“I don’t have time to create content on my website. I don’t like writing and I don’t want to start a blog, but I really need to get on my SEO game. I don’t have the time to schedule interviews for a podcast though and worry about all the promotion…. maybe SEO just isn’t for me.”
If this sounds like you, you’re probably not alone. One of the biggest objections I get from business owners when they’re thinking about getting started with SEO is that they don’t have time.
This is where I come in to save the day. Thankfully, there’s a way to boost your SEO without needing a consistent content creation plan – and that’s to boost your SEO with podcasts.
No – I don’t mean that you should host your own podcast – I mean that you should be a guest on someone else’s.
By leveraging other platforms, you can help grow your audience, get more subscribers & leads, and ultimately get more customers buying your products or services. Let’s dive into the ‘how‘.
be a guest expert on other people’s podcasts.
Let’s pretend you’re the CEO of a company that makes sustainable coffee cups – like the ones your caramel macchiato comes in at Dunkin’ – but instead of these cups having a plastic lining that makes the cups non-recyclable and non-biodegradable, your cups are made with a plant-based material that makes them 100% compostable.
Your product is great, but your company is small and you’re having a hard time getting the word out about your brand. Since you have a small team and you’re spending your time doing all the things a badass CEO does, you simply don’t have the time or resources to focus on creating your own podcast or blog. Instead, you decide to reach out to a sustainability podcast so you can become a guest on the podcast and talk all about your product, your journey, and your company.
“How does this help my SEO?” Let me explain.
There are two major advantages to being a guest expert on other people’s podcasts.
- You get two backlinks from almost every podcast you go onto
- Your reputation increases
The first advantage: backlinks
If you don’t know what a backlink is, it’s essentially a link from one website to another. Let’s take a look at the two different backlinks you get and figure out what they mean for you.
The first backlink is the backlink from that podcast’s show notes to your site.
When you become a guest on the sustainability podcast, the podcast is going to include links to your website, hopefully to your social media, and maybe to any freebies or promotions you have going on that you want to promote.
The key is that they’re linking directly to you, and if their podcast website has high domain authority, then a link from their website to your website can help boost the domain authority of your website.
(If you don’t know what domain authority is, I explain what it is and how to improve yours in this video.)
See here how the guest, Kia Abrera, on The BossBabe Podcast got a link directly to her Instagram?
The second backlink is the backlink from that podcast’s hosting platform/RSS feed to your site.
Let’s say that the sustainability podcast is hosted on Libsyn (two other hosting platforms with high domain authority are Blubrry and Anchor). When you go onto the sustainability podcast as a guest, they’re going to include information about you with a link to your website. The reason why this is so awesome for you is that compared to the podcast’s website, these hosting platforms have very high domain authority.
I’ve given a ballpark estimate of what this could look like:
- Podcast website: 30-40 domain authority
- Hosting platform/RSS feed: 80-90 domain authority
Now, you’re not just getting exposure from their podcast website with a domain authority of 30-40, but you’re getting exposure through their hosting platform with a much higher domain authority of somewhere between 80-90.
There’s even a way that we can rev this up a bit more. The sustainability podcast show notes could even link to two links on your website.
Remember how we said podcasts will oftentimes link to a freebie or promotion you’re having at the moment? In this instance, let’s say that the sustainability podcast links to your website home page and this month’s wholesale promotion.
The more quality links you’ve got going on increases the SEO for both your site and your pages.
Okay, so we’ve delved into backlinks. Now let’s talk about the second benefit
The second benefit: reputation management
Right now, if we were to (hypothetically) Google the name of your sustainable coffee cup company without you having been on any podcasts, we likely are going to get one or two relevant search results (like your website and maybe your social media) and a bunch of irrelevant links to other sustainability-related topics. Your reputation just isn’t there.
By going onto other people’s podcasts, all of those links to those podcast episodes are going to pop up in the search results. We can agree that this creates credibility and authority, right?
So let’s say you took my advice and you connected with podcasters and were a guest expert on a handful of podcasts.
Think about what happens then when you go to the Google images tab. Now you’ve got a bunch of images of all those podcasts you’ve been on, giving you that level of credibility you didn’t have before.
Another fun thing about other people doing the work for the podcast:
Content is being created for you
You go on the sustainability podcast and the podcast hosts are starting to promote the episode’s release. I guarantee that they’re going to create graphics and content that you can use on social media.
Now you have all this podcast artwork that you can promote on your Instagram and Twitter and upload to your website – and you didn’t have to do any of the hard work!
Tip: create a page on your website where you highlight all of the podcasts you’ve been on.
By highlighting on your site all of these collaborations you’ve done, you’ve now got an extra level of authority. Plus it looks really cool.
Podcasting can be fun!!!
Maybe you hate writing and just can’t bring yourself to start a blog, or maybe you simply don’t know what to do to step up your SEO game. Being a guest expert on other people’s podcasts can be fun (I promise!)
Think about it. You show up for an hour on the sustainability podcast and you get:
- Content for your website and social media
- Increased reach to a new audience
- 2+ backlinks coming into your site
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty productive hour to me.
Now, if you’re worried about not being able to get podcast opportunities with really popular or large podcasts, that’s okay. There are plenty of smaller podcasts that are more niche that can help you get more backlinks from the industry you’re working in and can help you get the right people listening to you.
In turn, these listeners will likely become leads, subscribers, and sales, because they’re probably already interested in what you have to offer. A few smaller, more niche podcasts that you could pitch to (as a sustainable coffee cup brand) include Sustainability Defined, The Zero Waste Countdown Podcast, and Getting In The Loop.
We’ve all got to start somewhere. Open up your laptop (if you’re not already on it) and find some podcasts to help get your brand SEO’d.
If you don’t know where to start, check out this podcast search engine.
And to start pitching your brand to podcasts, get pitching templates here:
↳ https://plugnpitch.com/plug-n-pitch-new-version