Podcasting for Search and the Long Tail
In my book, Promoting Your Podcast, I emphasize the importance of publishing your podcast to a blog. There are numerous reasons to do so. One key reason is to attract search engine traffic. Search engines such as Google like blogs. They know that the information is frequently updated.
Keep the search engines in mind as you produce your podcast, post your show notes and optimize your site (all discussed in my book). I point out in my chapter on search engine optimization that it takes time, patience and diligence to see the promotional/traffic effects. You have to constantly try, track and tweak things (which is why I included a also included chapter on statistics & tracking).
Steve Rubel talks about the Long Tail nature of blogging. He makes some excellent points about how to position yourself for the longterm returns on blogging (and I would add podcasting):
- Focus your blog/podcast on one segment of the conversation (the essence of social media and podcasting lies in the niche).
- Choose a segment you are passionate about. Passion resonates with people and will fuel you to stay the course.
- Add value to the online dialog in your niche. Offer your perspective.
Another thing he says gives an easy formula for creating quality content for a podcasting episode:
Find online gems that this audience is likely to miss and share your perspective. Write compelling op-eds and tutorials.
He also points out that "it takes a year for a blog to build substantial Google juice." I tend to agree. This is not always the case, but its a good rule of thumb.
Use a good metrics platform such as Google Analytics to see what is working. You’ll also want to take note of the excellent bullet points at the end of his post. They give you an outline of what to look for in your metrics. Metrics is a huge topic that has been on my mind lately. I’ll be starting a blog series on metrics soon.
What kinds of things do you do to earn longterm returns from the search engines?
