The Importance Of Podcast Notes
Thinking of creating a podcast? In this complete guide, we provide expert insight into podcast show notes, highlighting their importance as both a content creator and for your targeted audience.
Podcast Notes | Why Use Them?
A page on your website, (typically in the form of a blog post), podcast show notes are, well, just that; a collection of notes on your podcast episode! Ideally listing topics, key points, relevant links, guest bios and additional resources, podcast show notes can be accessed by your audience as a brief, easily-digestible and alternative form of written content that summarises your podcast episode. Below, we outline the main reasons why we use podcast notes and how they can be beneficial for both you and your audience in the long term.
Content Promotion
Podcast show notes, particularly those in the form of a blog post, can be quickly and easily shared both by you as a content creator, and by your audience, so it’s important that you put in the time and effort, as it can make a real difference to your success. Promoting your content is crucial, but over-promoting a singular podcast won’t be enough, podcast show notes are an ideal way of carrying that extra weight.
Better still; podcast show notes are a great way of sharing your content with everyone, no matter what device they are using. Links to your show notes page will send your audience directly to your website, not a third-party podcasting app Just be sure to post all the ways to subscribe on your show notes page so your audience can access the application optimised for their phone, (e.g. Google Podcasts/Spotify for Android, Apple Podcasts for iPhone).
Share Resources
Typically, during a podcast, a specific or niche topic will be discussed in relation to your overarching topic or theme, leading to ongoing discussions that may relate to previous episodes. For new audience members or casual listeners, this can get confusing, making podcast notes a valuable hub for all things discussed on your podcast.
Important points you have covered, or valuable resources you have shared during a podcast episode with your audience, can be easily collated into a written piece of content to summarise your show for both new and current listeners alike. For instance, should you refer to graphs, charts, images, infographics or specific videos/visuals during your podcast episode, you’ll want to include links to these in your podcast show notes, in order to support your content and offer your audience something to share.
Increase Authority
An abundance of high-quality content on your website is one of the most essential methods for increasing authority, proving to search engines that your website is legitimate and to be trusted. In this case, the more quality content you produce, the more chance you’ll have of successfully building your online authority, and growing your audience and ultimately, your brand.
Creating podcast show notes derived from an already established piece of content, (i.e, your podcast), is a simple, quick and effective way of regularly posting website content without the need to constantly create new material from scratch.
Encourage Traffic
Releasing your content in the form of written show notes is an excellent, and essential, method for encouraging your audience to gain a deeper understanding of your work whilst simultaneously promoting website traffic. Uploading your show notes to your website, say in the form of a blog post, will ultimately drive your audience to explore your website further, providing them with the opportunity to explore your brand, products and/or services. Having an additional point of contact for your audience aside from your podcast will help connect them to you as a presenter, thereby strengthening your relationship; further encouraging traffic.
Podcast Notes | Increasing Your SEO
Quite simply; written content provides significantly more benefits in terms of SEO than any form of audio content. Although podcasts are popular and will attract listeners, publishing show notes alongside your audio will ensure your content is now discoverable on search engines, thereby improving your ranking on Google. To improve your content’s SEO optimization even further, you can add additional podcast show notes using specific trending keywords in order to boost value. This can be achieved by optimising your podcast title, adding keywords to your headings, or adding a simple call to action.
Better still; written content in the form of podcast notes prove to be smaller pieces of content that can be easily, and more frequently, promoted on social media platforms to promote your podcast to potential listeners. After all, when your podcast has been optimised for search engines, it will immediately become more relevant and therefore easier to find.
In order to ensure your podcast show notes are relevant to search engines, you must always follow best practices for SEO. This will include targeting specific keywords to individual pages, (such as blog posts), on your site. In general, you should aim to format your content as set out below, ensuring keywords appear in the following locations:
- Page Title (The <Title> Tag)
- Page URL (As Close To The Domain As Possible)
- Main Heading (<H1>)
- Subheadings (<H2>, <H3>, etc.)
- Within The Copy
- Call To Action (CTA)
Optimising your site, content and page URLs to integrate specific keywords is important for Google to properly index your page and ultimately for your site to rank highly. However, be careful not to overstuff your content with unnecessary keywords interrupting the flow – your content’s quality is just as important.
Podcast Notes | Key Tips For Making Show Notes
When writing up your show notes, it’s vital you document the following key points:
Episode Summary
Utilising podcast show notes is a great way of summarising your podcast episode for both new and existing listeners, offering a brief summary of the episode’s topic or theme, and highlighting any relevant information that offers a quick overview of the episode’s content. When summarising your podcast episode, you should:
- Briefly Describe Your Theme
- Cover The Main Topics
- Include A Short Biography
Your aim is to attract listeners, so be as convincing or ambitious as you desire; entice your audience with a story, a statement or a thought-provoking question and make sure it stays short and snappy, (under 100 words is ideal).
Main Points
When summarising your episode, create a simple outline of your main points covered in the podcast, using quotes from your recording. Include a timestamp with each specific point to allow readers to discover it quickly. Generally speaking, it should look like this:
“In this podcast episode, we discuss…
- “How can podcast show notes encourage traffic?” (7:36)
- “What role do podcast notes play in improving your SEO?” (12:54)
- “Can podcast notes help develop my brand?” (17:21)
Guest Bios
If you have special guests appearing on your podcast, you should offer a brief summary, (no more than 75 words), highlighting their work and how this may impact the topic of the episode. Entice the reader, but don’t give away any spoilers, as you’ll still want them to listen to the episode in its entirety! Here, you can also add external links to your guest’s website, social media profiles, products for sale and more.
Links
As suggested, any visual, video or external media/infographics you discuss in your podcast episode, as well as additional links to date, quotes, tools or sources you mention, should be added to your podcast show notes. Links to credible sources on your show notes, even if no one follows them, will help to build your credibility as a podcaster.
Call To Action
As with any piece of content, you should wrap up your podcast show notes with a simple call-to-action with instructions or external links for your readers to follow. These could include posting a review, subscribing to a newsletter, visiting social media and contact pages, or redirecting to different pages on your website. Either way, just be sure to use the right links!
Listening Dog Media Ltd | Podcast Script Assistance & Professional Editing Service
Want to create, develop or enhance a new or existing podcast? At Listening Dog Media, we can take your podcast episodes to the next level with extensive podcast show notes, providing added context, episode-specific information, and links to media and topics directly relevant to discussions. Our show notes can direct listeners new and old to previous episodes or product pages, affecting outcomes with a rousing call to action.
We aim to improve the visibility of your podcast by prioritising search engine ranking. By targeting SEO keywords in your podcast show notes, you will become more accessible to new listeners, who will gain value from timestamps, hyperlinks and interactive elements. Get in touch with our expert team today.
