We are assuming you have Google Analytics code in your podcast site to track visits, referrals and more. We all know the value that hosts such as Libsyn and Podbean give us with their breakdown of all of the downloads for our episodes, but there is more to the picture. Utilizing Google Analytics, the custom dashboard option, annotations, and search console will give you a more detailed story of where your episodes are being shared, but you have some things to do first, for FREE.

  1. Make sure you do have analytics running on your podcast site. If your podcast hosting company has no way to add it in, you may want to rethink your hosting.
  2. Understand how to use analytics annotations to keep a diary of sorts as to when you put a campaign, push or have an outstanding topic. Make a note of it in Annotations so you can see spikes in site traffic, shares and more.
  3. Learn how to create trackable URLs that you share out for each episode using free tools such as Bit.ly, UTMFTW
  4. Create a custom dashboard in Google Analytics specifically for your podcasts. Need a crash course in Google Analytics – try this one from the Direct Marketing Association in Northern California. If you miss this one, look at their schedule for the next one. UTMFTW also offers a premade custom dashboard to work with their Chrome add on – FREE.
  5. Create separate trackable links you give your team so you can see how they are helping get the word out. With UTMFTW it’s super easy to give them each their own link for the episode – mere seconds to create.