Welcome to Podcast Suck, a podcast about starting a podcast, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and sometimes frustrating world of podcasting. If you've ever sat down with a microphone, hit record, and thought, what on earth am I doing? Or if you're just curious about the magic behind your favorite shows, then you're in the right place. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a whole lot of what not to do advice as we embark on this podcasting journey together. Let's dive in. What's happening, everybody. Happy Monday to you. It's another episode of podcast suck. If you don't have one, it's a podcast all about starting growing and managing your podcast. If it's your first time just tuning in, thanks for taking some time out of your day. to hang out with me for just a few minutes so I can help you better understand what you don't know that you don't know about the world of podcasting. For those of you that may be returning listeners, thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with me for just a few minutes so I can help you better understand what you need to know to make sure that your podcasting game is in check. Special hello to everybody tuning in, watching the live stream of the recording of this podcast episode over on LinkedIn, YouTube, and on Facebook. Feel free to comment below. I do respond to each and every one of you lovely people. So today, I want to talk about being able to increase your podcast downloads and traction overall by making sure that your podcast episodes are titled correctly. Far too many people get this wrong and they think, well, I'll just put the episode number and my guest name as if someone even knows who your guest is. And well, that should be good enough or, Well, I don't know what to call this podcast episode, so I'm just going to call it whatever I want. That unfortunately doesn't work when it comes to helping you increase the amount of downloads that you're getting per episode, as well as people consuming your content. overall long-term, this can have an impact on each and every episode that you put out for obvious reasons. So let's dive into a couple of things that I feel are really important, that they're just simple tweaks that you can utilize. And my goodness, with tools like ChatGPT and the AI tools available today, it's not difficult to really figure out what an SEO friendly title would be for your podcast episode. All you simply do is go to chat GPT, even the free version of chat GPT and say, what should I call a podcast episode with a guest that owns a landscaping company in Detroit, Michigan, they're going to give you an SEO friendly title. It may not be that your obvious choice right out of the gate, but it will give you something better than what you originally had, which is probably I really don't know what I should call the episode. So that's one way of doing it. So if you don't want to utilize chat, GBT or an AI tool, I don't know why you wouldn't, because while it's free to use and the robots do know a thing or two, they don't know everything, but they will eventually from what Elon says. but they can help you expedite the process of coming up with a SEO friendly title. What do you mean by SEO friendly title, Sebastian? Well, I mean that if someone were to actually type the title of that episode in, is that something that someone would actually Google? Would somebody type in how to find a landscaping company in Detroit, Michigan? Probably. So when I say SEO friendly, just think, would someone search for this podcast episode? If you have a motivational speaker or coach on your podcast, maybe the episode could be how to radically change your life in 30 days or less, how to start a podcast in 90 days or less the best ways to be able to fill in the blank. So does that make sense when it comes to SEO friendly type of titles for your podcast episode? This is important because when people are searching for specific things, your podcast episode can show up in those search results. Hence being SEO friendly. Now, these work together with a few other components of each podcast episode. One being the description of your podcast episode, some would call those show notes, and then also the transcription of the episode. That's actually taking the audio file and being able to transcribe everything that's being said so that there is a text version of the podcast episode that can be read. The reason you want to transcribe your podcast episode is that it allows people that may be seeing or hearing impaired to be able to consume your content and make it ADA compliant. Number one, number two, your podcast episode is indexed on Google and on search engines. So the transcription helps with that process. In addition, having a accurate podcast description, accurate show notes for each episode does that same thing. But more important, the reason that you want show notes is when someone pulls up a podcast episode of yours, They can quickly not only see the title of the episode, the guest on the episode, but they can get a brief overview of exactly what that episode includes. Good show notes should have a description of the podcast episode, any relevant links that may be mentioned during the podcast episode, notable quotes, your guest's contact information, any call to actions that you may have. Again, there are a lot of AI tools out there that can help make your podcast show notes, descriptions, titles, et cetera, life, just that much easier, but you actually have to use them. You can't just get lazy and think, well, this is just the way I'm doing it because it's the way that I'm doing it. There is a right and wrong way of making sure that each and every episode is formatted correctly. Each and every episode has a search friendly, title to it. Each and every episode has detailed show notes that allows people to see what the episode is all about before they