Your Podcast Won’t Grow If Google Can’t Find It with Jessica Gruber

Growth stalls when great audio stays invisible. We sit down with website and SEO pro Jessica Gruber to map a straightforward path from podcast recording to search discovery, showing exactly how creators can turn episodes into organic traffic, leads, and loyal listeners without drowning in tech.

Jessica traces her path from leading creative at boutique agencies to building a focused web studio, then dives into practical SEO for podcasters. We unpack how to find real keywords in your everyday client questions, validate them with SEMrush or Google Ads Keyword Planner, and group them into topic buckets that guide episode planning. You’ll hear why long-tail phrases beat broad terms for niche shows, how to craft titles and descriptions that hook humans while signalling relevance to search engines, and what to include on your episode pages so Google sees depth and listeners find value.

We also dig into the details most hosts overlook: naming image files and writing alt text so guest searches surface your show, linking related posts to increase time on site, and creating a clean, reusable template for guest bios and credits. On distribution, we make a case for YouTube as a discovery engine, explain how to embed video on your site to compound engagement, and share a simple repurposing flow that turns each interview into a blog, clips, and social teasers with clear calls to action.

By the end, you’ll have a repeatable system: define your audience and buckets, choose intent-rich keywords, publish structured episode pages, and repurpose with purpose. No jargon. No guesswork. Just a practical playbook to make your podcast easier to find and harder to forget.

If this conversation helps, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share it with a friend who needs smarter podcast SEO. Got a guest idea or want help launching? Check the show notes for links and let’s talk.

Connect with Jessica:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-gruber/
Websites:
successchampionnetworking.com (Company)
jessicagruber.co (Personal)
buzzwks.com 

Transcript

Welcome And Show Focus

Carl 0:04

Welcome to Communication Connection Community, the Podcasters Podcast. This podcast takes a deep dive into modern day communication strategies in the podcasting space. We chat with interesting people who make the podcasting and speaking spaces exciting and vibrant. We also dive into the podcasting community with news, updates, latest trends, and topics from this ever-evolving space. Trap in, it's going to be one amazing ride. Let's dive into today's episode.

Meet Jessica And Her Podcast Journey

Carl 0:39

I connected with Jessica quite some time ago, I guess maybe six months or a year ago, through a networking organization. Actually, it's more of a business masterminding group called SCN, which is all across the US and into Canada and slowly merging into other countries too. Fantastic individual. We're so thrilled to be chatting with her today about her experience in the podcasting space. And her story today or her message is going to be very relevant. Podcasters, listen up. Please help me welcome Jessica Gruber. Jessica, welcome to the podcast.

Jessica 1:10

Thanks for having me, Carl. Glad to be here.

Carl 1:13

I'm so glad that we could finally do this. I know we talked about this when we first had our very first conversation, I think we had. I'm going to say it's about uh six or eight months ago, something like that. We talked about that be on the podcast because what you do is very important. We'll be talking about SEO, how it plays a very crucial role in the podcasting space. But before I do that, of the backstory of what led you into the podcasting space, what brought you here?

Jessica 1:38

Well, honestly, it was Success Champions. Everyone was jumping on podcasts and we're like, hey, let's jump on some podcasts. I did run my podcast probably about four or five months, and I decided that wasn't my gig. I'd rather guest on podcast versus actually do it just because of the time and the production, finding the guests and all that stuff, which is what you specialize in, Carl.

Carl 1:58

It's totally what I specialize in. And when you're ready, when you're ready to do your podcast again, don't hesitate to reach out. But yeah, for sure. I always say that there's a great opportunity for people who are even looking at guesting on shows because it's an opportunity to have your voice be heard, to get your expertise, to share your message, whatever it is, your passion project. And a podcast is just an amazing platform to allow you to do that and be successful regardless of what door you're coming in from, whether it's the, you know, as a guest or as a host or even both. There's so many great opportunities there. When was that birthing into the podcasting space? Was it a couple years ago?

Jessica 2:36

Yeah, it was probably about two years ago. I think my first time, it was on a podcast by Sean Murphy over in New York. And he just have random, cool people come on, talk about what they do, what they're passionate about. I came on and talked, spoke about websites. And so that was kind of my dive into the podcast world and getting into being interviewed. The funny thing is, it helps you tell your story better and makes you clearly state because you're able to go back and listen to it and say, okay, these were the good parts. Let's pull this forward into other content that we put out into the world.

