Topic: Podcast Indexing

Maya and Tom introduce a technical episode of How to Get Discovered focused on transcript indexing and search engine behavior. Maya establishes a ground rule requiring Tom to define every technical term or three-letter acronym used, such as structured data, to ensure the conversation remains accessible to listeners. Tom hints at a personal admission regarding his own podcast setup to be revealed later in the episode.

Search engines like Google and Bing interpret webpages as structured documents rather than visual layouts. While humans see headings and players, search engines read invisible metadata and tags that define whether a page is a recipe, product, or podcast episode. Properly identifying a page as a podcast episode allows search engines to surface specific moments in carousels and specialized search panels.

The hosts conclude the episode by previewing next week's technical deep dive into transcript indexing and domain authority. The upcoming segment will explore why transcript pages are treated differently by search engines compared to standard show notes.

The back catalogue was processed through PodHerd to transcribe, structure, and index every episode into sectioned pages with timestamps. After three months, episodes that previously received zero search traffic began seeing consistent weekly listens. One forgotten interview about switching from agency to in-house work emerged as a major driver of new listeners, proving that existing audio holds untapped value if it is made findable.