9 min
Show notes: The top 4 reasons your podcast needs them Podcastification - podcasting tips, podcast tricks, how to podcast better
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Creating quality show notes for a podcast episode takes time... is it worth it?I've heard all kinds of opinions about the subject...
In Facebook groupsGoogle Plus communitiesOn actual podcasts about podcasting
The truth is there's no one-size-fits-all answer.
But as a podcast producer whose company PROVIDES SHOW NOTES for many of my clients, I'm going to try to convince you that there is more reason TO create show notes than there is NOT to have show notes.
Here are my top 4 reasons you should consider show notes a necessity.Show notes provide text-based content for search engines to find and display for people searching for the topics you cover in your show.
In case you didn't know, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines don't have the ability to crawl through the audio of your podcast and pull out keywords and topics in order to discover what your episode is about.
They rely on YOU to tell them what the audio is about, so that they can in turn tell the people searching for those topics.
That's one of the most important things good show notes do.
Now that doesn't mean that you can any old thing onto your site as show notes and expect the search engines to feature it.
You have to employ proper web-writing techniques that optimize your show notes for search engine ranking... which IS part of the difficulty of writing good show notes (which I'll address more fully in a moment).
But if you take the time to do that, you'll be creating the most organic way for people to find your episodes and become familiar with you and your podcasting brand.
On a side note, show notes are one more source of content. It's like another hook in the water. The more content you have out there, the greater your chances of landing that big client or raving fan.
Show notes provide one of the simplest ways for your listeners to locate the resources you mention.
The reason you're producing a podcast in the first place is to provide value to your listeners - right?
It's of tremendous value to make it easy for your listeners to benefit from the things you highlight or promote on your show. Here are some examples:
Show notes are an incredible opportunity for you to funnel listeners to your own products and services through easily clickable links.It's a great way to include affiliate links to relevant resources, which is a nice source of additional income for you (just make sure you disclose that they ARE affiliate links).Show notes enable you to feature the resources of the guests you have on your show. Not only is that good form, it's a great way to nurture the connections you're making with people, which only serves to advance your cause in the end.
Now, some people have said,
I include all that stuff in the description of my actual MP3 file already. My listeners can find that information there.That's a valid response, but let me ask you a couple of questions related to that:
Are you telling your listeners that those resources are embedded on every episode you publish? You should be.You've already created a version of show notes to put IN the description of your MP3 file. Why not simply copy and paste it into a show notes page for that episode so you can get the natural SEO value of having another piece of content on the web?Have you considered that some of your listeners may actually LIKE to do things on the web instead of through the metadata of the file itself? I think it's better not to force-feed your listeners the format YOU prefer, give them options! It's about THEM, after all.
All that to say... show notes are one of the most natural ways for...
Creating quality show notes for a podcast episode takes time... is it worth it?I've heard all kinds of opinions about the subject...
In Facebook groupsGoogle Plus communitiesOn actual podcasts about podcasting
The truth is there's no one-size-fits-all answer.
But as a podcast producer whose company PROVIDES SHOW NOTES for many of my clients, I'm going to try to convince you that there is more reason TO create show notes than there is NOT to have show notes.
Here are my top 4 reasons you should consider show notes a necessity.Show notes provide text-based content for search engines to find and display for people searching for the topics you cover in your show.
In case you didn't know, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines don't have the ability to crawl through the audio of your podcast and pull out keywords and topics in order to discover what your episode is about.
They rely on YOU to tell them what the audio is about, so that they can in turn tell the people searching for those topics.
That's one of the most important things good show notes do.
Now that doesn't mean that you can any old thing onto your site as show notes and expect the search engines to feature it.
You have to employ proper web-writing techniques that optimize your show notes for search engine ranking... which IS part of the difficulty of writing good show notes (which I'll address more fully in a moment).
But if you take the time to do that, you'll be creating the most organic way for people to find your episodes and become familiar with you and your podcasting brand.
On a side note, show notes are one more source of content. It's like another hook in the water. The more content you have out there, the greater your chances of landing that big client or raving fan.
Show notes provide one of the simplest ways for your listeners to locate the resources you mention.
The reason you're producing a podcast in the first place is to provide value to your listeners - right?
It's of tremendous value to make it easy for your listeners to benefit from the things you highlight or promote on your show. Here are some examples:
Show notes are an incredible opportunity for you to funnel listeners to your own products and services through easily clickable links.It's a great way to include affiliate links to relevant resources, which is a nice source of additional income for you (just make sure you disclose that they ARE affiliate links).Show notes enable you to feature the resources of the guests you have on your show. Not only is that good form, it's a great way to nurture the connections you're making with people, which only serves to advance your cause in the end.
Now, some people have said,
I include all that stuff in the description of my actual MP3 file already. My listeners can find that information there.That's a valid response, but let me ask you a couple of questions related to that:
Are you telling your listeners that those resources are embedded on every episode you publish? You should be.You've already created a version of show notes to put IN the description of your MP3 file. Why not simply copy and paste it into a show notes page for that episode so you can get the natural SEO value of having another piece of content on the web?Have you considered that some of your listeners may actually LIKE to do things on the web instead of through the metadata of the file itself? I think it's better not to force-feed your listeners the format YOU prefer, give them options! It's about THEM, after all.
All that to say... show notes are one of the most natural ways for...
9 min