Here's when to not use episode numbers with your podcast.
Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
Following up from my previous episode number 420 about when to
use episode numbers with your podcast, here are 5 times and
places to not use episode numbers.
Before you listen to this episode, please make sure that you've
already listened to my previous episode number 420 because that
lays a lot of the foundation that I'll be building on for this
episode.
So in the previous episode, I told you when to use episode
numbers. This 1 is when to not use them.
And you can follow along in the notes for this episode, a simple
tap or swipe away, or look at the chapters for this episode.
And here we go.
Number 1, don't use episode numbers when they would not matter to
your audience. This should be the obvious thing.
When episode numbers do matter to your audience, do use episode
numbers and use those episode numbers prominently because they
matter to your audience.
That's so much of what I covered in my previous episode where I
talked about using episode numbers for serial podcasts if
frequently referencing other episodes for file and folder
organization and when you can't come up with a better episode
URL.
Go back and listen to episode 420 for more information about each
of those.
But if your episode numbers don't actually matter to your
audience, so your podcast is not a serial podcast, it's not
intended to be consumed in a particular order, or you're not
frequently referencing other episodes, then you probably don't
need episode numbers because your audience probably doesn't need
them in those cases. So then don't use them.
Or if you do use them, if you really, really want to use episode
numbers in your titles when your audience doesn't actually need
them, then use those episode numbers at the end of your titles.
But if your audience does need them, use them front loaded in
your titles.
But for most podcasts out there, I think episode numbers really
don't matter to the audience.
So if they don't matter, they shouldn't matter to you either.
Don't use them in your titles.
Number 2, avoid episode numbers when they conflict with your
episode titles or else reword your titles. Consider this.
If you start a lot of your episodes with a number, and whenever
you're using a number inside your episode titles, I do recommend
you use the numeral instead of spelling out the number, like, use
the number 5 instead of f I v e because the number is a lot
easier to see.
And numbers in titles can be very good things, like 5 best cream
sodas, or 10 steps to success, or 3 ways to bake a cake.
Those can be really good titles.
It's 1 of the really effective ways to title blog posts,
articles, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, and much more.
So that is a good format to follow.
But if you use episode numbers and you're displaying them
prominently in your titles because those episode numbers matter
to your audience, and that's the only time you should be
displaying them prominently in your episode titles, then you run
into a conflict.
Because then you've got 2 numbers right next to each other that
mean completely different things.
So take that example of 5 best cream sodas, and maybe it's
episode 20. So then it looks like it says 20.5 best cream sodas.
So is this a half episode?
Are you talking about 20 and a half best cream sodas, or is it
something else?
A title like that makes your audience have to think and read it
again.
And that's not a good thing to make your audience have to reread
the title multiple times in order to understand what the title is
actually saying.
When you're faced with a situation like that, and especially if
you're doing that kind of title many times, then you might not
want to use episode numbers after all or consider rewording your
title.
So instead of 5 best cream sodas, you could take that word best
and move that to the beginning of the title.
So instead of 5 best cream sodas, it's best 5 cream sodas or top
5 cream sodas.
That's a way that you can put a word in front of the number
that's in your title.
Then when you add the episode number in front of that, it will be
easier to see.
So then it would be 20 period space best 5 cream sodas instead of
20.5 best cream sodas.
It makes the title a lot more clear, easier to understand, and
yet it's still a good title.
But you should avoid putting those numbers next to each other
when they start to conflict and maybe confuse your audience.
Even if you do different things like using the word episode,
which I don't recommend in your episode titles, or if you use a
pound sign or a hyphen or a colon or any of those punctuations to
try and separate the episode number from the rest of the title, I
still think you're going to run into visual confusion and
conflict when you're combining multiple numbers in the same small
space.
So avoid those episode numbers when they might conflict with your
episode titles or else reword your titles.
Number 3, don't use the episode's own number within that episode.
This takes some strategy and some careful planning, but then
again, also saves you from having to overthink certain things.
