How To Add Spotify Podcast Chapters (Clickable Timestamps) - SEO

Adding Spotify Chapters (clickable timestamps) to your podcast show notes is easy and you should do it on every episode. Watch Emily’s tutorial video here.

Read more about the SEO and UX benefits of clickable Spotify timestamps for podcasts here.

Here’s what the clickable kind look like (what you want):

Example Spotify podcast chapters (clickable timestamps) which are great for SEO and UX (user experience). This is “The Game w/Alex Hormozi”, a podcast that figured out the Spotify Chapters trick earlier than most.

Watch video- how to create Spotify podcast chapters:

It’s Like Google Featured Snippets

On Google, Featured Snippets get 35.1% of all clicks. (The boxes featured at the top of search results which answer a specific question.)

Clickable timestamps are like the Featured Snippets of your podcast. They tell listeners and search engines how specific parts of your episode essentially answer a specific question.

Steps: How to add Spotify podcast chapters (linked timestamps):

1. Using AI or a manual method, generate 8-10 timestamps for every 60 minutes of content.

2. In your RSS feed host such as Acast, Libsyn, Podbean etc., click to edit the “episode description” (show notes).

3. Put the timestamps on separate lines beginning with the minutes and seconds, either one or two digits for minutes and two digits for seconds, with a colon in the middle such as 4:34. BUT:

4. Instead of just writing the time plainly like 4:34, you need to put the time in parentheses to make it clickable in Spotify (a Chapter). Like this: (4:34).

   1. Example of a clickable timestamp / chapter when written in the RSS feed episode description (back-end): (4:34) Investors who lost their password made more money

That’s it. Watch Emily’s tutorial for more details: How To Add Spotify Podcast Chapters / CLICKABLE Timestamps

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Related Podcast Tip videos:

Playlist: Podcasting Tips and Gear

Emily Binder's Top Three Podcast Tips (Videos)

Get your podcast or Flash Briefing / WealthVoice Alexa skill up and running with these three must-know starter tips. Voice marketing expert Emily Binder covers the best microphone options for beginners to advanced, the top marketing mistake many podcasters make, and the number one podcast SEO tip.

1) Podcast Microphone: 3 Best Mics (Review)

Get the perfect microphone for your podcast whether you're a beginner or advanced. Emily reviews three great choices (one is free: your phone!). This 7-minute video includes the famous Shure SM7B. Whether you choose Blue Yeti or Shure, ALL the equipment you'll need is linked in the YouTube description or here:

A) Blue Yeti, the top USB mic in the world. The Blue Yeti Amazon Idea List includes:

1. Blue Yeti USB mic

2. Boom arm / desk clamp with pop filter

3. Extra USB cable (have 1 as a backup)

B) Shure SM7B podcast microphone bundle (everything you need).

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2) Avoid the #1 Mistake: A Better Way to Share Your Podcast on Social Media

“Don’t make this common mistake when sharing your podcast on social media! Here's a free solution that I use for my podcasts and suggest to all my clients. A universal podcast link. Get your show's 1-click Plink link: https://beetlemoment.com/plink

It’s a single podcast smart link and it will cover your bases for all the major podcast apps. This way you don’t alienate any audience and get the benefit of one simple CTA in your social posts. Sharing your podcast on social media is a key way to grow your audience, so don't make the mistake of sharing only the Apple Podcasts or Spotify or show notes page link!” -Emily

Get your podcast Plink link.

3) Top Podcast SEO Tip: Your Episode Descriptions

“This is my number one tip to get SEO value out of every podcast episode. It's so simple and effective. Google search will scrape keywords but especially outbound links (hyperlinks) that have rich anchor text (keywords that make up the hyperlink).

This means your podcast episodes can outrank blog posts, especially for unique search terms relevant to your brand or business. I show you an example of how my search for ‘onramp invest alexa quick link’ turned up a four-month old Spotify podcast episode I had done where I used similar text in a hyperlink in that episode's description.” - Emily

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Subscribe Free to the Mini Podcast: Voice Marketing with Emily Binder

Best Easy Podcast SEO Tip: Descriptions

This is our number one tip to get SEO value out of every podcast episode. It's so simple and effective. Google search will scrape keywords but especially outbound links (hyperlinks) that have rich anchor text (keywords that make up the hyperlink). This means your podcast episodes can outrank blog posts, especially for unique search terms relevant to your brand or business.

In this video, Emily shows you an example of how a search for "onramp invest alexa quick link" turned up a four-month old Spotify podcast episode where she used similar text in a hyperlink in that episode's description.

The Description for your podcast episodes has big SEO potential for getting your content ranked in Google search.

Wondering what microphone is best for your podcast?

Check out Emily Binder’s podcast microphone review and setup video covering three great podcast mics:

1. Your smartphone (yes really) - perfect for a mini podcast or quick WealthVoice broadcast on Alexa

2. Blue Yeti USB Mic

3. Shure SM7B

Want help with your podcast marketing?

