A change every podcaster must make right now

by Andy Traub on 06/28/2012 · 12 comments

in Podcasting

You need to add your name to your show title. Watch the video below to find out why and where (if you use Feedburner to manage your podcast feed).

 

Apple is now returning search results inside of their mobile apps depending only on text from the show or episode titles, not the podcast author field. So you need to change your podcast title to include your name if you want searchers to find your shows when they type in your name on the mobile apps.

If you use Feedburner log in to your account, click on your show/feed, click on the Optimize tab, choose Title/Description Burner and then add your name to the show title. I chose to show mine as (Andy Traub) in my show titles. You should see the change reflected in iTunes and then your search results in less than 24 hours.

Are you going to change your show titles?

My name is Andy Traub and I help people tell their stories in a way that maximizes their impact. If you'd like to create your own custom channel to reach the world then I can help. Just shoot me an email or track me down using these links...

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

judi June 28, 2012 at 9:53 pm

Do you start the title with your show name or add it to the end?

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Andy Traub June 29, 2012 at 2:57 pm

End

(Andy Traub)

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John June 28, 2012 at 10:02 pm

Hmm…hopefully this will get remediated in a future release. Nevertheless, it’s not a bad idea to include your name in the title of your podcast.

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Daniel J. Lewis June 29, 2012 at 2:43 pm

Wow, this is true. It’s probably an oversight because Apple had recently emailed podcasters to tell us that more metadata would affect searching in desktop iTunes.

If you don’t want to use the Title/Description burner but are using PowerPress, you can change the title in either Category Podcasting or Custom Podcast Channels.

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Andy Traub June 29, 2012 at 2:58 pm

I knew you’d help with the Powepress option. Thanks friend!

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Daniel J. Lewis June 29, 2012 at 4:21 pm

Actually, desktop iTunes works very similarly, despite Apple’s announcement about episode metadata affecting search.

For example, searching “Daniel J. Lewis” in iTunes reveals only podcast episodes with my name in the title, but non of my podcasts with my name in the description.

Searching for “Noodle.mx Network,” is even stranger because it shows some of my shows, but not all of them with “Noodle.mx Network” set as the show author.

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Andy Traub June 29, 2012 at 4:45 pm

Wow. THis is important. Thanks for pointing this out. Spread the word OK? I called in feedback to Cliff for Podcast Answer Man already.

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Daniel J. Lewis July 2, 2012 at 4:35 pm

More on this. I realized why searching for “Noodle.mx Network” turned up only two of my podcasts—those two have episodes in their feed with “Noodle.mx Network” in the title.

So you’re totally correct and then some. iTunes desktop and especially Podcasts app are not indexing all the podcast metadata to be findable.

Even having my name in the description doesn’t matter.

But Apple has specifically suggested that we put our names in the “iTunes Program Keywords.” I just checked my feeds and I hadn’t done that. I’m doing that now and we’ll see if my name shows up with my podcasts in the next few days.

I’ll link to this from The Audacity to Podcast #86.

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Andy Traub July 2, 2012 at 4:47 pm

Is that option in Feedburner under optimize then Smartcast or should I edit/add it somewhere else?

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Daniel J. Lewis July 2, 2012 at 4:53 pm

If you use Smartcast, yes, the keywords field is there, but Feedburner will separate every word into a separate keyword. If you use PowerPress to set your iTunes settings instead of Feedburner’s SmartCast, then look under the iTunes tab.

Here’s what Apple says about keywords in the podcast specifications :

Minimize keyword usage. Almost nothing belongs in the keywords tag that isn’t better handled in the title or tag. The best use for keywords is to include common misspellings of your name or title, to ensure your podcast is still searchable despite a misspelling. To prevent keyword abuse, iTunes indexes only the first 12 keywords found in this tag.

Ironically, they also say:

Pay very close attention to the title, author, description, and keywords tags at the and level of your podcast feed, because these are the fields that iTunes indexes for search.

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Daniel J. Lewis July 2, 2012 at 4:54 pm

Oops, that second quotation should read:

Pay very close attention to the title, author, description, and keywords tags at the and [spaces added to ensure proper posting] level of your podcast feed, because these are the fields that iTunes indexes for search.

Peder Aadahl June 30, 2012 at 6:20 pm

Thanks Andy for putting together a video on this subject matter! I will be making my changes soon!

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