Optimize your podcast: Find the perfect Title, Music and Podcast Cover
When it comes to podcast names, there are several factors to consider immediately, as they are important for your podcast's success. A concise and engaging name that reflects the theme and style of your show can help potential listeners become curious and want to check out your content.
Podcast name for the search engine
Google, DuckDuckGo, and Bing are search engines – and so also are Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and others.
But unlike Google, the search functions of the podcast platforms aren’t (yet) as sophisticated, and it’s so relatively easy for your name to show up in search results if you use the right terms.
It is primarily the podcast name that’s classified as keyword-relevant in Google and podcast app ecosystems. If the generic name of the podcast includes a keyword that’s important to you, your podcast will also appear in the search results in response to suitable keyword searches.
As a general rule, the higher up the keyword appears, the higher your podcast will appear in the search results. Besides the podcast title, the title of episodes – and in the case of Spotify, even the podcast description – also play an important role in search results.
So it’s worthwhile to invest a little time in researching suitable keywords. Typical tools you can use for this purpose include Answer the Public, Sistrix, and Ubersuggest.
But that’s only one of the reasons why the podcast title is so important.
The podcast name is the first point of contact
The name of your podcast is one of the first points of contact with your potential listeners. Initially, most listeners will probably learn about your podcast from your social media posts or other channels. That’s why it’s important to start your podcast with a bang.
But of course, that shouldn’t be the only way for your listeners to find your podcast.
If you’ve done your SEO homework and identified the most urgent topics for your target group, your podcast will be the first point of contact with you for many people out there.
This means that your podcast will be found before potential listeners even know you exist.
What do you want them to notice next?
The podcast cover and ...?
Exactly: the TITLE.
What makes an efficient and good podcast name?
You should choose a podcast name that works well in the search engine and immediately captures people’s attention on their first scan.
But what makes a good podcast title that immediately grabs attention and interest?
Appealing and informative podcast title
It’s not easy to come up with a good podcast title that’s appealing and interesting on the one hand and search engine-optimized on the other hand.
That’s why we divided the podcast title into two parts, which together make up the full title.
- The bold, attention-grabbing part that jumps out at people and should be a little “sexy”
- The descriptive part that highlights the podcast’s benefits for a certain target group and is optimized for search engines
The PODIGEE podcast is called: “Power to the Podcast: How to start your podcast, monetize it, and make it successful.”
“Power to the Podcast” is the attention-grabbing part that reflects Podigee as a company. We want to do more than just deliver a feed, much more: We give podcasts power.
The part “How to start your podcast, monetize it, and make it successful” makes it pretty clear what the podcast is about. No one will be surprised to hear us talking about podcasts.
This is how the combination of the attention-grabbing part plus the descriptive part adds up to a successful title.
Some examples of podcasts that take a similar approach:
- Handelsblatt Morning Briefing: News from the worlds of business, politics, and finance
- That’s just how I am! Stefanie Stahl’s Psychology: The podcast for all “disturbed normals”
- What to do, General?: The podcast about the Ukraine war
- Power and Millions : The podcast about true white-collar crime
- Zeigler & Köster: The football podcast from 11FREUNDE
Length of the podcast name
But wait a minute: Why do the best podcasts have names that are not very long?
Hotel Matze, Fest und Flauschig, Baywatch Berlin: These are podcast titles with no descriptive part; they just consist of the attention-grabbing part.
Why is that?
The fact is that these top podcasts already had a very wide reach and a large fan community before they were launched.
For podcasters who aren’t fortunate enough to have a promotion company or a pre-existing wide reach, the two-part title approach is the better alternative – at least to get started.
Podcast Name Tips
- A podcast title can be up to 255 characters long. Longer titles are truncated by the podcast platforms.
- To highlight the benefits of the podcast or define the target group, you can begin the descriptive part of the title with “The podcast for …”. This beginning will kickstart the brain because it will want to end the sentence.
- In the final title, you can leave out “The podcast for …” because that’s usually superfluous. And so, “Satiated: The podcast for people who want to feel full and be thin” becomes “Satiated: For people who want to feel full and be thin.”
- You can also hint at a transformation of the target group in the descriptive part, if appropriate. For example: “Team Unemployable” From salaried employee to successful freelancer.”
