You Ask, I Answer: How to Change a Podcast’s Brand?

In today's episode, Jason asks, what are the precautionary steps if I need to change the title description, artwork, and such for a podcast so I can avoid losing momentum and not break anything with the new version of the show. What are the implications for being discovered in podcast searches? So this is a good question. Podcast searches, particularly on services like Spotify, Apple uh podcasts, Google Podcasts, etc., uh are very rudimentary. They function like SEO did like 15 years ago, where it really is all just very primitive keywords and things.

There's none of the uh AI that you would expect from like a Google search that would detect intent and things. So specific terms, specific names, brands matter a lot. Um so treat this move that you're talking about like any other move, right? Uh treat it like um a website uh move. Try not to change the domain name, try not to change uh URLs if possible, because that adds a level of technical complexity that you do not want.

Uh updating RSS feeds and things like that. If you can avoid changing the URL, then what you need to do is create a plan for a transition period. Uh maybe a month, maybe two months. It depends on the cadence of how fast you release your show. If your show is a uh daily show, you could probably make the move fully in about two weeks.

Um depending on, I guess uh the easiest way to look is is to look at how uh fast old shows stop getting downloads, you know, other than like the onesie or twosy here and there. If your listenership tunes into a show and uh listens within 24 hours of it of it dropping, then you know you give yourself you know a few weeks to to move. If on the other hand, a show doesn't really taper off until like a month, then you might need to give yourself you know a couple of months of transition time. In the transition time, what you want to do is tell people that things are changing. Give people advanced notice.

Uh you'll want to craft some transitional artwork that incorporates the old show's look and the new show's look uh at the same time. So if you know I don't know if there's a picture of your f just your face for the old show and there's a a brand new logo for the new show, maybe in the transitional artwork there's a picture of your face and the logo together. Um your messaging has to be the same as well. Letting people know on the air, hey, this is gonna be changing in however long. Um you next open your podcast listener, uh you're gonna see start to see some of the changes.

It's still the same show, it's still the same person, you know, it's still it's still me. Um but don't be surprised if in on you know set an arbitrary date on July 1 uh the name has changed in your podcast listener, and please keep tuning in. From a technical perspective, as long as the URL doesn't change, you're not gonna break anything infrastructure-wise. Um you do want to update the description and the feed details. And again, we want to be transitional here.

If the show is uh uh almost timely podcast with Christopher Penn, or I in this case, let's say it's you know, the Christopher Penn show becomes the almost timely podcast. The transitional name should be almost timely podcast with Christopher Penn or Almost Timely Podcasts, the show formerly known as the Christopher Penn Show, right? So that A, people aren't surprised. Um, B the name is people get start to get familiar with the name in their their podcatcher of choice. And C, um, you want to take advantage of those very primitive uh SEO metrics, right?

Uh those SEO uh tools that are in podcasting, you know, peep very primitive keyword searches. If someone is searching for the Christopher Penn show, I want to have that for sure in the description of my podcast forever, right? Uh maybe at the end of my description say formally known as the the Christopher Penn Show. Um but in the title I'm uh of the the show and the episodes, I will probably want to have that transition period. The almost timely podcast, you know, the artist formally known as Christopher Penn, whatever, uh, is in the description so that people searching for it catch it.

Now for a little while, that's gonna be ugly. You've got some really long titles. But you'll be giving people the chance to make the transition to mentally make the transition. Um I might it depending on how large your listener base is and and again how frequently or infrequently you record, you might even start with flipping the the names around. So if your show is the Christopher Pen Show and the new show is the almost timely podcast, you know, the Christopher Pen show, soon to become the almost timely podcast, and then do four or five episodes like that, uh, and then flip it around.

The almost time of the podcast, formerly known as the Christopher Pen Show, and then four or five episodes of that, and then at the end you have uh the almost timely podcast, but in the description of each episode, and in the master feed description, you'll have the show formerly known as the Christopher Pen show. That way you are continuing to attract any searches for people who are looking for the old um show while you're capturing the the new show. One other thing that's really important with podcasts is there are uh uh you know tons of podcast directories and things like that that have linked to shows. There are uh syndicators and aggregators, uh, more so with podcasts and blogs than with like social media. Uh by the way, make sure you update all your social properties, usual stuff for any kind of any kind of a brand change.

You need to go into the SEO tool of your choice and look for all the inbound links to the old show, including individual episodes, and then if you have the time, um go and hunt down those links and ask people to change the title and the description of those links. Um the uh the the wording, though the link anchor text on those links. If you don't have a ton of time, I would take that same data extract from the SEO tool of your choice, sort it in descending order by uh URL URL rank or whatever your tool's equivalent is, and at least take care of the top 10%, right? So that you're getting the most equity redirected in terms of branding and and name and uh anchor text changes possible to help boost the new show, to help to get the new show up and running. Um the messaging for that could actually be very similar.

So if somebody's linking to you know episode 14 of the Christopher Penn show, I would reach out to them and say, Hey, I just want to let you know thanks so much for linking to me. I'm changing my show's name. Would you consider changing the link text to episode 14 of the almost timely podcast, formerly known as the Christopher Penn Show? So that again, I'm capturing both of those things. I want to make sure that I'm getting as much of the link redirects, uh, the anchor text uh changes as possible to boost helping people find the new name of the show.

Finally, like all things in podcasting, uh make sure that you're doing your outreach, your your rounds, your promos. It's so funny, people have forgotten how to do promos. It used to be the thing to do in podcasting back in you know 06, 07, 08, and people just don't do it anymore. And it's a shame because it's a good way to get in front of an uh another audience easily as long as the audience is is a peer of yours and non-competitive. So give that some thought as well.

Um there are tons and tons of podcasts and nobody remembers that. We should write about that at some point. Just lost podcasting culture. Um So that's it. It's treat it like a brand change, treat it like a brand move, do all the things, give people transition time, uh, try not to break the technical aspects, and you should be fine.

Keep the old name around in titles and in descriptions, especially so that you can attract searches for them and let the directories know where they are. If you have follow-up questions, leave them in the comments box below. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and the newsletter. I'll talk to you soon. Take care.

Want help solving your company's data analytics and digital marketing problems? Visit TrustInsights.ai today and let us know how we can help you.