Stop making this mistake that's killing your podcast!
There’s a nasty little mistake that’s probably killing your podcast—and most podcasters have no idea they’re making it.
I’m not talking about your audio quality, your marketing, or even whether you’re publishing regularly.
It’s something much more fundamental but shockingly overlooked.
Psst! This episode comes with a free downloadable resource. Get it here -
In this episode of Podcasting Insights with The Podmaster, I walked through a real-world fix for the most common reason your audience “just isn’t finding you,” no matter how good your content is.
If you think your show deserves a bigger audience or you’ve been frustrated by that steady trickle of downloads that never quite becomes a surge, you’ll want to listen in.
Trust me, I’ve just come back from talking to every kind of podcaster at The Podcast Show in London, and almost all of them had this issue—whether they realised it or not.
I tell the stories of Grace and Luke—two podcasters who, like a lot of people, had clever, catchy titles they were really proud of. But the reality is, their otherwise smart titles were doing absolutely nothing to help them get found.
Timestamped Episode Summary:
00:00 "Improve Podcast Visibility with Titles"
03:06 Podcast Discoverability Issues
06:39 Revamping Podcast Titles for Clarity
10:17 "Podcasting Insights Appreciation"
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Guess what?
Speaker A:There's one mistake you're probably making without realizing it that is absolutely killing your podcast's chances of success.
Speaker A:And I'm going to tell you exactly what it is in this episode.
Speaker A:Podcasting Insight.
Speaker A:Podcasting Insight.
Speaker A:Hi there.
Speaker A:Welcome to Podcasting Insights with the Podmaster.
Speaker A:I am Neil Velio, the self appointed podmaster founder of Podnos Podcasting, and I help people like you get better results from your podcast, whether you're doing it as a hobby or as a business solopreneur corporate podcaster makes no odds to me.
Speaker A:I just want you to be successful.
Speaker A:And in this episode, I'm talking about something which is probably going to impact on the majority of podcasters.
Speaker A:There are very few podcasters that bypass this issue.
Speaker A:I'm going to start by asking you a question.
Speaker A:Do you ever get the sense that your podcast isn't quite landing the way that you think it should be?
Speaker A:I mean, you're putting in the time, you're proud of your content, and yet.
Speaker A:Crickets.
Speaker A:Well, let me tell you a story.
Speaker A:I was at the podcast show in London recently at the time of recording this, and I was chatting with all kinds of podcast creators.
Speaker A:Some were DIYers that had launched their podcast recently.
Speaker A:Others had been doing it for years, had hundreds of episodes out there.
Speaker A: ome had been podcasting since: Speaker A:And I kept hearing the same problem again and again and again.
Speaker A:Regardless of who they were, they're wondering why they're not getting as much listener traction as as they felt they deserved.
Speaker A:And it was leading to a lot of frustration in many cases.
Speaker A:Now, to give you a bit of insight, I was actually tabling a couple of advice labs on both days.
Speaker A:And the advice labs were basically speed dating for podcast advice.
Speaker A:There were a number of advisors sitting across tables and people that were looking for advice got the opportunity to jump from table to table to table to get the advice that they felt that they needed.
Speaker A:And they were able to get a number of different perspectives and then take away their favorite ones to apply them.
Speaker A:Now, if I tell you that each podcaster had a maximum of 20 minutes per advice lab speaker, that gives you an idea of how rushed this process was.
Speaker A:But even so, it didn't take me long in every case to diagnose their problem, and in most cases, within about a minute and a half.
Speaker A:And here's the solution that I came up with for pretty much all of them.
Speaker A:They've made their show impossible to find.
Speaker A:It's all down to the title.
Speaker A:So in this episode, I'm going to guide you on how your title might be killing your podcast's visibility and what you can do about it.
Speaker A:No bs, no growth hacks, just stuff that works.
Speaker A:So let's get into it.
Speaker A:So to give you more of an idea of the problem, it might be useful for me to give you a couple of real life case studies that emerged from the event.
Speaker A:And I want to thank these two individuals for being so candid about their podcast and the problems that they had, which helped me to properly diagnose their problems.
Speaker A:First of all, let's take Quarterlife Questions from Grace McIntosh.
Speaker A:Now that name is catchy for sure.
Speaker A:Quarter Life questions.
Speaker A:She's thought about how to approach the problem she's solving, which is people not understanding the answers to most of life's most basic questions at their time in their life, where they're at their quarter life point 20s.
Speaker A:But the problem is, if your show is all about advice for adulting in your 20s and the word adulting isn't in your title or episode descriptions, what exactly are you expecting search engines to pick up on?
Speaker A:How exactly can you expect search engines to find you?
Speaker A:They won't.
Speaker A:They don't know what to index you for.
Speaker A:Quarter Life is very much an inside term.
Speaker A:It's something that Grace has come up with herself to describe the point in life of the listener that she's approaching.
Speaker A:Now, that's all very good for your branding, but it won't help the podcast apps to discover what your show's about and surface it for relevant search terms.
Speaker A:And then second of all, the Clarity Week podcast, which was hosted by Luke Cunliffe.
Speaker A:Genuinely lovely guy, super smart, content, but his title was doing him no justice.
Speaker A:I mean, what is Clarity Week?
