Link building and content are two sides of the same coin.
You need backlinks in order to increase domain authority and rank better in the search engines, and you need high quality content in order to acquire and build links.
Link building is built on the back of solid content creation, whatever form that content takes, including podcasts.
Podcast link building is definitely one of the most underutilized seo strategies for building and acquiring backlinks.
Typically, websites use blogging as a way to build their content portfolio and pitch websites while trying to build links.
But you can also use podcasts, both your own and appearances on those of other people in your niche or industry, to build a lot of high quality backlinks.
How podcasts open up a whole new world of link building
Hosting and appearing on podcasts come with a wide range of link building benefits, some direct, some indirect.
The benefits of appearing on other people’s podcast episodes
The most obvious and arguably the biggest upside to appearing on other people’s podcasts, from a link building perspective, is the initial backlink you will likely (hopefully) get out of it.
That’s the link you receive from the podcast host (both in the description below the podcast) as well as (ideally) the host’s website, where they have their own page dedicated to their podcast episodes.
Both links are valuable (Google likes to see that you’re getting a diversity of links from different sources), though, of course, the website link is what you are ultimately after.
This is the link that tends to get posted in a “press release” style article, on podcast pages, or perhaps even longer form blog content based on the themes and topics covered in the podcast.
Social proof and publicity
Another benefit of appearing on other people’s podcasts is the social proof and publicity that you get which can both directly and indirectly help with link building.
When you are a guest on someone’s podcast, the implication is that you are someone worth interviewing and listening too.
By inviting you on, your peers are vouching for your credibility and authoritativeness in the niche or industry.
You are also exposed to their audience (which could potentially mean a new audience for yourself).
All of this is good for your brand, which in turn is good for your link building. People want to link to known quantities in any given field and the more you become one of the household names in your industry, the greater the odds are people will freely give you those editorial links.
Referral traffic
Being a podcast quest can also be a great source of referral traffic, even if you don’t receive a dofollow backlink out of it.
YouTube, for example, doesn’t allow dofollow backlinks in video descriptions (which is where a podcast host would most likely mention and link to a guest’s website).
Still, the views and referral traffic alone can make it well worth your while.
Check out this episode of the popular Niche Pursuits podcast we appeared on back in 2021.
This guy currently has over 29,000 subscribers and that podcast appearance of ours was seen 1,327 times.
The first link in the description was a link to our website. It’s a nofollow link, so no we’re not getting any link juice from it, but people have definitely seen and clicked on that link.
We may have even converted some visitors who found us via that link.
The point people, being a podcast guest can be a powerful way to drive referral traffic, even if it’s not through a dofollow link.
Compound links
Perhaps the most appealing thing about the podcast link building strategy is its capacity for compound link building.
This refers to the ability of a single piece of content (in this case, the appearance on a podcast) to continue to produce backlinks over time in compounding fashion.
A standout appearance on a popular podcast can end up generating both a ton of publicity for you and your brand and, in turn, backlinks.
If other people in the niche see and like your podcast, this can turn into articles that mention the podcast and mention and link to your website/website, which can snowball and snowball for ages.
Think of it similar to a linkable asset–a piece of content that you have invested a lot of time and effort into creating.
If it’s good, people will want to link to it. Over time, the more people that link to it, the greater the odds that even more people will link to it. It’s compound growth for link building.
The benefits of hosting your own podcast
There are also similar, though slightly different, benefits to producing and hosting your own podcast.
Positioning yourself as an authority
Creating and hosting a podcast is a great way to position yourself as an authority in your niche or industry.
Rarely do you have the opportunity to appear in front of your industry peers the way that you do with a podcast.
A podcast allows you to share your thoughts and insight in a much more personal way.
When you’re behind the pen writing a blog post, simply putting your thoughts onto paper, as it were, your readers don’t really get a chance to know you.
You can write great content, and inject your personality into it as much as possible, but nothing is going to top an on on-screen or voice appearance, plus the interview format, for creating a connection with your target market.
This connection is actually more likely to induce people to buy.
What’s more, if you are able to get other industry thought leaders and well-known-people to appear on your podcast episodes, you benefit from their existing social proof and authority.
Authoritative people with brands and images to maintain tend not to lend either of those things to people or businesses that they don’t also think bring something significant to the table.
Podcasts are valuable SEO assets
Podcasts have become an increasingly important part of SEO since Google first announced that it would include them in the search results and make them playable.
This means that, you can absolutely treat a podcast like a linkable asset, which means optimizing it for SEO so that it appears higher up the search engine results page.
Look at the results for “link building podcast”
If you focus on doing things like:
- Optimizing your podcast title using the keywords you’re trying to rank for
- Making shorter episodes
- Optimizing your show notes
- Using your social media to promote your podcast episodes
- Writing blog posts covering the episodes
Then there is a much higher chance that your podcast will be among those that appear at the top of the search engine results page when people search for things like “[your industry]+podcast.”
This brings traffic to your podcast, your website, your social profiles, and your product and service pages.
Compound links
Just as with being a podcast guest, hosting your own podcast is also a great way to enjoy compound link growth.
This happens when:
- Podcast guests share your brand and website on their own sites when they announce their appearance on your show
- When other podcasts and publications mention and refer people to specific podcast episodes you have done
For example, let’s say you invite a well-known and respected professional in your niche or industry onto your podcast.
