Whose House Are You Building

00:00 Welcome back to How to Get Discovered. I'm Maya And I'm Tom HTGD is the show where we argue about podcast growth, search and the unglamorous mechanics of getting found Last week, we did the case that most podcasts are basically invisible Today's episode is about where you're invisible from Which sounds like a riddle It is a bit. The episode is called, Whose House Are You Building? It's the one where I try to convince you that the URL your transcripts live on matters more than almost anything else you do for discoverability And it's the one where I express opinions about a thing called a C name which I promised last week I would do and which I now slightly regret. You're gonna love it! I am gonna hate it Let's get into it

00:51 Okay, I want to do a comparison. Two podcasters. Hit me. Podcaster A has been making a show for five years. They've got a website – theirshowname dot com – it's got an about page, a contact page and embedded player on the homepage. Show notes for each episode hosted on the same domain. Standard setup. Podcaster B has been making this same show for 5 years. Same quality. Same audience size. But Podcaster B's show notes are all hosted on Spotify or Apple, or their podcast host's default subdomain — something like myshow dot some hosting platform dot com Their own .com is barely used… maybe redirects somewhere Also standard...maybe more standard actually Right now both podcasters have great episodes Both have great content

01:45 Question, five years from now which podcaster is harder to put out of business? Hmm. Take your time. Podcaster A, because they own the thing! Why? Because if Spotify changes its mind about something or Apple changes the rules or the hosting platform goes under or gets bought or rebrands, Podcaster B loses the home for everything they've ever made. Podcaster A still has the website Right so you already agree with me we can end So this is the thing I want to spend the first segment on. Because, I think every podcaster intuitively understands what you just said? If you ask any podcaster do you want to own your audience or rent it they'll say own it obviously but almost nobody acts like that's true. Where do you publish where do your show notes live where do your transcripts live if

02:50 Where does a listener go when they want more than the audio? For most podcasters, the answer is somebody else's website. The hosting platform's default page... The Spotify show page… the Apple page… maybe a link tree! A link tree is a brave thing to admit Nobody's admitting anything but the point Every time you direct a listener to an URL that isn't yours, you're putting another brick in somebody else's house. You're building their property not yours! Okay but devil's advocate most listeners don't care whose URL they are on They just want the episode The infrastructure is invisible to them True the listener doesn't care But the search engine cares The AI assistant cares And future-you cares

03:39 Unpack search engine cares. So, Google—and this is true of basically every search engine including the new AI ones—assigns a kind of trust score to domains. They don't call it that anymore. The SEO crowd used to call it domain authority…the term's slightly out-of-fashion but the concept isn't. The idea is...a domain that has been around for a long time —that has lots of other reputable sites linking to it, that publishes consistent content—that earns engagement That domain accrues weight, and every page on that domain inherits some of that weight. So a new article on a high-authority domain ranks more easily than the same article on a brand new domain!

04:21 Now, think about where your transcripts live. If they live on your hosting platform's default subdomain—say myshow dot somehostingplatform dot com—they inherit the authority of that hosting platform. But the platform's authority is spread across thousands of podcasts! Your show is one of 10 thousand. And critically? None of the authority is accruing to you. If you leave the platform in three years, you lose everything that page ever earned. You take your audio with you—you don't take the rankings. Right Whereas if your transcripts live on your own domain—yourshowname.com slash episode slash 47— every visit, every link, every time somebody shares that URL…the authority is accruing to YOUR domain—YOUR property forever!

