"A Family's Journey: Trials and Triumphs of Middle-Class Life"

Pacific Content AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Your podcast episode notes could probably be longer and more search-friendly An analysis of 20 million podcast episodes reveals most podcasters aren’t taking advantage of a big SEO opportunity Dan Misener Dan Misener . 3 min read February 27, 2020 Last week, we looked at podcast show descriptions, and discovered that many podcasters don’t make the most out of this important piece of podcast packaging. This week, I decided to look at episode notes. Episode notes in three different apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Overcast (Point of clarification: episode notes are associated with a specific episode of your podcast, whereas a show description is associated with your entire series. Confusingly, people often refer to episode notes as “show notes.”) What are episode notes good for? Episode notes are a great place to include information that’s relevant to your episode, such as: A summary or outline of topics and stories Names and bios of guests Juicy transcribed quotes or excerpts Related links to relevant websites and social accounts Relevant images Production credits Disclosures, disclaimers, and other required legalese According to Apple, each episode of your podcast can have up to 4,000 characters of associated show notes. You can include a plain text version, an HTML version, or both. James Cridland of podnews has written a useful guide to episode notes implementation details. By the numbers I was curious about the average length of episode notes, so I grabbed a sample of metadata from about 20 million distinct audio episodes from Apple Podcasts. Then I ran the numbers. The longest episode notes I found were 3,972 characters long The mean average episode notes were 429 characters The median average episode notes were 256 characters Like show description length, the distribution of episode notes length has a positive skew, with relatively few long descriptions: The bottom line: more than half of all podcast episodes use less than 256 of the 4,000 characters available to them. That’s roughly 6% of the total available space, which feels like a missed opportunity to me, especially when you consider… Pacific Content AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Your podcast episode notes could probably be longer and more search-friendly An analysis of 20 million podcast episodes reveals most podcasters aren’t taking advantage of a big SEO opportunity Dan Misener Dan Misener . 3 min read February 27, 2020 Last week, we looked at podcast show descriptions, and discovered that many podcasters don’t make the most out of this important piece of podcast packaging. This week, I decided to look at episode notes. Episode notes in three different apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Overcast (Point of clarification: episode notes are associated with a specific episode of your podcast, whereas a show description is associated with your entire series. Confusingly, people often refer to episode notes as “show notes.”) What are episode notes good for? Episode notes are a great place to include information that’s relevant to your episode, such as: A summary or outline of topics and stories Names and bios of guests Juicy transcribed quotes or excerpts Related links to relevant websites and social accounts Relevant images Production credits Disclosures, disclaimers, and other required legalese According to Apple, each episode of your podcast can have up to 4,000 characters of associated show notes. You can include a plain text version, an HTML version, or both. James Cridland of podnews has written a useful guide to episode notes implementation details. By the numbers I was curious about the average length of episode notes, so I grabbed a sample of metadata from about 20 million distinct audio episodes from Apple Podcasts. Then I ran the numbers. The longest episode notes I found were 3,972 characters long The mean average episode notes were 429 characters The median average episode notes were 256 characters Like show description length, the distribution of episode notes length has a positive skew, with relatively few long descriptions: The bottom line: more than half of all podcast episodes use less than 256 of the 4,000 characters available to them. That’s roughly 6% of the total available space, which feels like a missed opportunity to me, especially when you consider… Show notes can help listeners find your podcast Robust episode notes can be especially helpful for SEO. Consider Bonnie Riggs. She’s a restaurant industry analyst, and appeared as a guest on this episode of Repeat Customer all about Shake Shack. Bonnie’s name doesn’t appear in the episode title, but it does appear in the episode notes. Voila: anyone searching Google Podcasts for “Bonnie Riggs” should find the episode. Another example: feature-driven development. It’s a software methodology related to Agile. A search for “feature-driven development” in Google surfaces several episodes, including a relevant episode of if/else, about different Agile software development methodologies. Search-friendly episode notes don’t just help new listeners find your podcast. They can also help existing listeners search within their own podcast libraries. For instance, searching my own Apple Podcasts library for the word “compensation” called up a relevant episode of Financial Decoder that I’d already listened to. This can help address the “which episode was I listening to where they talked about [insert subject here]?” problem. But this only works if the relevant keywords are included. Remember Robust and fulsome episode notes can help your show’s SEO You have 4,000 characters available for each episode’s notes. Half of all podcasts use fewer than 256 characters Make sure to include guest names, episode outlines and summaries, and relevant links in your episode notes It’s