exist. This implies that there are probably dozens of relevant podcasts where you could be a guest, regardless of the field you work in.
Many of these podcasts offer excellent chances for link development.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to utilize podcasts to build more links to your website:
What is podcast link building?
Benefits of podcast link building
How to do podcast link building
Can you build links by hosting your own podcast
What is podcast link building?
In podcast link building, you offer to be a guest on podcasts in your business in exchange for a link from the episode page.
You’re almost certainly going to get a link from podcasts as long as you choose which ones to pitch to carefully. As an illustration, I just appeared as a guest on the Mastermind.fm podcast, and there is a link back to Ahrefs on my episode page.
What are the benefits of podcast link building?
Podcast link building has three main benefits:
Each episode only takes around 60 minutes.
It’s a great way to build homepage links and build up site authority.
You can promote your brand and content to a new audience.
How to do podcast link building
Podcast link building is pretty straightforward and involves four steps:
Find industry podcasts
Vet the shows
Pitch them
Record your episode
Let’s go through these step by step.
1. Find industry podcasts
The first thing you should do is compile a lengthy list of potential podcasts. There are various methods for doing this. The best course of action is to start with a blank spreadsheet, go through each of these strategies, and keep adding podcasts to it.
Search Google
When it comes to discovering podcasts in your field, Google is your best friend. There should be several listicles available if you simply search for the best industry podcasts. A podcast carousel can also appear in the search results.
Add a podcast to your sheet if it is potential. Make a note of the podcast’s name and URL.
Search Apple Podcasts
Launch the Apple Podcasts app and type in your search term. To view all the podcasts on your topic, select “see all” on the shows page.
In your sheet, make a note of any promising podcasts.
Reverse engineer prolific podcasters
Enter the homepage of the website of a frequent podcast guest in your niche in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Then select “Exact URL” option from the selection, navigate to the Backlinks report, and search for results that include “episode” in the referring page title.
2. Vet the shows
Some of the podcasts on your list will be more important than others, and not all of them will be worth pitching to. Because you don’t want to waste your time pitching the incorrect shows, screening is very important.
Here is a quick procedure for screening:
It is recommended to start with the link data because Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool can automate that procedure. Simply copy and paste the websites from your list, export the data, then merge the Domain Rating (DR) data with your current list.
DR displays how strong a website’s backlink profile is in relation to other websites in our database. Links coming from high DR websites therefore tend to have greater “authority.”
It’s not necessary to remove podcasts with low DR websites from your list, but if links are your first goal, it’s normally preferable to give high DR websites priority. Sort your list by DR from highest to lowest to accomplish that.
Now it’s simply a case of working your way through the list to check whether the podcast:
Links to guests.
Is still running.
SIDENOTE.
If you used Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to find podcasts, you already know the answer to the first query.
The podcast should remain on your list if both of these conditions are true. If not, take it out.
3. Pitch the shows
Pitching a show is a rather simple process. Either apply through their process or email them and introduce yourself as a guest.
Always follow the application process if there is one for the program; otherwise, the person reading the pitches will probably dismiss them.
For instance, the TechSEO podcast provides a form for submitting guests:
Since Dan (the podcast co-host) obviously doesn’t want to receive pitches via email and is unlikely to choose a guest who can’t follow simple guidelines, it won’t make much sense to contact him in this manner.
Find the host’s email and send them a message if the podcast doesn’t offer an application process (here are six ways to find email addresses).
As for the pitch itself, everyone’s advice here will be slightly different. But generally speaking, you’re going to want to cover the three Ws:
Who? Explain who you are, who you work for, etc.
Why? Explain why you’d be a good podcast guest. Sell yourself.
What? Explain what you want to talk about.
Don’t just spit out your “what” from thin air. It should be a topic that fits with your area of knowledge, is likely to be interesting to the show’s viewers, and hasn’t been addressed before.
Try to propose something you’ve written or discussed in the past. Then you may use that as your episode notes for the podcast.
For instance, it would make sense for me to propose an episode about duplicate content if I contacted the TechSEO podcast. This is because the subject is something I’ve already written about and is obviously interesting to the show’s viewership.
And as I perused the show’s archive of episodes, I discovered that it seemed to have skipped over this subject:
PRO TIP
Since most hosts won’t answer, send your pitches in batches. If you can send five to 10 per week, then you should be able to build up a pretty consistent flow of podcast appearances.
4. Record the podcast
Because the host usually does the majority of the work, recording your podcast is the simple part. You simply need to arrive on time and respond to their inquiries.
Here are a few tips to make sure things go smoothly:
Invest in a decent microphone
Make sure you have a stable internet connection
Find a quiet place (no coffee shops)
Typically, your episode won’t go live for a few weeks. When it does, the host will probably let you know.
Can you build links by hosting your own podcast?
Yes. Listeners that make references to guests in their own content typically link to podcasts. Thus, having a podcast adds to the list of possible methods for generating backlinks.
For instance, if we enter “Authority Hackers” into Site Explorer, navigate to the Best by Links report, and filter for pages with “#” in the titles, we can see that a number of the podcast’s episodes gained backlinks.
SIDENOTE.
Because Authority Hacker utilizes the #000 format for the episode number in the page title, we are using “#” as a footprint.
However, running a podcast takes a lot of work, therefore we do not advise doing it just for link building. Links are more of an extra advantage.
Final thoughts
A wonderful technique to increase your brand’s exposure and links is through podcasts. In order to reach a bigger audience and potentially get more backlinks, you can also highlight other pertinent content during the podcast.