Using Pinterest and AI Search to Grow Your Podcast Discovery with Julia Bocchese

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the constant buzz surrounding AI search optimization and wondering if your traditional SEO strategy is becoming obsolete? If you're tired of creating high-quality podcast episodes that seemingly disappear into the digital void, this episode is your roadmap to modern discoverability. In this episode of Podcasting Unlocked, Alesia Galati sits down with Julia Bocchese, founder of Julia Renee Consulting, to discuss how to optimize your content for Google, AI-driven search, and Pinterest. This week, episode 274 of Podcasting Unlocked is about using Pinterest and AI search to grow your podcast discovery! 

Julia Bocchese is an SEO, AI search, and Pinterest consultant who helps service-based and creative businesses get found online without relying on paid ads or constant content creation. She focuses on clear website messaging, practical SEO systems, and sustainable visibility strategies that actually get implemented. 

In this episode of Podcasting Unlocked, Julia Bocchese is sharing the importance of specificity in business and content creation and actionable steps you can take right now to start using Pinterest as a search engine to get your podcast seen long-term. 

Julia and I also chat about the following: 

• Master the AI Search Pivot: Discover how to optimize your content for AI search by creating informative, authoritative website copy. Learn why answering specific FAQs and providing unique value is now more important than ever for bot discovery.
• Repurpose for Maximum Impact: Learn the exact workflow for turning your podcast transcripts into SEO-optimized blog posts. Julia explains how to move beyond a simple copy-paste to create content that Google and your audience will love.
• Leverage Pinterest as a Search Engine: Shift your mindset from social media to visual search. Discover how to use pin graphics and strategic keyword usage to introduce your podcast to entirely new audiences.
• Audit Your Website Copy: Understand the role of meta descriptions and informative headers in establishing brand authority. Julia breaks down how to make your site a destination for both search engines and potential clients.
• Track Your Growth via Analytics: Stop guessing and start measuring. Learn why tracking your analytics is essential for understanding which search platforms are actually moving the needle for your business.

Be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of practical tips on turning your podcast listeners into leads and to hear even more about the points outlined above. 

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me! And don’t forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!

Learn more about Podcasting Unlocked at https://galatimedia.com/podcasting-unlocked/ 

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Transcript

Alesia Galati: 0:00

AI is all the buzz. But how are we actually going to be optimizing our podcast episodes, our blog posts, or any of the other content we're creating for these platforms? Today, we're talking with Julia of Julia Renee consulting, all about SEO, which is for your website, for Google. We're talking about AI search, how to optimize for that, as well as searches on Pinterest, so anywhere that people would be searching for your content or searching for your specific topic, if your goal for your podcast is growth, then this is definitely the episode for you. This is going to help you be able to make sure that you're doing the right things on each of these platforms to introduce your topics and your podcast to a new audience and hopefully convert them into listeners and eventually paying clients. Let's go ahead and welcome Julia to the podcast. Welcome to podcasting unlocked the show for purpose driven podcasters. I'm Alesia Galati, founder of Galati media, and I'm here to share actionable strategies to help you amplify your message and grow your audience. Hello, Julia. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast today. If you could start by telling everyone who you are and a bit about what

Julia Bocchese: 1:16

you do. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. So I am Julia bocchez And I do SEO Pinterest and now AI search for small businesses. My business is Julia Rene consulting. I launched it in like 2017 so it's been around for a while. I've seen a lot of changes in the search world, especially now with AI and everything. So it's been a crazy couple of years.

Alesia Galati: 1:38

Yeah, I can imagine. I think that's the part that, like, I did a lot of SEO stuff, 2016 2017 ish, and then went into podcasting in 2020 and sure, there's some elements of SEO. And for the uninitiated, that search engine optimization, pretty much making your stuff Google able, is what I like to very quickly say. But with the rise of AI it, it can feel like, Whoa, this is a whole new ballpark. So let's go there first. What is maybe the difference between how we might have been optimizing previously for search versus optimizing for AI search?

