Help CenterAppearance
Feed Health Check
Optimize Your Podcast's Technical Foundation
Feed Health Check analyzes your podcast's RSS feed to identify opportunities for better discoverability and listener experience. This health diagnostic ensures your podcast meets platform standards and maximizes your distribution potential across Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.
What Feed Health Check Examines
Technical Foundation
Your RSS feed is the backbone of your podcast's distribution. Feed Health Check ensures it's properly structured and compatible with all major platforms, so your podcast reaches listeners wherever they are.
Content Optimization
The analyzer reviews your podcast and episode metadata - titles, descriptions, categories, and artwork - to identify opportunities for better search discoverability and audience engagement.
Platform Standards
Each podcast platform has specific requirements. Feed Health Check verifies your feed meets these standards and suggests improvements to enhance your podcast's visibility and performance across all platforms.
Future-Ready Features
The analysis includes emerging podcast standards and features that can give your podcast a competitive edge, helping you stay ahead of the curve in podcast technology.
Understanding Your Results
Your Feed Health Score
Feed Health Check provides an overall health score from 0-100, giving you an instant understanding of how well your podcast feed is optimized. This score tracks improvements over time, so you can see the impact of changes you make.
Actionable Recommendations
Rather than just identifying problems, Feed Health Check provides specific, prioritized recommendations you can act on:
- Critical Fixes: Issues that could prevent your podcast from being properly distributed or discovered
- High-Impact Improvements: Changes that will significantly boost your podcast's performance and discoverability
- Enhanced Optimization: Fine-tuning opportunities that give you a competitive edge
- Future Improvements: Emerging features and standards to consider for long-term growth
Platform-Specific Guidance
Since each platform has unique requirements and opportunities, you'll receive tailored recommendations for optimizing your presence on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.
Why Feed Health Check Matters for Your Growth
Maximize Your Reach
A healthy RSS feed ensures your podcast reaches listeners on all platforms without technical barriers. When your feed meets platform standards, you avoid distribution problems that could limit your audience growth.
Improve Search Discoverability
Well-optimized metadata in your RSS feed helps listeners discover your podcast through search on platforms and in general web searches. Feed Health Check identifies specific opportunities to improve your titles, descriptions, and categories for better search rankings.
Stay Competitive
By adopting emerging podcast standards and platform features, you can offer enhanced listener experiences that set your podcast apart from others in your category. Feed Health Check helps you identify and implement these competitive advantages.
Prevent Technical Problems
Rather than waiting for distribution issues to impact your listener growth, Feed Health Check proactively identifies potential problems so you can fix them before they affect your podcast's availability or performance.
How to Use Feed Health Check
Getting Your Analysis
Feed Health Check analyzes your RSS feed when you first add your podcast to PodSEO. You can also run a fresh analysis anytime to check how recent changes have impacted your feed health - especially useful after updating your podcast hosting settings or metadata.
Acting on Recommendations
The key to success with Feed Health Check is prioritizing your efforts:
- Address Critical Issues First: Fix any problems that could prevent proper distribution
- Implement High-Impact Changes: Focus on improvements that will significantly boost discoverability
- Work with Your Host: Many technical fixes require updates through your podcast hosting platform
- Optimize Your Content: Use metadata recommendations to improve your titles, descriptions, and categories
Tracking Your Progress
As you implement recommendations, your feed health score will improve, and you can correlate these improvements with better search visibility and platform performance. Regular check-ups help maintain optimal feed health as podcast standards evolve.
Working with Other PodSEO Features
SEO Strategy Integration
Feed Health Check works hand-in-hand with your keyword strategy. The metadata recommendations help ensure your feed supports your target keywords, while feed optimization enhances the impact of your SEO efforts across all platforms.
Performance Monitoring
Use Timeline to track how feed health improvements correlate with better search rankings and platform performance. A healthier feed often leads to better visibility and discovery across platforms.
Competitive Advantage
Well-optimized feeds typically perform better in platform search results and may receive preferential treatment from platform algorithms. This gives you an edge over competitors with poorly maintained feeds.
Best Practices for Feed Health
Regular Maintenance
Check your feed health monthly, especially after making changes to your podcast hosting setup or metadata. This proactive approach helps you catch and fix issues before they impact your audience growth.
Strategic Implementation
When implementing recommendations:
- Start with Critical Issues: Address distribution-blocking problems first
- Test Changes: Work with your hosting platform to test feed changes before they go live
- Monitor Results: Track how improvements impact your overall podcast performance
- Stay Current: Keep up with evolving podcast standards and platform requirements
Long-term Success
Feed Health Check isn't a one-time fix - it's an ongoing optimization tool. As podcast technology evolves and platforms update their requirements, regular feed health monitoring ensures your podcast continues to reach listeners effectively.
Getting Started: Feed Health Check runs automatically when you add your podcast, giving you immediate insights into optimization opportunities. Use these recommendations alongside your keyword strategy for comprehensive podcast optimization that drives real growth.