Aside from having a great title that is no more than 65 characters in length, and lots of subscribers (a very big deal), a very important part of the draw to and listeners for your podcast is the program description.  Molly Beck (see link below) says it has to be:

  1. Explanatory
  2. Search Friendly
  3. Succinct

Molly also says that the first three sentences, in this order, are important:

  1. Start with something the readers believe in
  2. What the listener can expect
  3. Who is the show for?

Many others (including Dan Misener and Rachel Corbet, also see below) say that while there is no limit on show descriptions (but Apply Podcast limits it to 4,000 characters), most podcast apps limit the description to the first 120-150 characters.  So, get the most important information into the first 120-150 characters.

For instance:

A recent program on SLMA Radio had entrepreneur Nicholas Venderberghe from Chili Piper as a guest.  The 64 character show title is:  Speed to Lead 10 Surprising Facts About Sales Lead Response Time    

The key search term is “sales lead response time.”    This term is in the title and also in the first sentence; it is not over-used.  You have to figure out the key word or phrase.  Don’t stuff the title or first paragraph by repeating the word or phrase too many times.  Google won’t like you any more if you do this.

We know that the first two sentences get picked up by most of the podcast outlets for its 131 character length; try and stay under 150 characters.

  1. The 78-character first sentence is:

Every marketer should know that sales lead response time is vitally important.   

  1. The 53-character second sentence is:

Nicolas Vandenberghe tells us how it impacts revenue.  

  1. The 107 -character third sentence is:

This show is for revenue managers that need every advantage to increase sales and get the most from each marketing dollar spent.

Every marketer should know that sales lead response time is vitally important.   

When put altogether it reads:

Speed to Lead 10 Surprising Facts About Sales Lead Response Time    

Every marketer should know that sales lead response time is vitally important. Nicolas Vandenberghe tells us how it impacts revenue.  This show is for revenue managers that need every advantage to increase sales and get the most from each marketing dollar spent.

Once the interested listener clicks on the episode from the podcast app, he or she will see the third sentence in the show post.

While we at the Funnel Media Group hammer on the title, (as short as possible, and big promises) a lot of attention also has to be paid to keywords and links to important aspects of the show such as the guest’s LinkedIn page, authored books, and website(s). Use keywords but don’t stuff the description by repeating keywords too often.  If Google finds you are doing this, they won’t like you anymore.

Learn More Here:

The Template You Need To Write Your Podcast Show Description Molly Beck

The Art and Science of Podcast Show Descriptions Dan Misener

How podcast SEO can help grow your audience Rachel Corbet