Your podcast’s title may be the only most necessary textual content in your podcast. One of the best titles will clearly talk your topic to potential audiences and stand out in related serps.
Sure, there are many extremely fashionable podcasts with much less descriptive titles. However they grew to become profitable regardless of their titles as a result of that they had a variety of good advertising. Nonetheless, even a glance by the present high charts in Apple Podcasts left me having to do little or no guessing concerning the topics of many of the high reveals due to their principally descriptive names and related cowl artwork.
Most of us podcasters haven’t got huge advertising budgets to compensate for “unhealthy” titles. However there are some phrases I recommend avoiding in your podcast title, that can assist you optimize for search, uniqueness, branding, comprehension, and utilization.
The next are solely pointers not “legal guidelines.” So should you break these, break them deliberately and with good causes!
1. Ambiguous cuteness (01:39)
It may be cute to interchange phrases like “to” and “for” with the numbers 2 and 4, however that cuteness could cause confusion, particularly in case your present or potential viewers might want to kind it in. Or possibly you get cute with the spelling, like “Wut Nuw wit U?” or changing C’s with Okay’s or S’s with Z’s.
If you happen to do cute issues along with your title, you may need to all the time make clear it, like saying, “That is the quantity 2,” or having to all the time spell it out.
I am not suggesting avoiding all types of cuteness—though it’s best to nonetheless take into account it—however avoiding what can be ambiguous to a listener.
If you happen to do go along with cuteness, attempt to get the opposite potential understandings of your titles as domains and social-media IDs (the place you promote) and level these misunderstood or “typo” variations to the proper place.
If you happen to’re frightened about your cute title getting used uncutely by another person, then the perfect safety will come from claiming it as a trademark and registering that trademark the place you may.
2. Simply misunderstood made-up phrases or mashups (03:53)
Much like being cute, it appears the “dot com period” made it fashionable to make up new phrases or mash components of phrases collectively—the latter really being referred to as a portmanteau. For instance, I might mash up “entrepreneur” and “father” to get “entrefather” or “fatherpreneur.” Or I might mash up “funding” with “analytics” to get “investalytics.”
Nonetheless, the bottom line is to keep away from simply misunderstood issues. I really suppose these mashups may be simple sufficient to know. And made-words or mashups are a lot simpler to trademark due to their distinctiveness. (I’ve a pending trademark that leverages this similar concept.)
Language adjustments, and a few portmanteaus are so fashionable that they have been outlined within the dictionary, spellchecks do not flag them, and most of the people would not even need to marvel what you are speaking about. For instance, “smog” was a mixture of “smoke” and “fog” that began manner again within the 1800s! Everybody is aware of what “brunch” is. “Infotainment” is inherently clear that it’s combining info (or “information”) and leisure. And, in fact, our personal phrase “podcast” is a portmanteau of the phrases “iPod” and “broadcast.”
So it isn’t inherently unhealthy to make up phrases or portmanteaus; it is solely unhealthy if it is simply misunderstood.
For instance, “BuyFryer”—a podcast about buying air-fryers—might be misunderstood as “ByFriar”—a podcast critiquing the writings of a previous friar. (Even the phrase “fryer” may be generally misspelled as “frier” like “whoa” is often misspelled as “woah.” And it delights my coronary heart to see my spellchecker nonetheless flag “woah.”)
When you’ve got a title in your podcast, strive talking it to somebody unfamiliar along with your podcast to see in the event that they correctly perceive what you are saying and might even appropriately guess what your present is about. And if there’s nonetheless potential confusion, both take into account a distinct title or observe the identical tip from #1 to get the choice variations for domains and social-media IDs if you wish to catch misspellings.
3. Beginning with “the” (07:05)
I’ve seen many sturdy manufacturers weakened with a easy, pointless “the”! For instance, take into account the hilarious conservative satire web site with “bee” within the title. Is it “The Babylon Bee” or “Babylon Bee”? Their very own web site is not even in step with it! The brand and social IDs have “the,” however the web site area and copyright line exclude “the.”
I am a little bit of a stickler for this. If an official title has a “the,” then I’ll communicate that title it doesn’t matter what! That is my very own type selection, and also you may need your individual choice. For instance, how would you confer with their web site? “The Babylon Bee’s web site,” or “the The Babylon Bee’s web site”? Or strive verbal gymnastics to keep away from that wording drawback?
Utilizing a “the” appears to de-emphasize the remainder of the title. On this similar instance, it makes me suppose there are other forms of “bees,” as if it is a well-known style of content material or publishing type, and that is merely the “Babylon” one.
