Your podcast description usually isn't someone's first impression of your show and it often doesn't affect your SEO, but the description does give you the vital opportunity to convince a potential audience to try your podcast.

Here are some ways you can improve your podcast description.

1. Remove unnecessary or redundant details from your podcast description

The title goes in the title, the author goes in the author, and the description goes in the description. When you mix these things together, it creates redundancy and might waste valuable space.

Avoid phrases like:

 * “This is a podcast hosted by [your name]”—Your name is already in the author field and displayed prominently with your podcast!
 * “[Podcast title] is about …”—This is redundant because your podcast description inherently says what your podcast is about.
 * “Looking for a podcast about …?”—People often aren't asking these questions, and this tends to focus on features more than benefits (more on that in #3).

Watch out for information in your podcast description that really isn't necessary to convince someone to hear or watch your podcast, like your contact information or what day you publish episodes.

2. Focus your podcast description on “why” and “WIIFM”

In most places, podcast descriptions don't actually affect your podcast SEO. But even if they did, the most important thing is still to answer two basic questions:

 * “Why should I get this podcast?”—Try emphasizing either the “I” or the “this” in that question!
 * “What's in it for me?” (WIIFM)—In other words, how will your audience get PROFIT (popularity, relationships, opportunities, fun, income, or tangibles) from your podcast?

Whenever someone has clicked through to something they're considering—a podcast, a product, a movie, or really anything else—the core information they're seeking is why they should choose that thing, maybe even in comparison to alternatives.

I highly recommend you read Start with Why by Simon Sinek [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591846447?tag=theaudacitytopodcast-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1].

You don't have to use the words “why” or “because” in your description, but I do suggest you imagine someone asking you, “Why should I get your podcast?” and then what follows after “Because …” is a good starting point for your description.

3. Replace features with benefits for a more compelling podcast description

A “feature” is a simple fact about your podcast, like “we talk about [topics].” The first way to improve this is to extend the sentence with “so that ….” Then, shift that benefit to the spotlight.

Here are a couple of examples:

 * “We talk about cake-baking” ➜ “Learn how to bake better cakes”
 * “This podcast shares marketing techniques” ➜ “Grow your audience”
 * “Get communication tips” ➜ “I help you communicate better”

You can loop back through this process to make your benefits even better! Try adding a “so that” either directly or through some rewriting to focus on the outcome you want your audience to get. For example, instead of saying, “Learn how to grow your business,” you could add, “so that you don't have to worry about your bottom line.”

Then co

8 Ways to Improve Your Podcast Description

I've teamed up with Dave Jackson [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/schoolofpodcasting], from School of Podcasting [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/schoolofpodcasting], to discuss the future of podcasting [http://futureofpodcasting.net]! We seek to inform you about trends, Podcasting 2.0, and more to help you make your podcast better for yourself and your audience, and we work to explain things in an understandable way.

Listen to The Future of Podcasting in your favorite podcast app or through the website [http://futureofpodcasting.net], and remember to stream and boost us some sats!

Follow The Future of Podcasting Now!

“Which podcasting mic should I buy?” is one of the most common questions I see from people starting their first podcast. It is a good question. And while there can be many answers, especially depending on your needs, here are what I think are the best podcasting microphones.

Disclosure

This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship. I 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.

Hear this episode with different mics

I recorded this episode with all of the following mics, all with the same settings, and processed the same except for any amplification difference necessary to reach my target of -19 LUFS. The main podcast release of this episode switches between mics for each section, but you can each the entire episode from each mic below.

iPhone 12 Pro:

Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB via XLR:

Shure MV7 via XLR:

Shure SM7B:

Electro-Voice RE320:

4. Any mic when used properly and effectively

The Blue Yeti gets a lot of hate from experienced and professional podcasters. Why? Because it's the most overpriced, overhyped, oversized, confused, misused, and abused microphone in podcasting—that's all!

But you can actually get great audio from Blue Yeti!

You can also get good audio from earbuds, your smartphone's built-in mic, and even the internal mic on your laptop.

It's all in how you use the microphone and what you expect from it!

I teach that the two most important things to record good audio are environment and technique—actually more important than the microphone itself!

Environment: Microphones aren't magical. If you're in a noisy or reverb-heavy environment, you will get noisy and reverb-heavy audio. A bad mic in a quiet and acoustically treated room will probably always be more listenable than a fancy mic in a noisy echo chamber.

