056: Making Your Podcast Work Harder: SEO Tips and Insights PODCAST SEO AUDIT EPISODE for Podcast Mentour Donna Eade

In this episode, Jules conducts a Podcast SEO Audit for Donna Eade, podcast mentor and host of Mindset and Action Podcast. Jules provides tailored recommendations to help Donna optimise her podcast SEO, making it easier for her show to attract the right audience and stand out in a crowded space.

If you’ve ever wondered how to improve your podcast’s visibility and discoverability, this episode is packed with actionable tips you can use to boost your own podcast performance.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The importance of Podcast SEO for growing your audience.
• How to optimise your podcast title and description for better search results.
• Practical tips for making your podcast cover art more effective.
• Simple strategies to improve podcast visibility and attract more listeners.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Free Podcast SEO Checklist – Discover how to optimise your podcast for better search results.
• Podcast SEO Mini Intensive – Book a focused session with Jules to uncover quick wins for your podcast.
• Connect with Donna Eade: Visit Donna’s Website.

Make sure to subscribe to the podcast for more tips and insights on websites, SEO, and content optimisation!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
• 0:42 Donna's Podcasting Goals
• 1:35 Current Podcast and Business Overview
• 3:29 Challenges and SEO Strategies
• 4:43 Ideal Listeners and Keyword Research
• 7:21 Podcast Naming and Description Tips
• 17:38 Show Art and Branding
• 21:14 Actionable SEO Tips and Conclusion

Transcript

AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS

Introduction and Guest Welcome

Jules White:
Today we're diving into a podcast SEO audit for my lovely friend Donna, who's here as a guest. Donna and I met through Carrie Green's Female Entrepreneur Association.

Welcome Donna. It's so great to have you here.

Donna Eade:
I'm so pleased to be here. I'm so excited. I am a big learner. I might be a podcast mentor, but I don't claim to know everything. So I am here for the learning.

Jules White:
Absolutely. It's all good. It's all good.

Donna's Podcasting Goals

Jules White: 
So hopefully by the end of this episode, we'll have identified one to two key areas that you can focus on to reach your podcasting goals over the next six months.

And before we start Donna, if we were to meet again in six months' time, and you were telling me about the amazing things happening in your business, how would your podcast be helping with that?

Donna Eade: 
Uh, to me, my podcast is like my top of funnel item. So I want it to be bringing in my audience, new people, new listeners, new potential clients.

So I want to be able to attribute some of the conversations that I'm having in my business and the clients that are coming towards me are coming from my podcast. That's, that's the ultimate goal of it. So, uh, yeah, the sooner we can get there, the better. Yeah,

Jules White: 
I,I love that. It's, uh, very similar to my own goals with my own podcast, actually over the next year.

So yeah, I love, absolutely love that.

Current Podcast and Business Overview

Jules White: 
So, tell us a little bit about your business and how your podcast, like currently sits within your marketing activities.

Donna Eade:
 So I teach people how to start and launch their podcast. That's what I do. It's an eight-week programme that is like continually on the go. So, um, people can join from the first of every month and, uh, I love it.

That's basically what I do. I also do some podcast audits. So very much like this, but for, just seeing where people can actually utilise their podcasts more. A lot of people don't know about dynamic content and, aren't utilising the features that their hosts provide and things like that. So I go through, look at the length of it, the sound quality and all of that jazz and feedback to them, what they can do.

So that's another part of it. But generally speaking, it's my, it's my start your podcast programme. That is the main bread and butter of my business. That's been going now for about a year and a half, I want to say. 

The podcast is older, so the podcast started out with my previous business, so it has had several name changes, um, and it changed to Mindset and Action in April 2023, so it's well over a year old under this name, and I don't see it changing again, so I'm trying to make sure that everywhere it is has been changed. I did find myself on a Spanish podcast platform and it still had the old, the very, very first podcast name on it. And I was just like, Oh my God, how do I get that?

Jules White: 
Oh, I can definitely relate to that. Having changed my business name and my website domain for the last year or so, I can definitely relate to that.

I'm still seeing my old business name popping up in different places, especially I haven't changed my email address yet, which is Oh, that feels like a headache for next year. I'm going to have to think about it. So yeah, I can definitely relate to that.

Challenges and SEO Strategies

Jules White: 
That's actually a really good point about podcasts because I think a lot of the time when people are first starting their podcast, they can get very hung up on the name, but actually it's okay to change.

And as much as there, there might be places where it might be still under the old name, actually changing it is a lot easier than changing your business name or your website domain or. Or anything like that, really. 

