Now that you’ve chosen a name for your podcast you also need to title each of your episodes!
Think of your episode titles the same way you treat a google search. You want your show to tell listeners exactly what they should expect to hear so they know you will provide them what they’re looking for. Getting literal and exact, rather than creative and intriguing, will help your audience pick out your title from the bunch.
The Audacity Podcast recommends 6 tips for making the best episode titles. We have outlined them here, and you can click the button below for the full article!
1.Don’t Put Your Show Title in Your Episode Titles
“All the major podcast apps already display your show title and your cover art for each episode, so it’s unnecessary to waste your episode-title space with this redundancy.”
Listeners will know the epode belongs to your show, but what they won’t know is what each episode is specifically about, so tell them!
2. Resist the urge to be “cute” in your titles
Creative, punny, and vague titles might seem interesting, but they don’t communicate anything. Take the guess work out for your listeners and tell them what stories each episode includes!
3. Make your title compelling
“The point of a title is to get people to click through to read, listen, watch, or do something…The most effective content titles usually convey numbered lists; who, what, when, where, how, and/or why; and second-person pronouns (“you”). For example, “10 ways to be awesome” is more compelling than “Being awesome,” “How to make anyone laugh” is more compelling than “Getting people to laugh,” and “Why you need more awesomeness in your shoes” is better than “Awesome shoes.””
Think about what kinds of words will resonate with the most people. You want your followers to share with their followers. Make your titles work across all types of social networking platforms.
4. Keywords!
“Because your post title is the most important text to search engines (including iTunes), make sure you include keywords that people would actually use in their own search queries and expect to find your content. Don’t spam your titles!”
Don’t try to cram every single relevant keyword into each title, stick to one or two. Remember that guests names are keywords too! If you are interviewing guests include their name in the title to help drive traffic from their followers!
5. If you include episode numbers put them at the end of the title
You don’t have to include the number of each podcast episode, but if you do, put them at the very end of the title. Don’t waste space in the beginning when you are trying to hook the listener!
6. Remember your POTENTIAL audience is reading your titles.
“Your potential audience doesn’t care about your episode number, show title, or cute lines. They care about how the content will help or entertain them. So, ensure that they see that foremost and include the other stuff for your existing audience secondary.”
Have fun with your episode titles, but also be strategic. Let’s turn all of those potential listener’s into followers and all those followers into promoters!