Technique: You can actually mitigate some of the noise and reverb with proper mic technique. This is usually about where you position and point the mic, and where you position and point your voice.

Consider the Blue Yeti, for example. Point the front (not the top) toward you, switch it to cardioid mode, and keep it close to you (about 4–6 inches or 10–15 cm away) and at a 45º pivot away from the front of your mouth.

Yes, processing algorithms in Auphonic [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/auphonic], Descript [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/descript], Adobe Podcast (

Best Podcasting Microphones in 2023

Whether you're just starting your podcast or you've been podcasting for a while, you might find some things easier by using better tools. Here are the audio-editing apps I recommend most for podcasting in 2023.

Sidenote: I prefer the friendlier phrase “audio-editing app” instead of the commercial term “digital audio workstation” or “DAW.”

(As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases through some of these links. But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.)

4. Audacity (02:24)

I suspect that most podcasters have used Audacity at some point or even still do. Audacity has been a staple in audio-editing because it was capable and—maybe what keeps it most popular—it's free.

I recommend Audacity exactly because it's free and yet still very capable! Unlike GarageBand (which is free on macOS), Audacity sticks to conventional audio-editing tools and principles. These conventions make it easier to learn audio-editing on Audacity and later move up to more advanced software. Plus, the latest versions of Audacity are making huge leaps forward in improving the software [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/audacity-is-improving-fast-here-are-the-top-new-features-to-try/].

Audacity runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Try Audacity [https://www.audacityteam.org/]

3. Adobe Audition (4:40)

Several years ago, I forced myself to step up from Audacity to Adobe Audition [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/tap106-7-reasons-im-switching-from-audacity-to-audition-and-why-you-shouldnt/], and I found it significantly improved my workflow. There were several things that Audition made faster or easier for me, and yet there were some things Audition couldn't do that Audacity did [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/7-audacity-features-youll-miss-in-adobe-audition-tap140/]. However, many of those items might be moot at

Best Audio-Editing Apps for Podcasting in 2023

Your podcast's title might be the single most important text for your podcast. The best titles will clearly communicate your subject to potential audiences and stand out in relevant search engines.

Yes, there are plenty of highly popular podcasts with less descriptive titles. But they became successful despite their titles because they had a lot of good marketing. However, even a look through the current top charts in Apple Podcasts left me having to do very little guessing about the subjects of most of the top shows because of their mostly descriptive names and relevant cover art.

Most of us podcasters don't have vast marketing budgets to compensate for “bad” titles. But there are some words I suggest avoiding in your podcast title, to help you optimize for search, uniqueness, branding, comprehension, and usage.

The following are only guidelines not “laws.” So if you break these, break them intentionally and with good reasons!

1. Ambiguous cuteness (01:39)

It can be cute to replace words like “to” and “for” with the numbers 2 and 4, but that cuteness can cause confusion, especially if your current or potential audience will need to type it in. Or maybe you get cute with the spelling, like “Wut Nuw wit U?” or replacing C's with K's or S's with Z's.

If you do cute things with your title, you might have to always clarify it, like saying, “That's the number 2,” or having to always spell it out.

I'm not suggesting avoiding all forms of cuteness—although you should still consider it—but avoiding what would be ambiguous to a listener.

If you do go with cuteness, try to get the other potential understandings of your titles as domains and social-media IDs (where you promote) and point those misunderstood or “typo” versions to the correct place.

If you're worried about your cute title being used uncutely by someone else, then the best protection will come from claiming it as a trademark and registering that trademark where you can.

2. Easily misunderstood made-up words or mashups (03:53)

Similar to being cute, it seems the “dot com era” made it popular to make up new words or mash parts of words together—the latter actually being called a portmanteau. For example, I could mash up “entrepreneur” and “father” to get “entrefather” or “fatherpreneur.” Or I could mash up “investment” with “analytics” to get “investalytics.”

However, the key is to avoid easily misunderstood things. I actually think these mashups might be easy enough to understand. And made-words or mashups are much easier to trademark because of their distinctiveness. (I have a pending trademark that leverages this same idea.)

Language changes, and some portmanteaus are so popular that they've been defined in the dictionary, spellchecks don't flag them, and most people wouldn't even have to wonder what you're talking about. For example, “smog” was a combination of “smoke” and “fog” that started way back in the 1800s! Everyone knows what “brunch” is. “Infotainment” is inherently clear that it is combining information (or “info”) and entertainment. And, of course, our own word “podcast” is a portmanteau of the words “iPod” and “broadcast.”

