167. Podcast Episode Titles: How Much Do They Really Matter?

Sara Whittaker 0:01

Sarah, your podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business, but how do you manage it all bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers. That's what the show is all about. Welcome to podcasting for educators. I'm Sara Whittaker, classroom teacher turned podcast manager, and I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators.

How many times has this happened to you? You plan out an episode, you record it, and then you realize you still have to come up with a title, and it stresses you out. I'm sure that many of you have spent way too long coming up with the perfect Episode Title I know that I have, or maybe you're the complete opposite, and you just kind of go with the first thing that comes to your mind. So how important are episode titles anyway? Are they even worth giving a second thought? That's what we're going to talk about today. But before we jump in, I wanted to share a recent review that was left for this show. This comes from Teresa. Teresa says Sarah always offers great, actionable suggestions for podcasters. I was a guest on Episode 136 where Sarah provided some incredible feedback and suggestions for my podcast. Pass the baton, empowering students in music education. I've definitely seen listener growth since then. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much Teresa for leaving that review, and I'm so glad to hear that my suggestions have helped. It's always nice to hear back from people and hear about how things are going. That was a really fun episode to record, because we took a close look at Teresa's show, and we workshopped some ideas on how she could make some changes in order to grow her listenership. Again, that was episode 136, check it out if you haven't listened to that one already, and I'll also link it in the show notes. But let's go ahead and get right down to it. Do episode titles matter? My quick answer is yes. In my opinion, episode titles are so important, and I kind of think there's two big factors of importance when it comes to your episode titles. Number one is searchability. If you don't already know this, episode titles are searchable within listening apps. So Spotify, Apple podcasts, Pocket Casts, like whatever listening app you are on, there is some sort of searchability tool within that app, and your episode titles are one of the few things that are searchable. So that means when someone opens up whatever podcast app they like to listen in on, and they type in a keyword related to a topic that they're interested in your episode title could pop up in their search results. So you definitely want to be thinking about what words you're including in your title whenever possible. All of this advice that I'm sharing today, it might not be possible for every single episode, and honestly, it might not apply to your show. If you have more of like an entertainment kind of show, you might approach titles much differently than somebody who is educating their audience on a topic within their episodes, but whenever possible, definitely try and include keywords related to whatever topic it is that you're speaking on. So if you're somebody who helps people start their Etsy stores, then you're going to want to make sure that you're including the word Etsy in a lot of your episode titles and other things that that might be kind of subtopics of that. And while I'm on this point, something really important to know is that don't worry about like, if you have certain buzzwords, certain keywords that you know your ideal listener would be searching for. Like, let's go back to that Etsy example. Etsy is going to be a big word that somebody who's looking for advice on opening or growing an Etsy shop is going to search for within a listening app, so you can use that word Etsy in as many of your episode titles as you want. And in fact, it's actually good to do that, because the more that you are using these keywords, the more it's going to help you pop up in search, which is often different than how SEO works. On like your blog, you don't want to necessarily repeat those focus keywords, because then you're kind of kind of be in competition with yourself. But within listening apps, it's good to repeat those hot words within your niche. So definitely take these keywords into account when you are titling your episodes because you want to be the show that pops up when your ideal listener is searching for something that you're talking about. Okay, so that's one big kind of important thing to talk about when we're looking at episode titles, is that searchability factor. The next thing to think about is that your. Episode titles are your opportunity to capture a listener's interest, so maybe they've found your show, or maybe you've got people who listen to your show consistently. They've known about your show for a while now, regardless if it's a new listener or a repeat listener, every time that you release a new episode, that title is going to be the make or break on whether they push play. And if somebody doesn't