SES New York: Podcast & Audio Optimization

Filed in Conferences/Educ. by Matt McGee on April 10, 2007

Here are my notes from the “Podcast & Audio Optimization” session Tuesday morning.

Podcast & Audio Optimization

Amanda Watlington, Searching for Profit
Rick Klau, FeedBurner
Daron Babin, Webmaster Radio

Amanda Watlington

Podcasting – audio when and where you want it; computers, ipods, and eventually phones

5 Reasons to Podcast
– direct channel with customers
– extends reach
– adds new media outlets
– facilitates marketing communitcations
– (missed last one/too fast)

Must Optimize! – no matter who your audience is or your intent is

Getting Started:
– decide if you’re doing a podshow or a standalone, one-off podcast
– doing a show? research what names are available
– research appropriate iTunes categories
– write audio tags in advance

Step 1: optimize audio (title, album, artist, year, etc.)
– memorable file names are a good idea
Step 2: optimize web site – each episode/show gets its own page
– promote your schedule as a way to attract listeners/subscriptions
– include a player for listening online
Step 3: optimize feeds
Step 4: submit!
– track & monitor submissions

Beyond Search Engines
1. Power of content — interviews draw listeners
2. PR and word-of-mouth — links to podcast in press releases, etc.
3. Use marketing communications to drive listeners.
4. Promote podcast on your web site.
5. Blog about the podcast.

Daron Babin

Podcasting – is it worth it?
– production time
– cost of production (human resources)
– equipment (need high quality audio)
– encoding is a pain in the….
– analytics — Daron uses Feedburner
– bandwidth

People will listen if you are compelling. They want to be entertained and educated. Originality + passion = downloads.

Prepare for growth – research hosts and content delivery networks (CDN). Discuss analytics tools with host/CDN.

Transcribe everything!

Rick Klau

– not everyone uses iTunes; iTunes has 2/3rds of market; none of next 4 user agents are dedicated podcatchers
– metadata is critical for discovery
– subscription process sucks — producers have obligation to educate and explain how subscribing works, benefits of, etc.

Consumption happens everywhere — even TiVo and Xbox can grab RSS feeds & podcasts.

Podcast Directories – important source of listeners.

On-page optimization – the audience doesn’t generally understand how podcasts work, how subscriptions work, etc.

If you don’t have resources to do full transcription, do detailed show notes — good for SEO.

[tags]sesny, sesny2007, podcasting, seo[/tags]

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