Tips.
Hello and welcome to Tips,
the podcast from OSHA that gives you all the key tips to launch and boost the growth of your podcast.
I'm Sarah,
OSHA's US Podcast Ambassador,
and in today's episode of Tips,
I'm going to talk to you about the importance of metadata and how to optimize it as much as possible.
Metadata.
It's data that's...
Meta?
But seriously,
what does it mean?
It's actually pretty simple.
When you create a show or episode,
you actually can't just broadcast your MP3 file.
In reality,
publishing a podcast is much more complex than that.
And this is where the metadata comes in.
The metadata of your podcast includes the image,
description,
tags,
the host names,
and the category of your podcast.
Basically everything your listeners are likely to see when they listen to your episodes.
And all of this information or metadata
is listed in your RSS feed.
You know,
the famous little web file that's sent to all the listening platforms.
Yeah,
that one.
Essentially,
without metadata,
your podcast doesn't exist.
But beyond creating and distributing your show,
metadata is also a valuable tool to boost the visibility of your podcast and recruit new listeners.
Did you know that if you correctly optimize the SEO of your metadata,
you'll be able to capture potential listeners who may not have had listening to a podcast as their primary goal.
Seriously.
Remember,
your metadata is mostly made up of text.
And as I just mentioned,
most of it is visible on the listing platforms that your listeners use.
But do you know who else is lurking around the platforms checking out data?
The Google robots.
Oh yes,
they are everywhere.
So by optimizing the SEO of your metadata,
for example,
by using keywords,
Google will understand what your podcast is about and will display your show higher up in the search results.
And when it's a podcast that appears at the top of the results,
well,
I think we can agree that people will want to click on that.
But keywords are not just for describing your show.
The description and titles of each of your episodes and even the name of your podcast thumbnail file are all metadata that can be optimized by keywords.
Taking good care of your metadata.
also means giving yourself more chances to convince future listeners to press play.
In addition to inserting keywords to optimize your SEO,
write a nice description and catchy title to make your audience want to listen to your episodes.
For this,
be brief,
structure your description well,
have spaces to make it easier to read,
and add some emojis to make reading it more enjoyable.
In order to write an effective description that will entice your audience,
here's three quick pointers.
First.
Have a good hook.
Start with a question or a statement that will entice your audience to listen.
It could be a problem you'll be addressing in your podcast in general,
or a bold statement that embodies the larger theme you'll be addressing in the next episodes.
Next,
add one or two phrases to describe the other main topics covered in your podcast.
Pay attention to the amount of phrases because you don't want it to become too wordy.
Finally,
finish convincing your audience by
sprinkling in a few words on the frequency of your show,
the format of your podcast,
and why not name drop a few of your prestigious guests?
Just so you know,
your description doesn't need to be long.
In reality,
the first 100 characters are what counts the most.
But if you're feeling inspired,
let it out.
With Osho,
you can write up to 4,000 characters in the description.
There are,
however,
certain rules to follow to make sure that your metadata is optimized to the maximum.
Don't repeat the title and your name in the description.
I know it's tempting just to copy and paste and stick with what you have,
but really try to work on it and make a unique description for each episode.
Don't write the keywords one after the other.
Search engines and the platform's algorithms will understand the trick and it won't have the desired effect that you want.
And I already told you about it in the episode about Apple Podcasts,
but don't add the number of each episode in the title.
Apple Podcasts hates that.
Why?
Well,
we don't know exactly why.
Potentially because a number doesn't bring any added value to the listeners,
or because Apple does this automatically,
or because such is the way for the Apple podcast.
In any case,
don't waste the space.
Leave the numbers out.
In the metadata family,
there are also tags.
But a tag and a keyword are two different things.
The main difference between the two is that a keyword is used by the search engines to understand the subject's webpages.
Whereas tags are helpful to your audience when they are searching within the listening platforms.
And finally,
there's also categories,
which is how your podcast is stored on its host.
Just remember,
keywords are used by the robots,
tags by the audience,
and category by the listening platforms.
On OSHA,
when you upload a new episode,
you can assign up to 20 tags.
And I recommend to alternate between very short and very long tags.
For example,
imagine that you start a podcast about vegan cooking.
You'll probably assign the tag hashtag vegan or hashtag cooking.
But be careful.
Make sure to avoid having complete phrases in the style of a hashtag.
Like hashtag.
Here's an amazing recipe for vegan zucchini noodles that you have to try.
And I wish you could see that hashtag because it was a mess.
There you have it.
This episode of Tips is now finished.
Thank you for staying until the end,
and I hope you liked the episode.
If that's the case,
tell us on Apple Podcasts or on the OSHA social media pages.
See you in two weeks for a new episode.
This show is brought to you by OSHA,
the all-in-one podcast hosting and marketing platform to help you grow your podcast.