So I think it's something that it's, um, yeah, my, my, within my podcast as well, I have changed, I haven't changed the main name of the show, but certainly the, the extension that shows up in podcast player apps is something that I have changed and that's one of the areas that we can think about with SEO as well as making sure, so the whole part, the whole thing with podcast SEO is I love it because it means that we can make changes that will take effect almost straight away, whereas with traditional & Google SEO, it tends to take a few months before we start seeing traction on what we, what changes we're making to our website. 

Not always. 

And it's certainly, if we are using Google search console properly, then we can get immediate changes. Google can understand straight away when we've updated content on our sites, but with podcast player, player apps, the changes straight Shane show straight away, and that can start having an effect in your business straight away.

Ideal Listeners and Keyword Research

Jules White: 
So do you have a clear idea of your ideal listeners and your ideal clients and the kind of things that they would be searching for?

Donna Eade: 
Yeah, so my ideal listener is, is generally female. I do have male listeners. I know that. So I'm always very careful when I'm talking to include them because I love the fact that I have some male listeners.

But when I first started, it was aimed at wedding vendors, so it could have been male or female, but now it's business owners. And generally speaking, it's the female business owner that's attracted to me and the way that I speak. So it is predominantly female business owners. 

And in my programme, I have only ever had one guy go through the programme, so it's very female-dominated, not to say that that's what I chose, it's just what sort of come towards me and I'm happy with that. I like working with female founders. 

So, uh, female business owners is the aim of the podcast and it's who I work with. I haven't really dived into, you know, you already know this about me. I'm terrible search part of it. 

The keyword research is something that I really struggle to make time for when everything else is so busy. So I'm not so sure what they're really searching for and that's probably something that I need to change, especially in, in planning next year's podcast, of what I'm going to actually talk about.

Jules White: 
Yeah, I think it's something that we can often overthink this.

And I, I can completely relate to the, point of not wanting to exclude people from your audience. So I have this with my podcast, my intro to my podcast is, like, if you're a woman, in business, and actually I do have guys coming through listening to my podcast as well.

When I look at my stats, I have quite a few guys listening. And I, I had a discovery call last week from a guy in the States who had found me through the podcast and he even said on the call, I'm not a woman in business. And I was like, no, that's fine. That's fine. But I feel like we can, we can almost like we, we want to include everybody and that is great.

But actually by doing that, sometimes we can actually almost cut a nose off to spite our face really. 

Because if you're, if you're finding you're mostly attracting women in business and that's who you love working with and that is who your audience is then by mentioning that within your, your show name, your description, that could really help you because business is a massive area to stand out in and there's plus and minuses for niching down, but actually if that's who your audience is, and if that's who you are trying to attract, then by mentioning that, that can, that can be helpful, really. 

And it's still very broad, even just female business owners is still a very, very broad niche, really.

Podcast Naming and Description Tips

Jules White: 
One of the things you could potentially do in terms of your podcast showing up more is thinking about your podcast name.

About whether you can include some of those keywords in your podcast name, because that will be the biggest thing if people are searching within the podcast player apps, if you can get something in there that actually talks to who you're trying to attract, and you don't necessarily have to change the name when you're talking about the show.

So, it's called a podcast, title extension. So where you basically add or add something onto the end of your podcast name that helps to describe who it's for and what you're actually helping them with. So on my show, I actually, I'm just going to have a look at my own show here because I can't even remember my exact one because, because it's so long.

There we go. So my, my show name is essentially, um, The website success show SEO and website tips for local and online businesses who want more website traffic and sales. And if I'm introducing my podcast, I'm never going to say that I say my podcast is the website Show, but actually just having that on there is helping me to show up in searches.

So you could maybe think about that. And I would say with all of these things of like trying to think of keywords, trying to think about what, what people are actually searching for, use AI to help you with this. ChatGPT is really great at coming up with these kinds of creative ideas, really. So you could add onto your podcast.

And I can see on your show up there, you've got mindset and action, a business podcast, even if you did nothing else, but added that in, or added in a podcast for women in business, you know, I'm thinking of actually, if you are trying to attract people who want to start a podcast, then have, getting that somewhere in your name could massively help from an SEO point of view in terms of your podcast actually showing up on those podcast plus player apps.

You don't have to do a whole rebrand. You can literally go into wherever your podcast is hosted and just make that change in there and that will then start to show up in the podcast player apps, and start helping you to show up in those searches that people are doing. And that's the most important part of this is it's actually showing up in those searches.

