What Is Google Podcast Manager and How Does It Work?

What is Google Podcast Manager?

Google Podcast Manager is a feature from Google that gives you customized data about how your podcast is performing across Google’s properties. This means that Google Podcast Manager will give you insights into the listeners who tune in via the Google Podcast app along with how your podcast performs in Google Search.

Once you have claimed your podcast on Google Podcast Manager, you will see a range of data, including:

• How many listens or downloads your podcast receives on the Google Podcast app.
• How much of your latest episode people listened to and when they tended to drop off.
• What devices your listeners use.
• Keywords listeners used to discover your show.
  

Google Podcast Manager gives you more information about your podcast and your listeners’ habits that you can use to improve future episodes and get more engagement from your audience. And even better, this service is completely free.

Benefits of using Google Podcast Manager

It takes very little effort to add your show to Google (you just have to claim your RSS feed), and once you do, you can reap a ton of benefits.  

In-depth analytics

It should be no surprise that a Google-backed podcast manager will give you a wealth of information on how listeners find and consume your show. Once you claim your podcast, you’ll see data points such as:

• Impressions: How often a listener sees a link to your show or a specific episode in a Google search. For example, if they searched “mountain climbing podcast” and your podcast came up in the search results that they saw, they got an “impression” of your podcast.
• Clicks: Of those impressions, how many people actually clicked through to the podcast or episode page.
• Search terms: What keywords people use to search. This shows what your podcast ranks well for, which can help you improve your SEO (search engine optimization).  
• Top-discovered episodes: Find out information on your top-performing episodes, which could help you choose more winning topics for future podcast episodes.
• When listeners stop listening: Discover how far listeners get into each episode, including the exact moment they drop off. This could help you understand if your podcast is too long or if there are segments that people don’t find particularly interesting.
  

Optimize your podcast for visibility

Your podcast feed may already be on Google Podcasts, which means that you only have to claim it to access Google Podcast Manager. But if it’s not, adding it to Google Podcasts allows your podcast to be crawled and indexed by Google Search. This means that your podcast will potentially appear in people’s search results.

Google Podcast Manager lets you know how people are finding you via the Google search engine — which keywords they’re using to find your podcasts or which keywords your podcast ranks for in the results. That gives you better insights into what information your target audience is looking for, and how relevant your podcast episodes for those search terms. This information could inform how you think about future show topics.

Expand your podcast reach

Submitting your show to Google’s podcast directory allows your podcast to appear across all the search engine’s platforms, including Google Search, Google Assistant, Google Home, and the Google Podcast app. That gives you more opportunities to reach potential listeners who access their favorite podcasts across a variety of platforms and devices. If your podcast addresses a specific topic they’re searching for, you could capture additional listeners that weren’t necessarily looking for a podcast.

Find listeners beyond Apple podcasts or Spotify

The Apple podcast app and Spotify are the most popular podcast apps, with a combined 45% of the total market. But listing your show across multiple podcasting directories allows you to get your podcast in front of people who don’t use those services. You can get a lot more exposure by opting into Google Podcast Manager in addition to other directories.

How to use Google Podcast Manager

Google Podcast Manager ensures your episodes are updated in the Google Podcast app soon after you upload them to your podcast hosting platform. Plus, the service is free, so you get the added exposure and all of the analytics and insights directly built-in. Follow these steps to get started.

Record and edit a podcast with Descript

Before you claim your podcast on Google Podcast Manager, you need to actually record a podcast. Descript makes it easy to record, edit, and finalize each episode. You don’t need any technical skills; instead, the app automatically transcribes your audio file into text so you can edit it just like you would with a traditional text document. You can also add in sound, music, and effects with multitrack recording and seamless transitions.

Upload to your podcast hosting service

In order for your podcast to appear on different podcast apps, you need to publish it on a hosting service. A hosting service is designed to store large files like podcasts and make them accessible on an RSS feed. Some hosting services also distribute your content to listening platforms like Apple, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

Meet Google’s podcast requirements

Once the podcast is launched with at least one episode, you can check your eligibility for Google Podcast Manager. There are four required fields for each episode, which should be imported from your hosting service:

• Podcast image
• Podcast description
• Email address for the owner
• Homepage link
  

Claim your podcast in Google

To claim your podcast, you need to enter the RSS feed URL and have the associated email address on hand. That email address will receive a message from Google with a verification code that will let you confirm you own the podcast. Once you’ve claimed it, you can also add other users to the account. Some podcast hosting services will take care of this for you.

See your podcast episodes appear on Google Podcast

Google regularly checks for new podcast episodes, so you don’t need to do anything to have your latest episode appear on the Google Podcast app and other platforms. Still, if it seems like it’s taking a long time for a new episode to appear, you can request a recrawl. Your podcast feed should be updated within half an hour.