episode titles written with what people search for

the short version

episode names, descriptions, youtube titles and captions are now written with the words people actually type into youtube about the subject, where those words truly describe what you said.

and every episode now gets a search title: the title youtube and google show, written for strangers around what they type that the episode answers. your episode keeps its own name everywhere else. the episode number goes at the end.

why this matters

a diary is serial. the people who watched episode 46 come back for 47, and they do not need a search box to find it. but everyone else does. a stranger finds a build through a question typed into youtube or google: user onboarding best practices, ai influencer video, cold outreach automation. if the episode that answers it is called something only you understand, they never see it.

documenting is the point. but at some point the documenting has to be findable, or it only ever reaches the people who already follow you.

how the words are found

• while your episode is being cut, underway notes the subjects you talked about as the short beginnings of a search: the problem, the task, the tool.
• it asks youtube's own search suggestions what people complete those beginnings to. every suggestion is something people really type.
• the director's name and description are then reworded around the one search that truly describes what you said, or left exactly as they were when none fits.

on three of underway's own episodes, one became user onboarding flow getting people stuck, from user onboarding best practices. one became creating ai influencer videos for underway, from ai influencer video. the third kept its name, because nothing people search for described it. that is the rule working, not failing.

where it is used, place by place

• the episode's name and description, which are what your page, the directory and google show
• the youtube title, which is now the search title, then the episode label. under the box, one line says which search it is written for, and up to two more ways to title it sit folded behind it, each aimed at a different search, with use this
• the youtube description's first sentence
• the first line of the tiktok and instagram caption, because people search inside both now, and one hashtag when it names what happened
• a short's title and its tiktok and instagram captions

linkedin, x, snap and reddit are read, not searched, so they stay as the account of what happened, without reaching for a phrase.

two titles, two jobs

the diary name is for people following the series: user onboarding flow getting people stuck tells someone on episode 62 what happened next. a stranger never types that. so youtube and google get a search title instead, built around the question people actually type, and promising only what the episode delivers: why new users get stuck in app onboarding · episode 63. the number stays at the end for the people following along; the start of the title, which youtube weighs most, is for the people who have never heard of you.

what it never does

• it never bends a fact to fit a search. a phrase is used only when it truly describes what you said.
• it never reorders, trims or changes the episode. only the words around it.
• it never changes an episode already posted. new episodes, and words you ask it to write again, get it.
• it never holds the cut up. if the lookup is slow or fails, the words are written exactly as before.

start a series and film episode zero for free. start free.