Because when you're inside the episode, speaking the episode, if
you say that episode's own number, then you've locked that
episode to that episode number.
What happens if you're prerecording several episodes in advance
and then you decide you want to reorder the episodes?
Well, you've already spoken the episode number within those
episodes, so now it's going to be strange if those episodes are
not in that order that you've spoken the number in the episodes
or the text that's in the metadata and the title of the episode
starts to conflict with what's in the episode itself, further
confusing your audience.
If they see the title says episode 100, but they hear you saying
welcome to episode 105, then they'll be confused, and it might be
a little bit embarrassing for you because then your audience
thinks, ew, they didn't plan this very well, or maybe they made a
mistake when they recorded this or titled their episode.
Is this really episode 105, or is this episode 100?
I don't know anymore.
See, again, you're making your audience have to think about it
when they shouldn't have to, or you're outright confusing your
audience.
So if you can, don't say the episode's own number within the
episode.
This is 1 of the reasons why I recommend using something else
other than the episode number for the URL of that episode.
Like, I covered this in my previous episode number 420, where I
said come up with something else, but if you really can't come up
with a better URL, go ahead and use the episode number.
But if you speak that episode number in the episode, even if
you're saying, like, for this episode, I do know that this will
be episode 421. But what if I didn't?
And I said, you can get the notes at the
audacitytopodcast.com/420one, then I've locked this episode to
that number even if nowhere else in the episode do I say the
number.
And it can get confusing when the URL that you're speaking
doesn't match the actual episode number that you have used in the
metadata for the episode.
So don't use your episode numbers in those cases, and don't use
it in any way that you are speaking in the episode because that
locks you to that episode number.
And this can come up too even if you don't expect to change the
order of your episodes.
What if you suddenly decide, oh, there's some late breaking
information and I need to squeeze that in?
Then do you start thinking about, like, should it be a half
number episode, like 20.5 or 1 of those weird things, or should
you call it a bonus episode or a special episode?
It starts to get weird because you've locked yourself into
certain episode numbers.
But if you didn't speak the episode numbers within those
episodes, simply rename the files, change the metadata
information about the episodes, and publish them when they're
supposed to be published, and your audience won't know that you
had squeeze in or reorder your episodes or anything like that
because you never spoke those numbers for that episode within its
own audio.
But it's fine to speak the episode numbers for other episodes.
Like, I've said multiple times, go back and listen to episode 420
because that episode is already published.
So its episode number is not going to change.
Therefore, I can refer to it with absolute knowledge that it will
always be numbered as 420, and you can go back to it at any point
in the future and find episode 420, and it will be the same
episode because it's a past episode.
But for this current episode, what if I wanted to sneak something
else in? What if I was prerecording this and change the order?
That's why you should not use episode numbers within that
episode's own audio.
Number 4, don't use the episode numbers in the website, social,
or SEO titles. The website think of it this way.
When you're on the website looking at an episode, if you want to
jump to another episode from there, you simply click the link.
You don't have to go searching for episode number whatever.
You just simply click the link.
And if your audience wants to get the notes from your episode
that you're currently giving your audience, they shouldn't have
to go searching for an episode number because whatever URL you've
spoken in the episode should take them straight to that episode
on your website.
And make sure, by the way, if you ever change website platforms
or domains or anything like that, make sure any URL you've spoken
that is your own URL, make sure that always works for forever and
ever.
As long as your podcast is online, make sure any of your own URLs
that you've spoken still continue to work.
That way your audience can jump straight to that web page for
your episode, and from there, they can click on anything else.
They should not have to search your website for whatever episode
they're currently listening to to get the notes for that episode.
It should be really easy to get those notes.
And a side note, a special way that you can make this easier also
that's compatible with many podcast apps is to ensure that
whatever is creating your podcast RSS feed, that you set the
permalink for that episode to be that episode's web page.