Carl 3:12

And there's different ways you can tell the same story depending on who the audience is and depending on who the host is as well. They might ask you a question that maybe a similar host might ask or another host might ask a similar way, but just slightly different enough to alter your answers that you've taken that step into the space. And I'm glad you're still here as a guest.

Jessica 3:33

You guys haven't scared me off yet.

Carl 3:35

And I'm glad you're here today. Tell me about what you do because I know that's going to be the birthing into the conversation about SEOs. When we talk about web, how did that come to be? What led you to the website world?

Jessica 3:48

Yeah.

From Agencies To Building Websites

Jessica 3:49

So we build websites. And what led me there was I used to work for actual ad agencies throughout the Dallas Fort Worth area. By the end of it, I was a head of the creative department of a small boutique ad agency. And one day I just kind of sat there and I was like, well, if I'm going to do this for all for them, might as well be doing it for myself. Broke off from them. They actually gave me one of my first clients, still in good relations with them and excited that they were a company that said, hey, these are your goals, go get them, kind of thing. But from there, I became a small ad agency where I was doing billboards, ad campaigns, all that kind of stuff. And then we kind of focused down just on specialing websites. One for a personal reason, because I wanted to grow a family. So websites were a process that brought the creative, the marketing, the technical, all aspects of things I'm good at into one space. And I could create a system that could rinse, wash, repeat. When clients come to me, we say it's not necessarily the niche that we work on. It's the process that we take you through to get your brand story out there and to accomplish and convert new clients into customers.

Carl 5:00

So which is ideally what a website should be doing. I mean, obviously not all websites are the same, but the individuals you're working with and business should be thinking this way is that it is about customer conversion or signing up for something, doing something that's going to lead to that next piece. Why is it relevant? So for websites, I get it. Why is it relevant? It's sort of a question I shouldn't have to ask, but but just for the sake of the audience, so we can hear it coming from your mouth. Why is this relevant to podcasters, though? What is it about the podcasting space that makes us think that we should be thinking more about SEO?

Why SEO Matters For Podcasters

Jessica 5:36

If you look at a website, websites are the core digital experiences. I mean, apps came off of websites. You have Facebook, LinkedIn, those are all websites. They're just built up to be an application. SEO is at the core of it. It's always existed. That's why I love websites, because they're here to stay. I know a lot of people will say, oh, websites are dead. Social media is dead. In this day and age, it's an all-encompassing effort in the digital space to lift the website up, to lift your social media up. It all works together. You have to be doing it in this time and age. And podcast comes in because that's a portion that allows us to create content, which creates those conversations, which creates that SEO for us. SEO, as I like to explain it, is just a good conversation filled with the keywords and the conversations you're having with your clients. If you're doing a podcast, you're doing those conversations. They just need to convert into web content pushed onto your website. Now, you can get very strategic in it and do the content strategy, do the keyword research so you know you're hitting those topics that people are wanting to listen to. And there's ways and tools that you can use for that to get to that point as well.

Carl 6:59

Do you find it's one of those areas that is being overlooked by podcasters that they're doing the show, they have a great show. But when it comes to, as you said, those keywords, those, you know, making sure that even the title has enough SEO words in it. Do you find it's a piece that's missing a lot?

Strategy Over Luck: Keywords And Content

Jessica 7:19

Oftentimes I do. I think it's an opportunity that is being missed. I wouldn't say that people are missing not doing it. It's an opportunity that is being missed out on being strategic with your podcast. Because the information is out there on the types of podcasts you need to be uh running. It's just you need to take a moment instead of bringing in a bunch of guests just because you need that influx of guests on your show to keep the show going. What if we strategically look at the content that people are wanting to consume and then gear our guests around that content that is wanting to be consumed?

Carl 8:00

Where does that journey into the strategy begin? Does it begin with the description? Does it begin with the titling? Is it where does it start or where should it start?

