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Podcast names: how do you choose one people can find? · Business Podcasting: Production Strategy

• 0:00
  [Synthetic version of Lam Hoang's voice]
• 0:07
  This is Business Podcasting: Production Strategy, produced by WorkHacker.
• 0:13
  I'm your host, Lam Hoang, co-founder of WorkHacker.
• 0:16
  You're hearing a synthetic version of my voice.
• 0:19
  Each episode I take one question about making a podcast for your business,
• 0:23
  tell you what I would do and how solid the evidence is.
• 0:32
  Today's question: how do you choose a podcast name people can find?
• 0:36
  This October, Apple's public search tool listed at least
• 0:40
  thirty-two shows named exactly Let's Talk About It.
• 0:43
  Tell a friend about one of them.
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  Which one do they find?
• 0:46
  So what should yours be called?
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  In my opinion, name it for the words people search.
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  Then credit your company as the producer.
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  It fits a show that strangers will mostly find by searching a topic.
• 0:58
  What if most people will hear about yours from someone, or already come for you?
• 1:03
  Then a distinctive name can work.
• 1:05
  Either way, the name has to say what the show covers.
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  Someone who hears it once should be able to find it.
• 1:11
  And no other show should have it already.
• 1:13
  Here's what you'll leave with.
• 1:15
  Who your name is for, and which words search can see.
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  Then where your company goes, whether to add keywords and how to check it's yours.
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  First: who has to find your show?
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  Strangers searching a topic?
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  Then it needs the words they'd type.
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  Take a show about great fish and chips.
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  James Cridland edits the trade newsletter Podnews,
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  and he'd probably call it just that.
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  Call it The Codfather instead?
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  Then people searching for fish and chips won't find it.
• 1:43
  And if listeners come by word of mouth?
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  That gives you more room.
• 1:46
  Spotify's naming guide says a name can be abstract and mysterious, not only direct.
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  Even then, it should hint at the show's topic or tone.
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  So decide who it's for before you brainstorm names.
• 1:59
  Either way, don't go generic.
• 2:01
  Spotify's guide warned in August 2026 that a title that's too generic gets buried.
• 2:08
  Remember those thirty-two shows?
• 2:09
  That's too generic.
• 2:11
  Too narrow might box you in, though.
• 2:14
  The episode on starting a podcast had a test.
• 2:17
  Describe your show in ten words or fewer, in a way that describes nothing else.
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  A name is the shortest version of that.
• 2:24
  Second: which words does search actually read?
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  On Apple, the evidence points to the name and your episode titles.
• 2:32
  The description?
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  Not so much.
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  As of October 2026, Apple's help page lists the show
• 2:38
  name and episode titles among what its search reads.
• 2:41
  Then there's a 2021 test by the trade site Podnews.
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  It planted nonsense words in real feeds, then searched for them app by app.
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  Apple found the words in the name, the episode titles and the author field.
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  It missed the one in the description.
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  Spotify found that one.
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  Its authors said search in several other apps
• 3:00
  seemed built mainly to find a show by name.
• 3:03
  So make yours easy to find by name, they advised.
• 3:06
  That test is five years old.
• 3:09
  But a hosting company's own test last year found
• 3:11
  descriptions made little difference on Apple too.
• 3:14
  Apple doesn't publish how much each part counts.
• 3:17
  Some guides tell you to put your search words in the description.
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  That works on Spotify.
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  On Apple, it may do little.
• 3:24
  What about the web?
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  Here's our reasoning.
• 3:27
  A show's name works as a search term there too.
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  Hosting and directory sites already carry a
• 3:33
  lot of weight with search engines like Google.
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  So a name built on the term lets their pages rank for you.
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  In a way, you borrow their authority.
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  A show we produced was named for its search term.
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  Within days it was on Google's first page for that term,
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  through its host's page and the big directories.
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  That's one show.
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  And it doesn't prove the name did it.
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  So put the words a stranger would type in the name,
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  and let your episode titles carry the rest.
