How to Title Podcast Episodes: Our Podcast Title Generator
12.07.2023
Coming up with podcast title ideas can be quite exhausting. You might have one or another idea in your head while producing, but it could be so much easier with a podcast title generator. A great episode title is often neglected, even though it adds a lot of value. Not only for your podcast SEO, but also for your listeners.
This short issue explains why and shows you a tool that grades your title and generates optimized alternatives.
Surely, you’ve heard of SEO and how much it helps your podcast grow, but how do you differentiate between people who are trying to sell you their latest product and what is actually helpful? I’ll touch on two points.
- The actual value of SEO for search engines
- The far more important value for listeners
SEO: Increasing your content visibility online 🔎
SEO means Search Engine Optimization and describes how well a search engine finds your content. This can be a podcast, a website, or anything else that is online. Since I am developing tools for podcasters, I’ve come across a couple of podcasts. A good podcast title should be the default, but I’ve seen many that do not put much weight on it. Episode 20, Episode 21, Ep 05, there are many variations. This is not very appealing, even though the content might be great. I understand the trouble: preparing, recording, editing, and now a creative title? This might be annoying for some people. Imagine the best book with a non-expressive title: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3 — it won’t be a New York Times bestseller, don’t you think?
Think of it that way: How should a search engine pick up on your great podcast without giving it something to work with? A SEO-friendly title is not a novel concept; nevertheless, it’s sometimes overlooked because it can be tedious and time-consuming. Creating a transcript would also help. I wrote about this and another free tool last time as well: LemonSpeak🍋
UEO (User Engagement Optimization): Engaging your audience beyond clickbaits 👥
This is far more important, so let’s break it down. You don’t come across many articles about UEO, so it’s a bit of a leap of faith, but the pieces fit together pretty well. User engagement describes how much a user engages with something. That can be physical or digital, it doesn’t matter, but to get people to interact with your content you have to trigger something in them. There are many sides to this. One of them is known as “click baiting”, which is usually achieved by either inducing fear or making you, the user, feel like you’re missing out (FOMO, e.g. If you don’t read this … ). It’s the bad side of SEO and the internet.
From ‘The Sea Cook’ to ‘Treasure Island’: A lesson in User Engagement Optimization
I’ll give you a positive example that’s actually super old! Have you ever heard of “Treasure Island”? An adventure novel about sailing, pirates and buried gold, published in 1883. It’s a bestseller, but it didn’t start out that way. It had already been published as “The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys” in 1881. The book with that title was not particularly successful when it was first published. The title was probably changed to ‘Treasure Island’ because it better conveyed the adventure and intrigue of the story. The new title is more evocative and intriguing, suggesting a story of exploration, adventure and, of course, treasure.
Do you feel the difference? “Treasure Islands” sounds much more exciting to me. It’s a perfect example that showcases User Engagement Optimization.
TLDR: A well-chosen episode title helps with SEO and UEO. Please do it. ✅
The episode title grader: A free app to optimize podcast titles 🛠️
Best of all, I have developed a free tool that will grade your chosen title. It will then suggest alternative, optimized titles.
You can find it here: Episode Title Grader🎈
Note: What started as a free tool has been integrated into LemonSpeak, providing a seamless flow for you. You can find it here: LemonSpeak
Exploring more
You can read more about SEO and podcast marketing in The Comprehensive Guide to Podcast Transcripts: Enhancing Accessibility and Reach and in Expanding Your Podcast Audience: Effective Strategies for Growth.