Julia Bocchese: 2:18

Yeah, good news is there's a lot of overlap. So things that you're doing for SEO are also they're going to help you. So things like focusing on strong keywords, optimizing your copy, having really informative website copy, all of that is going to help with AI because one big difference between how people are using with Google or Bing or whatever search engines and these AI platforms is they are searching really, really specific things. So for Google, the average search is like three to four words. So like pizza shop near me, if you go to like chat, GBT or Gemini or something like that, the average search is 23 words, which is way longer, way more detailed. So instead of whatever, you can just type into Google to find something that is, you know, quick and easy. You are looking for something that is much more specific, or a really, you know, specific niche or industry, or something like that you're interested in. I use this example a lot, but a website designer that I've partnered with sometimes, she was telling me that she gets a lot of clients from chat, GBT and Gemini, because people are searching for, like luxury brand designer for, and then like listing their industry, or like any specific design terms that they want. And she actually isn't targeting like luxury, but she uses that word a lot in her blog post to describe like, the different projects that she's doing. So AI platforms are looking like everywhere for all these different details, to be able to give people the best match when they're like, giving them the answers. So having really informative website copy, even if you're not, like targeting like luxury brand design for small businesses or something like that, but you use those words elsewhere on your website, or even if people are using them, like in the reviews that they're writing about you, on like Google business profile or in directories. All of that is really going to help so things like making sure you're targeting keywords, having informative website copy blog posts, everything like that you're doing for SEO is also going to help with AI search. Some differences with AI is they are also looking for really strong, like brand authority, brand mentions. So there's a big overlap with SEO and now PR, so making sure that you are being featured in directories, local news, Google, business profile, Reddit is huge, which is crazy. It's the number one website that chat GBT is looking at when they're like, coming up with their answers. So it's not Reddit isn't really like a platform where you can go on and talk about yourself, but if it makes sense for other people to be talking about you or your products, or whatever it is, chat GBT is looking there, which is crazy. So making sure that you do have your SEO strategy as well as your PR strategy is going to help with AI search. Right, and then just some kind of like quick things that you can also be doing on your website. So as much as having really good, informative website copies, helpful, AI is also looking for quick information, because they typically actually don't crawl an entire page or an entire blog post. So having things like FAQs, or you can have FAQs on different like services pages or on your homepage, having, if you have blog posts, you can add a little summary or a TLDR at the top of it to get that quick information, making sure that you have your title tags and meta descriptions filled out. Because title tags and meta descriptions are important for SEO purposes, because that is what you see when you see a website ranking on Google, and then the title tag is a factor that Google's looking at to see what keywords are being used. But the meta description is also really important for AI because in the code on a page, it's actually listed above, like the website copy and the headings and everything like that. So AI platforms are looking at the meta description for the little summary of the page, so making sure you have all of that filled out and optimized. So giving that quick information in case AI isn't reading the entire page and you only use like your location at the very bottom of the page, making sure you have that important information towards the top of the page, which is also helpful for SEO and then also potential clients

Alesia Galati: 6:19

as well. Ooh, that's really interesting. So when it comes to PR, like, how important is it to maybe be on a bunch of podcasts versus, like, actual local news? A lot of the people listening as podcast hosts there might not be featured on their local news, right? Like, it's quite unlikely that they would be. So what are some, maybe other ways that we can get that PR without necessarily being like, hey, newspaper, I need you to feature me.

Julia Bocchese: 6:48

Yeah. So, I mean, there's so many different ways you can even just like being listed in relevant directories. So places like the not for people in the wedding industries or house for people like in the interior design and housing industries, things like that. The good news is, you can't really go to Google and ask them what to do, but you can go to these AI platforms and be like, Hey, this is my business. This is what I do. This is who I'm trying to reach. Things like that. Where are some places that my business should be featured that will help me get recommended by AI platforms more often? So it's really nice because you can actually go to the platforms and ask them, like, what you should do. So I would recommend doing that. And you can also, if they start off giving you like, Hey, you should be featured in directories in your local news and things like that. You can go back and ask them for specific, Hey, what are five directories I should be featured in? Or for the FAQs, what are five FAQs that I need to add to my website that's going to help both AI search and then also potential clients. So it's nice that you can just go to them and ask them directly, just make sure everything is relevant to like your business. And you're not trying to be featured on, I don't know if you only serve people in Philadelphia, you're not trying to be featured on local news in California, make sure it is actually really relevant to your business and who you're trying to reach.

