Why podcast episode titles matter, 6 ways to fix them

Podcast-Episode-Titles-for-iTunes-SEO

Titles are the most important pieces of text on the Internet. A good title will communicate clearly, set appropriate expectations, compel to take action, and will help your search-engine optimization (SEO) on the web and podcast directories.

Each time you publish a podcast episode, it's another opportunity to put out a great episode title. Here are six tips for making great podcast episode titles.

This article was originally published in Podertainment magazine.

Don't use podcast name in episode titles

1. Keep the show title out of episode titles

Many podcasters will take the lazy approach to episode-naming by simply repeating the name of their show in the title for each episode: “My Awesome Podcast Episode #10.”

All the major podcast apps already display your show title and your cover art for each episode, so it's unnecessary to waste your episode-title space with this redundancy.

This is especially bad when your show title is “cute” and unpractical—like “My Awesome Podcast”—which most likely doesn't communicate anything about your show.

2. Don’t be cute in your podcast episode titles

Don't be cute in podcast episode titles

A “cute” title would be a word or phrase from your podcast that may sound interesting, but doesn’t communicate anything. Try to avoid cuteness in your podcast episode titles, unless you're a comedy show.

Leo Laporte's “This Week in Tech” is about the tech news of the week. That's clearly understood, so each episode title doesn't have to communicate all the stories they share. They choose some funny line from their discussion to set as the episode title. That may work for that weekly news format, but imagine how much better the title would communicate if it conveyed at least one of the news stories, like NPR does.

If your episode is titled, “10 ways to be awesome,” then your current and potential audience can understand what the episode covers. But if your episode is titled, “My barky dog sparky,” the audience may get the wrong impression about your content and have no idea what the episode is about and why they should care about it.

Look at conference session titles for upside-down examples of good titles. You’ll often see a cute and unhelpful title for the session, but a subtitle that actually communicate what the session is about. If your title needs a subtitle in order to communicate clearly, then you either need to use the subtitle, instead, or create a new title.

Write compelling podcast episode titles, not just number

3. Write a compelling podcast episode title

The point of a title is to get people to click through to read, listen, watch, or do something. Social networks are full of “linkbait” titles like, “You won't believe how ugly this baby is!” or “13 things you didn't know about starfish romance, and #3 will amaze you!” These sometimes-crazy titles exist because they work.

This doesn't mean you should start baiting people with amazing titles and horrible content. But you should consider how you can write your podcast episode titles so that they're more compelling. The most effective content titles usually convey numbered lists; who, what, when, where, how, and/or why; and second-person pronouns (“you”). For example, “10 ways to be awesome” is more compelling than “Being awesome,” “How to make anyone laugh” is more compelling than “Getting people to laugh,” and “Why you need more awesomeness in your shoes” is better than “Awesome shoes.”

Think beyond your own audience. Because episode titles are often what is shared across social networks, consider what makes sense for your audience to share with their followers. This should help you immediately realize first-person pronouns (“my,” “me,” “I,” etc.) won't communicate well, because your audience member is not the “me” in the title.

The Copyblogger blog (creators of the amazing StudioPress themes for WordPress) is my favorite resource for learning how to write more compelling text.

Use keywords in podcast episode titles

4. Use your keywords in each podcast episode title

Because your post title is the most important text to search engines (including iTunes), make sure you include keywords that people would actually use in their own search queries and expect to find your content. Don't spam your titles!

Don't use every relevant keyword for every title. Put some keywords in your content instead of your title. If your show is regularly about a specific topic, have different words for that topic and cycle through them in different titles. For example, my own keywords are, “how to podcast,” “podcasting,” “Audacity,” “WordPress,” “gear,” “equipment,” and “tips.” I could make the podcast episode title be, “10 tips on how to podcast with podcasting tools like Audacity, WordPress, video gear, and audio equipment.” But this is beyond friendly and it is just stuffed with all of my keywords. And then what would my next episode title be?

If you regularly interview people, or you have a special guest, their name or brand will be an important keyword for you. It can make your show appear when people search for that person's content. Combine this with your keywords, too.

For example, “David Allen on productivity and gettins things done,” “John Williams talks about Star Wars music,” or “10 tips for making your first million, with Donald Trump.”

Shift episode numbers to the end of titles

5. Shift episode number to the end of the title

Whether you number your episodes is a separate discussion altogether. But if you choose to number, I recommend shifting that to the end of your podcast episode title. At the front, it's wasting precious space that allows people to read your title in small displays. Leading with an episode number can also conflict with well-written titles. See how confusing “#10: 3 ways to succeed” looks?

Podcasters will often claim “sorting” as their reason to start with a number first. But this really isn't necessary. All podcast apps will sort episodes by publication date before anything else. Even the media-player apps that can't read publication dates will sort episodes by the track number in the ID3 tags. So make sure you're inserting track numbers in ID3 tags, and use your podcast name as the album title. This is why digital music albums don't have tracks named “1 – Reckon Bowl,” but they still sort fine on all apps and devices.

I do recommend displaying an episode number in your title, but how exactly this looks is up to your personal preference. “10 ways to be awesome” could end with “[episode 3],” “(podcast #3)” (but remember that “podcast” refers to your show as a whole, not just a specific episode), my preference of “- MAP003” for my podcast network, or you could consider repeating your show title here with “- My Awesome Podcast #3.”

Remember your audience

6. Remember your potential audience is reading your titles

Great titles not only tell your existing audience what your episodes are about, but they can also connect with your potential audience to make the content relevant to them.

Your potential audience doesn't care about your episode number, show title, or cute lines. They care about how the content will help or entertain them. So ensure that they see that foremost and include the other stuff for your existing audience secondary.

