Why should you upload your podcast to YouTube? Tool for podcast discovery and SEO

>> Nicholas: Hey, everyone, and welcome to the Headliner Podcast. We're your hosts, Nicholas and Elissa, and we're here to keep you in the loop on all of the things that you can do to promote your podcast. So, Elissa, what do you want to talk about today? >> Elissa: I personally think it is a great time to talk about why podcasters should upload to YouTube if they are not already. >> Nicholas: You don't say. So, like, is there a specific reason why we should be posting to YouTube?

>> Elissa: More than one specific reason, in my opinion. There are lots of reasons to upload to YouTube. So the past two years, YouTube has actually been marked as the number one listening platform for podcasts in the world. so 31% of weekly podcast listeners actually consume podcasts on YouTube. And then it's followed by Spotify, which is at 27%. So not a huge difference, but, you know, a little bit more of a difference that. What is that? 4%, right? 4%. >> Nicholas: 4%.

>> Elissa: That math tracks. That adds up to, like, millions of people if you actually think about, the size of these platforms. And then, of course, Apple Pod podcast at, that 15% there. So those are going to be the big three right now. >> Nicholas: Well, that's actually such a crazy stat when you think about it. And, like, I saw this stat. I think it was in Pod News this week or something along those lines. And, like, the second I

saw it, I was like, oh, yeah, that is kind of weird. And sure enough, it was the same morning I got my YouTube music wrapped for the year. And, they have a slide dedicated to podcasts. And they were like, you listen to, like, 50 hours of this one show this year. And that's when it hit me. Oh, yeah, I guess I do listen to all of my podcasts on YouTube. How about that? >> Elissa: You are a statistic. There you go. >> Nicholas: I am a statistic. It's me.

No, it totally makes sense. You think about, like, how big of a website YouTube is, what podcasting is. It's like, such an ambiguous term. Like, two people talking is a podcast. A, fully produced news show is a podcast, technically. You know what

I mean? So, yeah, it makes sense that podcasts are predominantly listened to on YouTube. >> Elissa: And I do want to say, too, like, the idea of a podcast, like, we're in podcasting, so we know what an RSS feed is. We know that's a podcast. Every podcast has one on YouTube. It does kind of blur the lines a little bit just because you're now maybe uploading a video version of your podcast, so you've lost the attachment to your RSS feed. But in the eyes of listeners, they're pretty synonymous.

Like they see somebody with a mic or they see an audiogram and they're like, oh, I'm listening to a podcast. They just kind of inherently know. So it doesn't necessarily have to be RSS based to be a podcast anymore. It's in the eyes of the listeners. >> Nicholas: Exactly. Like, what really is the difference between like a vlog, where you're talking to a camera versus, like a sit down podcast? Yeah, there is a difference, but in the eyes of the average person, that's more of a genre

thing probably. I think podcasting is like, not on television. That's what people will probably draw the line at. And even then there are like, you know, over the air cable channels now that are just podcasts. >> Elissa: So whatever, hbo, they're doing a lot of their new shows, like their big things. They have podcasts that follow up that automatically, like, I listened to a podcast and I was like, what? Like, what is happening? This is

not Sex in the city. And I was like, oh, no, this is a podcast about sex in the city. That's crazy. >> Nicholas: Oh, they just have that on Max now. Yeah, that is crazy. yeah, yeah, it's fine. >> Elissa: So podcasting is more mainstream, but definitely on YouTube, it is the most mainstream. >> Nicholas: Makes sense. Makes sense. And yeah, I mean, I guess for people who don't know why they should upload to YouTube, I mean, it's the biggest website on the Internet,

isn't it? It's the second biggest search engine behind Google. I know that much.

>> Elissa: Yeah. And I don't think that it's far off from overtaking Google either. >> Nicholas: Yeah, I mean, most people I know just use YouTube for everything @ this point. Like, they don't look for cooking recipes on like the New York Times or something. You know, they just, they go on YouTube and they're like, hey, I have a bunch of sweet potatoes in my fridge. What can I make for dinner? >> Elissa: Exactly.

>> Nicholas: Yeah. And then do you have like any info on, like, what the demographic is for people listening to podcasts on YouTube specifically? >> Elissa: You know, I have a stat, of course. So, people, especially our age, we're looking at kind of millennials and Gen Z. They're actually also there's a, you know, math correlation here. but anyways, on YouTube, your audience, it is going to skew a little bit younger. So we do see about 1 in 4 users are going to be between the ages of 25 and 34.

