How to Grow a Podcast in 2026, Why Discoverability Beats Marketing

How to grow a podcast in 2026 isn’t about posting everywhere or marketing harder. It’s about podcast discoverability, building a show that platforms can understand and listeners can find through search.

In this solo episode of As It Relates to Podcasting, Simona Costantini explains why discoverability beats marketing in 2026, and how to grow a podcast organically by improving the parts most creators ignore: podcast titles for search, the first two lines of your episode description, consistent topic signals, and a simple SEO approach that helps Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube categorize your content correctly.

If your podcast isn’t growing, this episode will help you diagnose the real issue. You’ll learn how to stop publishing episodes that disappear, how to write searchable episode titles (not “Episode 5 with Dan”), how to choose one main keyword per episode, and how to structure episodes to increase retention, because listen time and watch time fuel discoverability.

Inside this episode:

How to grow a podcast in 2026 without posting everywhereWhy podcast discoverability beats podcast marketingPodcast SEO basics, one main keyword per episodePodcast titles for search (clear, specific, outcome-led)Episode descriptions that pass the skim test (first two lines framework)Consistency signals that build algorithm trustWhy multi-topic episodes dilute your search signalStructure + retention, how to increase listen time for growthHow to grow a podcast organically with long-tail search traffic

Resources:

Podcast Success Vault Membership: https://www.voltproductions.co/podcast-success-vault-membership

Learn about:

00:00 Why “post your podcast everywhere” is failing in 202601:20 The shift creators don’t want to admit about growth03:00 Titles that get found (and the titles that disappear)05:10 Description skim test, the first two lines framework06:40 Consistency as an algorithm signal08:00 One keyword per episode (stop diluting the signal)10:10 Structure + retention, why attention drives discoverability11:40 Marketing as amplification (not a rescue mission)13:10 Long-tail listens, search working while you sleep14:10 Closing, build discoverability first

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