actually press play on the episode. Or after they've listened to the episode, they can go back and review the show notes, whatever the case may be. Not to mention all of those things really contribute to being able to make sure that your podcast is being indexed on search engines, mainly Google. uh, so that people are finding your podcast episodes. I found that when I have an SEO friendly searchable title for my episode with detailed show notes and transcriptions, each and every episode is getting more and more downloads than it would. If I just put episode five with Bob Smith and put welcome to this episode about Bob Smith. And that was my description. There's a lot of platforms out there that will allow you to include tags and keywords that too will include the, that, that, that, that will also contribute rather, uh, to your podcast episodes being indexed on Google and on search engines. So you want to make sure that it caters to your brand. When you're coming up with a title of an episode, it's okay to be clever and have fun with it. But again, would someone search for the title of that podcast episode that your putting out. That's that's the number one question you want to ask yourself. And we deal with this a lot with our clients here at the agency, because when people are just getting started with launching their podcast, they don't know what to call their podcast episode. They only know what episode number it is. and what their guest name is. So what we teach them is to type in or is to create something that would be search friendly. Would someone actually search for that title of that podcast episode? I'm hoping this makes sense to you because I'm seeing a lot of podcast episodes get posted and it's simply just episode one, season two or whatever it may be. with the guest name and the company name. That's that's the second worst thing you could probably do, unless it's a very popular company putting Jennifer Smith and, you know, ABC Inc. on there. Nobody knows who ABC Inc. is or who Jennifer is. So you want to make sure that you're creating a title for the podcast episode that can resonate with people, even if they don't know who your guest is or who your guest company name is. Now, when when creating your show notes, you want to make sure that the title of your episode is included within your show notes too, and make sure that it's what they refer to as key keyword rich. So that when you are creating your show notes and again, most AI tools, if you went to chat GBT and said, create an episode title for a podcast about underwater basket weaving, It where you can put create five SEO friendly titles for a podcast episode about underwater basket weaving. It would give you five titles that are SEO friendly about underwater basket weaving. Now, will you like those titles? I don't. No, you can always revise the query that you make with ChatGPT to really help you come up with something that you can get excited about, but also follows the guidelines as far as making sure that it's a searchable title. Now, you can also go in and you can copy and paste the transcription of your podcast episode into ChatGPT and ask it to generate detailed show notes and ask for it to include notable quotes or any relevant links that may have been mentioned. a description of the podcast episode, obviously, and really custom tailor what you want it to return as far as results are concerned with an SEO friendly title and also with the description of the podcast episode. So those are just some quick hacks that you can start utilizing today with chat, GBT, and with any AI tool you decide to use. But just make sure that the last thing that you're doing, the very, very last thing that you're doing, um, is just putting up an episode with an episode number and your episode guest name, and maybe their company name. No one knows who that is. That doesn't really make any sense to you. That might make sense, but to, majority of people that are finding your podcast and consuming your content, it does not make sense at all. So I hope that you're leaving this episode better understanding a little bit more about what you didn't know that you didn't know about making sure your podcast episode titles are a little more search friendly and your podcast show notes are actually a thing. not just done right, but you're actually putting something in the description of your podcast episode, as well as any tags, keywords, and of course, transcribing your episode. All of those three things work together cohesively to make sure that you're getting more podcast downloads on each and every episode. questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns, anything pertaining to the world of podcasting, maybe this episode, maybe anything pertaining to the world of podcasting that you may have questions about, please either comment on the live recording of this podcast. episode on YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook. If you're listening to the actual podcast episode, send me a DM on Facebook, LinkedIn, or on Instagram. I'm at podcast suck. That's podcast plural over on Instagram. I do respond to each and every one of you lovely people. There is a link on this post too. If you've got questions about starting a podcast, you don't know where to start and you actually want some help getting launched in 90 days or less, there's a link to book a call. with myself or somebody on my team, we'd be more than happy to chat with you about what's possible with you starting a podcast in 90 days or less. Have a great week. Thanks so much for tuning in and we'll see you next time. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. It's a way to get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and share the show with someone you know should start a podcast or may already have one. And remember, podcasts suck if you don't have one. Until next time, friends.