Google provides SEO guidelines for podcasts

Google yesterday provided optimization guidelines to show podcasts in Google search results. Google recommends podcasts to:

Include detailed show and episode metadata. According to Google, the show description and episode descriptions help Google to deliver more accurate search results and provide users with more context on the contents of an episode.

Make sure the podcast’s webpage and RSS data match. Google recommends that the title of the podcast show’s webpage and the title of the RSS feed match.

The HEAD element of the podcasts show’s webpage contains a ‘link rel’ element that points to the RSS feed, and that the RSS feed in turn contains a <channel><link> element whose value matches the URL of the show’s webpage.

Include cover art. Google says that recently changed the guidelines to make cover art images in the podcast feed required, rather than optional.

Allow Googlebot to access the audio files. Google recommends making sure that the audio files, the actual mp3s within your RSS feed, can be crawled and accessible to Googlebot.

In May, this year, Google launched Podcasts Manager. Google yesterday introduced search insights on Podcasts Manager. Podcasters can now see impressions and clicks for Google Podcasts results that appear in Search, as well as top discovered episodes and search terms that led to their podcast.