If you don’t already have a podcast show, there are several reasons to consider starting one: Podcasting is a direct channel to your customers, it augments site content, it’s cheap, and it’s easily distributed.

These points were made by Amanda Watlington from Searching For Profit explained at Search Engine Strategies’ session about online radio, podcast and audio optimization.

But something with so many benefits doesn’t come without a catch. Watlington went on to emphasize that a podcast show is a commitment. Daron Babin who spoke in the same session presented a list of costs: Production time, cost of production, equipment, encoding, analytics, and bandwidth.

Keep in mind that compared to other kinds of broadcasting, podcasting is still easy and inexpensive.

SEO for podcasts
Before you start your podcast show, do some research to decide on the name for the show Watlington emphasized that it should contain important keywords for your business or product. Even your episode names should contain keywords. Even the file name is important. It should contain the name of your podcast show, perhaps in an abridged form, and the date or number of the episode.

Each episode needs to be tagged with this information:

• title (the name of the episode)
• album (your pod show’s name)
• artist (your brand or web site name)
• year
• track (episode number)
• genre (podcast)

For all audio content, it is important to optimize your landing page, said Watlington.

You should have a landing page for each podcast with information about the show. From here you should link to each episode or, if you have a lot of episodes, to the most recent episodes and to the archive. Make sure to include subscription info on each page.

The episode pages should contain an abstract or transcript of the episode. Most search engines don’t index the audio file, so this is important. Also, your prospective listeners need a reason to download your show and it you tell them how interesting your episode is, they will have.

You should publish your podcast in different formats for different listeners with different needs. These should be available on every episode page. You should also offer a player for listening online. It is not unusual to prefer to listen this way.

SEO for podcasts works like in the old days. You have to submit your feeds to podcast search engines and directories. Those of us who remember those dark ages know that this is time-consuming work. Once it is done, make sure you track and monitor your submissions.

How to keep your listeners
Daron Babin from Webmaster Radio has several podcast shows going and here are his tips for keeping your listeners once they have downloaded your podcast.

Entertain, right away. You have 90 seconds to capture their attention. Have a well-prepared show to keep the listeners interested. Be passionate. Be original. Then what you produce will make listeners into subscribers..

Babin even advices to prepare the show so thoroughly that the words you speak are optimized for search engines. This is especially important if you transcribe your show, but even if you don’t, there are search engines out there that index the audio file.

Even before your show is a blockbuster, you should prepare for growth: Secure a sound host or content delivery network and negotiate a deal. Be vigilant, or this could prove to be very expensive. A content delivery network should offer good analytics. You will need this for prospective advertisers and investors or even acquisition.

Subscribing to podcasts … or not
Rick Klau represents Feedburner, a RSS management service which manages more than 100 000 podcast feeds. He presented these numbers:

Two thirds of podcast listeners use iTunes. Many of the others don’t even download.
Half of the downloads are from subscription, the other half from the podcast’s web site.

The subscription process is difficult, said Klau. Don’t assume that your audience understand what a podcast is. So you need to make it basic. Start by explaining what a podcast is and go on to explain the benefits of subscription. Go on to present step-by-step how they go about to subscribe.

Make sure to supplement this information with a list of episodes with links to download them. Not everyone wants to subscribe. And make it more than just a list of links: Add a transcript or synopsis, images, teasers, sample jokes — morsels of podcast content that will leave them hungry for more.

Klau emphasized how important it is to make sure audio-discovery is enabled on your page. It takes no time at all and makes your feed visible to both visitors and bots. This way a little RSS icon will appear in the URL field of the browser and make subscription easier.

More of Pandia’s Search Engine Strategies coverage.