Podcast optimization for ranking in the Google search results isn’t a topic that comes up very often.  And John Mueller gave some excellent advice on SEOing for podcasts.

The question came up about whether or not it was a good idea to simply have podcasts all listed on a single page, specifically within an iframe.  And while that is possible, John Mueller from Google raised some very good points about why this might not be the best idea for ranking, along with suggestions for optimizing those podcasts to rank better in Google.  But first, he talked about the impact this strategy could have on user experience.

No, so from a search point of view, it doesn’t matter at all. From a user’s point of view, it might be that having 30 podcasts in iframes make the page extremely slow to load, so that’s something I’d look into.  But just having podcasts on a webpage is perfectly fine, there’s nothing against that.

From this perspective, while it is possible to place all podcasts on a single page, for both user experience and for Google, it makes more sense to host individual podcasts on their own pages so that Google can better understand what each individual podcast is about, and help it rank accordingly for the keywords specific to each podcast.

Then Mueller got more into the issue of ranking podcasts and the strategies for doing so, specifically for ranking individual podcast episodes.

One thing maybe to mention in regards to podcasts is that obviously, we don’t know what’s within your podcast.  So if you’re just linking to a podcast file, maybe in a player, then we don’t know what you’re talking about in the podcast.  So having some kind of textual information on that page helps us as well, so that we can actually rank that page appropriately.

So if it’s a podcast on a specific topic or if it’s a podcast where you’re discussing something specific, then give that information in a textual form so that we can understand what this page is about and show that in the search results.

There is a trend to name podcasts something catchy or flashy, but it is not always something easily recognizable to those not already familiar with the podcast, and this is definitely something that could hurt the ability for people to find podcasts on specific topics, so adding some textual information can be pretty crucial for podcast SEO.

Lastly, he also mentions transcriptions, which is also a hot topic amongst podcasters.  Some podcasters provide transcripts because they understand not everyone might want to listen to an entire podcast, while others refuse to use transcripts to encourage people to listen instead.  But the role of podcast transcriptions in Google SEO is another important factor some podcasters might not consider.

If you have a transcription of the podcast, that’s even better, because then all of that information is available for us to actually index.

So the transcript could actually bring in additional traffic who find it in Google, even if they weren’t looking for a podcast specifically, which is another problem many podcasts have – getting traffic to the podcast by those who aren’t specifically searching for podcasts.  And a podcast transcript and easily reside on a dedicated site, meaning an additional way for potential listeners to find it outside of traditional podcast libraries such as iTunes.