Connect with us

SEO

The Definitive Guide To Podcast Intros

Published

on

Podcast intros are an important quality of a successful podcast.

The right intro sets the podcast on a path to success.

These seven tips will help your podcast build an audience and retain it:

  1. Hook the listeners fast.
  2. Make every second of the podcast intro count.
  3. A good podcast intro builds audience retention.
  4. Test podcast intros for audience retention.
  5. Three things a podcast intro must communicate.
  6. Podcast intro builds loyalty.
  7. Where to get music for a podcast.

Let’s dig into each one and see how you can put it work for your podcast.

1. Hook The Listeners Fast

Erin Sparks of Edge of the Web Radio podcast says that there is a subtle but important value in the podcast intro when it comes to what he calls, “click browsing.”

Erin suggests that the intro functions like a hook – to grab the listener’s attention and immediately intrigue them.

He shares this insight:

“The audio ‘hook’ is important to podcast click browsing. Walking through a podcast app, people will click and listen to 7-10 seconds to hear if they ‘feel’ the show.

Much different than any other medium.”

Chris Brogan of Making the Brand podcast agrees that a podcast intro should be short.

He shares these insights on the qualities of a useful podcast intro:

“I’m a huge fan of brief. Once you hear it more than twice, it’s boring to everyone.

An intro should set the mental stage for what’s coming up.

Choose music and words that emulate the show.”

2. Make Every Second Of The Podcast Intro Count

Jorge Hermida, Program Director at WMR.FM and Cannabis Radio Podcasts, observes that it’s important to give listeners a reason to stick around for the podcast but to do it in the shortest amount of time possible.

He says there is absolutely no time to waste within your podcast intro so it’s super important to literally make every second count.

He shares:

“Podcast listeners, just like anybody else, have a short attention span.

You have to give listeners a reason to listen to your content within the first 30 seconds.

Whether you create a cold opener or you run down what you’re going to be talking about on the program, you need to satisfy that listener immediately.

Create the intro as if every listener has a short attention span because in my professional experience, they will either stay and listen to your show, or they’ll drop off and find another show to listen to.”

3. Podcast Intro Builds Audience Retention

Azeem Ahmad of the Azeem Digital SEO podcast shares that a good podcast intro will help maintain audience retention, as well as encourage engagement and loyalty.

This is an element of conversion theory, where even seemingly trivial elements can encourage or discourage the action we are looking for.

A classic example is a PPC arbitrage marketer who maximizes the number of sales for every click.

Affiliate PPC marketers succeed or go out of business fast depending on how well they convert every visitor.

This person discovered that detecting the mobile device and adding an “iPhone friendly” or “Android friendly” badge increased their conversion rates by a measurable rate.

The follow-up insight Azeem suggests is similar.

He said that a podcast intro has the same effect of encouraging a user to click and stay for the podcast or to leave.

And for that reason, it’s important to view the intro as a configurable asset that can be used to improve audience retention.

Azeem shares how a podcast intro is important for retention rates and engagement:

“People will get bored with repetition, and regardless of your podcast format – the idea is to engage the listener.

If you lose them within the first 30 seconds, you will very likely see a drop in retention rate and engaged listeners.”

4. Test Podcast Intros For Audience Retention

Azeem next shares that a way to improve retention and engagement is to experiment with new intros and outros.

He shares this tip:

“As a host you should change this up sometimes.

Customizing the intro every time is basically an option to test for what works the best.

For example, you could test asking people to subscribe in the intro vs. the outro for a few episodes and see which drives more growth.”

5. Three Things A Podcast Intro Must Communicate

Sparks offers useful information about what should be communicated in a podcast introduction.

He shares how the introduction should communicate the “What’s in it for me?” proposition to the listener.

Figuring out the tried-and-true principle of answering the question of “What’s in it for me?” is a great way to think about how to create a podcast intro that is useful for the listener.

So, it makes sense to apply that approach to podcast intros so that a listener is reminded of why they are there, which could be to become better at what they do, to catch up on industry news, to be entertained, etc.

Here is what Sparks shares:

“A good intro provides:

  1. A promise to the listener in the first five to seven seconds (a transaction of knowledge communicating what they are going to get).
  2. Sonic branding.
  3. Credibility, contextual reference to subject matter expertise.”

6. Podcast Intro Builds Loyalty

Jim Hedger, the co-host of the popular Webcology SEO podcast, suggests that the podcast intro helps to build a sense of familiarity and ownership of a space.