Alesia Galati: 8:05

Yeah, and when you were talking about how people's search habits are changing, I think it's really interesting too, because specificity is so important as business owners and especially as podcasters. Right. There are so many podcasts out there, but if you're like, hey, I want to talk to all the women that are age 50 to 70. That is a huge range of varying interests of varying topics, like talk to them about what, like, what exactly is this for? And so I think that being really specific with our businesses, our blogs, our podcasts, even thinking about on the podcast side, like the description of your show, this show is perfect for these types of people, right? And you can ask a lot of these AI tools, hey, I want to optimize this for SEO and for searches on AI tools. What is the best way to do that, or what are some keywords that I need to make sure that I'm adding, or what are the things that people are searching for? Right? There's so much that we can utilize these to really make the most of our shows and also reach the right people. Right? If we wanted someone to be like, Hey, I'm looking for podcasts, and I'm to keep to the same idea a midlife woman, and I'm feeling overwhelmed, and I'm not sure what to do about HRT hormone replacement therapy. Okay, perfect. Here are five podcasts that are specifically have episodes on HRT that are specifically targeted for your age group and that actually have doctors on them, right? Like, they're informative and they're science based, right? So, like, we have to be super specific. And I say this because I literally edited an episode yesterday for one of our clients. Her podcast is midlife. So, like, being specific with these things can help the tools know, oh, you're perfect for this person, rather than being like, I'm not really sure. And so I think that. It's yeah to that point of the specificity of it is so extremely important now Pinterest. Where does Pinterest play in all of this? Because for people who are maybe not aware, Pinterest is not a social media platform, which I love, because sometimes it can feel like we are serving the algorithm gods, or we have to dance in order to even be found, and I refuse to dance for anyone. Yes, that is absolutely not ever. And so Pinterest is a search engine very similar to your Google or your AI searches. What are some ways that we can make sure that we're optimizing our podcast content or scheduling properly, to ensure that, as people are searching on Pinterest as well, that our content is showing up.

Julia Bocchese: 10:52

Yeah, so like you said, Pinterest is actually a search engine, so it's more of a visual search engine. So if you've ever been to Pinterest, you've seen images you're not going to see like on Google, with the title and the meta description. It's an actual like video or a photo or even just a graphic, which just an image with some text on it. If you have content which Pinterest relies on, it can be a really great platform to reach a lot of people, because your pins can actually live on Pinterest for months to even years. So unlike Instagram or Facebook, where, yeah, you have to show up and dance every day and then people stop seeing it after like a day or two, Pinterest can actually drive traffic for months to years and reach people who are searching exactly for what you have to offer. So yeah, if someone is searching for they are a woman in midlife, and they're searching for hormone replacement therapy information, and they go to Pinterest and you have a podcast episode on you know exactly what they're interested in, then they're much more likely to click on the link and become a podcast subscriber listen to the podcast. One thing I do recommend for people who have podcasts is to actually repurpose your podcast episode into a blog post that will live on your website. So that way, you're driving the traffic back to your website, which also helps your SEO. But Pinterest specifically, that way you are driving the traffic back to your website, you can track it in analytics, because if you only have your podcast episodes on like Apple podcasts and Spotify and wherever else, you can't claim those websites on Pinterest to be able to actually see those analytics, whereas your website you can claim since you do own that so you can get really specific analytics and Pinterest to see which pins are performing the best, who you're reaching, how much traffic you're getting overall, how many saves your pins are getting. So that means people are saving your pin to their own account to check it out later, and it also, whenever they save it, it puts your pin in front of their audience as well, which is helpful. So making sure that you are putting your podcast episodes on your website, and then there's so many benefits to having it on your website, because then you can lead them to check out, like your email list or your services or other related podcast episodes really easily if you have lots of content, like a podcast episode, Pinterest is probably a really good platform