• 4:01
  The description still helps on Spotify and the web.
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  Choosing topics and episode titles people search for gets its own episode.
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  Third: if your company isn't at the front of the name, where does it go?
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  Two places: your producer credit and your show's author field.
• 4:18
  You heard that credit at the top of this episode.
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  The name first, then who produces it.
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  Why not lead with the brand?
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  Picture The Acme Podcast, then a colon and a description.
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  That spends words a searcher won't type.
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  Apple's guide for podcasters says the author field
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  most often holds the company or network behind a show.
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  If there isn't one, it holds the host.
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  Make two or more shows?
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  Apple lets you group them in a channel, which can carry your brand.
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  Apple's search reads a channel's name too.
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  Here's a made-up case.
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  Say you run a dental practice.
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  Your show is for people weighing dental implants.
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  The name might be Dental Implant Answers.
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  Your company's name goes in the author field,
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  and the open says the show is produced by you.
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  Fourth: what about a few keywords after the name?
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  Podcasting teacher Daniel J.
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  Lewis says a title should be only the title.
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  Not a tagline, and not a list of keywords.
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  And he's taught a whole course on podcast search.
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  He makes an exception for a short line expanding the title.
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  He says Apple kicked out his own show in 2018,
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  mostly over extra words in its author field.
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  So who says taglines help?
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  A rank-tracking company.
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  It studied more than three hundred thousand
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  English shows on a single day earlier this year.
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  Shows with a tagline in both their name and
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  author fields ranked for far more keywords.
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  Its own write-up calls that correlation, not causation.
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  Apple's rules also say a show's details must describe
• 5:52
  it accurately, not sway search with inaccurate terms.
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  Its guide for podcasters warns that a long keyword list may get a show removed.
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  And a keyword-stuffed name might win a listener for
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  one episode, one of the 2021 test's authors wrote.
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  But that's not how you keep them.
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  The show still has to be valuable and accurate.
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  It also has to be true to your business.
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  So no keyword lists, in the title or the author field.
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  Last, how do you know the name is really yours?
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  Start with three free checks.
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  One: is it taken?
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  Search the name in the podcast apps.
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  Then as a web address and a social handle.
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  Everyday phrases are crowded.
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  Apple's search tool also listed nine shows named exactly Real Talk.
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  Two: say it to someone once.
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  Can they spell it and find it?
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  That's one hosting company's say-spell-search test.
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  Spotify adds that a show should generally be spelled as it sounds.
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  Three: ask a stranger what the show is about, from the name alone.
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  If they're confused, consider a different name.
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  Then one more question, if you want to own the name.
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  The Podnews editor from earlier registered his own show's name as a trademark.
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  The US trademark office calls descriptive names weak
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  trademarks, hard to protect against competitors.
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  A name made only of the search phrase is likely one of those.
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  That's a reading of general guidance, not legal advice.
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  The office registers such names only in certain cases,
• 7:22
  such as after many years of use.
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  So if owning it matters, add something distinctive.
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  A made-up word is easier to protect.
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  And your own name?
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  It won't make a plain title easier to protect.
• 7:35
  Here's how it fits together.
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  If strangers have to find it, name it for the term they search.
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  And put your company in the credit, not the title.
• 7:45
  Episode titles take the search words that don't fit.
• 7:48
  If they'll mostly hear about it from someone first, something distinctive is fine.
• 7:53
  Either way, skip the keyword lists.
• 7:55
  And check that no other show has it.
• 7:58
  Here's one thing to try this week.
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  Say your best candidate to someone who doesn't know the show.
• 8:03
  Ask what they think it's about.
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  Then watch them search for it.
• 8:07
  What Apple's search reads in a podcast name, and what it skips,
• 8:11
  is free to download with the written version.
• 8:14
  And that's it for today's question.
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  Thanks for listening.
• 8:17
  The written version is on workhacker.com, with every source.
• 8:21
  And if you want a podcast like this for your business, WorkHacker makes them.
• 8:25
  See you next time.