So it's not inherently bad to make up words or portmanteaus; it's only bad if it's easily misunderstood.

For example, “BuyFryer”—a podcast about purchasing air-fryers—could be misunderstood as “ByFriar”—a podcast critiquing the writings of a past friar. (Even the word “fryer” might be commonly misspelled as

Avoid These Words in Your Podcast Title

Podcast cover art is usually the first and most prominent thing people will see about your podcast—often even before the title itself! Visual space is limited (usually only half an inch or 1.25 cm square—or about the size of your thumbnail). So should you include a photo of yourself in your cover art? Here are some questions to help you decide!

This episode is not sponsored, but I still want to promote my friend Mark Des Cotes from PodcastBranding.co [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/go/podcastbranding]. Please mention that you heard about him from me and I'll earn a commission, but I recommend Mark's personalized design services because I believe in him and his niche skills, not because of any potential earnings.

1. How well-known are you?

“Celebrity” and “influence” come in all sizes. You might not be known to the average person, but if you're known outside of your own audience within a niche, then it might be helpful to include your face in your podcast cover art.

One of the benefits of this is when someone recognizes you from a collection of other podcasts. That will make your podcast stand out more. Imagine what you would do if you recognized one of your favorite celebrities with their own podcast.

What faces stand out to you in this selection of top podcasts?

For example, if you watched the American version of The Office, you would probably instantly recognize Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer on the cover art for Office Ladies. In fact, you might recognize them so much that you would just assume it's a podcast about The Office because that's how you know them. And even if their podcast wasn't about The Office, you might still be interested to try the podcast because of how much you enjoyed those actresses.

So if you are already well-known (even if only widely within your niche), then you might want your photo in your cover art. And even if you're not well-known, yet, then keep reading!

2. What is your show's focus?

Does your podcast focus on specific topics, or does it focus on your perspective on various topics?

For example, what is Joe Rogan's podcast primarily about? It's actually right in the title: “The Joe Rogan Experience.” It's about his experiences and perspectives through the variety of conversations he has with diverse guests. Thus, it's very fitting for the cover art to have his photo in it.

I would suggest the same for any kind of “The [your name] Show.”

But when your show focuses more on the topic than on the person, your photo might actually be

Should Your Photo Be in Your Podcast Cover Art?

Whether you're a guest on someone else's podcast, you're promoting your latest episode on social networks, or you're making marketing materials for your podcast, you might be wondering which link you should use to share your podcast.

 * Website homepage?
 * Apple Podcasts link?
 * Spotify link?
 * Tell them to find your podcast?
 * An episode webpage?
 * Your RSS feed?
 * A YouTube video?
 * A third-party landing page (like FollowthePodcast.com or LinkTree)?

To address this properly, you need to first decide whether to share your whole podcast, or only a specific episode.

Share your podcast link for general promotion to new audiences

“General promotion” is when you're telling someone to follow your podcast and you're not promoting a specific episode. For example, when you get to mention your podcast on another podcast (if you're not talking about the same thing as one of your episodes), in your digital or print marketing materials (business cards, banners, ads, swag, and such), or when you're making any other kind of general promotion for your show as a whole.

I suggest the following guidelines for the scenarios you'll typically face.

1. Promote your website when you need simplicity

Your podcast needs its own domain [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/why-does-your-podcast-need-its-own-domain/]! Make sure it's branded to your podcast and points to a page that has multiple follow options: most importantly, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, something popular for Android (Google Podcasts or SubscribeOnAndroid.com), and your RSS feed URL.

It would be best for the page to detect the person's type of device and automatically show or hide links appropriately. For example, hiding Apple Podcasts from Android devices (since there's no Apple Podcasts app for Android—at least not yet) but showing Google Podcasts or SubscribeOnAndroid.com. And then doing the converse for Apple devices: showing Apple Podcasts but hiding the Android-only options. This requires some complicated backend code. So the easiest solution I recommend for you is the FollowthePodcast.com [http://FollowthePodcast.com] page you get when your track your podcast with the My Podcast Reviews service I created for you [https://mypodcastreviews.com/].

An example of smartly switching options depending on the user's device, from FollowthePodcast.com.

If possible, don't actually link to your RSS feed if you display a plain RSS option. Instead, display the feed URL or—even better—make the link automatically copy the URL to their clipboard when they tap or click the link. (Try it on my own FollowthePodcast.com/audacity [https://FollowthePodcast.com/audacity] page!)