Are you subscribed to Voice Marketing with Emily Binder? What are you waiting for?! Get marketing and business insights and tips twice a week in under 3 minutes.

Also available as an Alexa Flash Briefing (enable Voice Marketing here).

Definition: What is Voice Marketing?

Voice Marketing definition:

Voice Marketing is the strategies and tactics used to reach your target audience through audio content and/or voice-enabled devices powered by AI voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri.

It includes recorded audio content such as podcasts, Flash Briefing, and all branded audio including sonic logos, audio marks, and IVR phone systems. An evolution of search engine optimization (SEO), voice search optimization (VSO) is an important aspect of Voice Marketing wherein brands, products, and services optimize content to be found through spoken searches.

Why does voice matter for marketing?

We are leaving the Tap, Type, and Swipe era and entering the VoiceFirst era, where computing shifts from physical interactions on handheld devices and keyboards to natural speech.

Stats about Voice Search and Mobile:

1. Currently, 41% of adults use voice search at least once per day.

2. 30% of searches will be screenless by 2020 (Gartner). Thanks to the growing popularity of hearables and voice devices like Apple AirPods, Echo Buds, Google Home, and Amazon Echo, voice-first interactions will become ubiquitous. (Listen to our podcast with hearables expert Dave Kemp.)

3. Half of smartphone users engage with voice technology on their device (comScore).

4. The total voice searching user base among U.S. adults is 42.7% (Voicebot, 2019).

Voice marketing is the strategies and tactics marketers use to reach their audience through AI voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, often on smart speakers like the Amazon Echo.

Improvements in speech recognition technology have thrust voice search to the forefront of search marketing.

With speech recognition by AI voice assistants at 95%, on par with human speech recognition, NLP (Natural Language Processing) has advanced to the point where people are getting more tasks done through voice. This will only become more common because humans avoid friction in all tasks. Voice is the ultimate convenient mode of interaction, and it can be accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.

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Alexa Flash Briefing:

Watch Emily’s video about Alexa Flash Briefing - a great way to get started with voice marketing with a mini podcast (a briefcast) on smart speakers:

Voice Technology Becomes Mainstream:

Voice controlled technology has officially moved out of the early-adopter phase and into the mainstream. Apple's Siri, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant have become household names in a few short years, with Amazon Echo as the first mass market smart speaker that went on sale in 2014 with the first generation Echo.

As voice assistants continue to gain traction on smartphones and smart speakers, users will interact through voice more and more, with attention shifting to this medium. Voice will become the new battleground for user attention and it will be a top place to get information, place orders and shop, and consume content.

Marketing Implications - From Screens to Voice:

Attention is moving off screens and to voice. Much like we moved from desktop to smartphones and had to update our strategies and websites to be mobile, we need to think about voice the same way. But for the first time ever, we will not be computing in computerese (typing, text, and the language and interface of the machines). Voice is a unique departure and a true paradigm shift unlike anything before.

You are probably wondering what the return will be on tactics involving voice marketing. These tactics might include building a custom Alexa skill or a Google Action, launching a podcast or Flash Briefing, or investing in sonic branding. Read more here: What is the ROI of Voice Marketing?

Ask an expert.

30 or 50 minutes with Emily Binder.

Schedule a private call

Amazon's Easy Way to Top Search Results - "Financial Advice" SEO Example - Citywire

Would you rather compete with a billion others or ten? Here’s a stark example of just how blue the ocean of Alexa Skills and voice search is.

Google’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page) has 1.3 billion results for search term “financial advice”.

Search for “financial advice” on Google. There are 1.03 billion search results as of this writing.

Then search on Amazon.com under the “Alexa Skills” department, or under Skills in the Alexa app. There are TEN results.

Amazon.com’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page) for Alexa Skills has 10 results for search term “financial advice”. (The top two results happen to be the skills we built for Ritholtz Wealth Management - case study.)

Press play below for a 2-minute briefing about:

• Why it’s easy to rank for your keywords on Amazon Alexa vs Google (SEO for Alexa Skills is a big opportunity)

• Flash Briefing is far less competitive than podcasting (and shorter is better for most content)

• How to repurpose Flash Briefing beyond just Alexa - it’s a marketing tool

• Understand that this applies to almost any industry - not just finance!

• EVENT: October 3, 2019: Online event - join me and other Flash Briefing experts at The Voice of the Flash Briefing to learn more (get tickets for the webinar)

Bottom Line about Voice Marketing

Voice is a big opportunity because right now there is a scarcity of content. It was like the early days of the internet when there were only 10,000 web pages. (There are currently about 10,000 Alexa Flash Briefings.)

Amazon is the third largest search engine in the world.

And it’s no longer about just products and ecommerce results. With Alexa providing answers, information, and voice experiences, this is becoming a search engine to compete with Google.

#CitywireRIA

I’ll be presenting this and more cool information about how to use Alexa for marketing your wealth management firm at Citywire RIA on October 2, 2019. See you there!

-Emily