I’ve noticed that people tend to feel a sense of ownership in a website they enjoy, perhaps because the site might be a part of their self-identity as a baker, sportsperson, or whatever the topic is.

Ever walk into a favorite restaurant and immediately receive a feeling of comfort or anticipation?

It’s a sense of ownership of an experience, that this experience is yours and it’s yours yet again.

Hedger says that a podcast intro can have a similar effect, to bring a sense of comfort and anticipation that one feels in physical spaces that one feels loyal and connected to.

He observes:

“I once read that people aren’t loyal to restaurants as much as they are loyal to spaces they feel comfortable being in.

The same can be said for podcasts.

Like radio, podcasts are a theater of the mind. Your intro is the breath that first forms the space you, your guests, and the audience will create together.

Podcasts are incredibly intimate. I think you need to feel love for your audience and deeply respect the topic and your introduction is your first chance to establish that.

A host’s job is to help the audience develop a zone in which they and the host are virtually in the same place.”

7. Where To Get Music For A Podcast Intro

Something to keep in mind is that any music used should be licensed.

There is an idea that it’s okay to use just a little bit of someone else’s music, but that might not be the case.

And if that’s the direction you are moving in, then it may be prudent to check with an attorney first.

The podcasting professionals consulted for this article all agree that it’s important to purchase a license for the right to any music used within a podcast.

Everyone agrees that it’s best to license royalty-free podcast intro music because this safeguards against copyright infringement claims.

Hermida shares:

“Our music is licensed, and most other podcasts most likely use some kind of licensed music from other licensed music providers for some original music that’s not prone to any copyright issues.

It doesn’t really matter where the music comes from, except that I would always recommend to make sure you use music that you are allowed to use and that license to use the music is documented and can be proven.”

Sparks also recommends paying for a license to use music:

“We have a number of music licenses that we have used over the years.

We highly recommend reviewing different sound repositories and utilizing them to create that sonic brand.

Places to license music are Envato Elements, Epidemic Sound, and the like.

We also have a continual license with our deep voice announcer, our voice over talent.

That should also be something to consider when you’re developing a long-term show.”

Brogan recommends:

“Epidemic Sound works fine. Buy a license. “

Always read the license when choosing a digital music asset in order to be aware of what you can and can’t do with the music and for how long you are entitled to use it.

  • Epidemic Soundseveral of the podcasters mentioned Epidemic Sound as a good place to purchase a license for music.
  • Envato Elements is a source for high-quality licensed, royalty-free music suitable for a podcast intro.
  • Shutterstock Music – Shutterstock is known for its stock photography library, but they also offer royalty-free music specifically for podcasts. A license that’s appropriate for use in a podcast costs $49.
  • Music Bakery offers royalty-free music where you pay for it once and can use it anywhere, but be sure to read the license agreement to know exactly what you are paying for.
  • InstantMusicNow offers digital downloads starting at $4.95.
  • Adobe Stock Music Library – Adobe offers royalty-free music that can be used in multiple projects.

Podcast Intros Are Important

At this point, it should be clear that a seemingly trivial thing like a podcast intro is actually part of the foundation of a successful podcast.

Clearly, the content of the podcast is the most important quality of a podcast.

Yet, as important as the content is, it’s the podcast intro that sets the stage and makes listeners feel they have arrived at their happy place, while also communicating what is in it for the listener, which encourages them to stick around for the content.

More Resources:


Featured Image: Alex from the Rock/Shutterstock

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);

if( typeof sopp !== “undefined” && sopp === ‘yes’ ){
fbq(‘dataProcessingOptions’, [‘LDU’], 1, 1000);
}else{
fbq(‘dataProcessingOptions’, []);
}

fbq(‘init’, ‘1321385257908563’);

fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);

fbq(‘trackSingle’, ‘1321385257908563’, ‘ViewContent’, {
content_name: ‘definitive-guide-podcast-intros’,
content_category: ‘content creation trends’
});

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

SEO

GPT Store Set To Launch In 2024 After ‘Unexpected’ Delays

Published

on

By

GPT Store Set To Launch In 2024 After 'Unexpected' Delays

OpenAI shares its plans for the GPT Store, enhancements to GPT Builder tools, privacy improvements, and updates coming to ChatGPT.

  • OpenAI has scheduled the launch of the GPT Store for early next year, aligning with its ongoing commitment to developing advanced AI technologies.
  • The GPT Builder tools have received substantial updates, including a more intuitive configuration interface and improved file handling capabilities.
  • Anticipation builds for upcoming updates to ChatGPT, highlighting OpenAI’s responsiveness to community feedback and dedication to AI innovation.