So pretty specific 9 year window. But that's I mean, that's a lot of people that are getting on there. but also that same age group makes up like 62% of podcast listeners in the U.S. so that's, you know, insane. So we have 25% of the people, give or take a few percents, are on YouTube. They're listening, searching stuff on YouTube. They're also, like, super likely to listen to

podcasts. So not uploading to YouTube, especially if you're trying to target people that listen to podcasts, just generally speaking, that's going to be a huge opportunity for discovery. Not to mention, like, all the, like, SEO, all sorts of search stuff, but just in terms of audience size, like, that is an insane amount of people in the audience pool to tap into.

>> Nicholas: Yeah, that makes sense to me. And I think the one thing that kind of crosses my mind is like, because YouTube is more than podcasting, you do run the, like, not the risk. You do have the benefit of, like, potentially getting your episode out in front of someone who doesn't listen to podcasts, and you can be their first podcast that they get into. Suddenly, you know, you got to think about YouTube as, like, it's literally everything on the Internet all

at once. So if I'm watching, like, I'll use myself as an example. I don't really watch the news anymore, but I watch segments of the news that get uploaded to YouTube after the fact. Right. So I might be watching that, but I might want someone's opinion afterwards, or I might want something more on that specific subject. And because YouTube's algorithm is constantly sourcing videos based off of what I'm watching, I might get recommended a podcast. You know, so

you. You're automatically, like, putting your stuff out in front of people who might just be getting into podcasting as a medium. That's. I don't know. That's pretty valuable. I'd say. Maybe. >> Elissa: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's, you know, there's all sorts of brand studies that if you are kind of that first touch point for a lot of consumers. So not necessarily like thinking about podcasting, more macro to, like,

marketing and consumption stuff. But. But if you're that first brand, touchpoint, you have a much higher likelihood of actually retaining them over time. So that's, you know, another thing, just not native to podcasting. Just, you know, just general, general knowledge. >> Nicholas: Just saying. I do think. Yeah, like, it. It comes down TO that also, YouTube's algorithm is, I don't want to say more advanced. It's just optimized to do other things than Apple podcast or Spotify's are.

Whereas Apple podcasts and Spotify, at least in my experience, they're more likely to feed me content from like a podcasting company, for example, like someone with more traditional distribution. Whereas on the ground, you know, hobbyist slash, kind of like that middle ground podcaster. I won't get recommended their stuff on Spotify or Apple Podcasts organically, but through YouTube, I

might. The one thing I've noticed, and I say this every year to somebody, is, from like October through December, my YouTube recommendations completely, like change every year without fail. I get a ton of videos recommended to me from channels with like 1000 subscribers or less. And m. More often than not, a lot of those things are podcasts. So just something to keep in mind. You may as well post it on YouTube. You never know. You might actually just have like a huge fan base build there.

>> Elissa: Exactly. And then especially, you know, we're Headliner, we make audio games. Right. So I have to say it. >> Nicholas: This is news to me. >> Elissa: We do as. As the Head of Marketing, we do. We have to say, okay, great. But you know, of course, can't ever let you forget that. >> Nicholas: Yeah. >> Elissa: But if, okay, so you're a podcaster, you want to get up onto YouTube. You don't have to get in front of camera. Like we're sitting in a zoom call. That's just super easy way.

Probably free way for a lot of podcasters to achieve that. But you can also create just audio grams. You know, you can just attach that lovely little RSS feed. It'll spit you out a video that you can upload to YouTube, but you don't actually have to show your face. So some people like to just kind of stay anonymous, you know, podcasting.

Totally. That's one reason to do it. But then also, hey, maybe you may not have the equipment, you may not want to invest in the equipment, or you just don't feel like brushing your hair that day. Like, that's. We get that totally. Just. Yeah. >> Nicholas: I want to make an honor so much. I totally didn't spend like 10 minutes before this call trying to get my hair, like, in an acceptable fashion. That's fine. >> Elissa: I know. I was walking the dog and I was. It's kind of windy and it's like,

oh, gosh. not that I'm. I'm that put together ever. But, you know, sometimes it's like, maybe at least kind of think about brushing your hair a little. >> Nicholas: I mean, it was either that or showing up with like a backwards baseball cap today. For me. So I was like, you know what? Let me just take a minute to, you know, appear like, I'm my age. Okay. Anyway, one other thing, and I know this is very popular amongst some podcasters, is the idea of live streams.