Alesia Galati: 13:50

for you. Yeah, I that was going to be one of my questions, and I knew you're going to answer with that just because been on Pinterest for years and years. And I think that it's really important that as podcasters, especially with an audio or video format, that we are repurposing it in some way, having it live on our website, rather than just saying, hey, go check out the episode here, I like to think about how I used Pinterest when I was first, like a new mom, and it was like, I'd be in the middle of breastfeeding in like, the middle of the night, and I'd just be scrolling Pinterest of like, I'm losing my mind, I don't know how to up the production of this milk. What am I supposed to do? What are lactation cookie recipes like the whole like, just thinking about that and thinking about how I was using the platform. So then, when I started creating content for Pinterest, I always go back to like, what is this person doing as they're searching on Pinterest. They're not in a place where they can pop in an earphone and listen to a full episode. And I think that back to the AI SEO and the AI search, that TLDR can help a lot too, even thinking for those longer, more informative posts say you have like Cornerstone posts where here's the very basics of what is HRT. Here you go. Here's all the information compiled. Then you might want to have headers at the top so people can click through the blog post and say, oh, I want to know more about this topic. And it just scrolls down to that section, right? So like thinking about how your user, how the person is using the platform, but then also, once they get to your website, how are they going to want to use the website so that you're not losing that traffic right away, and you are building that know, like and trust using the content that you've already created? There's so many good strategies here to make sure that we're maximizing it as best we can. If someone is wanting to start Pinterest. For the first time with their podcast, what are the things that they should be prioritizing? And I'm asking this very selfishly, because I have a hobby podcast called we re smut, and it's literally exactly what it sounds like. It's all about diverse romance, and I started a Pinterest for it, because I started a blog for the podcast. After two years in, I was like, I should probably just, I'm sick of creating short form content for Instagram. Sure, those roundup posts are cool and they give people recommendations, but I want to have deeper conversations here. That's why I have a podcast. Like I want to have deeper conversations so creating the more content, a lot more focus on affiliate marketing. So Pinterest is a great, I know great place for that as well. So I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna, I know I need to start on Pinterest. I'm gonna do this thing. Where should someone begin? Who's like, Okay, I have a podcast. I have the content. I'm starting up on the blog post. I've got all that stuff. What are maybe the first few boards that I need to create? What are the most important priorities in optimizing my profile so that new people can find me and make this worth my time.

Julia Bocchese: 16:53

Yeah. So like you said, you have boards which are essentially just different categories that your pins are going to go to. So just think about it. If you have blog posts, and me, for example, I have blog posts that are on SEO and on Pinterest and on AI search. So I have three main categories that a blog post will like fit into, so that's what your boards are, or just different categories that your blog posts, podcast episodes will fit into. I recommend starting with just like maybe five to 10 boards you can add more on later. But if you have five boards that you have tons of pins that you can go to, but then you have one board that like has board that, like has one pin, and then it's on a topic that you're not planning on writing about ever again, or something, then it just looks sad and lonely. So you do want to make sure all of the categories are ones that you have enough content to put on. So with the boards, you will have a board title and a board description. So you do want to make sure that you are getting descriptive, because, again, these are Pinterest is a search engine, so people who are looking for boards specifically or for Pinterest better understand pins that are going to those boards. You want to make sure you are getting pretty specific. So instead of just having a board called romance, which could mean so many different things, make sure it's like romance books written by millennial women, whatever it is. So kind of like, think about whatever those categories are related to your blog posts, and have some like, descriptive titles and descriptions, the board descriptions, you can just have a sentence or two. They give you a huge chunk of space. It doesn't matter that much. Just summarize a sentence or two of whatever that content on that board is going to be in your board profile, make sure you have, like, your name, or your business name, or whatever website name, and then you can also you'll see you have a little profile description, so adding a little bit of information about who you are or what your website is about. Again, making sure you are using some keywords. Don't just say, I'm a mom of two and I love to read. That doesn't mean anything to anyone. My profile is about smut books for millennial women, something like that. So making sure that you are filling that out as well, both for Pinterest, but then also people who are searching for the profiles. So once you have your profile set up, then you'll want to create some pins. So typically, for content creators, you'll you won't have just like standalone images, like I work a lot with, like interior designers, and they obviously have lots of great photos of their work. But for people who are creating, like, blog posts and things like that, you're going to want to create some pin graphics so that that can be like an image with a text overlay, or even just like the graphic that has text on it, no images, whatever kind of like fits better with your brand. You do want to make sure they are vertical, like two to three ratio. If you go to Canva, they have so many templates, you don't have to create anything from scratch, just make sure you are uploading like your brand fonts and brand colors, so that way everything is cohesive with your brand. You don't need to overthink it, don't you don't have to have, like, lots of different elements on a pin, because the main thing is, you want to make sure it's really easy for someone to read, especially because when they're looking at Pinterest, they are seeing lots of pins at the same time. So if there's a really small font, they're not going to be able to read it, or if it's, like, really thin script font, something like that, you want to make sure your pin stands out and is easy to read, especially on mobile. So that way people don't just, like, scroll past it because they have a hard time reading, or they have to, like, squint to see the words. So don't like, try to have a bunch of things on your pin to start off pretty simply with having text that is in your brand font that's easy for people to read, will catch people's attention and is cohesive with your brand. And then you do want to make sure you are filling out the pin titles and pin descriptions very similar to the title tags and meta descriptions on Google. You are making sure that you're using some keywords in the pin titles in the pin Description. Option. You're just describing whatever content people are going to get when they go to your website. So just a little summary of like the blog post or the podcast episode to get people interested in clicking over and again. Pinterest is looking at that for kind of understanding what that pin should be ranking for. So you do want to make sure you're not neglecting it. Or, I see a lot of times people will just upload whatever they're doing on Instagram, and it's Hey, check out this new design hashtag, interiors. And that means nothing to Pinterest. Like people on Pinterest, they are a very cold audience. They don't know who you are. They don't necessarily care who you are. They just really want to consume your content if it's what they're searching for. So you don't need to worry about having a lot of you on the pin or like hashtags, or assume that people know what you're talking about. If it's something that you've referenced in the past, just make sure you are writing for a cold audience who is searching