push play on your episode in the first place, then they're not going to hear your great content. They're not going to get to know you. They're not going to hear what you have to offer them in terms of lead magnets or services or products and resources because they never pushed play in the first place, which is why titles are so important, because we need to get people to listen to our content, and we can't do that if our title is not capturing their attention, their interest, and they're pushing play. It's very similar to when you think about emails that you send out, that subject line is so very important, because, again, if somebody isn't interested in what that subject line says and it doesn't catch their attention, then they're never going to open that email and see what's inside your episode title is a major factor in whether people decide to listen or not, and think about your own listener behavior. You probably do this without even realizing it. Maybe you know you have your collection of shows that you have in your library on whatever listening app you use, and you probably look at the title of the newest episode on these shows. And if it doesn't catch your attention, and it doesn't look interesting and it doesn't look like it's relevant to what you need, then you're not going to click on it and you're going to skip that week. The same thing goes for your listeners, and this is a good exercise to do consistently, is think about your behavior as a listener. And the next time that you're scrolling through your listening app, and you're looking for a podcast episode to listen. To pay attention to what titles stick out to you. Why do they stick out to you? Is it because it's very clear what the content is? Is it the way that they worded the title? Is it punctuation that they're using in the title? Like, what about it? Is catching your interest, if we're talking about an educational podcast where maybe you are providing some sort of knowledge or value to your listeners, then your listeners are going to be looking for those episode titles that spark their curiosity or they promise value in them. That's the kind of thing that you want to achieve with your title. So a great title, there definitely is a balance here. But a great title, it not only tells your audience what the episode is going to be about, but it also convinces them why it's worth their time. And this happens in a split second. Somebody can look at your title and say yes or no, no pressure, right? It can be tricky. It can be tricky, but, but you can do this. So those are kind of the two things you want to think about when titling your episode. You want it you want it to be true and accurate to what you're covering in the episode, but you also want it to grab people's attention. So it's a combination of those two things. Now I want to quickly go over just a couple common questions that I get when it comes to episode titles. One question that I get a lot is this happens, especially with guest episodes, is like, what if in this episode I talked about several different things in the episode? Because I always like to tell people, you know, you want your title to reflect the main thing that you're covering in the episode, or the main thing that you want listeners to gain from the episode that should be reflected in your title. And so the same advice applies here. So if you have a guest on or, you know, even if you're doing a solo episode and you're covering a bunch of different things, you can one thing that you can always do is you can just list out a few of the main things that you talk about. So you can, I usually pick, like, three things that you can kind of list out in your title. An example of this is one of the shows that I helped produce is school of sellers with Erin waters, and she recently had an episode where she was doing a coffee chat style episode, and so they talked about several different things in that episode. So we titled it Coffee Chat with Aaron and Ashley, and then a colon TPT changes product inspiration and all things food, because they talked about, like, some business things, and then they talked about some personal things. So I wanted that to be reflected in the title. And we picked out kind of the three big things that they talked about in that episode. So that's some advice if you've ever, if you're ever in that situation. And then another common question I get is, should I include my guest's name in the episode title? And on one hand, yes, this is a personal preference. I like to include the guest name. In my episode titles. If it's somebody who is well known in your space, or you know, your listeners are going to know who they are, absolutely 100% yes, make sure that you are including their name even more so if it's somebody who might get searched a lot online, there's SEO benefits to that. To include their name in your episode title, but even if they're not a big name, I always like to include the guest name in your show, one because, you know, they took the time to come onto your show. I think their name should be in the title, but also, you know, you're