There are, nonetheless, some occasions when “the” continues to be good for readability. I take into account my very own present title to be an instance of this: “The Audacity to Podcast.” And I debated the inclusion of the phrase “the” after I first created the title in 2010! As a result of I all the time wished to emphasise “audacity” to imply guts, braveness, boldness, and the like, I couldn’t hear that as a lot with “Audacity to Podcast.” Plus, you’ve got may need seen that I have been emphasizing it stronger in how I say it within the audio podcast, too.
Beginning with “the” may nonetheless be follow in case your title should embrace the phrase “podcast” or “present,” like “The Katie Smith Present.” And that leads into my subsequent suggestion!
Simply should you do have to start out with a “the” in your title, be sure to additionally get domains and branding with out the beginning “the.” (Which The Babylon Bee has achieved.)
4. “Podcast” or “present” (10:44)
Let me handle the potential elephant within the room, since I introduced up the title of my very own present, “The Audacity to Podcast.” I am utilizing the phrase “podcast” as a verb in my present title. You could possibly substitute that phrase with every other verb and the title would nonetheless make sense. For instance, “The Audacity to Bake,” “The Audacity to Make investments,” “The Audacity to Learn,” or “The Audacity to Suppose.” You could possibly additionally substitute it with a verb phrase, like “The Audacity to Cook dinner Dinner” or “The Audacity to Drive Automobiles.” However substitute “podcast” with a noun, like “The Audacity to Film” or “The Audacity to Carrot” and you may see the title does not make sense anymore or it sounds even infantile. Thus, if I used “The Audacity to Podcast” as a much bigger model identify, my audio podcast might precisely be known as “the The Audacity to Podcast podcast.”
Yeah, that is bizarre. Do not try this to your self!
However more often than not I see podcasters need to use the phrases “podcast” or “present” of their titles, their utilization can be as a noun and possibly pointless. On high of that, they’re normally combining it with an pointless “the” at first, too!
Take into account which title sounds stronger as a model: “Impactful Residing” or “The Impactful Residing Present”? I believe the shorter, cleaner model sounds higher. Think about the podcast openings: “Welcome to Impactful Residing” versus “Welcome to The Impactful Residing Present.”
I recommend additionally contemplating your search-engine optimization (“search engine marketing”). Looking out in podcast apps continues to be not the perfect expertise presently. Whereas some apps may well seek for “and” once you kind “&” and vice versa, and even deal with totally different types of phrases and a few misspellings, they will also be dumb typically.
Nonetheless, I believe it may be unfaithful when some individuals say that including the phrase “podcast” makes your podcast out of the blue much less findable as a result of it is competing with all the opposite podcasts which have the phrase podcast. A minimum of that is my remark with my very own present in Apple Podcasts. It actually is determined by how the search is treating every phrase.
With a good deeper, technical apart, this can be a distinction between “AND” and “OR” boolean operators. Utilizing “The Audacity to Podcast” for instance, the phrases “the” and “to” may be thought of irrelevant or stop-words by some serps, in order that leaves “audacity” and “podcast” as the one search phrases. The “AND” operator would present outcomes which have each “audacity” and “podcast.” However the “OR” operator would present outcomes which have both “audacity” or “podcast” (or each).
You do not have to kind these operators in most searches anymore, however some serps routinely use one or the opposite. A easy technique to discover out can be to see if including extra phrases offers extra outcomes (that is “OR”) or fewer (that is “AND”).
For instance, the Podcast Index search presently reveals 11 outcomes for “The Audacity to,” however solely 3 outcomes for “The Audacity to Podcast.”
So it isn’t a common rule that including the phrase “podcast” makes your present compete within the search outcomes for all different podcasts with “podcast” within the title. Nonetheless, it is normally an pointless phrase in your title.
The place it is good to interrupt this rule is when the podcast is utilizing a acknowledged identify from a much bigger model. For instance, if Microsoft began a podcast, it would be higher to be referred to as “The Microsoft Podcast” than merely “Microsoft” as a result of the model is a lot bigger than the podcast. Nonetheless, even on this case, I might recommend a totally totally different identify, like “Microsoft’s Bussiness Computing” and even transfer the model identify to the artist discipline, which is additionally already searchable in all podcast apps I’ve examined.
Additionally, I nonetheless suppose it is wonderful to make use of “podcast” or “present” that can assist you get a website that matches your podcast title. For instance, I hosted a fan podcast about Disney’s TV present As soon as Upon a Time (be aware that I did not say “the As soon as Upon a Time present”!), and we referred to as our podcast merely “ONCE” however we used the area and social branding of “ONCEpodcast” (and “ONCEshow” simply did not sound correct).
5. Publishing frequency (“every day,” “weekly,” “month-to-month,” and many others.) (19:38)
This one is straightforward! If you happen to add a publishing frequency to your title—particularly the tip—then you definitely’re binding your self to that frequency. If you happen to ever need to change your publishing frequency, you would need to change titles. And should you ever skipped a traditional publishing cycle, then the identify has basically develop into a lie.