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

SEO

96.55% of Content Gets No Traffic From Google. Here’s How to Be in the Other 3.45% [New Research for 2023]

Published

on

96.55% of Content Gets No Traffic From Google. Here's How to Be in the Other 3.45% [New Research for 2023]

It’s no secret that the web is growing by millions, if not billions of pages per day.

Our Content Explorer tool discovers 10 million new pages every 24 hours while being very picky about the pages that qualify for inclusion. The “main” Ahrefs web crawler crawls that number of pages every two minutes. 

But how much of this content gets organic traffic from Google?

To find out, we took the entire database from our Content Explorer tool (around 14 billion pages) and studied how many pages get traffic from organic search and why.

How many web pages get organic search traffic?

96.55% of all pages in our index get zero traffic from Google, and 1.94% get between one and ten monthly visits.

Distribution of pages by traffic from Content Explorer

Before we move on to discussing why the vast majority of pages never get any search traffic from Google (and how to avoid being one of them), it’s important to address two discrepancies with the studied data:

  1. ~14 billion pages may seem like a huge number, but it’s not the most accurate representation of the entire web. Even compared to the size of Site Explorer’s index of 340.8 billion pages, our sample size for this study is quite small and somewhat biased towards the “quality side of the web.”
  2. Our search traffic numbers are estimates. Even though our database of ~651 million keywords in Site Explorer (where our estimates come from) is arguably the largest database of its kind, it doesn’t contain every possible thing people search for in Google. There’s a chance that some of these pages get search traffic from super long-tail keywords that are not popular enough to make it into our database.

That said, these two “inaccuracies” don’t change much in the grand scheme of things: the vast majority of published pages never rank in Google and never get any search traffic. 

But why is this, and how can you be a part of the minority that gets organic search traffic from Google?

Well, there are hundreds of SEO issues that may prevent your pages from ranking well in Google. But if we focus only on the most common scenarios, assuming the page is indexed, there are only three of them.

Reason 1: The topic has no search demand

If nobody is searching for your topic, you won’t get any search traffic—even if you rank #1.

For example, I recently Googled “pull sitemap into google sheets” and clicked the top-ranking page (which solved my problem in seconds, by the way). But if you plug that URL into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, you’ll see that it gets zero estimated organic search traffic:

The top-ranking page for this topic gets no traffic because there's no search demandThe top-ranking page for this topic gets no traffic because there's no search demand

This is because hardly anyone else is searching for this, as data from Keywords Explorer confirms:

Keyword data from Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer confirms that this topic has no search demandKeyword data from Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer confirms that this topic has no search demand

This is why it’s so important to do keyword research. You can’t just assume that people are searching for whatever you want to talk about. You need to check the data.

Our Traffic Potential (TP) metric in Keywords Explorer can help with this. It estimates how much organic search traffic the current top-ranking page for a keyword gets from all the queries it ranks for. This is a good indicator of the total search demand for a topic.

You’ll see this metric for every keyword in Keywords Explorer, and you can even filter for keywords that meet your minimum criteria (e.g., 500+ monthly traffic potential): 

Filtering for keywords with Traffic Potential (TP) in Ahrefs' Keywords ExplorerFiltering for keywords with Traffic Potential (TP) in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Reason 2: The page has no backlinks

Backlinks are one of Google’s top three ranking factors, so it probably comes as no surprise that there’s a clear correlation between the number of websites linking to a page and its traffic.

Pages with more referring domains get more trafficPages with more referring domains get more traffic
Pages with more referring domains get more traffic

Same goes for the correlation between a page’s traffic and keyword rankings:

Pages with more referring domains rank for more keywordsPages with more referring domains rank for more keywords
Pages with more referring domains rank for more keywords

Does any of this data prove that backlinks help you rank higher in Google?

No, because correlation does not imply causation. However, most SEO professionals will tell you that it’s almost impossible to rank on the first page for competitive keywords without backlinks—an observation that aligns with the data above.

The key word there is “competitive.” Plenty of pages get organic traffic while having no backlinks…

Pages with more referring domains get more trafficPages with more referring domains get more traffic
How much traffic pages with no backlinks get

… but from what I can tell, almost all of them are about low-competition topics.

