Blog Content Plan — 25 New Posts

Blog Content Plan — 25 New Posts

Date: 2026-03-13 Goal: Drive app downloads via organic search traffic Target audience: Worldwide podcast listeners

Context

The PodcastAlarm blog has 28 existing posts. The best-performing format is “best X podcasts” list posts targeting [topic] podcasts keywords. Top pages by GSC impressions (last 28 days): science (4,935), women-hosted (3,400), commute (3,199), make you smarter (2,211), true crime (1,800).

There are significant podcast niches with no coverage. This plan fills those gaps with 25 new posts.

Post Format

All posts follow the proven pattern from recent posts (e.g. best-podcasts-to-fall-asleep-to):

• 8-12 podcast recommendations per post
• Each entry: <h3>N. Podcast Name</h3> + <p>2-3 sentence description</p>
• `
  

Waking up with a podcast on iOS

Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.

` after intro paragraph

• Closing <h2> section tying back to the app with App Store link

Front Matter Template

layout: post
title: "Best X Podcasts (2026)"          # under 60 chars, lead with keyword
categories: Podcast
featured-image: "/images/blog/charts/DIR/stock-image.jpg"  # reuse existing stock image
featured-image-alt: "Description of image"
description: "120-160 chars. Include 2-3 podcast names. Never mention Podcast Alarm."
permalink: /blog/slug-here               # no year in URL, evergreen
author: "Jonathan Wilson"
authorImage: "/images/blog/me.png"

File Naming

Files use YYYY-MM-DD-slug.markdown (.markdown extension, not .md). Use publication date.

Title Format

Use Best X Podcasts (2026) consistently — no counts, no clickbait hooks, no “in 2026”. Keep it clean and under 60 chars.

Image Pipeline

Each post requires podcast artwork fetched via scripts/fetch-podcast-images.py:

1. Write podcasts.json with ["Search query", "explicit-filename.jpg"] pairs
2. Run script with Listen Notes API key from PodcastAPI.swift
3. Output directory per post: images/blog/charts/<slug>/ (e.g. images/blog/charts/best-history-podcasts/)
4. Swap any NOT FOUND / WRONG MATCH podcasts and re-run until zero failures
5. Verify no placeholder image references in post

Meta SEO Rules

• Title: under 60 chars, include (2026), lead with keyword
• Description: 120-160 chars, include 2-3 podcast names, never mention Podcast Alarm
• Permalink: /blog/slug-here (no year, evergreen URL)

Posts to Create

Genre Posts (15)

Use-Case Posts (10)

Production Process Per Post

1. Write the post content (8-12 podcasts, intro, CTA, closing)
2. Create podcasts.json with search queries and explicit filenames
3. Run fetch-podcast-images.py to download artwork
4. Swap any podcasts with missing/wrong images and re-run
5. Verify no placeholder references (grep checks)
6. Commit post + images and push

Success Criteria

• All 25 posts live on podcastalarm.app
• Each post has correct podcast artwork (no placeholders)
• Meta titles under 60 chars, descriptions 150-160 chars
• Posts begin ranking in GSC within 2-4 weeks
• Monitor for impressions and clicks; refresh meta if CTR is low

Decisions Made

• Raw HTML over components: Podcast entries use <h3> + <p> directly, not a Jekyll include. Simpler, and find-and-replace handles bulk changes.
• No geo-targeting: All posts target worldwide audience.
• New posts only: No refreshing existing posts in this batch.
• Genre + use-case mix: Genre posts for search volume, use-case posts for higher-intent listeners closer to the app’s value prop.

Topic Overlap Notes

• Mental Health (#5) vs Anxiety (#25): Mental health post covers broad topics (therapy, self-improvement, emotional wellbeing). Anxiety post focuses specifically on calming/stress-relief shows. Zero podcast overlap between the two.
• Health & Fitness (#11) vs Running (#16) / Gym (#19): Health & Fitness focuses on nutrition, wellness, and general health education. Exclude exercise-specific shows covered in the running and gym posts.
• Economics (#14) vs existing Investment post: Economics covers macroeconomics, policy, and economic thinking. Avoid personal finance/investing shows already in the investment post.

Internal Linking

Cross-link related posts where natural (e.g. running post links to gym post, mental health links to anxiety post). Use the existing format: <a class="text-info" href="/blog/slug">Title</a>.