05:13 This is the part I want to push on. Because what you're describing is real, but for most podcasters it's also overwhelming You're saying make your own website, host your own transcripts, build domain authority That's a project! Most podcasters are running a podcast in their spare time. They already have the audio host, they already have the show notes filled in... You're describing a whole second job! That's a fair pushback and 10 years ago I'd've agreed with you building your own site getting transcripts onto it structuring them properly keeping them in sync with your feed that was a real project It's not anymore

06:00 Because... Because the tools have caught up. There are services now that will take your RSS feed, transcribe every episode, structure each transcript as its own searchable page and publish it. The thing that used to take a developer and three months now takes pointing a service at your feed And you're gonna tell me PodHerd does this? PodHerd does this. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, but I'd be making this argument even if PodHerd didn't exist—the principle is older than the product! Noted. Okay, now I want to get into the part that I promised would make you have opinions about a C name. Embraced! So let's say you do the thing – go to a service like PodHerd or someone equivalent. You point it at your feed… It transcribes everything, structures everything, builds these beautiful searchable transcript pages for you. Now where do those pages live? On their website.

06:57 Right. By default, they live on something like PodHerd dot com slash your show name—which is fine! Better than nothing… better than no transcripts at all... The pages get indexed, they're well-structured, they're searchable, listeners can find specific moments… All the basic benefits. Butttt? But all of the authority those pages earn — every link, every search ranking, every share This is the bit where the C name comes in. Go on.

07:54 So you're putting your own URL on somebody else's infrastructure. Exactly! The transcripts live on the service's servers — the service handles the transcription, hosting, indexing and updates. But the URL the listener sees? The URL Google indexes? The URL that earns authority is yours. So Google thinks the transcripts are on my site Google effectively treats them as if they are on your site. Because in a meaningful sense, they are! The domain is yours... the DNS is yours… the URL is yours… everything that page earns accrues to your domain. Okay I see the appeal but that feels like small detail

08:40 It is a small detail, and it makes an enormous difference. Because over years the authority compounds—the transcripts on your domain rank for things, they feed your other pages, your show page on your domain gets stronger, your about page ranks for your name... The whole site lifts! Versus… Versus a version where the transcripts are on somebody else's domain And all that compounding is happening over there. And you get the residual benefit, the listener clicks through to your show but you don't get the lasting equity I will admit this is a more interesting opinion about a C name than I expected it to have! I told you

09:24 You did tell me. There's a related thing which I'll mention quickly because it matters If you do set it up on your own subdomain, archive dot your show name dot com you can actually go further! You can use that sub-domain as the foundation of your shows whole website make it your main site Because transcripts are content they're text they're searchable They're the thing Google actually understands. So a podcast website where the foundation is transcribed episodes is a much stronger website than one where the foundation is, what? An about page in a contact form? A lot of podcast websites are basically that.

10:08 The other thing, and this is the one most podcasters miss, is that once you've got your own domain hosting the transcripts you can plug it into Google's search console. Which is... Which is Google's free tool that tells you which queries are bringing people to your site What people are searching for when they land on you. Which episodes are ranking, which aren't? Which keywords you're winning on, which you're losing on... It's an enormous source of signal and you can only use it if the domain is yours because Google needs to verify that you control the domain before it'll show you data. So the platform-hosted version doesn't give you that? The platform hosted version doesn't give you that! The data is going somewhere but not going to YOU

10:53 PodHerd has an integration where you add your domain to Search Console and give them access, and then you can see your numbers. Search impressions Click-through rates Which episodes are ranking What people are searching when they find you So you actually know whether the strategy is working That's the part I find most persuasive actually Why? Because all the other arguments are theoretical. Authority compounds, equity accrues... The C name matters… Those are good arguments but they're slow. The Search Console thing is I can actually see the numbers! I can see what's working. I can see whether anyone is finding the show through search at all. That's the thing that would tell me whether any of this is worth doing. Tom? Are you about to concede?!

