June 21, 2024

The SEO Benefits of Keeping Podcast Traffic In-House

The SEO Benefits of Keeping Podcast Traffic In-House

Today, we're diving into a common mistake that many podcasters make without even realizing it: sending our audience off our websites. By doing so, we're missing out on boosting our SEO and reinforcing our brand. In this episode, I'll guide you through easy strategies to keep your listeners engaged on your site, from creating dedicated follow pages to using plugins that streamline the process. Whether you're new to podcasting or looking to optimize your current approach, these tips will help you strengthen your online presence and bring long-term benefits to your show.

Not sure what I'm talking about. Check out my follow page (generated by PodPage )

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Website Resources

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Video: How to find your show's link in apps

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Ready to take your show to the next level? Check out Podcast Hot Seat. You provide an episode, and I listen to the whole thing. I then point out what you're doing right and identify anything that needs polish. I also review your website and ensure you're not missing any low-hanging fruit. You also get a FREE MONTH at the School of Podcasting (including unlimited coaching). It's time to hop into the hot seat and get your podcast growing!

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I see podcasters make this one mistake where they

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lose the ability to boost their SEO and they trash the

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ability to reinforce their brand. What is

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it? I'll tell you about it in just a second.

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There are so many new tools coming online to

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help podcasters, but there are some that I go, yeah. You don't need

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that. And so today, let's talk about this common mistake that

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I just see all the time, and that is sending

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your audience off your website for something that you can

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easily do. And I'll give you an example. There's a

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website right now called episodes.fm. Nothing

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against those people, but you don't need that service

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to create a page with links to your show on

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the different podcast apps. You can do this. And when you send

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people away from your site, you're losing valuable

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SEO. Why? Because if somebody goes, hey. How do

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I, you know, follow your show? Instead of ranking, find me wherever

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you find, you know, your podcast, which for the record, I think I've

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mentioned this. Don't do that. Searching apps is horrible.

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And instead, put the links to your show

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to these different apps on your website.

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And there are a couple different ways you could get the links. 1 is if

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you just go to the actual app. So if you go to, like,

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music.amazon.com, search for your show. There's a share

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link right there. That's the link to your show. You could

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also use a website like podnews.net. Go out,

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search for your show, and James has links to most of the

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platforms there. Or you could use something like episodes.fm.

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Just don't click on the links. What you wanna do is, let's

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say, you do that and you see there's a link to your show on Apple.

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Don't click on that link. Right click on it and copy

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that link, and then put that link to

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your website. Like, right on your website, it could be something

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like, you know, your website.

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When you create a dedicated page like your website.com/follow

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with all those links, this is a way to

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reinforce your brand and make it easy for listeners to follow your

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show all from one central location that is

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on your website. Now there's another

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advantage of this, and I'll talk about that in just a second.

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The other potential advantage of this is if somebody goes, hey. How

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do I follow your show? And you go, oh, just go to my website,

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and they go, great. Well, then they love the show, and their

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friend says, hey, where'd you find that show? And they send it

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to their friend who sends it to their friend. So now you have all these

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people backlinking on their website or in their newsletter or

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whatever to your website. Those backlinks can boost your

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SEO. And so think about

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this, Using external tools now they

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might be fast and cheap, but it's not the best

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long term strategy. Now have you ever heard about this? It's an old

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saying, there's good, there's fast, and there's cheap,

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but you can only have 2. So if I go,

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alright. It can be good and fast. Well, it's not gonna be cheap.

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It could be good and cheap, but then

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it's not gonna be fast. You get the idea. You can

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only pick 2, good, fast, and cheap. And so,

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sure, when you link to these outside sources, it's fast

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and it's cheap because many of them are free, and but it's not

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gonna be good. And in this case, the good is it's not good for your

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SEO. And it's so easy to make a

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page on your website. And the other thing

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is you don't own that website. And keep the

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traffic and the SEO benefits where they belong

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on your website. The other mistake I often see

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people saying is they'll go like, oh, you go to their website, and

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all they have is a link to Apple Podcast. And

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that might be somewhat fine if you're primarily

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in the US. But remember, 70% of

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Europe uses an Android phone. So a better

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approach is to create a page with links to Apple

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Podcasts, Spotify. Now that right there will get you close to

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80% of the market. You might add Overcast.

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There are a bunch of different apps. Maybe the ones that you like, you could

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throw on there. Any other popular platforms. If you have too many

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options, it can be kinda overwhelming. So kinda stick to

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the major ones. Now here's some good news. If

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you're using PodPage, this is even easier.

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When you add the different podcast players in the PodPage,

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it automatically creates a follow page for you. SEO,

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for example, if you wanna see it, go to your

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podcastwebsite.com/follow, and you'll see

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where all the buttons and the links are automatically generated by

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PodPage. So I put them in there once, and they're there

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forever. And that, again, keeps everyone on your site.

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It reinforces your brand and it boosts your

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SEO. So quit sending your visitors

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off-site for something that, again, you can easily do on your

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own. Keep them on your website and strengthen your

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brand and watch your SEO improve. Now if you're

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like, I'm on Wordpress, there's a great

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plugins. It's social subscribe and follow. I'll put a link to

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that out in the show notes as well, And that's a plugins that works much

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like what I just said. You put the links to all your different

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apps where your show is, and it will put these really nice looking

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buttons on your website. And it's easy to create your

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own follow page. So thanks so much for tuning in.

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Remember, if, speaking of following the show, if you go to

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your podcastwebsite.com/follow, you can get

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the episodes the minute they're available. And that's also if you know

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somebody who would enjoy this episode or just is a person

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that's running their own website but don't really know what they're doing,

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send them over to your podcast website.

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I'm Dave Jackson from the school of podcasting.com. I help

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Podcast. It's what I do. Your podcast website is

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part of the Power of Podcasting Network. Find this show and all of

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Dave's other projects

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atpowerofpodcasting.com.