How and Why to Transcribe Your Podcast

Since you’re spending the time and energy creating podcast episodes, it’s important to make your content as accessible and discoverable as possible. You can add a ton of value (for your audience AND your SEO) to each episode with a podcast transcript.

What Is A Podcast Transcript?

A podcast transcript is a word-for-word account of your episodes. You, or an automated software service, simply listens to your episode and writes down every word spoken by you and your guests.

You can’t publish your podcast transcriptions on the big podcast directories like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify, but you can (and should!) post it on your own podcast's website. It’s best to include a transcription for each episode on the same page as your audio player and Show Notes. EXAMPLES?

• The Frisco Podcast
• Hustle & Pro
• The C3 Podcast

The Benefits Of a Podcast Transcript

Why should you include podcast episode transcriptions alongside your audio files? How about 10 top benefits...

1. Everyone Enjoys Podcasts

Recent studies by the Concordia University of Saint Paul shows that millions of Americans are flocking to podcasts for entertainment. As podcast audiences continue to grow, the number of those unable to access podcast content rises. Like music, podcasts tend to rely on your ears to participate. This is a major barrier for many deaf or hard-of-hearing people who cannot gain access to podcast content when no supplementary transcripts are available. Providing written transcripts of your podcasts, utilizing many free online services or apps, can expand your audience and upgrade your reputation as an inclusive and accessible podcast who cares about the needs of their listeners.

2. Effective SEO

When optimizing your podcast for search engines, you're more likely to draw traffic if you provide a transcript of the text AND using the appropriate tags in the metadata of your post. By transcribing the audio, people are able to search for your podcast content on search engines which creates an entirely new avenue for traffic.

3. Opportunities for Growth SEO

Currently, one major issue with podcasters is the hesitancy to promote their content outside of podcasting. There’s never been a mainstream effort, ever, to explain what a podcast is and why you’d want to subscribe and listen to one. This dilemma can be harnessed to your advantage.

Estimates suggest the deaf and hard of hearing population of the U.S. is nearly 10 million persons, or 1 in 20 people. Since podcasts (for the most part) rely on audio, we can assume that there are currently approximately 10 million people who are not aware of or have never heard of deaf friendly podcasts. What a fantastic opportunity to brand your podcast to millions of individuals who would be thrilled to learn of accessible content, especially if it meets their entertainment, news, education, personal/business growth, etc. needs?!?!

4. People Like to Read

A majority of first-time visitors to your podcast may prefer to read a transcript to gauge how worthwhile the content is. Although this is a given for deaf audiences, those not afflicted by hearing difficulty would also enjoy the ability to read through transcripts, and avoid the distractions and discomfort listening may potentially cause.

5. Social Media Friendly

Social media is the main driving force behind any good podcast. By generating transcripts, or text examples of your content, you can make your podcast immediately easier to share on all social media platforms. Things like quotes, highlights, or interviews are easier to share when available in text-form and increase the viral potential for your content.

6. Comprehensive User Experience

When considering transcribing your podcast, the user's experience should be at the forefront of your decision. Making the user experience of your podcast as accessible, simple, and comfortable as possible is a major way to accumulate a loyal, dedicated, and potentially BUYING audience.

In addition to fostering an environment that's thoughtful and attentive to everyone's needs, you're likely to earn the respect of audience members who appreciate transcripts by offering them content in both an audio and visual format.

7. Let your users skip around in your podcast by clicking on the transcript

This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous reason. Podcasts are great for listening to in the background while working out, driving, and doing other on-the-go things. For the person looking for the visual aid, however, or the user who scrolls through articles when headphones aren’t an option, you can still get your message out loud and clear to this audience.

Publishing your episodes with a listen option next to a text article spreads your content out across a more attractive layout that will be accessible to every user. Best of all, when users look for a specific topic you touch on in a longer episode, a transcript gives them the option to search and jump ahead.

8. Podcasts with transcripts have more backlink opportunities

Most content creators avoid linking to podcast episodes without a podcast transcript because there’s nothing for their readers/followers to explore without listening to an entire episode.

However, content creators don’t mind linking to podcast episodes with podcast transcripts because their readers/followers have something to explore without committing to a full episode or following a lot of steps. So if you want more backlinks (great for SEO!), publish written transcriptions.

9. A podcast transcript creates content you can repurpose

A podcast transcript is a valuable bank of written copy you can use to create other forms of content. You might use it for email marketing campaigns, social media posts, or infographics. Many podcasters use their transcriptions as sources for blog articles.

10. It's Super EASY!

Transcription isn't a tedious process, nor is it expensive! At Wendistry, we use?Otter.ai?which provides quality, speedy, and affordable delivery of transcribed audio utilizing modern captioning technology. With Otter, you can ease the pressure of self-transcription and handle your audio.

Coming Next Week...

As much as we like audio podcasts, there are plenty of people who prefer to consume video content, and it's no surprise that?YouTube?is the second largest social media platform AND search engine. By adding a video element to your podcast, you gain access to a massive audience of potential fans.

But HOW do I add video to my podcast? Stay tuned for next week where we'll answer that question!

Have a wonderful week, please?SHARE this newsletter, and DON'T HESITATE to?send me any questions or comments you might have!