To sum up, the podcast name is the first critical point of contact for potential listeners who find your podcast for the first time in a podcast app. In most cases, however, there are two things people see before they press “play” for the first time: the title and the cover.
Let’s turn our attention to the podcast cover.
Your podcast cover
SPOILER ALERT: No, you don’t need a designer to design your podcast cover. We’ll give you some tips on how to do very well without a designer.
But let us first address a few basic points.
When it comes to grabbing people’s attention, remember the following:
1. Branding
The podcast cover represents you and your company or brand in a highly compact space. It contains colors, fonts, and other visual elements that should support the brand.
The challenge to overcome in designing a podcast cover is that the constituent elements need to draw sufficient attention in a highly compact space. You should therefore avoid superfluous elements like an icon in the shape of a podcast microphone: People already know it’s a podcast. When designing your cover, keep the artwork as minimal as possible so you can understand how others will see it.
2. Cover elements
Title: In the section about the podcast name, we said that the title consists of two parts: the attention-grabbing part and the descriptive part for the search engine. The attention-grabbing part is the part that definitely belongs on the podcast cover, ideally in a form that’s as large as possible and visually appealing.If you listen to podcasts yourself, pay attention to how new podcasts affect you. Do you mostly pay attention to the cover or the title? At any rate, the cover should always be considered in conjunction with the title, because the cover is one of the most important elements.
Your face: Podcast ist ein auditives Medium? Richtig, aber wir wollen trotzdem sehen, wer hinter dem Podcast steckt. Auf den meisten Podcast-Covern sieht man den oder die Podcaster und hat so auch ein Gesicht zu dem Podcast vor Augen.
3. Originality and recall value
A good podcast cover should be designed to stand out in the wide world of podcast search results. Ideally, clear shapes and colors should serve to distinguish it from other podcasts. And so it’s worth your time to find out what podcasts are already available in your topic area and then see how the covers are designed.
Tips for a good podcast cover
Insert podcast cover: Dimensions and requirements
Aside from the design, a podcast cover needs to fit certain dimensions in order to be displayed:
- Minimum 1400 x 1400 Pixel
- Maximum 3000 x 3000 Pixel
- JPG or PNG, although JPG is smaller
- Maximum File size von 512 kb
- RGB Color space
Podcast design made easy with Canva
You can browse through podcast templates in the free-to-use graphic design tool Canva and pick the cover you like the most.
You just need to adjust the colors, fonts, and other elements and you’re ready to go.
You can find a brief video about the podcast templates here.
Music and podcast introduction
Although the music for your podcast and the introductory text are closely linked, they should be considered separately. Or at least we’re doing so here.
Music is under-appreciated
Music is an under-appreciated element in podcasting, because it’s much more than just the background music for your introductory text. Just imagine that a series like “Game of Thrones” played the acoustic version of “Maja the Bee” instead of epic music. Or if a comedy series like “How I Met Your Mother” played the scary music from “Jaws” in the funny parts.
That wouldn’t fit, would it?
Music can be much more than just the background for content, and so we podcasters should put it to good use.
Music moves people
Given the effect that music has on people, you can use music to put your podcast listeners in the right mood from the start. If your target group is composed of stressed-out single parents with two children, freestyle jazz and death metal won’t be the most suitable music genres.
Maybe pop music or smooth hip-hop beats would work better. Ask yourself where you want to meet your target group, and where you want to take them. Don’t worry, we’ll give you some tips on finding the right music.
In fact, music can do much more for your business than “just” enriching your podcast.
Music stirs Emotions
Whether we like it or not, music changes our mood.
Melancholy music on a dark rainy day (even a Sunday) won’t exactly raise your spirits, but listening to lighthearted coffee house music while enjoying a tasty cappuccino will do much more for your mood.
So you should think about the emotions you want your podcast music to evoke.
Music is brand building
When you launch a podcast for your company, be aware that the company also expresses a “message” and is meant to produce an “effect.” How do you want your company to be perceived by the public?
Maybe objective and professional?
Or perhaps unconventional and flexible?
Picking the right music is also important because the emotions evoked by the music will contribute something to your company.
