PodCraft by Alitu: Honing the Craft of Podcasting

The concept is simple: You create the content your target audience is searching for, they find it, and your podcast grows as a result. 

But Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) isn't just as straightforward as that, unfortunately. There are nuances, best practices, and stiff competition from rival content creators. 

On season 16 of Podcraft we're leaning on the expertise and experience of our team here The Podcast Host and Alitu. On this episode, I'm joined by Sean, who is a full stack growth marketer. Sean knows a thing or two about SEO, and he's here to help you polish up your own search game, no matter what stage you're at. 

Mentions & Resources

• How to Make a WordPress Website for Your Podcast
• Keyword SEO for Podcasters
• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs.com
• Alitu
• Check out the new ad, before it hits the Super Bowl

Mike from the Konversations With Kinfolk podcast is thinking about micro-content. He's looking for apps or software that can take small clips (video and/or audio) to create short clips for visibility and promotion.

This is a great strategy for podcast growth. Micro-content can be highly searchable, shareable, and doesn't demand a lot of time to hook a potential new listener. It can also be quick and easy to create.

Resources Mentioned

• Canva
• How to Create Audiograms
• Headliner
• PodIntelligence
• Buzzsprout
• How to Animate Your Audio
• Overcast Sharing
• Repurpose.io
• Alitu

We also offer a bonus tip to Mike - improve those episode titles. The podcast will benefit greatly if you make them more descriptive and intriguing. 

Finally, we're looking for your feedback to help us help you better. Have you got a second to answer this quick question? What are you most struggling with in podcasting right now? 

Khaled runs the show Curated Advice on Better Living, and wonders how to increase the number of listeners per episode.

At time of recording, he's almost hit the 30-episode mark, which is a great point to reflect on what you've achieved so far, as well as revisit your big picture planning.

We recommend that Khaled sets up a dedicated website for the podcast, which is a low-hanging fruit these days. You can do this quickly and at a low-cost by using Podpage.

We also recommend that he uses our free Podcast Planner tool to tweak the overall aims, targeting, and message of the show. 

Finally, we give three actionable growth tips for Khaled to try out. These are:

1. Run a co-hosted or crossover episode with another podcast in your niche
2. Create a roundup of podcasts that you love in your niche
3. Reach out to 3-5 true fans of your show and create a focus group 

For a deeper dive, check out our full guide on podcast promotion.

On this episode, we also mention Pocket-Sized Podcasting and Alitu: The Podcast Maker

Michael of Night Moodz wonders how to turn casual listeners into subscribers, followers, and even, supporters. This is a question with many layers as the first and most obvious move is simply to ask in your Calls to Action. You might also want to show them how by creating a 'how to subscribe' page on your website. A final and essential piece of the jigsaw, though, is to make folks want to come back for more. Our free Podcast Planner tool can help you hone your message and your content, and make sure your show is optimised for growth!

How do you get useful analytics to present to potential sponsors and advertisers? That's one of the questions on the mind of Karen from BankTalk Podcast. And, one that we'll try our best to answer on this episode of PodCraft.

Your Apple Podcast Connect and Spotify for Podcasters dashboards can give you a good sample of listening patterns. Granted, these won't be the full picture, but, for many podcasters, this is at least 50% of their audience.

Listener surveys are an optimal way to get first-hand data from your audience. You might also track conversions and clicks from advertising your own products, services, or events, too.

We would also recommend using Rephonic's Podcast Audience Graph tool. This shows you the podcasts your listeners also subscribe too. You could check a few of them out and see what (if any) brands are advertising on them. 

Kay is the co-host of the In Da Trenches Podcast and asks about optimising their name, outline, and theme. 

Sometimes it helps to take a step back and look at the bigger picture of your podcast, asking questions such as:

1. What’s its purpose?
2. Who’s it for?
3. What does success look like for me?

You can then start to work backwards from these.

Another very useful exercise is to use our free Podcast Planner Tool.

And we have thorough guides on Podcast Names, Descriptions, and Formats for a deeper dive on those topics, too. 

Laurent of the Puissante Panoplie podcast asks us about breaks between seasons. He feels that these can halt his momentum, and make him feel a bit like a headless chicken, jumping from task to task with no real plan in mind. Once the break is over, Laurent adds, he feels anything but rested or organised going into his new season.

On this episode, we talk about ways to better structure your breaks in between seasons. We also cover the benefits of running an audience survey during these periods. You can even collect listener feedback in voice form, as we're doing on this season of PodCraft. 

Our question this week comes from Teresa of the Homeschool Mama SelfCare Podcast. Teresa's asking us about the optimal position of podcast ads so as to optimise their impact and minimise the chance of them annoying the listeners. 

On this episode, we cover:

• Is there a "right" time to play a podcast ad
• The difference between pre, mid, and post-roll ads
• The difference between pre-recorded and host-read ads 
• How you can make ads part of your content
• And why ads might not be essential to the monetisation of your show, going forward. 

This episode was sponsored by (and made with) Alitu, The Podcast Maker. 

On this new season of PodCraft we're going to be answering your podcasting questions. Here's how to submit yours!

This time around, we have a question from Brooke of Let's Talk Art With Brooke.

Brooke has been podcasting for six years and as well over 200 episodes, but is concerned with lack of audience growth.

This is a big question in and of itself (so big, in fact, that we actually wrote a book about it). But we find that there's always a few low-hanging fruits that can have an impact right away. These include good, compelling episode titles, Calls to Action, thorough SEO-friendly shownotes, and appearing as a guest on other relevant podcasts.