never too late to revise the episode notes in your podcast’s back catalog. What additional details will you add? Sign up for free Creator HQ Podcasting How to write podcast show notes that attract new listeners. January 17, 2024 How to write podcast show notes that attract new listeners Tal Minear Tal Minear (they/them) is a voice actor, sound designer, and fiction podcast producer who loves swords, cats, and storytelling. Computer monitor being impaled by a computer keyboard, which is being impaled by a pencil next to a coffee mug You’ve decided to start a podcast. You’ve booked interviews, written scripts, recorded, edited, mixed the audio, maybe even added some sound design. But when it’s time to post the first episode, you’re faced with one more hurdle: your podcast show notes. After all that work, you might be tempted to write a couple of lines explaining what the episode is about and hit “publish.” But for the sake of your audience—both current and potential—it’s worth putting more thought into it. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing podcast show notes that will make new listeners want to give your show a try. Record or import audio, make edits, add fades, music, and sound effects, then publish online, export the audio in the format of your choice or send it directly to your hosting service. Create your podcast from start to finish with Descript. What are podcast show notes? Show notes, also known as episode descriptions, are the text that’s posted alongside the audio content of an episode. This text generally includes a brief summary of the podcast episode, any content warnings, and a link to the transcript of the episode. You can also include guest bios and crew information, links to the podcast website, social media handles—the sky’s the limit. Well, almost. Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes) limit show notes pages to 4,000 characters, and most podcast apps (like Spotify) will add an expandable “see more” link after about 100 characters. That means you should put what’s eye-catching and important first, and avoid writing five-paragraph essays. Why are podcast show notes important? Enhance search engine optimization (SEO) No matter the size of your show, the goal is to get your audience to find it. You could create the best podcast in the world, but if no one can find it in the sea of millions of others, it won’t be a successful podcast. Show notes are a great way to include search engine optimization (SEO) tactics that help your target audience find your podcast. Improve listener engagement and social sharing Show notes can provide specific details for each episode, from specific topics and guests to timestamps indicating what’s being covered at every point in the episode. With that level of detail, listeners can go through your show notes to find the guest they love, the topic they want to hear more about, or the spot they want to quote on social media—all of which increase your engagement. Builds community and trust If you're covering very technical or fact-heavy material, show notes are a great place to cite sources and additional reading material on the topics you covered in your episode. It shows listeners they can trust your information. Along with that, you can add calls to action (CTAs) that encourage listeners to follow your show on social media or join community groups. You can also use the show note space to make announcements and present special events for your listeners. For example, the True Crime Obsessed podcast has a large fanbase that follows the show and the Obsessed network, so they created an Obsessed fest for fans to come together and be a part of a community—and promoted it in their show notes. Writing better podcast show notes: 9 best practices Start with your hook Expand your description Provide guest, cast, and crew information Connect your audience with relevant resources Include calls to action Incorporate keywords for SEO Summarize key points Add timestamps for major segments Highlight upcoming episodes or events 1. Start with your hook The hook of your podcast show notes should be short but sweet, a sentence or two to answer the questions "What is this episode about?" and "Why should I listen?" When someone is deciding if they should press play on your show, they might look at a few episode descriptions to get an idea of what to expect. This is a chance to draw those people in. Here are some examples of enticing podcast episode descriptions: “In the early morning of August 5, 2001, artist Richard Ankrom and a group of friends assembled on the 4th Street bridge over the 110 freeway in Los Angeles. They had gathered to commit a crime.” — Episode 288 of 99% Invisible “There's a certain lo-fi feel to Jungle Brothers' debut effort, Straight Out The Jungle. The group made the record at home using early sampling technology, but its influence is undeniable.” — Episode 183 of Heat Rocks “This week, we welcome back Diallo Riddle to discuss one of Mississippi’s largest state-wide corruption cases. It involves millions in state welfare funds misappropriated to powerful state officials, pro-wrestlers, and former athletes including Brett Favre.” — Episode 160 of Scam Goddess 2. Expand your description At this point, you’ve likely passed 100 characters. From here on, you’re writing to potential listeners who are already invested in hearing the episode. They’ve clicked “see more,” and they could already be listening as they read. At this point, you could cover the key points and takeaways in a podcast summary. Tools like Descript can automatically generate a podcast summary within seconds, so you don’t need to remember every topic that was covered. If you’re covering a sensitive topic or including themes that some may find upsetting, this is where you should include content/trigger warnings—which I’m starting to call “content notes” because they’re less of a warning and more of a heads up about what’s in an episodes.