This document isn’t intended to teach you how to be a better podcaster, tell you about better equipment, or help you organize your workflow. This is exclusively about how to make your RSS feed better communicate your podcast. After working with more than 70 podcasts, and over 8,000 episodes, I’ve found some great habits that all podcasts to should adopt.
Keep in mind that I’m approaching this problem from the perspective of someone who made a Podcast library. The issues I experience will also exist in the iTunes library, the Google library, and even in individual podcast playing devices.
A Little Information
Not all podcasters know how their data is structured, so here’s a brief overview. Your podcast file has two main sections, the header area which has information about the podcast, and the items, for which there is one for each episode.
There are very few really required fields in these areas, but in my opinion there are some which you really should have to help your podcast attract listeners. Some of them are always there, because they’re not optional. I’m not going to talk about those. This document lists which ones are optional but you really SHOULD use them.
In case you’re wondering, all of the items below are managed through your podcast publishing software. There’s no code editing.
Podcast Elements
Language
This one is especially important if your podcast is NOT in English. People looking for podcasts in a specific language will miss yours if it’s not labeled for that language.
Image
Every Podcast should have an image. I don’t care if it’s a plain white box with your Podcast name in Helvetica. If there isn’t one, your Podcast looks broken to archives and users. Important: iTunes and Google use different tags for this. Make sure your Podcast uses both.
Categories/Tags
On an archive site like iTunes or WP Podcasts, people are going to want to be able to sort by keywords and topics. Important: iTunes and Google use different tags for this. Make sure your Podcast uses both.
Explicit
The important thing here is to make sure it’s set correctly. I know of one WordPress Podcast with it set to Yes, incorrectly, which is going to make it list very differently on iTunes etc.
Episode Elements
Image
Every Episode should have an image. It could optionally be the same as the main one, but you really should have one. Important: iTunes and Google use different tags for this. Make sure your Podcast uses both.
Categories/Tags
On an archive site like iTunes or WP Podcasts, people are going to want to be able to sort by keywords and topics. If you’re using WordPress to manage your Podcast, you can simply use the built-in categories and tags and it should translate just fine. Important: iTunes and Google use different tags for this. Make sure your Episodes use both.