A lot of people like doing their shows live, and, you know, when you're putting your stuff on YouTube, you can do that. You can just do a live stream and then add it to your podcast on YouTube. So once again, just like a super easy thing and just it's. It's literally right there. It's a resource.

Take advantage of it. You know, coincidentally, that podcast I told you I listened to, like 50 hours of this year is because it is a live stream turned podcast on Fridays. And I'm just like, oh, cool, that's awesome. yeah. Okay, cool. So obviously, yeah, upload your stuff onto YouTube. What can we do to help our users who are, like, looking to do that? You know, like, what are some tips? >> Elissa: Yeah, so we ju. And I'm just gonna jump into this one because we kind of just talked about

it, but so let's explain it. So the actual podcast playlist on YouTube, that's a thing. And that's how YouTube is going to help distinguish and its algorithm difference between, hey, you're just uploading a video or you are uploading a podcast. So when people are searching or, you know, looking at watch behaviors, kind of like how Nicholas is saying, like, oh, I see podcasts come up in my stuff all the time. But it's also because you listen to podcast.

>> Nicholas: Yep. >> Elissa: So by creating that podcast playlist, you're queuing YouTube a little bit more to say, like, hey, I am a podcast. So it can better understand and also kind of push you to the right people. >> Nicholas: Right. >> Elissa: in that whole discovery path. >> Nicholas: Yeah. I think it also touches on, like, YouTube music integration, stuff like that, which also just like a pro tip for anyone who really, really, really loves their podcasts and watches them on

YouTube. take advantage of YouTube music. It's a great app, like, legitimately. It's, not my music app, but it is my podcast app. So go figure. But, yeah, no, I think you're totally right. It is a classifier. It does separate stuff. It also moves all of the podcast episodes into their own dedicated tab on a

YouTube channel. So, you know, if you post more than just podcasts, if you post YouTube shorts, which we'll touch on soon, I'm sure, or you post supplemental videos, stuff like that, it is separating it out, and I think it actually changes the Priority and the algorithm to, like, if your subscribers don't click on it, it doesn't penalize it as much because it's a podcast. Something. I think I've read something to that effect. so, yeah, definitely a good tip all around.

>> Elissa: And then kind of moving on, you know, you're okay, you've. You've made a YouTube channel. You're like, I've got my file. I'm going to upload it now. What. My personal favorite tip that I don't think I tout myself. This. This is like my fun fact that people don't know is that you need to actually rename your files.

So whenever you're uploading a video or adding a thumbnail or the transcript or whatever, the file on your computer or in the cloud, however you're doing this, it has an actual name on it. And sometimes it's like Untitled 1, 2, 3, and, or whatever I told. >> Nicholas: You earlier, like episode five, version one, November 22nd. >> Elissa: Yeah, yeah, just like a bunch of random stuff that. However, whatever software you're using, like, has its defaults and anyways, it gets a new computer and it's

this weird, wonky name that doesn't make any sense. Well, it doesn't make any sense to search algorithm either. So if it's going through, especially on YouTube and it's looking to try and contextualize all of these things, because it can't necessarily crawl, like, the video file itself, it tries to look for all sorts of things to help understand what's going on. The video, the file name is one of the very first things that algorithms look

at. So if you aren't optimizing your file names to try and, you know, at least match your title of your show or not of your show. Excuse me, of your episode, you're kind of hurting yourself a little bit. I mean, it's like a super simple thing. Just like our last episode, it was how to market and grow your podcast in 2025. You bet your bottom dollar we reshaped our file how to market and grow your podcast in 2025. And it's actually helping us to get a lot of visibility, like

on. On YouTube specifically. So if you search for that very specific query right now, you'll see the Headliner podcast come up. And then zooming out a little bit, you search on the actual Google, you go to google.com, search that, you're actually going to see the Headliner podcast pop up like five times right now. So, like, we are that first search page right now.

>> Nicholas: Amazing. And it's all because you decided to rename a file that I gave you that was definitely just, like, complete gibberish. >> Elissa: Yeah, it was like, episode 111, Rewrap. I don't know. I don't know. >> Nicholas: It was something. It was like, hey, Elissa, here's a copy of the episode. I hope you enjoy it. MP4, probably. >> Elissa: I like that one. >> Nicholas: Which I'm going to start naming them that.

