How to Fix Duplicate Listings in Apple Podcasts (or Other Podcast Apps)
Listen to the full episode here:If your podcast is listed twice in Apple Podcasts or another podcast directory, STOP! Don't do anything about it until you read or listen to this!
And if you want to avoid this problem, do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed!
How duplicate podcast listings happen
There are two common reasons you might end up with a duplicate listing of your podcast, either by your own actions or by automation.
Reason 1: a secondary feed was automatically discovered and indexed
You might have used several different podcast-publishing tools, like your own website, PowerPress , multiple podcast-hosting providers, and such. Or you might have used some automation tools for crossposting, like Spreaker , AudioBoom, Podpage , and such. Or you used a feed proxy to mirror and rehost your RSS feed, like Feedburner or Podcast Mirror.
Any of these tools might have created another RSS feed for your podcast and may even be actively updating it. They could even be serving the exact same feed from multiple URLs, like HTTP and HTTPS (although not so common anymore), or from different subdomains.
Podcast Index, Google Podcasts (rest in peace), and maybe a couple of other systems search the web looking for podcast feeds to include and they'll often find those duplicates. Podcast Index has a fairly smart deduplication process, but Google Podcasts was a little annoying, often switching to the newly discovered feed (even if was only a redirect!) and requiring you to verify ownership of that new feed before you can switch back to your desired feed.
A couple of my own podcasts have had as many as 8 different RSS feeds discovered by Google Podcasts! And even though some of them were proper 301 redirects, the automated system still wanted to change to them instead of the feeds I had intentionally submitted for Google Podcasts to use. But at least that didn't create duplicates and it didn't interfere with my audience.
But other discovery systems might add the extra feeds as new podcasts, resulting in duplicates. (At this time, none of the most popular podcast apps use automatic discovery to build their catalogs.)
Reason 2: the podcast was resubmitted
Do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed!
I see this problem happen far more frequently lately. When podcasters switch podcast-hosting providers, like from Spotify for Podcasters (formerly known as Anchor) to a provider such as Captivate or Blubrry , the podcasters sometimes submit their newRSS feeds as newpodcasts instead of simply redirecting the old feeds.
This sometimes comes from bad advice, or from an attempt (albeit the wrong method) to reclaim ownership of a podcast in Apple Podcasts or another directory, or it might even be from thinking that you had to resubmit after changing the title or cover art. Whatever the reason, this usually results in listing the same podcast twice, even if you later properly redirect the old RSS feed. Apple Podcasts usedto prevent the same feed from being submitted twice, but I'm seeing indications that system either isn't working, or isn't used anymore.
Again,do not resubmit your podcast if it's already listed!(And don't tell your long-time audience to follow your new listing, either!)
The duplicate podcast listing problem gets worse, especially in Apple Podcasts
When your podcast is listed multiple times in the same podcast directory, you risk splitting your ratings, reviews, chart and search rankings, and even your followers.
In most podcast apps, simply redirecting the incorrect RSS feed to the correct one will at least merge your split audiences. But it won't merge the other catalog features if they exist.
But it's even worse in Apple Podcasts since iOS 14.5!
Before iOS 14.5, your audience was connected directly to yourpodcast RSS feed. So regardless of what happened in the Apple Podcasts catalog, your audience would get whatever you put in your feed and would follow wherever that feed URL would redirect. Back then, you could simply redirect the duplicate listing and then delete it, and you wouldn't lose any of your audience.
But not anymore! This changed with iOS 14.5.
Now, even if your duplicate listing gets switched to your correct RSS feed, everyone who followed your podcast through that duplicate is connected to Apple's proxy of your podcast feed, and not connected directly to yourfeed. In other words, people in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and maybe only a couple other proxy-based podcast apps subscribe to the catalog listing of your podcast in that app, not directly to your RSS feed. So if you delete that duplicate listing, you willlose its followers!
Even if you're okay with losing any ratings, reviews, and rankings that duplicate listing might have accumulated, I suggest that you should notaccept losing your audience!
How to fix your duplicate podcast listing in proxy-based services like Apple Podcasts and Spotify
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