168. Podcasting SEO Hack: One Tiny Change That Makes a Big Difference

Getting more listeners might be as simple as changing a few words. There’s a small podcasting SEO shift that can lead to big results. In this episode, I'm sharing the hidden opportunity inside your podcast title field, how to use a “title extension” to attract the right audience, and the exact formula to make your show easier to find and click on.

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This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Most podcasters are making a critical mistake that's costing them new listeners, and they don't even know it. It's not your content. It's not your consistency. It's something much simpler, something that most podcasters overlook completely. But it plays a massive role in whether your show gets discovered or stays hidden. And today, I'll show you exactly how to fix it in case we're meeting for the first time. Hi, I'm Julia Levine, AKA the Podcast Teacher, and you're listening to Podcasting for solopreneurs, the show that helps online business owners grow their podcast to get more listeners, leads, and sales. In this episode, you'll learn how to take advantage of one of the most underused podcast growth levers out there.

It doesn't require recording more episodes, spending money on ads, or changing your whole content strategy. It's fast, simple, and you can implement it in less than five minutes. What is this magical growth lever, you ask? It's a title extension. A title extension is a short phrase that adds keywords and context to your podcast's name. It can sometimes be referred to as a subtitle, which is what I used to call it. But in the content creation world, the term subtitle often means closed captions, and so that was a little confusing, and so I'm sticking with title extension. But whether you call it a title extension or a subtitle, the goal is the same. To help search engines understand what your show is about so that they can pull it up in relevant results.

You may be familiar with my signature framework for growing and monetizing a podcast, which is the ARC method. A stands for attract, R for retain, and C for convert. That means that we want to bring in new listeners, keep them coming back, and ultimately have them make a purchase. When most podcasters think of the first step, attracting new listeners, they turn to marketing. But we work smarter, not harder, around here, and that means that we go all in on podcast search engine optimization. The most powerful field to optimize is the podcast title field, and so we want to make the most of it. If you haven't named your podcast yet, you have a golden opportunity to optimize this for search from the start. But if you've already launched your podcast, don't worry.

Adding a title extension is the answer. If your main title is catchy but vague, the extension gives search engines a little bit more clarity. So, for example, let's say that your show is called Bold Moves. With a title extension, it becomes Bold Moves. Marketing tips for online entrepreneurs Suddenly, terms like Marketing and online entrepreneurs help the algorithm connect your show with people searching for those terms. Most podcast directories, including Apple and Spotify, give the most weight to words in the title field during a search. That means adding relevant, high intent keywords to that field gives you a stronger shot at being discovered in those searches. And once your show appears in those results, your title extension continues to work for you because it provides context to the human in charge of making a selection.

The additional clarity about what your show offers and who it's meant for can help your show get clicked on. This is why your title extension matters. It's a strategic move that works on multiple levels, technical and personal, to attract the right audience and grow your podcast with intention. So how do you create a good one? Inside my Podcast, Startup Academy, and Podcast Growth Collective programs, I teach a simple formula. What for who? What does your podcast cover, and who is it meant for? Use plain searchable language, broad keywords, and short phrases that your audience might actually type into a search bar. Think in terms of topic and identity. Words like online business, email marketing, or career change describe the content, while terms like midlife, adhd or parenting speak directly to who your audience is. You want someone to look at your podcast and instantly think, this show looks like it was made for me.

For example, a podcast called Tiny Tornadoes might add the title extension Classroom Management Strategies for Preschool Teachers. While Tiny Tornadoes is a cute name, it doesn't really tell what it's about and who it's for, and it's not likely to come up in the search results. When someone's looking for a show like this, the extension adds keywords and clarity. But when you tell someone about your show, you still tell them that it's called Tiny Tornadoes. You're not rebranding your entire show, you're just adding the extension to the text field. And because you're not doing an entire branding overhaul, one of the best parts about a title extension is that it's flexible. You can update it anytime. So if your content slightly evolves or you want to test different keywords over time, you can absolutely do that.

And it literally takes going into your podcast hosting platform, swapping out a couple words and clicking Save. I do usually suggest sticking with a new version of your extension for 60 to 90 days before tweaking it, just to give it some time to work. And here's a little bonus tip. If your main podcast title is cute and clever but not super clear, you might eventually want to put some of those important keywords onto your cover art too. That way you're giving people visual and textual context from the moment that they see your show in the search results. Now, there is actually one more place that you can use this title extension strategy, and it's in your episode titles. The episode title field is another important field for podcast SEO, and that means that you can apply the same same principle of a title extension to individual episode titles. You don't need to do this on every episode, but if you have a title that's particularly curiosity invoking or click worthy but doesn't have any SEO keywords, you can add an episode title extension to incorporate some.

I often do this with my FAQ Friday episodes. So for example, there's an episode titled what is a Good Consumption Rate? Which conveys the topic, but it's not great for SEO because it doesn't have any of my keywords in it. So I added the episode title extension of Podcasting Tips for Online Marketing. So when I tell people about the episode, I just say it's called what's a Good Consumption Rate? But the full episode title text reads what's a good Consumption Podcasting Tips for Online Marketing Just like with your main show title, the combination of curiosity and clarity is what drives clicks. It tells both the algorithm and the human that this is the episode you've been looking for to wrap things up. Adding a clear keyword rich title extension is one of the simplest and smartest moves that you can make to grow your podcast. It doesn't require more time, content or marketing, it just requires being strategic with the words in your title field. And adding a title extension is one shift that can have a powerful ripple effect, helping you show up in more searches and attract more of the right listeners.

If you want to learn more ways to optimize your podcast for search, visibility and sustainable growth, I invite you to join the Podcast Growth Collective. It's my monthly membership for podcasters who are ready to grow their audience and their business with a whole lot less guesswork and a whole lot more strategy. You can learn more@thepodcastteacher.com collective. Until next time, Happy podcasting.