A veteran SEO’s confession about the marketing channel we’ve been sleeping on
I’ve been doing SEO since 2007. I’ve seen every algorithm update, survived every “SEO is dead” prediction, and watched countless tactics rise and fall like digital fashion trends. But I’m about to share something that might surprise you: the most powerful SEO strategy isn’t what you think it is.
It’s not technical optimization. It’s not link building. It’s not even content marketing in the traditional sense.
It’s podcasting.
And before you roll your eyes and think “another guru pushing podcasts,” hear me out. This revelation came from analyzing actual data from my own clients and having brutally honest conversations with industry veterans who’ve cracked the code on sustainable growth.
The Numbers That Changed My Mind
Let me start with a stat that made me completely rethink content strategy: A single 30-minute podcast episode generates between 30,000 to 40,000 words of natural, expert conversation.
Think about that for a second. That’s equivalent to reading a novella, except it’s happening organically between subject matter experts who are naturally discussing:
Industry jargon that your audience actually searches for
Pain points that never appear in SEMrush or Ahrefs
Real objections and language patterns that are pure gold for content strategy
Problems and solutions that emerge naturally through conversation
As the host of the Unscripted SEO podcast, I’ve recorded over 100 episodes, and each one has been an accidental masterclass in keyword research that no tool could replicate.
The Real-World Case Study That Opened My Eyes
I’m currently working with a company called Metaflex Glove. They make specialized gloves that help with arthritis and grip strength. When they partnered with the WNBA for a campaign, something fascinating happened that I could track in real-time through Google Search Console.
Their brand searches exploded.
But here’s what most marketers miss: when you invest in podcasts, real-world events, or cross-marketing initiatives, those brand search increases don’t just benefit one channel. They create a rising tide effect that lifts everything:
✓ Website rankings improve across the board
✓ Amazon listings get more organic visibility
✓ Social media gains algorithmic favor
✓ Paid campaigns become more efficient due to brand recognition
✓ Email open rates increase with familiar sender names
Shane Barker from Tracefuse confirmed what I’ve been observing: “Amazon used to not like outside traffic. Back in the day, they weren’t a big fan of that. Obviously they’ve opened up to it now because it’s like, why would I not? Why would you not? Let somebody go search something and then Amazon pops up. Like, that’s great for Amazon.”
The lesson here is simple but profound: own your brand awareness strategy because that rising tide lifts all boats.
The Interview That Changed Everything
My perspective on this completely shifted during a conversation with Katie Wagner, president and CEO of KWSM digital marketing agency. Katie spent 15 years as a television anchor and journalist, including time at CNN, before starting her agency in 2010.
Her background gives her a unique lens on digital marketing that most of us miss. She told me something that hit like a lightning bolt:
“These days every brand has to be a content creator and they have to be journalists of their own brand and putting out their own stuff or else they’re going to get lost in the sea of content out there either from brands that are already doing it or from people that are using AI to create just volume.”
But here’s where it gets really interesting. Katie’s team doesn’t just create content—they’ve built what she calls a “holistic surrounding approach.” When a client does a 90-second TV spot, they:
- Extract three different social media reels
- Publish a detailed blog post about the experience
- Include insights in their newsletter
- Use clips strategically across different funnel stages
- Create follow-up content based on audience response
One piece of earned media becomes weeks of marketing assets.
This isn’t just repurposing—it’s strategic content multiplication that amplifies every investment exponentially. As content marketing experts predict for 2025, brands that create authentic, authority-building content addressing real user needs will have a significant advantage in an AI-dominated landscape.
The Business Intelligence Gold Mine
Here’s something most people don’t realize about podcasting: it’s sophisticated business intelligence disguised as content creation.
If you’re B2B and you start getting your ideal customers as guests, you’re essentially conducting market research that agencies charge $50,000+ for. You’re asking them directly about:
- Their biggest pain points
- How they make purchasing decisions
- What criteria they use to evaluate vendors
- What objections they have to solutions like yours
- What language they actually use when discussing problems
You’re creating valuable content while conducting the most authentic market research possible. Your guests become part of your extended network, and their audiences get exposed to your expertise in the most natural way possible.
I experienced this firsthand when I interviewed Keith Breseé about his people-first framework. We explored how genuine relationships drive better SEO outcomes than traditional link-building tactics, and that conversation generated more qualified leads for both of us than months of traditional outreach.
The Trust Transfer Mechanism
Katie introduced me to a concept she calls “near-bound marketing”—marketing through strategic partners to reach audiences that already trust those partners.
Think about the psychology: when your customer talks to their network about how much you’ve helped them, you’re getting warm introductions to people who already trust the referrer. It’s infinitely more effective than cold outreach.
This is why podcast appearances are so valuable. The host’s audience already trusts them, so when you appear as a guest, some of that trust transfers to you. It’s a much warmer lead than someone randomly finding your website through search.
This trust transfer concept was beautifully illustrated in my conversation with Mordy Oberstein about the intersection of brand and SEO, where we discussed how brand authority compounds across different channels.
The Journalism Advantage
Katie’s journalism background revealed another goldmine most marketers completely ignore. She knows that journalists are constantly looking for content, and if you make their job easier by providing relevant expertise and fresh angles, they’ll feature your clients.
Her strategy is brilliant in its simplicity: when topical news breaks, she sends a “press digest” offering client expertise as commentary.