That way, in some podcast apps like even Apple Podcast, you can
click on a link or tap on the link that says episode web page,
and it takes you to that web page even if you've never spoken the
URL for that web page within the episode.
But I do recommend that you speak it because if someone's
listening a year from now, how are they going to find that
episode?
Or if you've given them an episode number, then you are forcing
them to try to search through your site.
And if your numbers are not obvious on your website, then it's
becoming difficult.
But if you put the numbers on your website, then people who view
your website see those episode numbers and they don't need to.
It's that weird kind of circular thing.
I know it sounds kinda circular.
It just clutters things on your website when you really don't
need those episode numbers.
And especially on social networks, probably no 1 cares on social
networks when you're publishing your new episode that it's number
67 or I mean, these days, yeah, 6 7, someone would probably care
about that.
But they probably don't really care what the number actually is.
They just want a title.
They want some compelling information for why they should listen
to this episode, and the episode number is not compelling
information.
And definitely, even if you want to put your episode number in
the title that displays on the web page when someone is on your
site, like the post title in WordPress, definitely do not let
that episode number go out into your SEO title.
This is sometimes an additional title field that you have control
over.
Like in WordPress, you might use the all in 1 SEO plugin, which
is what I recommend, or you might use the Yoast SEO plugin or
some other plugin that gives you more control over the search
engine optimization, that's what SEO stands for, of your website.
And 1 of the ways it does this is giving you more control over
the SEO title.
That is the title that displays when your page shows up in search
results.
It's also usually the default title that gets shared out onto
social networks. So that's why I said the social title.
Some other tools will let you set specific titles for social
networks, like social warfare is a plugin that I've used for
years on my WordPress websites, and it allows me to set what the
open graph title is.
And that's the title that would embed in places like x and
LinkedIn and Facebook and some other social networks when that
episode URL is shared out, then it would automatically embed this
little preview of the page.
And that social title should not have an episode number in it
because when the episode is shared out onto social networks or it
shows up in search engine results, the number does not matter at
all. It's totally wasting space there.
I know some people will say that episode numbers waste space
inside podcast apps.
And I got some good feedback on my previous episode where even
some people were saying, initially, I was thinking, no.
Never display the episode number because it's just wasting space.
But then they heard some of the reasoning behind that and why
I've changed my own mind.
And some of my listeners have said, yeah.
That actually changed my mind too, and that does make sense.
Still don't like to see it, but that does make sense what you're
saying, and that does seem like a good use for it.
Well, you're concerned about wasting characters inside the
podcast app, but that number is very helpful inside the podcast
app, but it's not helpful on your website, on social networks, or
in search engine results.
And so make sure your episode number does not display in those
places.
And then number 5, don't use episode numbers in the iTunes title
tag. This is a very specific tag inside your RSS feed.
And you can learn more about how to properly display episode
numbers with your titles and take advantage of the proper RSS
tags in my previous episode number 359.
It's linked in the chapter right now, or you can look at the
notes for this episode to find the link to episode 3 59 or just
scroll back and find episode 359.
But if you use the iTunes title tag and you have separate control
over that from your normal title as it appears in your RSS feed,
and that's the way it should be that those 2 titles are different
from each other. Do not put the episode number in there.
Even if episode numbers are important to your podcast, they
should never be in the iTunes title tag.
Apple has been very clear about that.
The whole point of that tag is to give a clean title that does
not have the name of your podcast.
It does not have the episode number.
It does not have the season number.
It does not have any other metadata in it.
It has only the title, and there's a separate iTunes colon
episode tag, and that's where the episode number should go.
But your normal title tag that's just title in the RSS feed can
have an episode number in it, And you should be using a
publishing tool that lets you populate these 2 differently or
does it for you automatically.
And unfortunately, some of the podcast publishing tools from
providers that I highly respect and normally recommend, sometimes
they don't do this the smart way.
They'll either give you multiple title fields to fill out without
really explaining why you would want 1 or the other, or they are
copying the exact same title from 1 field to the other.
