Mind Your Metadata: A Podcaster’s Guide to Titles and Descriptions

Your podcast’s metadata works like a treasure map for your listeners. Make sure it leads listeners to your most important information — not astray.

Recently, I listened to an audio drama that I was really looking forward to. The audio drama had been hyped up by fans as being riveting and absolutely devastating, taking twists and turns that were going to leave me sobbing. I started listening to them in chronological order, as I always do for serialized audio dramas. About halfway through, I talked to a few friends who were fans of the audio drama and said, “I feel like I’m missing something. I don’t know how I’m going to be surprised by the end, given everything was revealed in the first episode?”

The friends asked me what the titles of the episodes I’d listened to were, and then said, “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Pocket Casts messed something up. You’ve been listening to them backwards.”

Metadata is one of the least exciting parts of making a podcast, but it’s so important both for new listeners and continuing listeners — and both for audio dramas and nonfiction podcasts. There are three issues I usually see with podcasters’ metadata: their episode titles, their podcast’s official title, and their show notes.

Number Your Episodes

For podcasts that are serialized, numbering your episodes should be obvious: if you want people to listen to your podcast in a specific order, you need to give them that order. You cannot rely on podcatchers to do this for you (as with my example above, podcatchers can be unreliable).

Numbering your episodes can also help non-serialized podcasts by making it easy for listeners to find and revisit an episode without having to remember the episode title. For example, a listener might think, “I believe this was about 50 episodes ago” versus “I’m looking for the episode specifically titled this.” It’s an easy way for listeners to reference and remember specific episodes without having to drudge through an archive.

Having episode numbers can even add to your podcast’s overall aesthetic. Have a podcast that’s focused and professional? The episode number followed by a period or a colon is classy and unobtrusive, while still helping the listener.

Just take audio drama ATHENA.’s episode titles as an example:

• 1.01 // TEENAGE ANGST.
• 1.02 // THE BASE AND DATA.
• 1.03 // A NEW BEGINNING.

The formatting of the episode titles conveys the show’s sci-fi feeling and aesthetic while remaining clear to the listener.

Your Episode Titles Are Not Your Show Notes

While episode numbers are important as a reference point, it’s more likely that listeners will use episode titles when discussing your podcast . . . if the episode titles are meaningful.

You do not need to cover everything from your episode in its title. Pick one word, phrase, or moment that you think best exemplifies the episode and use that. Make it something memorable or interesting. One podcast that I think does this well is HORSE — a podcast that talks about everything basketball except the sport or the scores. [Full disclosure: HORSE is co-hosted by Bello writer Eric Silver.] Each episode pulls a title from one of the funnier moments in the episode versus explaining what they discuss, drawing the listener in through curiosity. You won’t know why episode one is called, “Ep. 1: My Dad, The Commissioner” until you listen, but the title on its own is intriguing and funny.

Your Podcast’s Title Is Not Its Description

Some podcasts have titles that work perfectly as their descriptions. Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People works well in this regard, as does My Favourite Elliott Smith Song or Conversations with People Who Hate Me. Usually, though, podcasts aren’t quite so simple, and their concepts don’t fit as easily into their names.

While most podcasts just allow their titles to exist without having to also explain their concept, I’ve seen a growing trend: more and more podcasts are using the title field in their metadata to also write out their show’s description. This seems to be the case for audio dramas, especially.

Many have started writing their podcast title as:

“[Title] — A [Genre] [Story/Adventure/Fiction]”

There’s something about explaining your podcast in its title field that feels self-conscious. It’s not often that a work in any other medium needs to explain its content within its title: you don’t watch Jurassic Park — A Dinosaur Horror Film Adventure, you watch Jurassic Park. In podcasting, you also don’t listen to 99% Invisible — A Podcast Inquiry into the Design We Might Not See, you listen to 99% Invisible.

Plenty of podcasts have vague titles and succeed just fine. Titles should have an air of confidence and conviction. Trying to explain your podcast within its title field feels like you’re worried your title isn’t good enough — a sign to listeners that you lack conviction, which comes across much worse than an unclear title.

Stop Ignoring Your Show Notes

Show notes are a vital way to credit the people behind your podcast, give some insight about the episode, share important links, and help optimize your SEO. Many podcasters might not realize that episode descriptions do appear in search results, especially with the new format of Google Podcasts — but they’re also a great way to keep your listener in the loop.

If you’re having trouble thinking about what should go into your show notes, here is a list of things I think every podcast episode description should contain, if applicable:

• A cast and crew list. If you work with a cast of actors, you should, at the very least, include their names in your show notes. Audio drama listeners in particular are a faithful bunch, willing and excited to follow actors between productions. Having the actors’ socials and/or website listed is even better. The same goes for your crew, too; give some love to your editors, your producers, your directors. If your crew is very large, at least make sure to give the names of that episode’s key players. If you’re using free music or effects in your podcast, make sure you’re using the show notes to attribute them properly.
• An actual description. If your episode titles and number systems fail, listeners should be able to check the show notes to find the episode they want to share or give a re-listen. Your description doesn’t need to include spoilers; instead, think of it like a short summary on the back of a book. This is also, obviously, a great way to think about SEO and what words could get prospective listeners onto your episode. What Google searches do you want your episode to appear in? Weave these terms into your show notes, but try to make it organic. Don’t over-correct and become a tag cloud.
• Important links. Always include your podcast’s website. In every single episode description, include your podcast’s website. Again: always include your podcast’s website. Right now, most listeners don’t usually seek out podcasts’ websites, and while many think this is just because all the content they need is available in their podcatcher, I think it’s because podcasts are not advertising their websites well enough. The same goes for your podcast’s socials. You should also include links to your Patreon or other support methods, as well as links for citations or further reading articles when applicable.
• Images. While I think images are tricky — they shouldn’t be too large or abundant — I think they can help give context for any visuals discussed in the episode. This could come in the form of images actually placed into the show notes, links, or using an image for the episode’s art.

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