>> Elissa: Yeah. But anyways, I mean, there's a lot of things that we're going to talk about to help win on YouTube and win on search and stuff like that. But renaming those files is one of the, like, super easy things that you can do. And it's like, two seconds work. >> Nicholas: And one thing I do, because I do have a couple of tips as a person who does YouTube in his free time and, like, has gone

through all of those rabbit holes before. Right. One thing I always say is, like, have a couple of video titles ready. I know in podcasting, maybe we're a little adverse to that, but if you're uploading to YouTube, just think of your podcast episode as a YouTube video and treat it as such. A very common tactic that YouTubers will use is they'll have, like, three or four different titles for

their video that emphasize different aspects of it. Because all you're really trying to do is you're trying to find the one phrase or the one term that the algorithm likes and will take and run with. so, for example, I uploaded a video onto my personal channel two weeks ago, and I named it something very specific. I was like, it's a video about a movie, and we're analyzing a film. This is the movie. This is the subject. Very bland. And then I was like, well,

this isn't doing that well. It was actually doing the worst of any upload in a while for me. So I was like, let me just change the title really quick to something ambiguous. And I went with something generic, like when a movie is too smart for its genre. No details, Nothing at all. 10,000 views in a week, and I'm just like, oh, cool, Nice. So be ready to change your title. Same thing

goes for thumbnails. If you're putting the time in to make graphics for your podcast, like custom podcast art, take that extra five minutes or 10 minutes to just make a few alternates. Make a version with no text. Make a version with very specific text. Make a silly version if you can, if it's relevant to your show and on YouTube specifically, you can ab test your thumbnails. Now so you can just run a test of those three thumbnails and have YouTube pick the best one for you.

So, yeah, just like my little spiel, you know, whatever. >> Elissa: You are chronically online. >> Nicholas: So yes, I'm, I'm very chronically online. Which I told you you could call me. >> Elissa: For the record, I know this, this isn't a slack. This is why I was given permission to say that. And I wanted to say it before I forgot it. But anyways, yes, Nicholas. Nicholas makes absolutely beautiful YouTube videos and is always just the person to ask

about YouTube. So yeah, he knows what he's talking about, man. >> Nicholas: I do. It's one of the few things I do know what I'm talking about with. >> Elissa: But then also thinking about more tips, transcriptions, those are another really great thing that podcasters have at their disposal. You know, Headliner, we do offer free transcriptions. So whenever you go into Headliner, you'll see that pink transcriber button, click it, it'll take you on over to

Eddy. You can get a free transcript that you can upload to YouTube and it will actually name your file for you automatically. So it'll have everything already pre optimized for you. But anyways, transcripts similar to the file names, that's something that YouTube and search algorithms can kind of look at to better index and crawl. So you've got this massive text file that's like thousands upon thousands of words and it'll be loaded with all sorts of keywords. So it really

does help kind of those algorithms better contextualize. So adding transcripts is also going to be one of the super easy wins that you can do to kind of help optimize those YouTube videos as well. >> Nicholas: Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you know, you mentioned the fact that we provide transcripts. We also provide a super nifty feature on Eddy where we can actually give people blog posts and other supplemental content. I think we give episode art also and stuff like that.

So, hey, going back to that thumbnail thing, if you're going to ab test some thumbnails, you may as well use one of ours at that point. So, yeah, just saying. and then there is one other thing I was kind of talking about like video upload titles and then I gave an example that was contradictory to what I'm about to say. But this is still very valuable, I promise, because I know what I'm talking about. Remember that? We just

established that 10 seconds ago. So, one thing you can do, obviously is use keywords in your video titles. That's super important. You want to be able to do that. You want someone to be able to look at your video in most cases and be like, oh, this is a Dungeons and Dragons podcast where somebody gets lost in a forest and something bad, like, you want them to know what they're clicking on usually. And the one tip that I have as a sort of add on to that is YouTube titles support

100 characters. Feel free to use 100 characters if you can organically do that. on most browsers they cut off at 70 characters. So keep that in mind. Use. Use a website. I always Google Word counter, like always, just so I could, like, test my titles to see how long they are. And, use those tools because then you can actually optimize how much information your viewers get. And then the last little side, you know, tangent for that is do like an inverted pyramid with your title. That's a technique

a lot of journalists learn. You put the most important stuff first, you know, the who, when, what, where and why sort of stuff. And then the longer their articles go on, they start to trickle down the information into stuff that can get sliced off by the editor. Do that with your title. Start super, super

important and then just gradually, you know, taper off and then cut whatever you don't need. So, yeah, that's my little tip on titling stuff that I don't follow. Sometimes. >> Elissa: Sometimes. Just sometimes. >> Nicholas: Sometimes. Yeah, you gotta keep people guessing. >> Elissa: But then kind of the last tip that we have for the day is going to be just looking at giving YouTube Shorts a try. So YouTube Shorts, it's. In terms of YouTube, it's relatively new, but it is growing and it's

getting really popular. Lots of people are using it. We're actually seeing that shorts are getting over 70 billion with a B views a day. Like, that's an insane amount of eyes. >> Nicholas: Yeah, that's 10 times the earth's population, by the way. >> Elissa: Yeah, like crazy. >> Nicholas: Yeah. >> Elissa: And so, so just thinking of, once again, if you're trying to get discovered, if you're trying to get your podcast in front of new people, great way, super easy. Again,