Therefore, you're either breaking the rules by putting an episode
number in the iTunes title field, or you're missing out on
backwards and cross compatibility by not having an episode number
in the normal title field.
And that's if the episode number is important to your audience.
If it is, it needs to be in that normal title tag, but it should
not be in the iTunes title tag. That is only for the title.
The normal title tag can be fine to include an episode number in
it and even season number and some of the other stuff that
sometimes people put in their titles.
But the iTunes colon title tag should be only the title.
No episodes in it.
Go back to my episode 359 to learn a lot more detail about how to
display episode numbers and some different ideas of ways you can
display some episode numbers in your podcast episodes.
Just keep in mind that my recommendation for when and when to not
use episode numbers has changed since that episode.
And that's what this episode and my previous episode are all
about.
When to use episode numbers and when to not use episode numbers.
A little bit of follow-up from my previous episode, I mentioned
the feedback that I got from some people who were initially in
disagreement with my recommendations, but then started to come
around as they started to think about how they use podcast apps
and that whole idea of keeping the audience inside the podcast
app and not making them have to leave the app to get the episode
that they want.
I think that's the big selling point here of using episode
numbers is keeping your audience in the podcast app.
But I discovered some frustrations along the way with this.
Not only the frustration of how some podcast publishing tools
don't properly handle the separate titles, so they either force
you to break Apple's rules or they force you to not have episode
numbers in all of the podcast apps that don't support the iTunes
episode tag, which is specifically for episode numbers.
And by the way, that's most of the podcast apps that don't
support that field.
On top of that, Overcast appears, and I don't have complete final
confirmation of this yet, and this could change in the future.
But Overcast appears to actually remove the episode numbers from
the title even though I don't think the Overcast app is using the
iTunes title tag for its episode titles.
And it's certainly, at least not right now, using the episode
number tag to display episode numbers.
So in Overcast, if you want episode numbers to display, you'll
have to type them in a different kind of way because Overcast is
an opinionated app.
That means that the developer, Marco, has some definite opinions
of how the app should function and what the experience should be.
And 1 of his opinions or it seems at least this is his opinion,
the episode numbers are never relevant, and therefore, they
should never be shown.
And it appears then that Overcast is removing those episode
numbers.
It could be that it's using the iTunes title field, but then it's
not using the iTunes episode field to display the episode
numbers.
So either way, at least at the time of this recording, the
overcast version that I have does not display the episode numbers
at all no matter where you put those episode numbers.
Before I go, special thanks, huge special thanks to Stevie Taylor
who sent $30. He's the host of the Gig Life Podcast.
And he said, hey, Daniel. Thank you for all you do, sir.
Well, thank you, Stevie, for sending that very kind support to
The Audacity to Podcast.
And that's Stevie saying that he values The Audacity to Podcast
$30. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for that generosity.
And also, $20 from Randy Black, host of Shooting It Straight
Podcast.
And he said, a small amount of support for a friend and
podcasting legend who gives so much to the space with little
given back in turn. Keep up the good work, Daniel.
Thank you so much, Randy. That really means a lot to me.
And 696 Satoshis streamed from Brian Insmeter, the podcast
producer at toptieraudio.com where you can hire him to produce
your podcast for you.
I've got the links for all 3 of these gentlemen's websites in the
notes for this episode.
And if you value The Audacity to Podcast like these other
gentlemen have, maybe more than that, maybe less than that, it's
really up to you. What is The Audacity to Podcast worth to you?
Would you consider giving some of that value back?
You can do that through the audacitytopodcast.com/giveback.
And now that I've given you some of the guts to use or not to use
podcast episode numbers, I'm sure that's probably what
Shakespeare would have said if he was a podcast consultant, and
I've taught you some of the tools.
It's time for you to go start and grow your own podcast for
passion and profit. I'm Daniel J.
Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.
Send me your podcasting questions at podcast feedback dot com
slash audacity, and thanks for listening.