Tweak #25: Make sure your podcast is in the right category
You don't have to compete in the Olympics if you're not an Olympian.
If you want to win a gold medal at the Olympics, it’s important to choose the right event—archery and sailing will increase your chances, track and swimming will make it close to impossible. If you want to land in the top 100 podcasts in your category, the same principle holds: some are much more competitive than others.
Of course, if you’re a lifelong swimmer, you probably have a better chance at swimming than you do at archery. This also applies to podcasts: just because the fiction category is less crowded doesn’t mean you should categorize your sports podcast as such.
Categories serve both of these purposes: they serve up your podcast to a listener who’s browsing for a favorite topic, and they put you in competition with every other podcast in that category. You need to weigh each of these elements when choosing your podcast’s category.
Tip 1: Be accurate, but don’t be afraid to get creative
For a lot of shows, the category is going to seem obvious. If you’ve got a true crime show, true crime is the category to go with. But for a less cut-and-dry podcast, like, say Famous and Gravy, which rates recently deceased celebrities on a series of categories to decide whether the hosts would have wanted that celebrity’s life.
There are a lot of categories this could fit into. The show’s main category is currently TV & Film, which makes sense as most of the celebrities they talk about are actors. But I might also consider this to be a Society & Culture show, since it heavily focuses on the cultural context of these celebrities—and maybe even Society & Culture: Philosophy, since at the root of this show is the question “How do you live a good life?”
Don’t feel pigeonholed into one category—stretch out and imagine what other labels might apply to your show.
However, Famous & Gravy chose correctly. Because they…
Tip 2: Pay attention to category saturation
Society & Culture is one of the most crowded categories on Apple Podcasts—according to the Podcast Index, there were 15,000 active shows in that category in 2022. TV & Film, however, had only 6,600 active shows.
I happen to know that Famous and Gravy made this calculation strategically, and I think you should make your own strategic calculations. Know how competitive your current category is, and think about other less competitive categories your show might fit into.
Tip 3: Use your secondary categories
Luckily, you don’t have to choose one category and abandon all the others. Apple Podcasts (and Spotify) allow you secondary categories, which hold less weight but still help you show up in the categories that apply to your show.
For example, here’s how I categorize Taboo Science. (Up until writing this newsletter, was I blindly categorizing the show in the most competitive, least niched categories possible? Yes, yes I was. We live and learn).
Taboo Science is about Science, first and foremost—an overcrowded category—but every episode centers on the human experience of that science: the asexuality episode is about the science of human asexuality, the poop episode is about the science of human poop, etc. So Social Sciences is a good subcategory for the podcast. It also makes the show a little more competitive than it would be if it were competing against the Radiolabs and Neil deGrasse Tysons of the podcast world.
But Taboo Science also runs a lot of episodes about human sexuality, especially this season. So Society & Culture > Relationships fits that bill, even though the category is surely crowded.
And finally, the podcast usually explores the history of each topic it covers, so History feels right as well. It’s not its main category by any means, but it makes sense as a third category.
Is your show due for a recategorization? Make a list of the categories your last 5-6 episodes might fit into, then check out the most competitive podcast categories to see where those categories land. Finding a new niche could be the best thing you do for your show.