Whether you create this multi-option page yourself or let another service create it for you, this is the single page you share when you need a simple call-to-action: like when you're a guest on another podcast, on your marketing materials (a typed domain or QR Code), in conversations, and such.

It's essentially “Go here to listen.” Then you're delegating the details and options to the next step.

2. Promote multiple links when the person has the mental and visual space to choose

When people visit your podcast landing page (like I described in the previous point), they have the margin to consider their options and tap or click on what's best for them. You don't want to overwhelm them with options, whic

This Is the BEST Link to Share Your Podcast

If you ever have a guest on your podcast, you might be wondering where to put their name. Here are some things to consider for your own podcast.

Is your guest well-known to your audience?

“Celebrities” come in all sizes and niches. So consider whether they'll be known to a broad audience, or even to your own audience.

For example, imagine you have a podcast about dogs and you invite me as a guest. Even though I've had a couple of dogs, I'm known for talking about podcasting and helping podcasters. So your audience wouldn't know me. And any “celebrity” or influencer status I might have is constrained to a couple of small niches, and “dogs” is not one of them.

Since my name would not be known to your audience or niche in this case, you could deprioritize it in your episode title or remove it altogether.

And if you have a guest whose celebrity status is mainstream—like Elon Musk, Michelle Obama, President Donald Trump, or Tim Cook—then definitely put their name prominently in your episode title!

Consider your SEO

Proper and ethical techniques for search engine optimization (SEO) can help your podcast be found for relevant searches. And one such relevant search might be your guest's name.

This usually works better for names of people outside of mass popularity. For example, while Pat Flynn is not a mainstream celebrity, he's been a guest on so many podcasts and there's been so much content about him that you probably wouldn't receive much of an SEO boost by being yet another podcast that interviews Pat Flynn. Thus, there's not as much SEO value in his name alone anymore.

However, if there's someone strongly associated with your own niche and known within it, then their name could provide huge SEO benefit to your podcast. For example, if you interview a cast member from a TV show you podcast about. They're probably a true celebrity, but there's not a flood of content about them and interviews with specifically that one person. So the associations with their name can help boost your SEO.

Consider your guest's SEO

Now flip this around and think about the value you offer to your guest.

Sidenote: having guests on your podcast should be primarily about the value they bring to your audience and the value you can give them, and much less about the value they might give you.

If you can focus your conversation around your guest's expertise (and I recommend that you do!), then having their name in your descriptive episode title will help boost their SEO, authority, and influence. This works by associating those special keywords in your title with their name.

Let's go back to the example of having me on your podcast about dogs. Although I like dogs (and they're much better than cats!), that's not a subject for which I'm trying to build any authority or influence. Thus, I would be less interested in having my name associated with the subject. But if you have me on your podcast to talk about getting more podcast reviews, that is a subject I want to be known for and would appreciate having my name associated with those relevant keywords.

(Speaking of podcast reviews! Are you still manually checking for all your reviews and giving complicated or alienating instructions to your audience? Check out My Podcast Reviews to save you tons of time tracking your reviews, and get awesome new tools to help you get and use more podcast reviews! [https://mypodcastreviews.com/])

Consider what's more important: the what, or the who?

First, recognize that every person has value—no matter their niche, skills, size, status, and such. So I'm not referring to whether they are important as a pers

Should You Include Guest Names in Your Podcast Episode Titles?

Does it matter what time of day you publish your podcast episodes?

In short: publish either in the morning or as soon as possible.

Please listen to my previous episode about the best day of the week to publish [https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/what-is-the-best-day-of-the-week-to-publish-podcast-episodes/] for considerations on that. But this episode is only about the time of whatever day you choose.

1. Consistency

Like with your publishing day of the week, consistency is most important. Try to publish at the exact same minute of the same hour on every publishing day.

This helps some legacy systems, including Apple Podcasts, to learn your publishing schedule so they know when to expect new episodes and can catch them more quickly when you publish. (This legacy and resource-intensive process can be replaced with the much faster and resource-conserving Podping protocol in Podcasting 2.0 [https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podping].)

All good podcast-publishing tools will let you schedule when your episode publishes. (So if your publishing tool does not allow scheduling, get a better tool!) And when you know what the published URL will be (as most tools will show you even before you publish), you can even schedule your initial promotion, like posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (through a Business account), an email newsletter, and more.

Just ensure any caching system you use will also automatically update when you publish the new episode. (Most of them do anyway. But watch out for offsite caching systems like Cloudflare.)

