How to Find the Right Keywords for Your Podcast

Quick Summary

Podcast keyword research serves two distinct platforms: Google (which indexes your episode pages and show notes) and podcast apps (which index titles, descriptions, and transcript metadata)

There are three types of keywords every podcast needs: discovery keywords for the show itself, episode keywords for individual episodes, and content keywords for written output like show notes and blog posts

The research process starts with your listener's problem — what they'd search for before they knew your show existed

Free tools like Google Search Console, AnswerThePublic, and Spotify's own search bar are often enough for independent podcasters

Podsuite extracts keywords from your episode content automatically, giving you a starting point for every piece of content rather than a blank research session each week

Why Keyword Research Works Differently for Podcasts
What Podcast Keywords Actually Are (And Where They Live)
The Three Types of Keywords Every Podcast Needs
How to Find Keywords for Your Podcast: A Step-by-Step Process
Free and Paid Tools for Podcast Keyword Research
How to Use Keywords Once You Have Them
Common Keyword Mistakes Podcasters Make
How Podsuite Extracts Keywords From Your Episode Automatically
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to Make Your Podcast Easier to Find?

Why Keyword Research Works Differently for Podcasts

Keyword research for websites and keyword research for podcasts share the same underlying logic — figure out what your audience is searching for and put those words in the right places — but the execution is different in ways that matter.

For a website, keyword research is mostly a Google problem. You find phrases people search for, write content around them, and optimise the page to rank. The target is clear: Google's search results page.

For a podcast, you're optimising for three separate surfaces simultaneously. Google indexes your episode pages, show notes, and blog posts — so traditional SEO applies there. Apple Podcasts and Spotify each have their own internal search algorithms that index show names, episode titles, descriptions, and increasingly, transcript metadata. And podcast directories like Listen Notes and Podchaser maintain their own indexes that podcasters rarely think about but are worth understanding.

The result is that a podcast keyword strategy has to account for where each keyword type lives and what platform it's meant to influence. A keyword that works well in a Google-optimised show notes page might be too specific for an episode title that needs to perform in Spotify's in-app search. A broad discovery keyword that helps new listeners find your show in Apple Podcasts might be too competitive to rank for on Google without significant written content supporting it.

That layered context is what most "podcast SEO" guides skip — and it's why keyword decisions that seem obvious often produce disappointing results when applied without understanding which platform they're meant to reach.

What Podcast Keywords Actually Are (And Where They Live)

A keyword, in any context, is a word or phrase that a person types into a search bar when looking for something. For podcasts, the question is: what would someone type to find your show, your episode, or the topic your episode covers — before they know you exist?

That framing matters. Your existing subscribers don't need to search for you. Keywords are for everyone else.

In a podcast context, keywords live in several distinct places — each of which is indexed differently:

Show title and subtitle: Indexed by Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and most directories. This is the highest-value placement for broad discovery keywords — the phrases that describe what your show is about at the genre or topic level.
Episode titles: Indexed by Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google. The primary placement for episode-level keywords — the specific topic or question the episode addresses.
Episode description (in hosting platform): Indexed by podcast directories and some platforms. Secondary keyword placement — supports the title without duplicating it.
Show notes on your website: Indexed by Google. The highest-value placement for long-tail keyword targeting — where you can go deep on a topic and pick up search traffic that no podcast app description could rank for.
Transcript: Indexed by Google (when published) and increasingly by Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Passive keyword capture — the natural language of the conversation picks up long-tail queries you'd never think to target deliberately.
Blog posts: Indexed by Google. The most flexible keyword placement — a dedicated article can target a specific query with the depth and structure needed to rank competitively.

Understanding where each type of keyword belongs is what separates a keyword strategy that compounds over time from one that produces inconsistent results.

The Three Types of Keywords Every Podcast Needs

Treating all keywords the same — throwing them into titles and descriptions without distinguishing between them — is why most podcast keyword strategies underperform. There are three distinct types, each doing a different job.

Discovery Keywords

Discovery keywords describe what your show is about at the genre or category level. They're the phrases someone would search to find a show like yours — not a specific episode, but the overall topic space.

Examples for a podcasting industry show:

"podcast marketing tips"
"how to grow a podcast"
"podcast industry news"
"indie podcasting"

These keywords belong in your show title, subtitle, and show description. They're typically shorter, more competitive, and harder to rank for than episode-level keywords — but they're the foundation of how new listeners discover that your show exists in the first place.

