Podcast Metadata Checklist

RSS feed and iTunes metadata details that are easy to forget.

Metadata Checklist

0/6

Correct iTunes category and subcategory set
Explicit content flag set correctly
Episode has a unique, stable GUID
Author and owner email fields filled in the RSS feed
Episode type set correctly (full / trailer / bonus)
Duration tag matches the actual audio file length

A stable, unique GUID per episode is the one item here that's easy to break without noticing — if it changes between publishing passes, podcast apps can treat the same episode as a brand-new one and re-download it, or lose listeners' saved playback position entirely. The duration tag matching the real audio length matters for the same class of reason: apps display that tag before the episode is downloaded, so a mismatched value shows the wrong length in a listener's queue before they've pressed play.

•Category and subcategory decide which browse charts and recommendation lists a show can even appear in — a loosely-matched category doesn't get flagged as an error anywhere, it just quietly surfaces the show to the wrong audience.
•Episode type (full, trailer, or bonus) changes how some apps sort and badge the episode in a listener's feed — a trailer tagged as a full episode can end up buried among regular episodes instead of surfaced as an intro.