Headliner, we have really easy clipping solutions. So whether you're doing video podcasts, audio podcasts, you want to mix and match, you can totally do that. just creating those clips is going to really open you up again to create another touch point with people that don't listen. Create a touch point with people that are subscribed, but then of course get you down into that larger discovery pool. And I had mentioned that the Headliner podcast last week

were doing really well. If you're on search, we're actually half of the searches we created different clips. So half of the first page renders when you go to Google are actually YouTube shorts that we had made and uploaded, from the show. So super easy discovery, not only on YouTube but also on Google. And of course you can chop it up, send

it out to other places and stuff like that. But you know, on YouTube very specifically, definitely try, if you aren't already creating those YouTube shorts to get some more eyes on your show. >> Nicholas: Yeah. And it's also worth mentioning some stuff on YouTube shorts that you can take advantage of is the fact that you can attach your short to a full video now so you could put a 30 second segment from your new podcast

episode there. And just as your call to action, right under the title for the video I believe will be a button where someone can click and go to the full episode. And that's just the level of like vertical integration that you don't see on Reels or TikTok, unless you're running a paid ad, in which case, yeah, there is a click now button that will send you to YouTube, but you could just have that on YouTube shorts for free.

So please take advantage of that. Take advantage of that and use our automation tools so that you can have regular clips reminding people to click that neat little button. You know, just. Yeah, helpful stuff. >> Elissa: small rants >> Nicholas: Small rants, small rants. I mean, it's helpful information, you know. >> Elissa: Oh, 100%. I mean, I didn't know that part. So now I'm like, oh crap. Like I. >> Nicholas: This is why you need a terminally online person on the

podcast, Elissa. I mean, right? >> Elissa: We both are learning things and hopefully educating podcasters on YouTube as well, obviously. >> Nicholas: But yeah, and then as far as what your clips are, I mean, you said it, they could be repurposed clips, they can be original content if you want. You could literally take like your episode and do like a one minute wrap up of it as a YouTube short if you want. Like, hey, this is the episode.

It's all about X, Y and Z. Here's a couple of tidbits that didn't make it into the episode maybe or whatever. Go watch the whole episode. Click that pretty button Nick's been bragging about because he's just so darn pleased with it. >> Elissa: Exactly. >> Nicholas: But yeah, anyway, I think as far as tips go, do we have anything else you wanted to share with our users or. I think we kind of covered our bases. >> Elissa: I Think I'm all tipped out for the day.

>> Nicholas: Okay, you're tipped over, I guess, Right? Like a cup. I demonstrate. But mine's full of coffee, and I don't want to deal with that. >> Elissa: Let's not do that. Yeah, I have the Stanley that allegedly doesn't spill, but it does, in fact, spill, so. >> Nicholas: Okay, you tested it already? Gotcha. >> Elissa: We're not doing it that way. >> Nicholas: That's some important YouTube short content.

Elissa, we need a video of you spilling your Stanley cup over audio of me telling you to spill your Stanley Cup. >> Elissa: No. >> Nicholas: Okay, fine. Fair enough. I tried. okay. Anyway, I guess that kind of brings us to the end of our episode. As always, Headliner provides, like, a bunch of super nifty tools that are made to do a lot of the things we were talking about. help me if I forget one, but we offer a episode. art Maker. We can write blog

posts based off your episode. These are all AI powered. You literally just have to ask for them. Don't even have to say please. >> Elissa: It's a button. Just. Yes, it's a button. >> Nicholas: Yeah. And you know how much we love buttons, so. yeah, you have that. We have automation tools that can literally, like, go through your episode and clip parts of it for you, then upload them to YouTube, so you don't even have to post them at that point.

and then, of course, we have transcription, which is like one of our big, you know, our big features that we've kind of always had. Just really high quality transcription for free. >> Elissa: Can't beat free. >> Nicholas: Can't be free. Exactly. So on that note, thank you for listening, and we hope to hear from you again soon on a future episode.