84: Easy Wins for Your Podcast - OR - 8 Mistakes Podcasters Should Avoid

https://podcastfasttrack.com/

There are quite a number of easy wins you can get to make your podcast better.

Is there any reason you wouldn't want to do them?

I have the privilege of spending a lot of time checking out the resources podcasters are producing, from their podcast episodes to their websites and promotional material. Do you know what I find? Lots of obvious mistakes that I guess aren't so obvious to the podcaster in question.

In this episode I share with you 8 of the things I've noticed that many podcasters are messing up when it comes to their websites, the way they present their brand, and the way they interact with their following. I'm certain you will find something in here that you can tweak to get an easy win for your show.

Main Points : Easy Wins (by avoiding 8 common mistakes)

• [1:22] How I come across the obvious mistakes podcasters are making
• [3:14] Things about your website you need to understand
• [4:23] MISTAKE 1: Taking people AWAY from your website. It’s an EASY fix
• [8:02] iTunes ranks podcasts on one thing only. Do you know what it is?
• [9:05] MISTAKE 2: No subscription options
• [12:53] MISTAKE 3: Wonky episode titles that ignore keyword optimization
• [16:52] MISTAKE 4: Where is your contact info? Social only? Really?
• [19:48] MISTAKE 5: Podcast listens are happening more and more via mobile - can those people easily contact you?
• [22:18] MISTAKE 6: Cover Art that makes me want to throw up or yawn
• [27:52] MISTAKE 7: The website link in iTunes should go…. Where????
• [30:22] MISTAKE 8: Brand names or Cutesy show names

Your podcast player can be like the glue that keeps people on your page

It seems like many podcasters don't understand how and why Google chooses the websites it serves up to people who are searching for various things. It all has to do with Google's perceived value of the resources that are provided on that webpage.

But Google is a computer algorithm, how does it know?

Google's designers, as well as the designers of Bing and Yahoo, have programmed their systems with algorithms that look for certain indications of whether searchers are actually finding the content they discover on web pages to be valuable to them, or not.

One of the most important of those indicators is the time a searcher spends "on page" once they make a selection from the search results.

That simply means if you want to tell Google you've got valuable content, you need to keep people on your show notes pages as long as possible.

In my opinion, a podcast player can be an incredible tool to use simply because it DOES keep people on your website pages longer. It's like glue - as long as they are listening, they are not going anywhere.

So can you see what mistake number one might be? You got it! No web players on the page.

In fact, some people are even sending searchers away from their websites to listen to their episodes on Stitcher or Google Play or iTunes. Find out how I suggest you remedy this problem by listening to this episode. And hey, you'll help Google know this page was helpful to you!

Subscription options: Are you including them on your show notes pages and player descriptions?

It doesn't seem to be common knowledge, but iTunes determines which podcasts to rank highest in its search algorithms primarily by the number of subscribers there are to that show. That means if you are not asking your listeners to subscribe to your show, specifically in the iTunes platform, you are missing out on the opportunity to rank your show higher