Alesia Galati: 21:37

for your content. Yeah, I think that's so important. How many pin graphics would you recommend per episode or blog post or pro like, whatever it is that we're trying to create.

Julia Bocchese: 21:48

Yeah, yes. So I always recommend doing what you are able to because if I tell you to go create 50 pins for a blog post, you no one's gonna do that. So start with what you're able to you do need to make sure that you are active on Pinterest, uploading one pin a day. You can, like, repin older pins, if you need to, there are pin schedulers. So tailwind is like the main one for Pinterest, but a lot of these, like social media schedulers, have Pinterest added on now, but making sure you're pinning at least once a day, you don't have to show up and dance. You can schedule your content out for a month or two and then not even log into Pinterest if you don't want to. Yeah, start with whatever you're able to if you are only starting with five blog posts, then I would definitely recommend starting off with creating multiple graphics per blog post, so that we do have a lot of content that you can put on Pinterest. The typical number I aim for is five to 10 per day. Okay, so it doesn't have to be brand new pins, at least one brand new PIN, but you can also incorporate repinning some of your older content, but starting with at least one graphic per blog post. If you already have 100 blog posts that you have that are still current and updated, then you can just start off with one graphic per blog before you so that way you can get through all of them before going back and creating new graphics. So depends on how many blog posts you're starting with how much time you have, but typically it's starting with one graphic per blog post and then building it up over

Alesia Galati: 23:14

time as well. I love that you said that I'm constantly preaching capacity, like whatever your capacity can handle. Don't overdo it, because otherwise you're not going to do it. You're not going to get started. And so I love that you gave that this has been so incredibly informative. We've got so many things that we can do. If we could take one thing that will optimize us across all three of these. Obviously, Pinterest is a little more funky town, but it's something that we could do like, all right, if you could just take one thing to do from this conversation, what would you recommend they do to start?

Julia Bocchese: 23:47

So if you're not already doing it, making sure that you're repurposing your podcast episodes as blog posts on your website, that would be my number one thing, because that's going to help for ranking on Google. That's going to give you content to put on Pinterest. And then it's also one thing that AI search is looking at, because they're not going through the podcast apps and like looking for different episodes, or reading podcasts transcripts or things like that. So you do want to make sure that content is on your website, and also, since you do own your website as well,

Alesia Galati: 24:17

yes, I love that, and I think that's something that most podcasters don't end up doing, because I think, Oh, I created the content is out there. I've done, I've done, but honestly, if you can go back and even if it's just one every other week that you are repurposing in some way into a fully readable blog post, that is really going to help you grow your show. It's going to help you grow your business. It's going to help you in so many different ways and help you optimize across all three of these Pinterest at a later date, but still focusing on making sure that we're doing the things that are actually going to move us forward, which is what we want. Julia, this has been so much fun. If we were like and I need help, then where what kind of people do you tend to want to work with? So we can make sure we're attracting the right people to you, and then how can people connect with you? Get to know you all that fun stuff. Yeah. So I

Julia Bocchese: 25:10

work with a variety of small businesses, a lot like the creative and holistic industries. So a lot of therapists, interior designers, photographers, coaches, things like that. Yeah. You can find me. My website is Julia Renee consulting.com or on Instagram, Julia Renee consulting, or if you want to just email me directly, it's Julia at Julia Renee consulting.com. Yeah, I can definitely help with all things SEO, Pinterest, AI, search, repurposing your podcast episodes for blog posts, because I get that a lot of times where people are like, Okay, I have the transcript. Here you go. So we're. Purposing that content and then also making sure it's optimized for SEO and AI search and everything awesome.

Alesia Galati: 25:50

And we'll have links for all that in the show notes for people doing other things as they're listening to us. Julia, thank you so much. This was so informative, and I'm so excited to be like, okay, yes, I'm getting I'm doing what's right. Let's keep going.

Unknown: 26:03

Yeah, thanks so much for having me. You