And you can still call it mindset and action. Absolutely. So I would definitely think about that. And then think about your show description as well. That's the other place where we have some real control on actually how we can get more people finding us through that.

So at the moment you've got just a short show description, it says, a business podcast aimed at helping business owners grow and streamline their businesses, focusing on focusing on the four main pillars, building an audience, mainly through podcasting, planning, productivity, and mindset. So there's definitely things you could do in there that just to, t try and get some more search terms through there of what people are searching for.

And if you're not sure what people are searching for, that's where I probably would think about going into ChatGPT. But also, actually, even before you start doing that, just Don't worry about calling it keyword research or, you know, actually doing the research. Just literally get some information out of your brain.

So you sit down and think about Not even what do you think people are searching for? What do you think you should be showing up for? And are you mentioning that in different places? And this applies to our website as well. I think often we, we forget about, we forget about these, the basic things of does my website tell Google and bots and people that I do this particular thing? And if, and we often, if we can even put those basic things in place, that can make a massive difference actually. And that can get, give you some real quick wins as well. So, is the podcast about people who want to start a podcast.

Donna Eade:
 It's no. So I have another podcast called Mic Action podcast, which is aimed at People who want to start a podcast and I've uploaded a season to that as a seasonal show I'm probably only going to do one season a year at this rate because I don't think I'll get it as another season So looks like it's gonna be a once a year season And we'll see how that goes.

But yeah, so this one is really and I I'm glad you sort of mentioned this because this is something that Really sort of interests me because I think my show very much like Amy Porterfield's podcast for her. So her podcast is called the online marketing made easy podcast. She sells how to create a course.

So her podcast. It's got nothing to do with course creation until she's launching. And then she talks about it. And that's how I see my podcasts. It's not really anything to do with podcast creation. It's more about how to grow, streamline your business and make it work for you. And as part of that, I talk about podcasting because I think it's a powerful tool for people in their businesses.

And then when I'm launching, I talk about podcasting and I bring it in through different episodes and stuff. So to me, it's like. Well, Amy's podcast isn't about what she sells and she doesn't like, it's not focused on it. So does my podcast really need to focus on it? Or can it be that more broader? Thing that brings people in.

But I get what you're saying about bringing in podcasting more into all of what you just said. And I've written it down to talk to chat about that later.

Jules White: 
I think, I think for that actually, it's thinking about, okay, those people who you're trying to attract in your, if you are ultimately trying to attract people in who have a business and want to use a podcast to market that, having that within somewhere within your, your, show name and description.

I actually, I had a look for your other podcast before we came on and I couldn't find it in the search. I didn't look for long. That's the only thing I would say. I had a quick look and I didn't find it

Donna Eade: 
Spotify and I use the free hosting on Spotify because I didn't want to pay for two lots of podcasts on my player and I hate it and I never really got on with it.

And I think it. You know, my podcast did really well its first week and then it just kind of petered out to like not doing very well at all. So it might be something that I have to move over to Buzzsprout and start taking more seriously next.

Jules White: 
And I think probably thinking as well about like having two podcasts if then if they're not complementing each other and they're not doing the specific job that you want them to, is there a way you can bring them together and make that clear distinction as well so that people who are, people who are listening know why they should go and listen to the other other show.

And yeah, I think even, you know, we're friends and I'm, I still wasn't too sure about that. And I've been on both shows as well. So, and I still wasn't too sure about it. So apologies for that. But also if it's not clear,

Donna Eade: 
Yeah. Yeah.

Jules White: 
Is it doing what you want it to in your business? Really? So I think, yeah, definitely the thinking about this in terms of, okay, who am I trying to attract as listeners, the mindset and action podcast.

And if it is people who want to start a podcast, then how can you make sure that is the people that you are attracting in the searches and the way you can do that is in, in the name and the descriptions and in the episode descriptions as well.

Donna Eade: 
Okay.

Jules White: 
And within the episode descriptions, that's what, so actually let's finish talking about the the show description first.

So what you can, um, so this looks awful in, in Pocket Cast, so when I look at this in Buzzsprout, it looks all lovely and it's all, it's all split up and it's beautiful. And everything. But actually, this is a really good, reminder that we don't always have control on how the podcast player acts.

Donna Eade: 
Yeah. Exactly.

Jules White: 
Having something in there of, if you're asking questions like, and you can put some of the questions that people would potentially be asking. Asking or typing into podcast searches that could then tie in with your content and with the people that you're trying to, to, to attract. So things like, if you're asking questions like, could a podcast help make my marketing easier?

