How Podcast Show Notes and Transcription Help SEO?
The show notes provide your listeners a quick view of the topics that were discussed, the key takeaways, and some timestamps. It is also where you would add the details about your guest and the resources that were mentioned in the episode. On the other hand, transcription is the word format of the audio from the episode. It usually has the speaker’s name and the entire episode’s timestamps. Both show notes and transcription help your audience navigate the episode but the show notes provide a more structured approach to your podcast blog. So between show notes vs. transcription, which is better for your podcast blog?
The answer is both. As mentioned, show notes provide a more structured approach to your podcast blog but the best blog length for SEO in 2022 is 1,760-2,400 words and most show notes don’t reach this amount of words. Therefore, adding a transcription will help your episode blog post reach the ideal length.
You might ask, “Rem, how can I use show notes and transcriptions seamlessly for my podcast blog while applying SEO?” Here are 5 ways to help you out.
5 Ways You Can Use Both Show Notes and Transcription in Your Blog While Improving SEO
Transcribe using transcription tools like Descript. When you transcribe, you need to clean up the transcription, remove the filler words, and proofread to make sure there are no grammar mistakes. Descript allows you to record, edit videos or audios, and edit the transcription in the tool as well as remove filler words (like, umms, uhh, you know, etc.). This is why it’s my favorite among tons of transcription tools out there. Yes, this is an affiliate link but I’ve been using descript way back before I started recommending it. You can start using it for free (using my link at no cost to you 😉) and even upgrade it at a fair price. Starting at $15 per month, even someone like me who’s from a third-world country can afford it. Another way you can use transcription in your blog is by embedding it like how Megaphone does. The downside is that you can’t proofread, clean it up, and structure it. Once you’ve exported your transcription as a document, use Grammarly to proofread it. With the free version, you can easily get rid of the basic grammar mistakes with just a few clicks. From your proofread transcription, paraphrase the interviewer’s question and make it at least 1 - 2 sentences short. Then make each of the parts with questions your Heading 3. This way it will get structured in an SEO format.
For your show notes, you can use the following as Heading 3: “Timestamps” “Key Takeaways” “About Our Guest” “Resources” Your show notes are where your listeners can get additional information about the episode so instead of writing it down to take note of what they learned from your show, they can easily go to your website and get the resources they need. You’re providing value by saving them time and it also helps to get more traffic to your website.
Here’s a key tip that I’ve figured out when you’re doing SEO. According to Yoast SEO, “The focus keyword or keyphrase is the search term that you want a page or post to rank for most. When people search for that phrase, they should find you.” So use the name of your guest as your focus keyword. Since we always include them in the title, you can easily use their name in the meta description and distribute it fairly within the content. This will help to rank your content especially if your guest has a lot of media appearances and if they’re famous.
4. Google is now indexing podcasts. How to use links for SEO?
Adding an embedded player of each episode in your podcast blog will help to improve your discoverability when someone is searching for your episode or the podcasts your guest has been in. This may come in the form of HTML / iframe. Here’s what it looks like.
It’s also vital to include internal links and backlinks throughout your blog. It could be in the transcription. For example, if your guest mentioned their website. Make sure to link that to their website. You can also link to your other episode blog pages if you’ve mentioned another episode.
5. You can structure your episode blog page by adding the show notes first.
Then, the transcription below it. Adding images throughout the transcription content will help to give the viewer’s eyes a break from the long-form content. Using stock photos that are related to the topic will make the content more seamless. Here’s a format template:
[Blog Image]
[Embedded Podcast Player] [Episode Title H1] [Show Notes H2] [Timestamps H3]
[Key Takeaways H3]
[About Our Guest H3]
[Resources H3] [Transcription H2]
[Interviewer Question 1 H3] [Interviewer Question 2 H3] [Interviewer Question 3 H3]
Here’s the closest example of this format. Except the transcription is being used first before the show notes.
Conclusion
A client of mine reported a significant increase in traffic after using both show notes and transcription in their podcast blog posts as compared to just using show notes. If your goal is to improve discoverability using SEO and also bring traffic to your website this is a great way to repurpose your content with purpose.
Furthermore, with the goal to improve the user’s experience, closed captioning is now made available by different platforms such YouTube, Facebook, and Tiktok. When you listen to a Spotify song on your desktop, you can also toggle to see the lyrics on screen. I can see this being applied to podcasts as well. And if you already have your own transcription published for most of your episodes, you already have the upper hand.
Feel free to shoot me a message with your questions. Live Chat is always available!😄 I’m also most active on Instagram.
Also, if you want to try the format I mentioned on this blog, you can hire me to do one for one of your episodes, and if it performs well, then we should absolutely work together!
There’s still more than I can do for you.