They say something controversial or polemical about a hot topic in your industry, which invites a firestorm of industry media coverage–blog articles, other podcasts, YouTube commentaries etc.
“So and so’s appearance on [your podcast name] last week caused a lot of controversy when they said.”
This kind of organic compound link building happens on a regular basis.
Setting your podcast up for success
Now that you know why podcasting is worth your while from a link building perspective, let’s dive a bit deeper into setting up your own podcast.
Getting your name out there and making appearances on other people’s podcasts is important, but you have less control over the outcome here.
Choosing your podcast’s theme
The theme and type of material you cover on your podcast, if the objective is to use the platform to build your brand, and authority and drive traffic to your website, social profiles, etc., should be whatever you are an expert in.
For dofollow, that would be link building.
We have an intimate understanding of the link building space, which allows us to build amazing backlinks for our clients:
Link building is a niche within a niche (the broader SEO industry). We wouldn’t start a podcast on web design because that’s not our forte.
Your podcast should always be about something you can speak confidently and authoritatively about.
If you are already running a business in a niche or industry, odds are you are already, by definition, authoritative in that particular area.
Choosing episode topics
Once you have your podcast’s theme in place, you want to choose topics that are going to resonate with a) the kinds of niches and websites you want backlinks from and b) the kinds of guests you’re trying to attract.
Building your podcasts around potential link building opportunities
Before you start coming up with episode ideas, it’s good to remind yourself that, as part of your SEO strategy, your podcast, like your other content, should be oriented towards attracting backlinks.
This means you should be creating podcast episodes that:
- Fit well with the content plan of your websites you would like links from and
- Appeal to their visitors
For example, let’s say you were in the link building space (like us), and you wanted backlinks from sites that focused on building and monetizing niche businesses online.
It would make sense, then, to put out podcast content that was geared towards helping niche websites run by sole proprietors build links to improve their backlink profile, SEO and ranking in Google.
This is the kind of thing that we specialize in, so what we have to say carries weight and it is exactly the kind of thing that the types of websites we want links from are going to be interested in showing to their audience.
After you have planned out your show, it’s a good idea to create a few episodes so that when you do start letting your network know about it, people have a few different podcast episodes to digest.
New listeners tend to like to binge when they find a new content creator.
Hosting the podcast on your site
It’s always worthwhile submitting your podcast to directories like apple podcasts and others because, of course, this is where a ton of podcast listeners go to discover new content.
But ultimately, you want to have a podcast page on your website where you attract links and organic traffic. Your link building efforts should be focused on your website, not Apple’s.
Host your podcast audio files on places like Castos, Buzzsprout, or any other platform and then embed those on your site.
Podcasting outreach campaigns
Outreach is a crucial step in the link building process, no matter what kinds of links you’re building.
Essentially, finding people to appear on a podcast episode or trying to appear on other site’s podcast, involves putting together a list of relevant podcasts and then reaching out to the owner/showrunner.
Once you have those, you can either manually reach out or use an email tool like Hunter or Mailchimp.
HARO as a podcast resource
If you aren’t familiar with HARO link building, check of the comprehensive guide we have put together here. It is one of the most powerful ways to build super high authority editorial links to your website on some of the web’s biggest publications.
The way HARO works is you register for their free thrice daily email that connects journalists with sources (you can be either a source, a journalist, or both, depending on your requirements).
You get an email at 5:30 a.m.,. 12:30 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. EST every day (except U.S. holidays) that looks like this:
There are sometimes a few hundred queries per email, organized by topic/niche, and you comb through them to find opportunities that are relevant to your expertise.
Most of the time, the journalists and bloggers using HARO are looking for written contributions to stories they’re working on. You answer their questions and, if they can use you answers, they include them as quotes in an article, usually (though not always) with a link back to your site or podcast website.
Sometimes, however, podcasting opportunities appear:
If you had the requisite experience here, you could respond and set up and appearance, which could also be accompanied by a link.
Inversely, podcast hosts can also use HARO to prospect for guests. That is what the person in the above image is doing.
Podcast link building as part of a holistic marketing strategies
Link worthy content is link worthy content, regardless of the media form.
A well-made, interesting podcast episode, with interesting, authoritative guests can result in a huge number of inbound links in the same way that a helpful, thoughtful piece of written content can.
What’s more, podcasts are increasingly appearing at the top of the search engine results page, as more and more people utilize podcasts to learn and consume entertainment content.
Done right, it is an SEO strategy that can earn links and credibility at the same time.
Of course, podcasting is just one part of a much larger link building arsenal–one that involves a diverse link building tactics to achieve a diverse, relevant, user-centric link profile.
Get in touch with dofollow and find out more about how our contract-free, transparent, performance-based link building service can help you skyrocket your ranking and organic traffic.
Why Trust Us On SEO
Eric Carrell & Sebastian Schaffer have been working in SEO for over a decade, building their own projects - understanding and testing SEO strategy, along with building hundreds of white hat links per month for our projects. They take their learnings and experience and apply them to the strategy that drives our link building strategy for our clients.
Eric & Seb have always believed in quality over quantity, doing things the right way so we future proof our client’s websites against future Google updates and the evolving industry of search.
While Seb handles the company strategy around culture, processes and structure, Eric is constantly working to improve our service offering, customer experience, and following the industry in parallel with Google’s Quality Guidelines so that we are always one step ahead of our competition and aligned with what Google wants to see for your site to rank higher.