It has been claimed that Google will soon be displaying podcasts in search results too. And, this claim has already started showing its effect, as we are already being able to see such podcasts in certain searches. Now what all comes with this change? Yes, you may have already guessed it – Indexing! Along with this modification, Google has also claimed that it will be soon indexing podcast content and returning audio clips in SERPs.
Google’s audio transcriptions in videos
As we all know about Google’s speech-to-text amazing feature that has been on since 2017, the search engine will also start transcribing podcasts. In fact, Google has already started implementing the feature in videos, without even creating a transcript of the audio portion of the video! Isn’t that intriguing? Google made a smart move by initiating this practice with videos. It did so because it knew that YouTube is a planetary system to the suburb of Google Podcasts, and has an immensely powerful infrastructure backing it. Now, if Google can return results based on the audio portion of a video, it is obvious they can do the same for audio files too!
Will audio content be returned or transcribed text?
It is expected to begin with extensions of the podcast engine, including automatic transcription and full-text search. But, one question here is whether Google will return audio content directly, or if it will use transcribed text. Generally, returning audio clips should be better as it may better match searcher intent, and offer a richer experience than plain text. Returning audios will also fill a content gap for voice devices, and provide a direct bridge into full podcasts and other non-text content.
If you are planning to produce podcasts…
In spite of all of the above, expect Google to release the changes gradually and test them for weeks and months before getting it official web-wide. So, if you already want to produce a podcast and make it accessible to search, you need to make sure you are part of the Google Podcasts ecosystem, and are entering and updating the currently available meta data. And, all you need to have is clean clear audio in a format that Google can process; that’s all. There is nothing specific that you will have to do to get your content transcribed. Yes, the audio content that you have must be well-structured so that it is easy for Google to evaluate it. Don’t opt for completely free-form content; rather, have an evident theme, and a structure where a machine can parse questions and answers. You may also have a summary at the end of each episode to make it better.
Importance of Audio SEO
All of the above clearly shows how significant audio SEO is going to be soon. Hence, you need to now structure your audio content too. You also need to understand what type of content best fits your audience’s needs, as every audience will be available on a different kind of device. For the best results, it is thus always better to have professional digital marketing services in Bangalore hired so that they can help you on every step of the constant and dynamic changing algorithms of Google.