The big question now – mainly for those who haven’t given much thought to their music yet – is:
Where do you find the right music for your podcast?
There are a number of platforms and providers where you can find music for your podcast. We’d like to introduce you to two of them.
1. Premiumbeat
Premiumbeat is one of the best-known platforms for finding the right music. You’ll be given a license to use the music you choose in unlimited quantities.
The big advantage of Premiumbeat is that you can obtain music tracks of different lengths: either full versions or 15-second, 30-second, or 60-second versions.
These versions aren’t simply “torn out” of the overall piece but are complete in themselves. This makes it very easy to prepare intros for your podcast.
2. Artlist
Artlist is just as well-known as Premiumbeat, but it has a different pricing model. By purchasing an annual subscription, you can download as much music as you like in one year. You’ll receive a use license for each track.
What’s especially cool is that you can continue using the music after you cancel the subscription.
These recordings are not "ripped" from the overall piece, but are self-contained. This makes creating intros for your podcast very easy.
How do you choose the right music?
The trick to these two platforms is that you can not only filter music by genre (pop, rock, classical, hip-hop, etc.), but also by mood (inspiring, energetic, sad, etc.).
When you use this function, the platform will only show you the music that fits the category you’ve chosen. After that, you can apply more filters like genre, instruments, and beats per minute. But you don’t have to do that, either. Just let yourself be inspired by the search results.
However, you might quickly feel overwhelmed because you like too many tracks, which doesn’t exactly make it easy to choose one. In this case, you can use the following trick.
Minimize the agony of choice
Make up a list of tracks you like and limit the selection.
Pick exactly five tracks you like, no more and no less. (This way, you’ll set an upper limit but still have a good selection due to the lower limit.)
Consider the possibility of letting your network help you decide which music to feature on your podcast before launching it.
These steps will help you find what you’re looking for.
Music is important, but not absolutely necessary
Let’s put the question of music and emotions aside for the moment ;). We know that we can spend a lot of time choosing the right music, but often enough searching for music is just a form of procrastination, a “good excuse” for not tackling other tasks.
Recording the first episodes is much more important than the podcast intro and finding the right music.
That’s important AND urgent! After all, you won’t need an intro if you don’t have any episodes ;)But what should be included in the intro?
The Intro-Text
The intro text has an important function for your podcast: It promotes the entire series.
But before your podcast listeners can hear the intro text, they’ll have already read the title, seen the cover, and probably also read the podcast description.
The right length for the podcast intro
That’s why the intro text should be pithy and relatively brief. Many podcasters make the mistake of beginning the intro text with “Adam and Eve” and drawing it out interminably. These podcast intro texts can range from 30 to 45 seconds, which is definitely too long.
And if the music changes – say, from soft to loud and vice versa – your intro can easily last over a minute. And that’s too long.
It’s better to stick to a length of 30 seconds, as a rule of thumb.
There’s no “skip introduction” feature in a podcast intro
One of the most important and useful features of Netflix and other streaming services is the option to skip the summary of past episodes and the series introduction.
This feature is fantastic when you’re watching one episode after the other.And that’s exactly what your listeners will do once they’ve found you and think you’re really good.
But if they have to sit through a one-minute introduction every time after they already know it by heart, the dropout rate will surely rise. You can avoid that by keeping your intro text short.
Well done, Part 4 is finished! ✅
Continue now with Part 5 : Finding the best place to record your podcast: Tips for best sound and comfort
No interest in this theme? Choose directly, what you need:
- Part 1: Define your podcast
- Part 2: Create an editorial plan and first episodes
- Part 3: Buy the right equipment
- Part 4: Podcast title, music and cover
- Part 5: Find a location for your podcast recording
- Part 6: Quiet please, recording!
- Part 7: Voice recording and editing
- Part 8: Choose a Podcast Hosting service
- Part 9: List your Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and co.
- Part 10: Promote your podcast
Start your podcast today with Podigee
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- Publish your podcast in just a few clicks: on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube and everywhere else where podcasts are available.
- Unlimited storage for your podcasts, secure and privacy-compliant, detailed playback analytics.
- Outstanding support at every step of your podcast journey, right from the start.