What, should I start a podcast? I know that's, I don't know, but actually that would be slightly misleading. And if you, unless you've got some episodes that tie in with that, then and if you haven't. I don't know, this is actually a really interesting conversation and whether, you know, how you actually make sure that the people that are coming in and that you're attracting are the right people coming into your podcast.

Maybe it is those episodes as you're, as you're, um, as you are launching your programmes or maybe it, yeah, it could even be in your, in your dynamic content or something like that that you make sure that you are mentioning how podcasting can help you if that's the people you're trying to attract. Yeah, I guess it's, yeah, this is all part of bigger strategy really.

Donna Eade:
So yeah, I do use my dynamic content for that. So when I'm like doing a webinar or whatever, that's always the first thing that people hear. So, um,

Jules White: 
I guess that's all part of that nurturing really, that we don't want to just be talking about the things we're selling when we're.

Donna Eade: 
Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is to me.

It's my helping I want to help people. Like, that's my biggest passion is to help people. So if I can bring them experts that are going to help them to grow and streamline their business, which I think is what most of us want. We want our businesses to grow, but then we want to know that we can control it and we want to make sure that everything is streamlined.

So we're being as efficient as possible. And so that's what the podcast is for. And then if people come in and listen to that, and then hear me talking about podcast. Podcast and go, Oh, that's an idea. That's what I want it to be. It doesn't necessarily, it's not that direct sort of funnel. It's getting people into my world and nurturing them and showing them how I can help them.

And then saying, have you thought about podcast? Podcast might be a

Jules White: 
Yeah. That's very high up the funnel. People that have no idea that they want to start a podcast. Yeah. Because that would be a slightly different audience to people who've got an idea that may, they would like to maybe start a podcast.

And also people who are already podcasting as well could definitely get so much value from your show. It's not just about people who want to get started. I mean, I think, yeah, so many. You deliver so much value in relation to things like how to make your podcast better and those kind of things as well that actually having those kind of questions in your show description could also be helpful as well.

So yeah, yeah, brilliant. Worth thinking about it.

Donna Eade: 
Yeah. Absolutely.

Show Art and Branding Advice

Jules White: 
Then the other thing that you can do is thinking about your show art as well. So when as a consumer, we're looking for podcasts to listen to. We have a tiny little window that we see, mostly we're looking on our phones, and we have this tiny little picture that we see.

So ideally, what you could do with is having the words being the thing that really stands out on your podcast show art. So whether you have different show arts for each show, then that's entirely up to you. Again, the same principles would apply with that. I actually don't. I just have my main show art.

It's one of those things that's, that's another thing on my to-do list to update mine a bit and just change it. Things have changed with the show. I've been going for six months now and like things have changed in. So I do want to just tweak that. But when you're thinking about, if I'm looking at your show art now, I would love it if your writing was bigger.

Maybe a slightly chunkier font could also help if it's not completely like, Oh, no, my branding, my branding, you know, if you've got something that you could

Donna Eade: 
That's what it is for me. It's my branding. I'm like, I love that font, but you can't make it bold. And I'm just like, why? Why is that not possible? Yeah, and also it's very good I could play, actually.

Here's a trick for anybody listening. If you are doing your stuff in Canva, is that in Canva, you can do, the effect on your text, and you could put an outline on it. Yes. And that will make it bolder. So that's something that I found, while I was playing around. So I might try that and see, see. Yeah.

That is my thing. I love that font, but it, it isn't good for, being bold.

Jules White:
 For tiny, yeah, and for tiny pictures as well. Yeah, when you're doing that, I would also maybe just have a little look at the spacing as well, because the other thing with that font is it's all quite close together. So if you're looking at that in a

Donna Eade: 
I think I actually did that myself, like the, the bottom spacing, so that it sits in that box. So I think I, I adjusted that spacing a little bit myself.

Jules White: 
Yeah, it might just need a little adjustment. I'm just thinking, like, go onto your phone and look at it yourself as well, that if you look at your phone and you can, if you can't clearly see what that show is about, then that's a missed opportunity in terms of actually increasing that, that visibility there.

Donna Eade: 
Yeah.

Jules White: 
I would also think about, so if you do decide to add in a title extension, getting that in there. That's probably the clearest thing that needs to go in there. That's with, with my show, um, art. I, that's the thing I need to change is I need to switch the size between the show name and the title extension because the extension is the thing that people will see when they're scrolling through and looking for podcasts to listen to really.

Donna Eade: 
Yeah.