Jessica 8:10

I mean, there's many resources. If you're doing it based off what you're specialized in, look the simplest way to do SEO is look at what your clients are asking you. And it's not like the one-off questions, but the consistent questions that you have over time and create a podcast around those questions. That's the easiest way to look at your current conversations because if they're asking you in real life, then they're also asking Google. Someone else is asking Google, how do I solve this problem? Next level is you can use a SEO tool. You can go in there and say, hey, create it's very extensive now. You can say, hey, what are the keywords related around this subject? Figure out your top keywords. Now you have short tell keywords, those are harder to go out after. You have long-term tell keywords, those are easier to go after. The more specific you get in your long tail keywords, the easier it is to get your traction. You won't have as many people searching for those long-tail keywords, but they're being intentional in the keywords that they're searching.

Carl 9:17

Is this something that we're very much in an AI-driven world now? Two years ago, if we were having this conversation, or three years for sure, not saying AI didn't exist, but it certainly didn't exist in the same sense that it does today.

Tools For Keyword Research

Carl 9:31

Are these keywords or these questions that we should be putting into an AI generator, like a chat GPT, to figure out what those keywords are? Other methodologies to do that?

Jessica 9:41

AI, just like everything else in AI, it's not foolproof. So you can say, hey, give me some keywords in this space, but they're not going through the algorithms, they're not collecting the data and making sure that these are the top keywords. So when it comes to keyword research, you really want to be using an SEO tool, um, such as SEM Rush, or you can look at a free one is Google AdWords, sign up for Google AdWords and do some keyword research through there.

Carl 10:15

Is there a methodology to doing it through Google AdWords? How do you figure out? I guess I mean, I'm thinking of myself, I'm a podcaster. I know what my clients might be asking. How do I figure out what my keywords are? Again, thinking that there are a number of podcasters out there who aren't necessarily technical. How do you even know where to begin asking those keywords or figuring out what they are?

Jessica 10:37

I'm going to use you as an example. You do podcast production. That's kind of where it starts. That's your short tell keyword. We do podcast production. Now, is there a specific industry that you focus in? Or what is your top vertical?

Carl 10:51

Okay. So we focus a lot in the agency space. We focus a lot with real estate professionals, anyone who touches real estate. So lenders, lawyers, land developers, investors, but we also work a lot with coaches and consultants. If if I had two categories of people, it means those two.

Jessica 11:08

So that starts extending our keywords. So podcast production for real estate. Or you can just put podcast for

Finding Keywords When You’re Not Technical

Jessica 11:15

real estate. That narrows us down. You then take can take that keyword, put it into SEM Rush, and then it will pull up all the keywords that they're searching. Now, in SEM Rush, it's not exact. Like you can go to a different tool and get varied results. But it gives you an approximate, this is how many people are searching it, this is how competitive the keyword is, and this is how many people are clicking on it. So it gives you the data to back up, hey, do we want to go after this keyword-driven subject to bring it into our podcast?

Carl 11:54

Would I do the same thing then? And is this something I should be doing for every? I mean, for business, yes, this makes sense. Should is this something I should be doing for every individual episode? Because my episodes will change, right? So today I'm talking to you, who's an SEO expert, website expert. Next week it might be a content creator, or it might be somebody who's a storyteller. So would I change the narrative or should I be doing that for every single episode?

Jessica 12:22

I would be looking at kind of buckets. So when we work with websites, we're looking at what buckets can we put you in. And then from that bucket, we can string out those content strategies saying, okay, we're talking about real estate and podcast. What kind of segments can we put under those buckets and pull them out? Those contents, once you get those going, they'll probably expand into another bucket. And that's where the website comes in. That's kind of why they're called a web, is because once you start doing blog articles, content strategy, all of these articles are connected and intertwined to each other to cross-promote each other. And the more time you can get them to stay on your website and click through to the different articles, the higher your ranking in Google will be because you're providing relevant content. They're staying on your website. And therefore, bringing it back to podcast, if you're pulling your podcast, doing the content strategy, bringing it back to the website, posting it on your website correctly, writing the articles correctly, now you're intertwining your podcast, which gets your downloads.

Carl 13:38

Going back to a question that I asked earlier, I think now

Buckets, Long Tail, And Interlinking

Carl 13:42

that I have a little more clarity, and I just want to confirm this for the sake of the listener as well. Should I be making sure then that as I'm creating my description of my overall show? My show is called Communication, Connection, Community. Should I be making sure that in my description, those keywords are there so it, and I'll use the word trigger, so it triggers the SEO?