There appears a noteworthy distinction between utilizing the time period on the finish of the title versus wherever else within the title. For instance, “Each day Bible Studying” versus “Bible Studying Each day.” Possibly it is solely me, however placing “every day” on the finish sounds extra prefer it’s a information broadcast reporting on one thing every day, whereas placing the frequency wherever else sounds prefer it’s serving to to try this factor every day, even when the podcast is not printed every day. For instance, “Enhancing Your Each day Well being.”
So it isn’t the frequency phrase itself that is unhealthy, it is actually how you utilize it.
6. Obscenities [21:05]
Apple Podcasts used to forbid obscenities in present and episode titles or descriptions—actually any textual content in your RSS feed. However they’ve since eliminated that rule (aside from podcast cowl artwork) as a result of their system can routinely censor written obscenities. Nonetheless, I like to recommend avoiding them in your title as a result of it is going to make it simpler for different individuals to speak about your podcast, and scale back some friction some individuals may need in creating content material selling your podcast or in even following your podcast.
For instance, you may need seen that I by no means confer with Marc Maron’s podcast by its identify. It’s because I do not use profanity, and I take into account even his present identify’s abbreviation to be obscene as a result of almost everybody is aware of what it means anyway, so abbreviating it actually is not cleansing it up or making it family-friendly. It is much like if I censored the phrase “p*dc*st” by eradicating the vowels—you continue to know I am saying or writing “podcast” so it wasn’t actually censored.
And earlier than you say, “Having an obscene title hasn’t harm Marc Maron’s present!” Consider that you really can’t know that for sure. His present might very simply be even greater underneath a distinct identify. Additionally, I do know of some individuals who is not going to take heed to or advocate his present precisely due to its identify, even when the content material was the identical!
Plus, different podcast apps and directories may need totally different guidelines, particularly in different nations. Even when your content material accommodates obscenities, it may be prevented from being featured or included solely due to the identify. I really do that similar factor after I function podcasts—I will not function something with obscenities or profanity within the title or cowl artwork.
And again to Apple Podcasts, which does censor the textual content routinely underneath sure circumstances, they do not censor pictures and so they have a particular rule that there should not be obscenities in pictures. So in case your podcast identify makes use of obscenities, then you would need to censor your cowl artwork with a view to not get kicked out of Apple Podcasts. After which that is weakening your visible branding to not have your cowl artwork precisely replicate your title.
7. “with [your name]” (24:21)
To make clear, I am referring particularly to including your identify to the finish of your title, like “with John Smith.” I am not referring to constructing your present title round your private model, like “The Joe Rogan Expertise,” “The Mel Robbins Podcast,” “The Charlie Kirk Present,” or “Conan O’Brien Wants a Buddy.” As a substitute, I imply tacking “with [your name]” onto the tip of your nice present title.
A number of years earlier than Apple Podcasts, there was a glitch in iTunes that prevented podcasts from being discovered by their artist names. So should you looked for “Daniel J. Lewis,” The Audacity to Podcast wouldn’t present up. So a preferred podcast guide again then suggested everybody to place their names of their podcast titles so they may nonetheless be discovered. That will heave meant renaming my present to “The Audacity to Podcast with Daniel J. Lewis.”
However that was a non permanent glitch! (I believe it lasted for just a few weeks at most.)
Sadly, that unhealthy recommendation’s harm was already achieved and a wave of extremely fashionable podcasts redundantly included the host names within the present titles.
That is pointless for a number of causes:
- Your podcast’s artist textual content ought to already comprise your identify and it is virtually all the time displayed prominently with the title of your podcast.
- Each podcast app I’ve examined already searches the artist/writer textual content, returning podcasts along with your identify.
- Voice-based assistants from Apple, Google, Amazon, and different assistant instruments will typically communicate or return each the title and writer of podcasts once you ask for them. So Siri, for instance, may reply, “Now enjoying The Audacity to Podcast with Daniel J. Lewis, by Daniel J. Lewis.”
That is much like when Apple started cracking down on keyword-stuffed podcast titles back in 2018. Podcast-publishing instruments have a number of fields meant for particular content material, and the content material shouldn’t be repeated the place it isn’t purported to be. The title discipline ought to have solely the title, the artist/writer discipline ought to have solely the artist/writer names, the outline ought to have solely the outline, episode titles should have only episode titles (and not season or episode numbers), the copyright discipline ought to have solely the copyright, and so forth.