“If you make it easier for them, that is a welcome thing,” she explains. “They have to create a lot of content throughout the day and the week.”
The result? Media mentions, credibility transfers, and authoritative backlinks that money simply can’t buy.
As Jason Barnard shared in our discussion about Brand SERPs, controlling your brand narrative across all touchpoints—including media mentions—directly impacts how search engines understand and rank your authority.
The Technical SEO Connection
Here’s where podcasts get really interesting from a pure SEO perspective. Shane Barker noted something I’ve been tracking:
“I think podcasts, think Reddit posts, we’ve seen a lot of the Reddit stuff is indexing well because obviously they’ve opened that up, Google and Reddit, you know, decided to get along.”
What this means for content creators:
- Podcast transcripts are ranking better than ever
- YouTube is aggressively pushing podcast content in search results
- Voice search queries increasingly pull from podcast content
- Featured snippets often source from podcast transcripts
The latest content marketing trends for 2025 emphasize that YouTube podcasts are gaining significant traction, with more searches yielding podcast results in SERPs.
Your podcast isn’t just building relationships—it’s creating indexable content that search engines understand and serve to users actively looking for expertise in your field.
The Content Hub Strategy
The most successful brands I work with are becoming content hubs—the definitive go-to resource for information in their area of expertise.
Podcasts naturally support this strategy by:
Positioning you as the expert who brings other experts together
Creating a central authority point in your industry
Generating consistent, fresh content that demonstrates deep expertise
Building a searchable library of insights and solutions
Establishing thought leadership through consistent valuable output
As SEO experts predict for 2025, the most successful content strategies will focus on building authority through authentic expertise rather than trying to game algorithms.
The Conversion Quality Revolution
Here’s something Katie shared that fundamentally changed how I think about SEO success:
“I don’t actually care that fewer traffic, less traffic is coming back to the website. I care that more of it converts and that’s, you know, if we can let go of the ego around, you know, I’m getting less click through, I’m getting less traffic to the website. In my business, because we’re lead gen, I don’t really have ego in those numbers as long as a percentage of it is actually turning into customers for my clients.”
This is the mindset shift every SEO needs to make. The game has changed. We’re not optimizing for vanity metrics anymore—we’re optimizing for business outcomes.
Katie’s team tracks every lead source and actually interviews happy customers to understand their buyer’s journey, then reverse-engineers content around those insights. They know exactly how much revenue each marketing initiative generates, not just clicks or impressions.
The Data Behind the Strategy
During our conversation, Katie shared something that made me completely rethink measurement:
“We are talking to our clients about, you know, did that sale convert? You know, was that an ideal client? How much was the value of that client? You know, I can tell you for each of our clients, how much revenue are we generating every month, every year, every, you know, five years, not just how many clicks did we have, how many conversions did we have.”
This is next-level thinking. While most SEOs are still obsessing over rankings and traffic, smart agencies are tracking actual business impact. They’re having weekly calls with sales teams, asking about lead quality, close rates, and customer lifetime value.
The AI Search Evolution
The landscape is shifting rapidly. While everyone’s panicking about AI overviews eating organic traffic, smart marketers are adapting their strategy.
Katie explained her approach: create two types of content. Top-of-funnel educational content designed to appear in AI overviews (not to convert, but to build credibility), and deeper brand journalism pieces designed to convert visitors who click through.
“What we’re trying to do is get mentioned there to show up there because there’s, in my opinion, anecdotal evidence that the more you show up in those overviews, the more your deeper content gets seeded in the first page rankings and you get traffic from the search engine results page.”
The result? Fewer clicks overall, but much higher conversion rates because visitors are more qualified when they do click through.
Leading industry publications recognize this shift. Conductor’s 2025 AI search trends report emphasizes that successful SEO now requires shifting focus from organic traffic volume to conversion quality, achieved through original content with unique perspectives that demonstrate expertise—exactly what podcasts deliver naturally.
Why Most Marketers Are Missing This
While most marketers are chasing the latest technical SEO trends and stressing about algorithm updates, they’re overlooking the most powerful tool for:
✓ Generating better keyword research than any software
✓ Building authentic relationships that drive qualified leads
✓ Creating content multiplication systems that amplify every investment
✓ Establishing unshakeable industry authority
✓ Turning conversations into weeks of marketing assets
✓ Conducting sophisticated market research disguised as content
The Success Stories That Prove the Point
The insights from thought leaders like Neil Patel, who built his nine-figure empire through consistent content creation and relationship building, demonstrate that sustainable SEO success comes from providing genuine value rather than gaming algorithms.
Every guest on my podcast has shared this same theme: the businesses winning in 2025 are the ones building real expertise, authentic relationships, and valuable content that serves humans first—with SEO benefits as the natural byproduct.
The Bottom Line
The search landscape has changed more in the past 12 months than it has since Google’s inception. Technical optimization alone won’t cut it anymore.
Podcasting isn’t just content creation—it’s a strategic business development tool that happens to generate incredible SEO benefits.
In a world where AI is commoditizing basic content and algorithms are prioritizing expertise and authority, podcasts offer something no other medium can: authentic, long-form demonstrations of deep knowledge through natural conversation.
The businesses that understand this shift—and start treating podcasts as essential rather than nice-to-have—will be the ones dominating search results and capturing market share while their competitors are still trying to optimize their way to relevance.
The question isn’t whether you should start a podcast. The question is: can you afford not to?