Podcast Categories
🎧 Enhance Your Discoverability
Podcast categories play a crucial role in helping listeners find your show across various directories. They provide context about your content and assist platforms in organizing and recommending your podcast appropriately.
How Do Categories Work?
When setting up your podcast, you can select up to three categories:
- Primary Category – The main classification of your podcast.
- Secondary Category – An additional classification to further define your content.
- Tertiary Category – An optional category to broaden your reach.
It's advisable to choose categories in order of relevance, starting with the most representative of your content.
Platform-Specific Behavior
- Apple Podcasts:
Apple Podcasts supports up to two levels of categories for each podcast: a primary category and an optional subcategory. These are specified in the RSS feed using nested<itunes:category>tags.
While you can include multiple categories in your RSS feed, Apple Podcasts primarily considers the first category and its subcategory for display and categorization purposes. This structure helps in accurately classifying your podcast within the Apple Podcasts directory. - Spotify:
Spotify allows you to select categories during the submission process via Spotify for Podcasters. These selections influence how your podcast is categorized on the platform. - Other Platforms:
Different directories may utilize your specified categories differently. Some might consider the three, while others focus solely on the primary category.
💡Tips:
- Be Strategic: Your primary category significantly impacts your podcast's visibility, especially on platforms like Apple Podcasts.
- Be Specific: Choose categories that accurately reflect your content to attract the right audience.
- Avoid Overlap: Selecting distinct categories can help reach a broader audience without redundancy.
📌 Note: The categories are standardized according to the official Apple Podcasts Category List. Custom or combined categories are not permitted.