11:43 I am not conceding. I am acknowledging that one specific thing is more interesting than I expected That's a concession That is not a concession. Okay, last segment I want to drop down from the strategic stuff and talk about the easy wins because the C-name story is real and the domain authority story is real but they're long plays And there are things you can do this afternoon that will make your show more findable This is the segment where I'm allowed to be practical? This is your segment Good Episode titles. Go on! Most podcast episode titles are bad, they're cute, they're in-jokes... They're the host's clever turn of phrase that meant something to them in the edit and they tell a stranger absolutely nothing about what the episode is about I want to push back gently here because cute titles do something They reward the loyal listener They reinforce the show's voice

12:43 They reinforce the show's voice for the people who already listen. But for the stranger scrolling a feed or scrolling search results, The title is the entire pitch— it's the one line that decides whether they tap or scroll past And episode 47, Brian's big day tells them nothing Whereas... whereas how to negotiate a freelance rate with Brian whoever Tells them what the episode is. Tells them why they should care And if Brian's name brings in fans of Brian's other work, even better! Okay I agree... mostly But I want to add and this is the bit where the SEO people get unbearable but they're right The title is also what shows up in search results So if somebody is googling how do I negotiate a freelance rate

13:37 The episode whose title contains that phrase is gonna do better than the one called Brian's Big Day. Right! So, you can do both—you can have the descriptive bit and still keep some voice. Brian's big day...how to negotiate a freelance rate… The cute bit is in there for the regular listener. The functional bit is in there for the stranger. Allow it. Generous. Show notes. Show notes? Most show notes are also bad. They're a sentence, they're this week we talked to Brian That's the entire description Sometimes there is a list of timestamps sometimes not even that And what would good look like? Good is write what the episode is actually about Three paragraphs The premise The key things you discussed Who Brian is and why anyone should care

13:37 The episode whose title contains that phrase is gonna do better than the one called Brian's Big Day. Right! So, you can do both—you can have the descriptive bit and still keep some voice. Brian's big day...how to negotiate a freelance rate… The cute bit is in there for the regular listener. The functional bit is in there for the stranger. Allow it. Generous. Show notes. Show notes? Most show notes are also bad. They're a sentence, they're this week we talked to Brian That's the entire description Sometimes there is a list of timestamps sometimes not even that And what would good look like? Good is write what the episode is actually about Three paragraphs The premise The key things you discussed Who Brian is and why anyone should care

14:33 If there are good quotes, quote them. If there are links, link them. Treat the show notes as if somebody might read them instead of listening because somebody might This is the most generous thing you've said in two episodes I'm not generous. I just think podcasters underestimate how often the show notes are the first thing a listener sees. They're scrolling search results, they land on the show page — The show notes are right there! If the show notes are bad, the listener bounces. If the show notes are good, they hit play. This is also where the structured data conversation gets fun... but i'm gonna save that for episode 6 Please save it for episode six Saving it for episode six

15:18 The other easy win, and this one is going to sound boring... ...is to actually write the episode descriptions in your feed. The ones that go out to Apple and Spotify. Most podcasters write them once in their hosting platform's editor and never look at them again. They're the same field that shows up in every podcast app. They're the field every directory pulls from. They are doing more work for your show than any single other piece of metadata And most of them are blank, or a single sentence. We agree on this entire segment! It's a bit unsettling...

16:00 Let me think. I'll start, I still think the long-term domain authority story is overblown. I think for most podcasters doing the easy wins — better titles, better show notes, better feed descriptions — gets them 90% of the benefit of strategic stuff with about 5% of work. That's a real disagreement! I don't think it's 90%. I think it's maybe 60% and the other 40% is where the compounding is. The easy wins help every episode individually, the domain stuff makes the whole back catalog worth more over years... We will not resolve this in Episode 2. We will not… so next week? Next week is the AI one!

16:46 Right. When ChatGPT recommends your show, which is when people stop searching Google and start asking a chatbot what happens to podcasts? Do they get found? Do they get cited? Do they get ignored? And I am going to come into that episode arguing that what we call AI search today is going to look quaint in three years. And I'm going to agree with you about that and then disagree with the conclusion you draw from it That sounds like a fight I'm going to enjoy. Thanks for listening to How to Get Discovered! We'll see you next week. See ya next week