For example, this lyrics page for a Neil Young song gets an estimated 162 monthly visits with no backlinks: 

Example of a page with traffic but no backlinks, via Ahrefs' Content ExplorerExample of a page with traffic but no backlinks, via Ahrefs' Content Explorer

But if we check the keywords it ranks for, they almost all have Keyword Difficulty (KD) scores in the single figures:

Some of the low-difficulty keywords a page without traffic ranks forSome of the low-difficulty keywords a page without traffic ranks for

It’s the same story for this page selling upholstered headboards:

Some of the low-difficulty keywords a page without traffic ranks forSome of the low-difficulty keywords a page without traffic ranks for

You might have noticed two other things about these pages:

  • Neither of them get that much traffic. This is pretty typical. Our index contains ~20 million pages with no referring domains, yet only 2,997 of them get more than 1K search visits per month. That’s roughly 1 in every 6,671 pages with no backlinks.
  • Both of the sites they’re on have high Domain Rating (DR) scores. This metric shows the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile. Stronger sites like these have more PageRank that they can pass to pages with internal links to help them rank. 

Bottom line? If you want your pages to get search traffic, you really only have two options:

  1. Target uncompetitive topics that you can rank for with few or no backlinks.
  2. Target competitive topics and build backlinks to rank.

If you want to find uncompetitive topics, try this:

  1. Enter a topic into Keywords Explorer
  2. Go to the Matching terms report
  3. Set the Keyword Difficulty (KD) filter to max. 20
  4. Set the Lowest DR filter to your site’s DR (this will show you keywords with at least one of the same or lower DR ranking in the top 5)
Filtering for low-competition keywords in Ahrefs' Keywords ExplorerFiltering for low-competition keywords in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

(Remember to keep an eye on the TP column to make sure they have traffic potential.)

To rank for more competitive topics, you’ll need to earn or build high-quality backlinks to your page. If you’re not sure how to do that, start with the guides below. Keep in mind that it’ll be practically impossible to get links unless your content adds something to the conversation. 

Reason 3. The page doesn’t match search intent

Google wants to give users the most relevant results for a query. That’s why the top organic results for “best yoga mat” are blog posts with recommendations, not product pages. 

It's obviously what searchers want when they search for "best yoga mats"It's obviously what searchers want when they search for "best yoga mats"

Basically, Google knows that searchers are in research mode, not buying mode.

It’s also why this page selling yoga mats doesn’t show up, despite it having backlinks from more than six times more websites than any of the top-ranking pages:

Page selling yoga mats that has lots of backlinksPage selling yoga mats that has lots of backlinks
Number of linking websites to the top-ranking pages for "best yoga mats"Number of linking websites to the top-ranking pages for "best yoga mats"

Luckily, the page ranks for thousands of other more relevant keywords and gets tens of thousands of monthly organic visits. So it’s not such a big deal that it doesn’t rank for “best yoga mats.”

Number of keyword rankings for the page selling yoga matsNumber of keyword rankings for the page selling yoga mats

However, if you have pages with lots of backlinks but no organic traffic—and they already target a keyword with traffic potential—another quick SEO win is to re-optimize them for search intent.

We did this in 2018 with our free backlink checker.

It was originally nothing but a boring landing page explaining the benefits of our product and offering a 7-day trial: 

Original landing page for our free backlink checkerOriginal landing page for our free backlink checker

After analyzing search intent, we soon realized the issue:

People weren’t looking for a landing page, but rather a free tool they could use right away. 

So, in September 2018, we created a free tool and published it under the same URL. It ranked #1 pretty much overnight, and has remained there ever since. 

Our rankings over time for the keyword "backlink checker." You can see when we changed the pageOur rankings over time for the keyword "backlink checker." You can see when we changed the page

Organic traffic went through the roof, too. From ~14K monthly organic visits pre-optimization to almost ~200K today. 

Estimated search traffic over time to our free backlink checkerEstimated search traffic over time to our free backlink checker

TLDR

96.55% of pages get no organic traffic. 

Keep your pages in the other 3.45% by building backlinks, choosing topics with organic traffic potential, and matching search intent.

Ping me on Twitter if you have any questions. 🙂



Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

SEO

Firefox URL Tracking Removal – Is This A Trend To Watch?

Published

on

By

Firefox URL Tracking Removal - Is This A Trend To Watch?

Firefox recently announced that they are offering users a choice on whether or not to include tracking information from copied URLs, which comes on the on the heels of iOS 17 blocking user tracking via URLs. The momentum of removing tracking information from URLs appears to be gaining speed. Where is this all going and should marketers be concerned?

Is it possible that blocking URL tracking parameters in the name of privacy will become a trend industrywide?