Jessica 14:03

Is that yes, but it's a balance between marketing and keywords. You don't want to stuff your description with keywords, but you want it to have the few keywords, but hook them in to want to listen.

Carl 14:18

There's a lot of information that we've shared today. And I know that that some of it can seem a little bit daunting or even somewhat technical. I'm not a techie guy, right? So I that's why I pay somebody else to take care of it for me. But if for individuals who are doing their own shows and they're doing all the back-end work themselves, what's a good starting point for them? Is it before they even get to the the point where they're looking at keywords, do they need to be clear of what the what the purpose of their show is, who they're targeting? Is that all relevant in the journey through to creating the right SEO strategy?

Jessica 14:57

Yes, 100%. If you don't have clarity on your audience, you don't have clarity on what your topic or overall umbrella, you don't have clarity on your mission and why you're doing this podcast. It makes that content strategy so much harder to pull together, thinking of shows that fit under and that your audience will want to listen to. Podcasts come back down to the basic marketing of who do you serve? Where are they hanging out? What are they wanting? When do they want it? Are there any seasonal things that you can catch on? And why are you doing this? So it comes back to your basic who, what, when, where, why, all marketing does.

Carl 15:44

Does this apply for guests as well? I mean, you spend a lot of time working as a guest. Does this also apply if you're uh from a guesting perspective and even the shows that you're getting on, if when I'm going with that, is that part of the should you be thinking that way too?

Jessica 16:00

Yes, but there's the caveat. If you're just starting off as a podcast guest, there is some time to be getting used to being that podcast guest. There's some adjustments in being able to tell your story clearly. And so when you start guesting, I do recommend just jumping on as many podcasts as you can to get it clearly stated. And then as you continue

Writing Descriptions Without Keyword Stuffing

Jessica 16:23

on these podcasts, you'll know the ones that you do enjoy, how to insert your business and tell your story in a way that also brings SEO into play. Exactly why I jumped on this show to talk about SEO and websites.

Carl 16:40

What a fit, what a match. It's like this was planned. And the reason why I asked this question, full disclosure, is because ultimately I'm going to have a bio as a guest, right? So I'm going to I need to make sure that my bio, for example, the host will take the bio and throw it into show notes. And I guess that's why I'm asking that question. Do I need to make sure that the tools that I'm providing the host are pre-SEO ready, if that makes sense, is that I've done my due diligence to do that. Does that make sense?

Jessica 17:12

Yes. And so one of the biggest things you can do. So you have your description. We've already kind of talked about the description. What I'm going to go into is your image. A lot of times, people will take their image, give it to the podcast host, but it's not named after them. Okay. If you name it after yourself, someone searches your name, and this goes for podcast hosts that are making covers for their episodes. If you name it

Guesting Smart: Bios, Images, And Alt Tags

Jessica 17:43

and put the image alt tag in it, when you search that person's name, your podcast show will come up as an image when you search their name. SEO it correctly, put your SEO back in. It's another way when they search their name, it's another way to get your podcast show out there in front of people.

Carl 18:06

So I shouldn't just be labeling my picture as Carl One or Carl Two or whatever it is. I should be making sure that it has the correct. Okay. Interesting. See, I'm learning something new here. Things I didn't even know. Any other relevant pieces for podcasters that they should know about SEO while I still have you here?

Jessica 18:32

Get it onto as many platforms. I know podcasters, they sometimes do YouTube. If you're not doing YouTube, you're missing out another opportunity in SEO. Because now we've covered content, we've covered images, and now we content uh cover our video. The top podcasts, when people search my name, if they are on YouTube, those will come up with my name as well. If you're not, if you're only doing audio, see if you can convert it into video so you have that extra opportunity. Most podcasts, the number one platform to be listened on for podcasts is now YouTube.

Carl 19:14

And YouTube being a behemoth of a directory of files, essentially that's what it is. When you boil it down, still very relevant. What if you do only have an audio podcast? Okay, because you can now, YouTube now has a platform where you can upload audio-only podcasts to it. So it's almost like I'm, and we see a lot of audio format, pretty much audio-only formats on YouTube now, anyways, uh, with maybe a photo or a picture of the artwork. Is that still going to trigger the SEO the same way? I guess the messaging is it as long as it's on YouTube, it's still going to behave the same way?

