” the text on your website so that it is properly keyword optimized.  Today, modern SEO is all about effective content marketing and using every available channel to get your content distributed in a way that helps you grow an audience of targeted content consumers.  Ultimately, the goal of content marketing is getting targeted consumers back to your website to learn more, or even better to inquire about your product/service or make a purchase.

Podcasting is an easy way to generate unique content for your website.  What is the primary benefit of podcasts?  When done right, podcasting can be a component of your content marketing campaign that helps further improve the results of your organic search engine optimization efforts.

SEO is critical in achieving higher ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs).  By implementing an effective search engine optimization campaign, your company, brand, and products/services become more visible to a targeted audience if you achieve a first page ranking.  Most people who search the Internet for information or products simply type in a search term (aka keyword) in a search engine, usually Google.  The user then browses the results on page one, and sometimes page two although they rarely go further.  When your SEO efforts work, you enjoy a higher volume of targeted traffic, which in return results in an increase in leads, customers, and sales.  It is also important to note that right or wrong, consumers tend to trust companies whose websites rank highly in the results pages.

5 Ways Podcasting Can Contribute To Your SEO Campaign

1. Authority

Podcasting helps establish your authority within your industry or niche. When you podcast effectively, it helps establish you and your company as an authority. Because podcasting helps you generate an audience and engage in social activity/discussion, your site attracts natural links from high quality, relevant websites. All of this helps build your reputation as an authority in the eyes of Google, an important factor in ranking.

2. Conversion optimization

Podcasts can be embedded in your website just as YouTube videos are; this adds value to the relevant content of your pages.

3. Social signals

Search engines (in particular, Google), “listen” to social signals in determining the rank of a website.  Because podcasts help generate social signals – for instance number of likes, shares, re-tweets, inbound links, plusses – your site ranks higher because your content is shared or linked to often.

4. Podcast SEO

a) Podcast directories such as iTunes and Stitcher are essentially “mini” search engines for podcasts.  Just as SEO is done on your website pages and blog articles, podcasts can be optimized so that they have an opportunity to pop up on these directory sites when someone performs a search.  Podcasts and podcast pages that have been search engine optimized can rank in search in the way YouTube videos do.  When possible, use customizable URLs, calibrate podcast titles and descriptions, and use targeted content in the podcast.  Just as you market and share blog posts on your website in an effort to generate social signals for SEO and increase targeted traffic, you can do the same with podcasts.

b) Podcasts and podcast pages can achieve their own search engine rank just as YouTube videos occasionally pop up in Google’s organic search results.

5. Audience Leverage

Interviews are essentially the podcast equivalent of guest blog posts.  When you interview a person who is known to be an authority in a particular industry or niche, it helps both your own site and the interviewee.  The person being interviewed will want to gain further authority, and will therefore be motivated to share the podcast interview with his or her own audience.  If the interview is orchestrated from the beginning with SEO in mind, you can motivate the interviewee to link to, share, and tweet to a page on your site with the embedded podcast.

Content-driven SEO is the future of search engine ranking, and podcasts are one of the easiest ways for website owners to quickly create and distribute unique content in a way that grows an audience, generates targeted traffic, increases conversion rates, and benefits your search engine optimization efforts.

About the Author: Phil Singleton is the owner of KCSeoPro.com, a full-service online marketing services company that provides organic search engine optimization and other Internet marketing services, and KCWebdesigner.com, a WordPress web development firm specializing in custom SEO-friendly websites and custom web applications.  Phil is also a Duct Tape Marketing™ Certified Consultant and provides small business marketing product and service at KCMarketingAgency.com.