Speaker A:It sounds like a mindfulness retreat in a foreign country, not a podcast about.
Speaker A:In fact, let me look it up.
Speaker A:Clarity Week the Clarity Week podcast.
Speaker A: eek is a concept I created in: Speaker A:And by definition, in brackets, my own brackets, is seven consecutive days of abstinence from alcohol to improve physical and mental well being.
Speaker A:Well, did you get abstinence from alcohol consumption from the name the Clarity Week podcast?
Speaker A:Neither did I.
Speaker A:I knew what it was about because Luke told me.
Speaker A:But as I said to him, based on the title, no alcoholic that's thinking about abstinence is necessarily going to find it because they're not thinking I need a week of clarity.
Speaker A:They're thinking, how do I quit drinking?
Speaker A:How do I ditch the alcohol?
Speaker A:And you know what?
Speaker A:It's not just Grace and Luke.
Speaker A:These titles are absolutely everywhere.
Speaker A:And I get it.
Speaker A:You want to sound unique and creative.
Speaker A:You got your catchy little brand title you want to incorporate in your podcast, but unfortunately creativity is worthless if no one can find you.
Speaker A:You're writing for Apple Podcasts algorithm, not the Booker prize.
Speaker A:So here's the advice that I gave them and it very much applies to you too.
Speaker A:If you're finding yourself in the same real you have to be almost boringly specific.
Speaker A:For Court Life questions in particular, I suggested adding a subtitle something like Quarterlife Questions.
Speaker A:Practical adulting tips for 20 somethings tells you exactly what it does in the title and the description is there for you.
Speaker A:To then add further clarification, it's instantly clear if your ideal listener and instantly more searchable, which is the key point here.
Speaker A:For the Clarity Week podcast, the question I asked was what are people typing into Google when they need your show?
Speaker A:Because I guarantee you it's not Clarity Week.
Speaker A:That alone got Luke rethinking everything.
Speaker A:His title, his description, his episode titles, the works.
Speaker A:And it's even sent him back to the drawing board to figure out how he can better position his podcast to meet his ideal listeners where they are even adding something in like the Clarity Week Podcast colon Ditching Alcohol as a challenge I don't like the word podcast being included in podcast titles for obvious reasons, but it's better than what he has now.
Speaker A:So more importantly, what do you need to do about your podcast title?
Speaker A:If you've got exactly the same problem, here's your Quick Fix checklist.
Speaker A:Number one, is your title something your ideal listener would search for?
Speaker A:Number two, does your podcast title actually describe what your podcast does?
Speaker A:And number three, are your episode titles informative about the content or just cryptic nonsense like this week's Dark Thoughts?
Speaker A:Yep, that's the truth.
Speaker A:Your episode titles matter just as much as your main title.
Speaker A:One of the biggest mistakes us podcasters make is thinking our audience already knows us.
Speaker A:And here's the spoiler they don't.
Speaker A:I had 500 new listeners that found this show based on me talking about it at the podcast show last week.
Speaker A:Those people had no idea I existed prior to last week.
Speaker A:These are 500 people that are now going to get to go through all my back catalog episodes.
Speaker A:But those people aside, if I didn't have the benefit of prime location space to talk about this show, those 500 people might not have ever known that I exist.
Speaker A:And having a bad title would not have helped.
Speaker A:Imagine if this show was called the Neil Velio Podcast Show.
Speaker A:Gives pause for thought, doesn't it?
Speaker A:People don't scroll through Apple Podcasts looking for vibes.
Speaker A:They're literally looking for answers.
Speaker A:They're looking for topics.
Speaker A:They're looking for solutions to the problems that are frustrating them.
Speaker A:Tips, insights, whatever they're in the mood for.
Speaker A:And your title should clearly demonstrate that that's what they're going to get by clicking Play and Follow on your show.
Speaker A:So here's the deal.
Speaker A:I put together a free guide to help you sort this all out.
Speaker A:It's not fluff and it's not a glorified ad for my services.
Speaker A:Although let's be completely honest, if you like what you've heard in this episode, you're definitely going to want my help with your podcast.
Speaker A:And you know where to find me if you do.
Speaker A:Titles are just one aspect of my podcast audit service that I offer to podcasters like you.
Speaker A:But this download?
Speaker A:It's a one pager that walks you through exactly how to fix your podcast title, your episode titles, and your discoverability.
Speaker A:And you can grab it at podmastery co titles and I'll be doing a follow up episode on how Grace and Luke got on with their podcasts once they started implementing the advice I'd given them in a later episode.
Speaker A:If you do the same and take action based on my download and you want to be featured in a future episode, let me know.
Speaker A:Keep me updated on what you're doing and your progress.
Speaker A:Before I go, I want to say a special thank you to Tom, who left a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts with the title Engaging and Insightful, and he mentioned how he's enjoying these shorter episodes of quality content.
Speaker A:The length of episodes is just right for his attention span, he says.
Speaker A:Well, thank you Tom.
Speaker A:Really appreciate you leaving that review.
Speaker A:And remember, if you know somebody else that has a podcast who might find these podcasting insights useful, make sure you share it with that friend.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for listening and I look forward to showing up in your library with a new episode of Podcasting Insights soon.
