Podcast Schema

Podcast Schema

The Podcast schema is an excellent tool for websites looking to organize information about podcasts, ensuring they’re effectively indexed by search engines. This schema structure helps podcasts stand out in search results by providing essential details to search engines. Similar to schemas for other types of media such as music, movies, or books, implementing a Podcast schema involves sharing key information about your podcast episodes. By incorporating a Podcast schema, you’re not only enhancing how your podcast appears in search results but also offering potential listeners a quick overview of what each episode entails.

For podcast episode listings, the Podcast schema includes both mandatory and recommended fields:

Mandatory Fields:

name: The title of the podcast episode.

creator: The creator of the podcast. 

Recommended Fields:

datePublished: The release date of the podcast episode.

description: A concise summary of the podcast episode.

genre: The genre or category of the podcast episode.

image: Images associated with the podcast episode, such as cover art.

contributor: Individuals who contributed to the podcast episode.

duration: The duration of the podcast episode.

audio: The URL or link to the audio file of the podcast episode.

transcript: A link to the transcript of the podcast episode.

Including these mandatory fields ensures your podcast episodes are properly identified, while incorporating recommended fields enriches the user experience by providing more comprehensive details about each episode. This detailed schema setup can significantly improve the visibility of your podcast episodes in search results, making it easier for interested listeners to discover and engage with your podcast content.

Here is an example of Podcast schema looks like:

How to access Podcast schema using Rich Snippets

Access it from METAs – Rich Snippet – Podcast

Clicking on the “+” symbol will open up a panel where you can start editing and customizing your Schema Template.

A pop-up will appear

Add your data, a question and its answer.
Mandatory fields will have small red starlike symbol (*) added to them:

Headline:serves as a concise and compelling summary of the podcast episode’s content, aiming to grab potential listeners’ attention and give them a quick insight into what the episode is about, should be around 50-60 characters

Description: a more detailed overview of the episode, elaborating on topics, guests, and key points discussed, with the optimal length of 150-250 words.

Event type: indicates if it’s an interview, a panel discussion, a narrative story, educational content, etc. 

Event status: typically indicates the current state of an episode within its lifecycle, such as whether it’s upcoming, live, or has already occurred, should be a maximum of 20 words. 

Event Attendance Mode: refers to how the audience can participate in or access the event, delineating between in-person, online (virtual), or a hybrid of both formats.

Publishing date – should select the publishing date, respecting the YYYY/MM/DD format 

Episode duration: add this respecting the ISO 8601 duration format. Example: PT37M.

Episode URL: imported automatically by Squirrly SEO, represents the link for the podcast, it can also be added manually

Episode image URL: a specific image associated with an individual podcast episode
A resolution of at least 1400×1400 pixels is recommended for compatibility with most platforms, going up to 3000×3000 pixels for optimal clarity across devices.
Example: https://yourpodcasthosting.com/images/episode12.png

Is episode family friendly? – simply check Yes or No depending on the content you have

Audio File URL: recommended is .mp3

Season number: helps listeners navigate episodes more easily, especially for series that focus on different themes or formats from one season to the next.

Season name: represents a summary or overview of the podcast’s theme or focus.

Season URL: the specific URL for the season, from where the viewers can access each episode/podcast

Episode number: number of the episode with a brief description/name, where your audience can click and select what they desire to see.

Make sure to click on Save

With this you have a Podcast schema set up. All there is left to do is check it up and see if it works as expected. This is easier than you imagine, and Squirrly will help with the steps.

Verify Markup

After saving your changes, you can verify that the Software schema markup has been added correctly by viewing the page or post source code. Look for the JSON-LD markup representing the Software schema.

1. Click on JSON-LD Code – Validate JSON-LD

2. A new page / tab will open you will get you test code, click on TEST CODE

3. A small pop-up appears, and you will have to wait a few moments for the data to be processed
4. Once data is processed, you will be able to see your work, test it, share it and use it to enhance your work.

For further details, we recommend referring to the following resources

PodcastEpisode

The Squirrly SEO Patterns List