If Spider-Man's Uncle Ben* was a content marketer, he would say, “With great titles comes great responsibility to make great content!” Always make sure your content lives up to its title and that it's something so helpful or entertaining that your audience will want to share it with others. A great title makes this much easier, but it’s just the start.

*In Stan Lee's original Spider-Man comics, “with great power comes great responsibility” was never spoken by a character. The quotation actually comes in various forms from Stan Lee, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and even Jesus Christ.

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Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.

About the Author
As an award-winning podcaster, Daniel J. Lewis gives you the guts and teaches you the tools to launch and improve your own podcasts for sharing your passions and finding success. Daniel creates resources for podcasters, such as the SEO for Podcasters and Zoom H6 for Podcasters courses, the Social Subscribe & Follow Icons plugin for WordPress, the My Podcast Reviews global-review aggregator, and the Podcasters' Society membership for podcasters. As a recognized authority and influencer in the podcasting industry, Daniel speaks on podcasting and hosts his own podcast about how to podcast. Daniel's other podcasts, a clean-comedy podcast, and the #1 unofficial podcast for ABC's hit drama Once Upon a Time, have also been nominated for multiple awards. Daniel and his son live near Cincinnati.
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Jim Goebel
Jim Goebel
9 years ago

Disagree with shifting episode numbers to the end of the title, especially if you are a stitcher user. At least on my phone, if the number is at the end, I see things like “10 tips on how to…” because stitcher truncates the title. If the episode number is first, it makes it easier to scroll through and look for a specific episode, or to have some information on what to google.

Jim Goebel
Jim Goebel
9 years ago

I’d rather see a description, but Stitcher truncates the title, especially in the list view. Say your episode is titled “20 amazing ways to sell the amazing mud remedy” Stitcher truncates that to “20 amazing ways…” With no other info unless you tap the episode. At least in the case of Stitcher, I think starting with an episode number makes it easier to use.

Jim Goebel
Jim Goebel
9 years ago
Reply to  Jim Goebel

Thinking about it further, I have a better thought. Rearrange the wording so that the topic can be read better by apps that truncate the show title. Using my above example, “Mud remedies, and 20 ways to sell them.”. This way when stitcher or other apps truncate it, you can see the actual subject being discussed first. I got this thought after watching ads on YouTube. Most do not have what the name of product being sold in the five seconds before you can skip the video. I always skip ads that don’t reveal anything about the product, but if they reveal the product, and I am interested, I will watch it.

Love the show. Keep it up. Using your tips, my sound got a lot better.

http://tsplive.com The Side Project Live – we’re a libertarian oriented show.

temafrank
temafrank
9 years ago

Interesting discussion about numbering episodes. I wonder how much click piwer yoy’d lose by putting the number in a “10 ways to…” type post in the middle. Has anyone tested this?

Also, what do you think about going back and renaming episodes to make them more catchy?

temafrank
temafrank
9 years ago

I mean instead of “10 Ways to Write the Perfect Post”, something like “Perfect Posts: 10 Ways to Write Them.”

We know that numbered list titles work, but would they work as well if the number isn’t at the beginning?

Jim Goebel
Jim Goebel
9 years ago

Some apps truncate the title. While I agree the way “Perfect Posts: 10 Ways to Write Them.” is broken sounding, it conveys more information in the first however many characters that Stitcher allows than “10 Ways to Write the Perfect Post”. I need to look into the Stitcher app and test how many characters they give you for the title in the listview.

Podcastcoach
Podcastcoach
9 years ago

I’m with Daniel. I would rather see a partial descriptive title then an episode number. The number gives no information to base a decision. Also it assumes that this is the only podcast I listen to (so I remember what was in episode 15, when I’m getting ready to listen to 16). Always write for humans, not robots.

Jim Goebel
Jim Goebel
9 years ago
Reply to  Podcastcoach

But, as I posted, in some apps, the title is truncated. You have X amount of characters to use to get the info across effectively. “20 ways to fix the new gobbeldygook widget” is truncated to “to ways to fix the new…” in the list. That shows just as much information as the episode number.

TheUpstartGuy
TheUpstartGuy
9 years ago

“I do recommend displaying an episode number in your title” I’m finding less and less reasons to see episode numbers in episode titles . I expect like me most people lose count of the last episode number they listened too. Is there a case for dropping it entirely ?

Americas Footprints
8 years ago

Appreciate the suggestions, especially putting the episode number at the end. Wouldn’t have thought of that. Thank you!

Nicole H
Nicole H
7 years ago

Getting ready to launch a new podcast and appreciate reviewing your tips and insight as always Daniel. 🙂

Nicole H
Nicole H
7 years ago

Sure thing Daniel! It’s called Get Guest Ready and is all about how to be a great podcast guest that hosts and audiences alike adore. 🙂 Speaking of which, I still need to get you scheduled for an appearance on The Business Building Rockstar Show! Let’s sort that out at Podfest next week?

Beth Vaughn
Beth Vaughn
6 years ago

Hi Daniel! I just started a new podcast that could benefit from an episode guide being included with the episode – any tips on the best way to include an episode guide?

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Marion Montgomery
Marion Montgomery
5 years ago

Thanks, great info for me. I am new to podcasting will take heed to your suggestions.

Laura Moreno
3 years ago

This is AWESOME! Thanks so much! I was looking for for this info for my new podcast and just told me what I needed to hear. I think this is going to be my episode format:

“Biggest Piece of Advice + Guest Name and title + Podcast Name + Ep. Number” like
“Why you should focus on your must haves when searching for a home, with Shashuka Shesh, founder of Arcus Lending – The First Time Home Buyer Podcast – Episode 2”

What are your thoughts?

Thanks so so much!

Laura,
Founder of HomeFlow
Host of The First Time Home Buyer Podcast
Web: https://tryhomeflow.com/podcast

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