Jessica 19:51

That I am not sure. I will say I do not, that's your specialty. But what I will say from a marketing standpoint, if you have video, people are more likely to watch the video. And then you have audio and visual engaged with them. And now you're putting a face to not just your voice, so you're more rememberable.

Carl 20:12

I didn't mean to throw you a loop, a curveball there. Typically, I don't throw curve balls.

Jessica 20:16

I'm websites, not YouTube.

Carl 20:19

But I just wanted to make sure. Now, what about extending beyond YouTube, though? Is the video still does it still have power beyond YouTube, being on other networks? Because I know there are, I mean, YouTube has its its limitations and its its challenges.

YouTube, Video, And Repurposing

Carl 20:32

Some people aren't even on YouTube, they're exploring other video platforms that rival in some ways YouTube, even though YouTube is still the biggest. Is it still relevant on those other platforms?

Jessica 20:44

Well, I mean, YouTube is part of Google. Google is the behemoth SEO. That will have the most influential in your SEO rankings. There's other things you can do, and you can do these with other video streaming companies, but you can take your YouTube video and you can embed it into the website. So now they have audio, visual, and reading, and you're providing all senses to them and appealing to any type of person that comes to your website.

Carl 21:14

If you have a podcast and you're not on YouTube yet, and again, I'll admit it took me a long time to get to YouTube. Make sure you're leveraging YouTube podcasts, make sure you're setting forth a plan. We are. We're setting forth a plan to move an audio-only podcast to have video components. Those video components, by the way, most podcasts are long form content. YouTube in competition with Instagram and TikTok with shorter form content. Is that what's going to trigger more SEO?

Jessica 21:45

Yeah. I mean, any content you put out, take your podcast interviews, snip them up, use them for shorter content. This day and age, it's all about repurposing your content to get the most out of it. Definitely use your video if you're doing that YouTube. You've taken that step to get your long form content, start breaking up it up into smaller pieces, into social media, having call to actions, driving it back to whatever platform you want them to convert on.

Carl 22:14

Wow, great insights. Jessica, this has been an amazing conversation. Anything you'd like to pass along, what's the best way for folks to get a hold of you after today if they want to find out more or even tap into your services?

Jessica 22:28

Go to my LinkedIn. That's where I'm most active. That's my social media profile that I'm most active on, or you can just visit my website. Of course, I do websites. So go visit my website, get connected and of course you have a website.

Carl 22:42

It would be like an auto mechanic not having a car, right? It just wouldn't make sense. So yes, we'll make sure that the links are in the show notes for folks to check out there. Before I let you go though, to make some other podcasts or websites SEO friendly, shall we say? I'll give you the final thought.

Jessica 23:00

There are many platforms out there. We can talk about them all day long. But find what works with you. Go all in on it. If it's not a website, it's not a website. I've seen many businesses thrive with just social media. I've seen many businesses where I come in and work with them and they have no digital media presence. Do what works for you, do what works to grow your business and get after it.

Carl 23:26

I love it. Jessica, that's a great way to leave it. Jessica Gruber, thank you so much for being my guest today.

Jessica 23:32

Thank you for having me, Carl. It is a great show.

Carl 23:35

And hey, thank you for being a part of the show today. So glad you could join us. Believe it or not, I can't work this magic by myself. So thanks to my amazing team, our audio engineer Dom Carillo, our sonic branding genius Kenton Dobrowolski, and the person who works the arms, all of our arms actually, our project manager and my trusty assistant Julovell Tiongco, known to us here simply as July. If you like what you heard today, let us know. You can leave us a comment or review or even send us a voice note. And if you really liked it, we hope you'll

Short Clips, CTAs, And Conversion

Carl 24:06

share it with your friends and your colleagues. If you don't like what you heard today, well, please feel free to share it with your enemies. And if you know of someone who would make a great guest on the show, let us know about it. You can get in touch with us by going to our show notes where all of our connection points are there, including the links to our website, LinkedIn, and Facebook as well. And if you're ready to be a guest on podcasts, or even start your own show, let's have a conversation. We'll show you the simplest way to get into the podcasting space and rock it. Because, after all, we're Podcast Solutions Made Simple. Catch you again next time.