The goal with discovery keywords isn't necessarily to rank first for "podcast marketing" on Google. It's to appear in Apple Podcasts and Spotify search when someone types that phrase into the app's search bar, and to signal to both platforms what category your show belongs in.

Episode Keywords

Episode keywords are specific to individual episodes. They're the phrase that describes what a particular episode covers — the question it answers, the problem it addresses, the specific topic discussed.

Examples for individual episodes on the same show:

"how to write podcast show notes"
"podcast monetisation strategies"
"best microphone for podcasting under $100"
"podcast editing workflow"

These belong in episode titles, episode descriptions, and as the primary target keyword for the show notes page associated with that episode. They're typically longer and more specific than discovery keywords — which makes them less competitive and more likely to rank for the right searcher at the right moment.

A well-chosen episode keyword is the phrase the ideal listener for that episode would type into Google before they knew your show existed.

Content Keywords

Content keywords are the long-tail phrases that live in your written content — show notes, blog posts, transcripts. They're often the natural language of the conversation itself: specific terminology, topic-adjacent phrases, questions that came up during the discussion.

Examples from a show notes page for an episode on podcast editing:

"how to remove background noise from podcast"
"podcast editing software for beginners"
"what is multitrack editing"
"how long should podcast editing take"

These aren't keywords you necessarily research and target deliberately. Many of them emerge naturally from writing thorough show notes and publishing your transcript. But knowing they exist — and that they're driving search traffic to your episode pages — is what motivates writing show notes with enough depth to capture them.

How to Find Keywords for Your Podcast: A Step-by-Step Process

Good keyword research for a podcast doesn't require an expensive tool or an afternoon of analysis. Here's a process that works for independent podcasters with limited time.

Start with your listener's problem, not your topic. Before opening any keyword tool, write down the three or four problems your ideal listener is actively trying to solve. Not "they're interested in podcasting" — but "they're frustrated that their podcast isn't growing despite publishing consistently" or "they want to monetise but don't know where to start." Those problems are the raw material for your best keywords.
Type your topic into Google and read the autocomplete. Start typing your topic into Google's search bar — without hitting Enter — and read the autocomplete suggestions. Each suggestion is a phrase people actually search for. The "People Also Ask" box on the results page is another direct source of real search queries. Write down every relevant phrase you see.
Do the same in Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Open both apps and type your topic into their search bars. Look at the shows and episodes that appear. The titles of high-ranking shows and episodes are direct signals about which keywords perform in each platform's algorithm — they're already working.
Use AnswerThePublic for question-based keywords. AnswerThePublic (free for limited daily searches) visualises every question, comparison, and preposition-based query associated with a topic. For a podcast about productivity, you'd find phrases like "how to be more productive without burning out," "productivity vs. efficiency," "what is the productivity paradox." Many of these map directly to episode ideas with built-in keyword value.
Check Google Search Console if your site is live. If you've been publishing show notes or blog posts, Google Search Console shows you exactly which queries are already surfacing your pages — and at what click-through rate. This is the highest-quality keyword intelligence available to you because it's based on real traffic to your actual content. Queries with high impressions but low clicks are the best candidates for title and meta description improvements.
Group your keywords by type and assign them. Sort your list into discovery keywords (for show-level placement), episode keywords (for upcoming episode titles and show notes), and content keywords (to weave into show notes and blog posts). Each keyword belongs somewhere specific — assigning it before publishing prevents the common mistake of trying to target five keywords on one page and ranking for none of them.

Free and Paid Tools for Podcast Keyword Research

The tool landscape for podcast keyword research runs from completely free to enterprise-grade. For most independent podcasters, the free tier of two or three tools covers everything you actually need.

