Google has finally created their own Android app for discovering and listening to podcasts. This is a big deal. It’s like when Apple created a Podcasts section in the iTunes Store in the early 2000’s.
Yes, Google is finally getting serious about the world of podcasts. In fact, they’re going beyond creating an app — They’ve announced initiatives to get more people podcasting. They’ve acknowledged that it’s a huge part of the internet and clearly they want a piece of the action. By launching their own app, they’ll be able to study listening habits and better index the plethora of shows out there.
But this blog post is for you established podcasters out there: You need to make sure you’re available in the Google Podcasts app, and you should be encouraging your listeners to use it.
Like most podcast apps, Google Podcasts lets consumers discover and keep up to date with the thousands of shows out there. Google’s app will presumably quickly become one of the most popular podcast clients out there. For that reason, you have to make sure your show is in their directory and looking good.
If you’re using a popular podcast host like Libsyn or Audioboom, you don’t have to worry about making sure your RSS feed is compatible with Google Podcasts. If your show looks good in Google Play — the iTunes of the Android world — you should be good to go for the new app. But what you should do is visit this Google support page and generate a link to your podcast in the Google Podcasts app, then place the link on your website.
Google makes it pretty easy: Just pop your RSS feed into the form, and Google will give you a link that Android users can use to access your show.
Google has also started offering rich snippets for podcasts in search results, but currently these rich snippets will only work on Android devices. Rich snippets allow users to play episodes of your podcast from right within the Google Search Results page, which could potentially become a huge way to bring in new listeners. We can’t be too far off from Google adding these players into search results on iOS too.
Unfortunately, if you’re an Apple iOS / Mac user, you can’t see any of these new features. Take me as an example: I have an iPhone and a Mac. I can’t see my shows in the Google Podcasts store, nor can I see these rich snippets. How can I make sure everything looks okay? Ugh.
This is a good reminder: Your podcast’s website should be optimized for Google. Do you have a podcast about pizza? You should have phrases like “pizza podcast” and “podcast about pizza” scattered across your website. If people are searching for these phrases on Google, chances are they’ll find your show.
I have a lot of experience with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) thanks to my years running Hypable. In recent months I’ve come to realize that it’s important for my podcasts to be optimized for Google. Surely people are searching for “harry potter podcasts” and “podcast for millennials”.
Every podcaster needs to be aware of Google’s new app for listening to podcasts on Android. Mak