2. Usually mornings for your majority audience

So what is the best time? Look at your podcast stats to see how your show performs in different countries and regions. I suggest usually publishing in the early mornings for the time zones of most of your audience. For example, I publish The Audacity to Podcast at 6:00 AM Eastern Time, which is 3:00 AM Pacific time, making the episode available for most of my American audience's morning routines.

Remember these time-zone differences, especially if you're behind the time zones where most of your audience is. For example, 6:00 AM in California is 9:00 AM in Florida. So publishing at 6:00 AM Pacific Time might be too late for the audience in Eastern Time to catch the episode before they start their daily routines.

3. ASAP for urgent content

If you have truly urgent content, then don't worry about being totally consistent. Just publish the episode as quickly as you can!

For example, I once hosted a podcast that discussed a TV show. We did two episodes every week: a short “initial reactions” episode right after the TV episode aired, and a longer “full discussion” episode midway between TV airings. (Aside: it's great to be in Eastern or Central Time for TV aftershow podcasts because you get the first viewing and largest audience since most TV shows air simultaneously in ET and CT.) We recorded that “initial reactions” episode 15 minutes after the TV show aired, and we would live-stream it, too. Then, we would rush to publish it as soon as possible on the same night. We almost always had it up before those in Pacific Time even saw the TV episode, so our podcast episode was already there waiting for them.

Although some legacy apps (that is, those that aren't using Podping from Podcasting 2.0) might not always catch these ASAP episodes quickly, your audience might come to expect them and might be eagerly manually refreshing their apps in order to catch your episode right away.

4. What about after-work content?

You might think that if your podcast is not about business or targeted toward business people, that you should postpone publishing until the afternoon or evening. But

What’s the Best Time of Day to Publish Podcast Episodes?

Should you publish your podcast episodes on a particular day of the week, avoid the weekends, publish on popular days, or something else?

In short: publish the same day as your previous episode.

(Watch for my next episode and article about the best time of day to publish!)

1. Consistency

Consistency is more important than the day itself. Even consistency down to the same minute of the same hour! This is because some legacy systems, including Apple Podcasts, try to learn your publishing schedule so they know when to expect new episodes and can catch them more quickly when you publish.

These kinds of legacy processes (and especially the not-so-smart ones) require a lot of server computing power, but they can be replaced with the much faster and resource-conserving Podping protocol in Podcasting 2.0 [https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podping]. (That's where apps and services get pings about your updates within seconds of your publishing the update.)

So first consider what day you can publish on with 100% consistency (except for hiatuses). And don't worry about managing this yourself! All the good podcast-publishing systems let you schedule when your episodes will publish so they can go out “on the dot” and without your presence.

2. Consider your audience

After consistency, think about what might work best for your audience. While content for business people is generally best in the middle of the work week and probably not on the weekends, people are interested in hobbies and entertainment at all times (but may be too engaged in the hobby/entertainment on the weekends).

The point isn't necessarily to publish on the exact day they will play your episode, but to ensure it's ready for them to watch or hear soon after you publish.

However, consistency is still more important because your audience will adapt and might even start to expect your episodes on whatever day you choose.

3. Consider your content

What you talk about might have an inherent schedule or routine to it.

In addition to considering business-focused versus hobby-focused content, consider the rhythm of your topic. For example, a weekly TV show, weekly news wrap-ups, and such.

For subjects that already have a consistent schedule, I recommend recording and publishing your content about halfway between each occurrence. This gives your audience enough time to catch the recurring thing your talk about, enough time to send feedback for your episode, and enough time to play your episode before the next recurring thing happens. Because these things could occur on any day of the week, your podcast about it could also be any day of the week that's around the halfway point, but still consider the other factors I've already mentioned.

If you publish too long after the thing you're talking about, your audience might not have a chance to play your episode, or they might even forget the details of the things you're talking about.

4. Consider your “competition”

Lastly, find other podcasts covering your same subject and consider when they publish.

You'll see studies that show the most popular days for publishing episodes [https://features.podchaser.com/learn/ebooks/best-day-to-publish-a-podcast/]. But that doesn't mean you should publish on those days or even avoid those days. If you're going to look at when other podcasts publish, look only at other podcasts in your same niche and ignore the rest.

You could try publishing before them to try getting your content played first.

You could try publishing after them to ensure your content is unique, cross-references, improves, or is the “last word.”

And you might try to avoid publis

What Is the Best Day of the Week to Publish Podcast Episodes?

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