Tool	Cost	Best For	Limitation
Google Search Console	Free	Understanding what's already working on your site; finding high-impression low-click opportunities	Only useful once your site has some traffic history
Google Autocomplete + PAA	Free	Quick discovery of real search queries; question-based keyword ideas	No search volume data
AnswerThePublic	Free (limited) / $9/mo	Question and comparison keyword generation	Limited free searches per day
Spotify / Apple Podcasts search	Free	In-app keyword discovery; competitive analysis of ranking shows	No volume data; qualitative only
Ahrefs / Semrush	$99–$130/mo	Full keyword research with volume, difficulty, and SERP analysis	Expensive; most features unnecessary for early-stage shows
Keywords Everywhere	~$10/year	Search volume overlaid on Google results and autocomplete	Paid, though very affordable
Podchaser	Free	Discovering how top shows in your niche describe themselves	No keyword volume data

The honest recommendation for most independent shows: start with Google Search Console, Google Autocomplete, and AnswerThePublic. That combination costs nothing and surfaces enough keyword intelligence to inform a year of episode titles and show notes. Add Keywords Everywhere if you want search volume numbers without committing to a full SEO platform.

Save the Ahrefs and Semrush investment for when your show has consistent written content output and you're trying to compete for higher-volume, more competitive queries.

Pro tip: Spotify's search bar is one of the most underused keyword research tools available to podcasters — and it's free. The autocomplete suggestions and the shows that rank for a given query tell you exactly what's working in podcast-specific search, which is a different signal from Google and often more immediately actionable for improving your episode titles and descriptions.

How to Use Keywords Once You Have Them

Keyword research produces a list. What you do with that list determines whether it translates into discoverability. Here's where each keyword type belongs in your content.

In Your Episode Titles

Your episode keyword belongs in the title — naturally, not forced. A title that contains the target keyword and reads as a compelling click prompt is the goal. A title that reads like a keyword was inserted into it performs poorly on both counts.

Our full guide on writing podcast episode titles that get clicked covers the formula approach in detail, but the keyword principle is simple: the episode keyword should be the topic of the title, not a phrase stapled to the end of it.

In Your Show Notes

Show notes are where episode keywords and content keywords do their most important SEO work. The episode keyword belongs in the show notes title, the opening paragraph, and at least one subheading. Content keywords — the long-tail phrases that emerge from the conversation — appear naturally throughout a well-written show notes page.

The show notes guide covers the full structure in detail. The keyword angle: write show notes long enough and specific enough to capture the content keywords that live in the episode naturally — they're already there in the conversation, they just need to be in text form on a page Google can index.

In Your Podcast Description

Your show description — the text that appears in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other directories under your show name — is where discovery keywords belong. Write the description to answer the question "what is this show and who is it for?" using the natural language your ideal listener would use to search for it.

Avoid keyword-stuffing the description. Platforms can detect it and it reads badly to human visitors. Two or three discovery keywords woven naturally into a 150 to 200 word description is the right approach.

In Your Transcript and Blog Posts

This is where content keywords do their quietest and most consistent work. A published podcast transcript captures thousands of words of natural language — including phrases that match long-tail search queries you'd never think to target deliberately. A blog post derived from the episode lets you structure that content around a specific keyword with the depth and formatting needed to rank competitively.

The compound effect: every episode you publish with a transcript and a blog post adds to the indexed content base that brings in organic search traffic. It builds slowly, then noticeably.

Common Keyword Mistakes Podcasters Make

Most keyword mistakes are simple and fixable once you know to look for them.

Targeting keywords that are too broad. "Podcasting" is a keyword. It's also one of the most competitive terms in the space — ranking for it requires domain authority that most independent shows don't have and won't develop quickly. "How to start a podcast with no experience" is also a keyword. It's specific, answerable, and has a realistic path to ranking for a new site with consistently good content. Start specific and broaden as your authority builds.

Using the keyword in the title but nowhere else. A keyword in the episode title helps in-app search. A keyword in the title and the show notes opening paragraph and the meta description and the transcript creates a coherent, reinforcing signal across multiple surfaces. One placement is better than none — but it's not close to the value of using it consistently across the content associated with that episode.

Targeting different keywords on every episode with no pattern. Keywords compound when you cover a topic repeatedly from different angles. Ten episodes on podcast growth, each targeting a specific episode keyword within that topic space, builds topical authority that a single episode never could. A completely scattered topic strategy — 50 episodes on 50 unrelated subjects — produces no keyword clustering and limited SEO benefit regardless of how well each individual episode is optimised.

Ignoring keywords already working for you. Google Search Console regularly surfaces queries driving traffic to pages that weren't deliberately optimised for them — a show notes page ranking for a long-tail phrase that appeared naturally in the transcript. These are high-value signals: the content is already performing, and small improvements to the title, meta description, or show notes structure can meaningfully increase the traffic it brings in.