I requested my podcast lawyer, Gordon Firemark, about emblems. (I earn no commissions by referring his personalised authorized providers.) He mentioned that placing your identify in an in any other case non-distinctive title, like “Each day Information with Jane Smith,” doesn’t make the title any extra trademarkable as a result of it is nonetheless extremely descriptive, not distinctive.
In case your title is so generic that there are numerous different podcasts with the identical title, this may be case for placing your identify within the title, identical to “Each day Information with Jane Smith,” despite the fact that that may’t be trademarked. The non-distinctness of the title permits different individuals to do the identical however including your identify to this type of title may also help your viewers be extra assured they’re selecting the proper podcast.
8. “Pod” and “forged” (30:02)
Please keep away from the cliché of stabbing your podcast title with “pod” or “forged.” Your present does not have to be “PodCooking” or “CookingCast.”
Aside from “pedia” from “encyclopedia,” I could not consider any time the media or distribution format time period was chopped and stabbed into one other phrase within the title. Are you able to think about attempting to make mashups with the phrase “film” in titles like “StarMov Wars” or “Indiana JonesVie”? Or making portmanteaus with “music” and the most recent music album titles?
I believe this meta/cliché/portmanteau follow is ok once you’re making a services or products for podcasting. For instance, PodMatch, Castopod (2 factors for this one!), and Pod Decks. Clichés aren’t all the time unhealthy, however it’s best to attempt to keep away from them just like the plague.
9. Emoji 😮 (31:15)
Whereas emoji could be enjoyable in your cowl artwork and even episode titles, keep away from them in your podcast title. Some podcast apps nonetheless cannot show emoji appropriately. They could both omit the emoji altogether, or they’d substitute every emoji with “??” within the title, which might trigger some unintended meanings. Anywhere that generates a URL in your podcast may also have issues or make a very messy URL with a view to correctly encode the unicode essential to show an emoji.
If you happen to use emoji in your title, you may need to all the time remind your viewers not to kind the emoji as a part of your area or social-network IDs. Nonetheless, they may attempt to seek for your podcast with the emoji anyway, and the way would somebody even make sure they’re utilizing the proper emoji?
10. #Hashtags (33:33)
Hashtags like “#podcasting” are pointless in titles and descriptions. They do nothing in your search engine marketing and they’ll look bizarre (however not as bizarre as emoji). The one place hashtags are presently of any use is once you publish on social networks, like Twitter, Fb, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Mastodon, and even YouTube descriptions (however not titles). Every of those is a spot the place you’d publish about your podcast, not your full podcast content material itself. So whereas it is good to hashtag the suitable key phrases out of your title and outline in messages you publish on social networks, do not put the hashtags in your podcast title.
A great exception to that is when your podcast is about one thing recognized by its hashtag, and it is primarily recognized by that hashtag. For instance, whereas Podcast Movement 2022 had its personal hashtag, #PM22, that podcasting convention was not primarily recognized by that hashtag. However titling a podcast “#MeToo Survivors” can be immediately recognizable as a result of it was recognized because the “#MeToo motion,” and thus this might be motive to make use of a hashtag within the title.
However do not begin hashtagging key phrases in your title merely since you suppose it is going to assist your search engine marketing; it will not.
11. Phrases that are not your precise podcast title (36:57)
I hope that is apparent by now: your podcast title ought to be solely your podcast title. It should not be a tagline or a listing of key phrases in makes an attempt to control search engine marketing.
This was highly regarded earlier than 2018, and even I had really helpful including keyword-optimized taglines to your title and writer tag. For instance, The Audacity to Podcast‘s full title was “The Audacity to Podcast – learn how to launch and enhance your podcast” and my writer textual content was “Daniel J. Lewis, podcasting trade professional and how-to-podcast trainer.” That was an efficient search engine marketing trick again then, however some individuals caught on after which abused the system with titles that might appear to be “My Superior Podcast – Entrepreneurship, Advertising and marketing, Passive Earnings, Relationships, Bitcoin, Enterprise, search engine marketing, and Vanilla Cream Soda.” That simulated title is 127 characters lengthy, however I’ve seen some that have been longer than 250 characters!
Apple cracked down on this keyword-spamming in 2018 and I shared some observations and testing around it. Now, I believe it is really fairly good to see concise titles which might be solely the titles!
There are some exceptions the place you may embrace a brief type of “growth” of the title. For instance, Apple allowed our podcast about As soon as Upon a Time to stay underneath the title “ONCE – As soon as Upon a Time podcast,” and you will discover another, even high-ranking podcasts with equally formatted titles. But when your title has to be defined, then it won’t be title!
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This publish could comprise hyperlinks to services or products with which I’ve an affiliate relationship. I’ll obtain compensation out of your actions by such hyperlinks. Nonetheless, I do not let that corrupt my perspective and I do not advocate solely associates.
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