introducing them to your audience. And again, for SEO benefits, even if they're not a quote, unquote, big name right now, maybe they will be later, and that can only boost your show. So and again, I like to be consistent. Like I like to just include my guest names in all of my episode titles, not just pick and choose. So you kind of have to think about how you feel about that personally. So to kind of sum up those, those things that you really want to be considering when you are titling your episodes is important keywords for your titles, including making it clear what the episode is going to be about and wording it in a way that is going to spark somebody's interest. And then just some reminders I touched on this already, don't worry if you're repeating those keywords that you've used in other titles. In fact, it is a good thing for podcasters to do this. And then second thing is, don't worry if your title feels too long, because it's not going to hurt you in any way. And again, it's just more opportunity to get those keywords in there. And then the last reminder I want to give is stop over using AI buzzwords, it's totally fine to head to chat GPT or whatever other AI program you're using to help you come up with episode titles. Absolutely do that. It's gonna it's gonna be a big help, but make sure that you are giving whatever AI platform that you're using the information to allow it to create titles that are reflective of your voice and of your style. And if you've ever done this before, if you've ever headed to chatgpt to ask for help with your titles, you've probably seen words like unlock, unveil. Those are like the two big ones that come to mind, secrets, like all of those kind of buzzwords, I just feel like they are so overused. Right now I can open up my podcast app on any given week and some new episode will have either the word unlock or unveil. So maybe try to stay away from those. But that's just my opinion. And then I also want to remind that if you are in the podcasting for educators prep school, there is a bonus training that I did on episode titles, and it also comes with a Google Doc that has a bunch of plug and play titles to give you some ideas on how You can incorporate SEO but also create some high interest titles, all right. And then, before we head out for today, let's end the episode with something that I'm loving and something that I'm listening to. I like to end my episodes this way, sometimes business related, sometimes not today, something that I'm loving, that I wanted to share is this new thing I'm trying. It's called the short story box, and it is one of those clothing box companies. I don't know if you guys have ever tried those before, but this is specifically for people who are five four and under. I am right at the cutoff. I'm five four, and so I have a really hard time finding pants that are not too long, and shirts that fit really well, because I have a really short torso. And so I got it, I think I got a Facebook ad for this, and I said, What the heck? So I tried it out, and it's working out really well. So far, I'm loving it. So what you do is you, you know, you sign up, you fill out a survey about yourself, like your style and your body and things like that, and then they send you a box of clothes. It's really pretty nice and branded. You know, getting something like that in the mail is always fun. They send you five to six pieces each month, and you can tell them specifically, like, what you want or don't want, like, I'm looking for a pair of jeans or a top shoes, jacket, like whatever, whatever you want, if you have specific things that you're looking for, if you're shopping for an event, or just kind of like everyday wear athleisure stuff, they have as well. And so they'll send you your things. You try them on, and then you just send back whatever you don't want. You don't shipping is included. You don't have to pay extra for that or anything. It comes with a bag that's pre labeled and everything. So you just stick your stuff in there and mail it off. And then you can, you get, like, a profile online, and it'll have everything that they sent you. And you can even give feedback on each piece and let them know. Let them know what you liked about it, what you didn't like about it. You can also. Rate it. They have like questions about each item. If you want to fill it out, you can, and then you can let them know if there's anything specific that you want for your next box. And so with each box, there's a $25 styling fee, but if you keep anything that gets waived, so it just gets, like applied to your to whatever you're purchasing. So it's really cool. It's fun because I don't have much time lately to go shopping in person, and so this has been really fun to get this in the mail and just try on some new things and not have to leave my house to do it. And I will put a link in the show notes. If any of you shorties are out there, five, four or under, you can try my referral code, and you'll get your styling fee waived when you sign up for your first box, so no pressure situation. Don't have to spend anything if you don't keep anything. And then something that I am listening to, this is something that I've been listening to for a while. I when I'm doing work at my computer, I do like to have some noise on, but I can't have, like, if I'm writing show notes or writing an email or something like that, any kind of writing, especially, I cannot have the TV on. I cannot have a podcast on. I need to be able to focus and so I use a deep focus playlist on Spotify. And I don't know what it is, but it it does what it promises, and it really helps me be super focused while I'm working. So I'll link that in the show notes as well so that you can check it out if you need some help focusing during your work time. All right, I hope that this gave you some things to think about for the next time that you are sitting down to title your episodes. If you ever want to bounce some ideas around when it comes to Episode titling, you can always send me a message on Instagram at podcasting for educators, and I'm always happy to chat. So thanks so much for being here today, and I'll catch you here next week. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. To keep this conversation going, connect with me on Instagram at podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support in launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my online course, the podcasting for educators prep school. At podcasting for educators.com/prep school. I'll see you here next time you.

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