Writing show notes too thin to rank. A 150-word episode description doesn't give Google enough text to understand what the page covers or rank it confidently for any meaningful query. The minimum for a show notes page that has any realistic chance of ranking is around 600 words — enough to cover the episode's topic substantively with the structure and keyword signals Google needs.

How Podsuite Extracts Keywords From Your Episode Automatically

For most podcasters, keyword research happens inconsistently — thoroughly when there's time, skipped when there isn't. The result is an uneven content strategy where some episodes have strong keyword targeting and others have none.

Podsuite extracts keywords from your episode content automatically as part of the same upload that generates your transcript, show notes, chapters, blog post, and social posts. The keywords are derived from what was actually discussed in the episode — the specific terminology, topic phrases, and questions that came up in the conversation — rather than a generic list unrelated to the content.

The output gives you a starting point for every episode rather than a blank research session. The extracted keywords cover the content keyword territory naturally — the phrases that appear in the transcript and should appear in the written content associated with the episode. For episode-level keyword decisions — choosing the primary target for the title and show notes — you still bring your own judgment about search intent and competition. But the raw material is already there.

For podcasters who find keyword research the most tedious part of their content workflow, having a list of relevant keywords extracted from the transcript automatically removes the activation energy barrier that causes it to get skipped. The keywords are ready when you open the post-production dashboard — not something you have to go and find separately.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many keywords should I target per episode?

One primary keyword per episode page — the phrase you want the show notes or blog post to rank for above anything else. Support it with two or three secondary keywords that are topically related and appear naturally in the content. Trying to target five or six keywords on a single page typically means ranking weakly for all of them rather than strongly for one. The primary keyword goes in the title, the opening paragraph, at least one subheading, and the meta description. Secondary keywords appear naturally in the body copy without being forced.

Should I use the same keywords as competing podcasts?

Yes — with caveats. If a competing show ranks well in Apple Podcasts for "podcast marketing tips," that's validation that the keyword has genuine search volume in-app. You're not trying to avoid their keywords — you're trying to rank alongside or above them for the same searches. The caveats: on Google, competing for the same keywords as established shows with strong domain authority is harder. Look for keyword gaps — angles on the topic they're not covering, more specific queries they're not targeting — and build content there first.

Do podcast keywords affect Spotify and Apple Podcasts search?

Yes. Both platforms index episode titles, show descriptions, and episode descriptions for in-app search. Spotify is also beginning to index transcript data as transcription becomes more standard. Keywords in your episode titles have the most direct impact on in-app search placement — a title that includes the phrase someone types into Spotify's search bar is significantly more likely to appear in those results than a title that doesn't. This is why episode title keyword targeting deserves as much attention for in-app discoverability as it does for Google.

How long does it take for keyword optimisation to show results?

For Google, typically three to six months for new content to accumulate meaningful search traffic — longer for competitive keywords, faster for specific long-tail phrases. For in-app podcast search on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, the feedback loop is faster — changes to episode titles and descriptions can affect in-app placement within days of the RSS feed updating. The compounding effect of keyword-optimised show notes and blog posts builds over months and years, which is why starting early matters more than starting perfectly.

Can I add keywords to episodes I've already published?

Yes. Episode titles, descriptions, and show notes can all be updated after publishing. The RSS feed reflects changes within a few hours, and podcast platforms update their indexes accordingly. For your website, updating show notes pages — adding depth, improving keyword targeting, fixing thin content — can meaningfully improve search performance on older episodes covering evergreen topics. Google Search Console is the best tool for identifying which of your existing episode pages have high impressions but low click-through rates — those are the pages most likely to respond to title and meta description improvements.

Ready to Make Your Podcast Easier to Find?

Keywords aren't a box to tick before publishing. They're the mechanism by which new listeners — people who've never heard of your show — end up on your episode page, in your show's search results, and eventually in your subscriber count.

The process isn't complicated: understand the three keyword types, research with the tools you already have, put each keyword where it belongs, and write show notes and blog posts long enough for Google to rank them. Repeat every episode.

Podsuite extracts the content keywords automatically from each episode — so the research for every episode's written content starts with a list rather than a blank page. The transcript, show notes, and blog post are generated from the same upload, with keywords already embedded in the content that feeds all of them.

Try it free on your next episode and see what your keyword workflow looks like when the extraction happens automatically.