Jules White: 
And then, so I would definitely get that on there first. Get the wording on there. If you can get on there who it's for. So whether it's for aspiring podcasters or whether it's for female entrepreneurs or women in business or something in there that just helps you to stand out a little bit more in those broad searches of business podcasts.

Then, think about trying to get that in there. And then with the space that's left, then get your image in that part of it. I think we're, we can end up sort of going with getting a picture of us on there first, but actually have the writing, the thing that will really stand out. And that helps. Um, there's always these, these, conflicts between design and searchability.

And I think it's just getting that balance right for you, that it feels good. It feels like actually, yeah, I can, you know, I'm, I'm okay with it looking like that. If it's going to help me to get more people through. And I think the more you get people telling you, they're finding you through your podcast and they've searched for, you know, like whatever you're, what you decide you want to be showing up for in those podcasts.

Once that's working, then, then the kind of, the feelings about, okay, it's not quite how I want to look, it, that goes away a little bit as it, as it actually starts working as well, really, I think.

Actionable SEO Tips and Conclusion

Jules White:
So, how does that sound? I really try and keep these to a few actionable things that you can do.

And even with that, I feel like we've uncovered a million and one things that you could do really in terms of actually the strategy for the, for your own podcast. And just thinking specifically about who you want to attract with it and just making the most of it. That's the thing is making the most of what, what you're creating.

Donna Eade:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, it's been over a year since I changed the picture now, so it's definitely time to update.

Jules White: 
New year, new update. And even that, if you're promoting your podcast on social media, even that, you can just say, oh, create a new show art.

It's a great way to, you know, to promote. Promote the show as well really and the changes that you're looking for. So the specific things I would sort of recommend is really focusing in on that, that strategy and then that the show name, the description and the art are the places I think where you've got a lot of quick win potential there really for your show. Definitely.

Donna Eade: 
Yep.

Jules White: 
So do you have any questions or any sort of? Challenges or anything that you kind of has come up from that?

Donna Eade: 
Well, I've got a cat challenge right now. I'm not sure you can help me with that one.

Jules White: 
No, that is tricky to solve over zoom actually.

Donna Eade: 
Um, no, I think that's really good information. And I hadn't thought about lengthening the title cause I do have my sharp lines, mindset and action of business podcast, help you grow and streamline your business.

That's what I say. That's what I say on the show. And I never thought of adding the strap line into the title part of my podcast cause I just thought, Oh, it's, it's going to get too long and it's going to be too busy or whatever. I'm like, aesthetically, I like things to be cleaner. And again, with my show art, you saying that, you know, I always tell people that they, they need to make sure that their name is big and bold.

You know, I know this stuff about show art, but I also, I, I don't come from a journalistic background or anything like that, but I think with websites and, with the show I'm like, I like white space. I like to be able to breathe. And so there is a lot of white space on my note. Now you've pointed it out and I'm looking at it on this shared screen.

I'm like, there's a lot of white space there that I could be using and we could still have it look aesthetic without it being so, small. So, yeah, definitely things to work on. So, yeah, it's just nice to have somebody else point them out to you because sometimes you just can't see. When you're looking at your own stuff. So absolutely. I appreciate that much.

Jules White: 
So much harder to do it for yourself. Definitely. And once somebody says it's like, Oh yeah, of course that makes so much sense. But there you go. You've got a real quick, you can do then is to go in and just add your strap line into your, your podcast title. And that's like a two, two second job, really.

Even if you do don't think about it anymore. And do only that then that will help I believe. Yeah. Brilliant.

So before we finish I'd love you to give yourself a shout out and let everyone know again specifically what you do and most importantly where's the best place they can connect with you and find out more about you.

Donna Eade: 
So I am I am a podcast host and mentor. You can obviously find my podcast, Mindset and Action, anywhere you listen to your podcasts. But the best place to find me is donnaeade.com and that's E A D E, donnaeade.com. Um, and yeah, you'll be able to join my programme there, see what I'm doing, find my podcast.

They're both of them. They're both on my website. See my resources, all my tips and tricks that I use for my podcast are all on my website.

Jules White: 
Brilliant, fantastic. So if this episode made you think about your podcast SEO and you'd like to explore optimising your own podcast SEO, visit my website and I have a free podcast SEO checklist there.

Or alternatively, you can book one of my mini intensives and we can really focus on your podcast SEO get, getting those obvious quick wins that you can, getting that sorted for you. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much Donna for being here. And I will link to everything, all your, all your links in the show notes as well.

So you'll be able to find those there. 

And thanks so much. I'll see you soon. 

Bye.