A running record of SEO changes to podcastalarm.app: what changed, why, and the GSC signal that motivated it. Newest entries at the top.
Branch: seo-refresh/2026-08-ctr-harvest
Five blog posts were bleeding impressions at very low CTR (~0.1–0.9%) despite ranking. Diagnosed from GSC last-28-days query/page data. All changes are meta/title/intro/internal-link refreshes plus artwork where entries were missing it — no new pages, no permalink changes, so no redirects needed.
| Page | GSC signal (28d) | Change |
|---|---|---|
/blog/best-celebrity-podcasts |
1,569 impr, 0.89% CTR, pos 16.8. Query “celebrity interview podcasts” ranked pos 8.7 (317 impr, 0.32% CTR) but the page didn’t target it. | Rewrote <title> to lead with Best Celebrity Interview Podcasts (2026) and led the meta description with “celebrity interview podcasts”. Bumped date-modified + “Last updated” to Aug 2026. |
/blog/best-paranormal-podcasts |
685 impr, 0.15% CTR, pos 21. Money query “best paranormal podcasts 2026” ranked pos 10.2 (323 impr). | Retitled to the un-parenthesised money query Best Paranormal Podcasts 2026: 15 Ghost & UFO Shows; led meta description with the same phrase. Added date-modified + “Last updated Aug 2026” freshness line. |
/blog/best-podcasts-to-fall-asleep-to |
968 impr, 0.10% CTR, pos 47.5. Thematically ideal for a sleep/alarm app. | Refreshed title/meta to Aug 2026; added a strong CTA linking the App Store listing (sleep-timer angle) high in the post; added Apple Podcasts links + fetched cover art for all 7 shows (post was previously imageless, off-convention). |
/blog/7-best-podcasts-hosted-by-women |
1,179 impr, 0.08% CTR, pos 53.7. | Title/meta refreshed to Aug 2026; fixed a copy-paste content bug (the “History Chicks” entry described “Science VS”) with an accurate description; freshened “What’s new”. |
/blog/best-podcasts-for-road-trips |
Current winner — 1,060 impr, 21 clicks; “best road trip podcasts 2026” ranked pos 7.1. | Retitled to lead with the money query Best Road Trip Podcasts 2026; led meta description with it; refreshed “What’s new” + date-modified to Aug 2026; fetched cover art for the 5 core entries that were missing it. |
Artwork: 12 podcast covers fetched via scripts/fetch-podcast-images.py
(Listen Notes) and eyeballed individually — 7 for the sleep post, 5 for road trips.
Verification: bundle exec jekyll build clean; rendered titles/descriptions/
images confirmed in _site/.