Firefox Announcement

Firefox recently announced that beginning in the Firefox Browser version 120.0, users will be able to select whether or not they want URLs that they copied to contain tracking parameters.

When users select a link to copy and click to raise the contextual menu for it, Firefox is now giving users a choice as to whether to copy the URL with or without the URL tracking parameters that might be attached to the URL.

Screenshot Of Firefox 120 Contextual Menu

Screenshot of Firefox functionality

According to the Firefox 120 announcement:

“Firefox supports a new “Copy Link Without Site Tracking” feature in the context menu which ensures that copied links no longer contain tracking information.”

Browser Trends For Privacy

All browsers, including Google’s Chrome and Chrome variants, are adding new features that make it harder for websites to track users online through referrer information embedded in a URL when a user clicks from one site and leaves through that click to visit another site.

This trend for privacy has been ongoing for many years but it became more noticeable in 2020 when Chrome made changes to how referrer information was sent when users click links to visit other sites. Firefox and Safari followed with similar referrer behavior.

Whether the current Firefox implementation would be disruptive or if the impact is overblown is kind of besides the point.

What is the point is whether or not what Firefox and Apple did to protect privacy is a trend and if that trend will extend to more blocking of URL parameters that are stronger than what Firefox recently implemented.

I asked Kenny Hyder, CEO of online marketing agency Pixel Main, what his thoughts are about the potential disruptive aspect of what Firefox is doing and whether it’s a trend.

Kenny answered:

“It’s not disruptive from Firefox alone, which only has a 3% market share. If other popular browsers follow suit it could begin to be disruptive to a limited degree, but easily solved from a marketers prospective.

If it became more intrusive and they blocked UTM tags, it would take awhile for them all to catch on if you were to circumvent UTM tags by simply tagging things in a series of sub-directories.. ie. site.com/landing/<tag1>/<tag2> etc.

Also, most savvy marketers are already integrating future proof workarounds for these exact scenarios.

A lot can be done with pixel based integrations rather than cookie based or UTM tracking. When set up properly they can actually provide better and more accurate tracking and attribution. Hence the name of my agency, Pixel Main.”

I think most marketers are aware that privacy is the trend. The good ones have already taken steps to keep it from becoming a problem while still respecting user privacy.”

Some URL Parameters Are Already Affected

For those who are on the periphery of what’s going on with browsers and privacy, it may come as a surprise that some tracking parameters are already affected by actions meant to protect user privacy.

Jonathan Cairo, Lead Solutions Engineer at Elevar shared that there is already a limited amount of tracking related information stripped from URLs.

But he also explained that there are limits to how much information can be stripped from URLs because the resulting negative effects would cause important web browsing functionality to fail.

Jonathan explained:

“So far, we’re seeing a selective trend where some URL parameters, like ‘fbclid’ in Safari’s private browsing, are disappearing, while others, such as TikTok’s ‘ttclid’, remain.

UTM parameters are expected to stay since they focus on user segmentation rather than individual tracking, provided they are used as intended.

The idea of completely removing all URL parameters seems improbable, as it would disrupt key functionalities on numerous websites, including banking services and search capabilities.

Such a drastic move could lead users to switch to alternative browsers.

On the other hand, if only some parameters are eliminated, there’s the possibility of marketers exploiting the remaining ones for tracking purposes.

This raises the question of whether companies like Apple will take it upon themselves to prevent such use.

Regardless, even in a scenario where all parameters are lost, there are still alternative ways to convey click IDs and UTM information to websites.”

Brad Redding of Elevar agreed about the disruptive effect from going too far with removing URL tracking information:

“There is still too much basic internet functionality that relies on query parameters, such as logging in, password resets, etc, which are effectively the same as URL parameters in a full URL path.

So we believe the privacy crackdown is going to continue on known trackers by blocking their tracking scripts, cookies generated from them, and their ability to monitor user’s activity through the browser.

As this grows, the reliance on brands to own their first party data collection and bring consent preferences down to a user-level (vs session based) will be critical so they can backfill gaps in conversion data to their advertising partners outside of the browser or device.”

The Future Of Tracking, Privacy And What Marketers Should Expect

Elevar raises good points about how far browsers can go in terms of how much blocking they can do. Their response that it’s down to brands to own their first party data collection and other strategies to accomplish analytics without compromising user privacy.

Given all the laws governing privacy and Internet tracking that have been enacted around the world it looks like privacy will continue to be a trend.

However, at this point it time, the advice is to keep monitoring how far browsers are going but there is no expectation that things will get out of hand.

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending