How to build a Podcast website | How to Create Podcast Website in 2021
How to build a Podcast website | How to Create Podcast Website in 2021; If you’re like most Americans, popular podcasts like Serial, The Daily, Crime Junkies (my favorite), and other products unique to your industry have caught your eye.
You might be inspiring enough to pull out Payne Lindsey and start your own podcast, because if they can do that, why can’t you?
If you’re concerned about whether there’s room for you in a sea of new podcast creators, here’s some good news.
The folks at Pacific Content predict that 2021 will be a massive year of growth in podcasts for platforms like Apple, Spotify, Google, Pandora, iHeart, and almost every social media channel. They also predicted that podcasting was on its way to becoming a multi-billion dollar industry.
What this means to you is that there is no better time than now to buy a microphone, start your own podcast, and create your own podcast site.
What are the benefits of owning a podcast site?
All you need to start a podcast is recording equipment and software, right? Technically, you can start playing a podcast with the bare minimum, but it won’t help you much in terms of promoting your podcast.
The success of your podcast will be measured by the number of listeners you attract. A website is a powerful tool in helping you spread the word. Here are some of the reasons why a website is a must for a new podcast:
- Listeners can find you on Google.
Once you publish your website, search engines like Google start indexing your content. Whenever podcast listeners search for new podcasts in your niche or even podcasts by name, Google will likely return your website as a result. Without a website, you would lose all of your listeners looking to find you via search.
- Your website can help you promote your podcast.
As you build your website and increase your online followers, you’ll have a tool to help you grow your podcast subscriber base. Additionally, the website acts as a central hub for cross-channel promotion. For example, when you notify your followers on social media that you have a new podcast, you want to be able to post it to one specific website at a time. Your podcast site should be that spot.
- You can post past episodes.
When was the last time you listened to a podcast and then decided to listen to the entire season? For me, this happens at least twice a month. The website is the perfect place to post all of your archived episodes so you can give new listeners exactly what they want – more of your podcast.
How to set up your podcast site?
Now that you know why you should have a podcast website, let’s talk about how to start your own website. Here are the steps to follow to get your podcast site up and running.
- Choose your hosting provider and domain name
Every website needs a hosting provider. A web hosting service is a company that owns massive servers and allows you and millions of other website owners to rent a small but powerful space on this server.
For a small monthly fee, your web hosting company promises 99.9% uptime, fast load times, security, domain name rentals, excellent customer service, and a platform to help you easily create a website or install WordPress with just a few clicks of a button.
- Install WordPress
Although there are several platforms that you can use to create your podcast website, I recommend using WordPress. WordPress is especially useful for novice website owners and podcast builders because it is easy to install and navigate.
WordPress is also an open source platform that comes with responsive templates and plugins to help you design your site. When you choose WordPress, you don’t have to know how to code. You just have to know how to point and click and which plugins to install (we’ll cover this in a minute).
- Choose a WordPress theme
When you first log in to your new WordPress podcast site, it will look very nice. This is because you haven’t defined a look for your website yet.
A theme is a pre-coded template that gives your website content a responsive, fresh, and cute design.
There are many free, premium, and even third-party themes that you can choose When Building Your Website.
- Install the correct WordPress plugins
WordPress plugins will be your best friend when you customize your new podcast site.
A plugin is basically a coded app by developer that adds specific functionality to your website. For example, if you want your website visitors to be able to share your content with their followers on social media, then you don’t need to know how to code. All you need to do is find, install and activate a social media sharing plugin.
The plugins you install will depend on what you want your website to do.
Some of the most popular plugins for podcast creators include:
W3 Total Cache – Improves website performance
Yoast SEO – Blog Post Optimization Tool
Akismet – Spam Monitor (comes pre-installed with WordPress)
- Customize your podcast site
Once you’ve installed the plugins, you’ll be ready to customize your podcast site. Every WordPress theme is a little different, but where you go to customize your site is the same.
If you click on your site name, and then click “Customize” in the top right-hand side of the screen, WordPress will take you to a page where you can make changes to the following site elements:
The identity of the site
- Header image
- Lists
- Widgets
- Settings
- And more!
You will also need to add the canonical pages to your site, including about, contact, blog, etc. Here is a helpful tutorial on how to add a page to WordPress.
How to get your first podcast on your site
The exact details of how you publish your first post might differ slightly depending on which podcast plugin you use at the end.
The good news is that the aforementioned podcast plugins are fairly intuitive. When you activate the plug-in, you will follow step-by-step instructions to properly set up and run the launcher.
Regardless of which plugin you use, every time you want to publish a new podcast episode, you will need to create a new post.
To create a new post, click the plus button that says “New” in the top navigation bar, and WordPress will direct you to a new post page.
From here, you can include your audio player (using a shortcode) at the top of the new post and add any related comments or show notes. It’s also smart to paste the podcast episode text.
Your text will help tell Google about the topic of your podcast and increase search visibility across Google. It also provides a way for fans to quickly read your content if they don’t have time to listen to the entire episode.
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