When investing your time and energy into producing podcast episodes, it's essential to maximize the accessibility and discoverability of your content. One effective way to significantly enhance the value of each episode is by providing a comprehensive podcast transcript, which not only makes your content more accessible to a wider audience but also improves its visibility for search engines.
Definition of podcast transcription
A podcast transcript is a written document that provides a verbatim record of the spoken content in your podcast episodes. Whether manually transcribed or generated using automated software, a podcast transcript captures every word spoken by you or your guests during the episode.
You can post transcripts on the podcast website. It's recommended to include a transcript of each episode in the audio player and program notes to improve accessibility and provide more value to your audience.
And good news more and more podcast directories are supporting transcripts, with Apple announcing earlier that it will use AI to automatically transcribe your podcast episodes while allowing you to manually upload transcripts. Spotify, on the other hand, tested transcription much earlier, and they seem to be doing more, like generating Youtube-like chapters for your episodes. (Which is also what Noma does).
Why Add Podcast Episode Transcripts?
What benefits do podcast episode transcripts provide? There are plenty of advantages to incorporating them alongside your audio files.
Including podcast transcriptions enhances the accessibility of your episodes.
According to information from the World Health Organization, about 5% of people worldwide have trouble hearing. Although podcasts mostly use sound, this doesn't mean people with hearing problems can't enjoy them.
By giving out podcast transcriptions, you provide another way for people with hearing issues to understand your content. They can use these written versions to catch up on anything they missed or read the whole episode.
Also, podcast episode transcriptions help people who aren't fluent in the language. They can read the text to understand the content better.
Supporting Non-Native Speakers
Pure audio content may present challenges for non-native English speakers and limit their understanding and engagement.
To address this issue, providing podcast transcripts is crucial. Transcripts present the content in written form, enabling non-native speakers to more easily comprehend the information, enhancing their listening experience and learning outcomes.
Boost Your Podcast SEO
Text is far more effectively indexed by search engines compared to audio. Unlike audio files, which search engine bots cannot listen to, they can easily crawl metadata associated with them.
Although you may include show notes to assist Google in grasping your episodes' content, these notes usually span just a few hundred words. Such brevity contrasts with the long-form content that Google favors for prioritized display in search results.
Transcribing your podcast episodes transforms all keyword-rich content into machine-readable text, enhancing (SEO) visibility. Integrating podcast transcripts with your audio files notably amplifies web traffic, facilitating the discovery of your content by new audiences.
Since 2014, This American Life has been releasing podcast transcripts alongside episodes.
Those are what they found:
A 4.36% increase in new inbound traffic directly attributable to the new podcast transcript page.
6.68% increase in new inbound traffic via search, directly attributable to the new podcast transcript page.
Inbound links increased by 3.89%, directly attributable to the new podcast transcript page.
7.23% of all unique visitors viewed at least one transcript.
Repurpose your content by transcript
After putting in the hard work to produce captivating podcast episodes, shouldn't you capitalize on every opportunity? Incorporating podcast transcripts is the key to achieving just that!
From a single podcast episode, a wealth of additional content can be generated. While many podcasters opt to share video versions of their episodes on YouTube or repurpose their content into blog posts, the versatility of transcripts opens up endless possibilities.
While text-based blogs remain pivotal in driving website traffic, the beauty of transcripts lies in their adaptability. Instead of crafting entirely new written material for your blog, leverage your podcast scripts for quick quotes, engaging content ideas, and more.
Moreover, consider the diverse preferences of your audience. Some individuals prefer consuming content through reading rather than listening to audio. By providing transcripts, you accommodate these preferences and ensure accessibility for all.
When repurposing podcast content, there are various forms to explore:
Creating visually appealing blog posts: Combine podcast transcripts with relevant images and charts to craft rich and colorful blog articles that capture readers' attention.
Crafting polished speeches or presentations: Organize podcast transcripts into speeches or presentation slides for use in conference presentations or online webinars.
Developing educational ebooks: Compile podcast transcripts into ebook format to offer readers an opportunity for in-depth understanding of specific topics.
Producing infographics or visual content: Transform key information from podcast transcripts into charts, infographics, or other visual content to present to audiences in a more intuitive manner.
Designing online courses or training materials: Utilize podcast transcripts to design online courses or training materials that provide learners with targeted learning experiences.
Creating polished reports or whitepapers: Organize podcast transcripts into reports or whitepapers to showcase research findings, industry insights, or professional viewpoints.
Generating engaging social media content: Extract highlights from podcast transcripts to create engaging social media posts or tweets, increasing brand exposure and interaction.
Be Quoted and Credited Across Platforms
Podcast transcripts enhance quoting in tweets, blogs, and articles, improving SEO.
Without them, listeners may hesitate to transcribe quotes, risking misquotation. With transcripts, it's easy for listeners to copy and paste quotes, ensuring accurate attribution. Researchers and bloggers can easily find episodes through Google search, simplifying quoting and citation, and generating valuable inbound links.
Enhancing Legal Compliance and Reducing Risks
Almost every podcaster is aware of the prolonged legal battle that SiriusXM faced due to the lack of podcast transcripts and captions, resulting in lawsuits filed by the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) and the Disability Rights Advocates (DRA). Therefore, as your podcast grows in size and audience, the corresponding social responsibility increases as well. Providing accessible content to everyone becomes inevitable; otherwise, there are legal risks involved.
As your podcast gains popularity and reaches a larger audience, the importance of ensuring accessibility cannot be overstated. Failure to provide transcripts and captions not only limits access to your content but also exposes you to potential legal liabilities. It's crucial to prioritize accessibility measures to comply with legal requirements and uphold social responsibility.
An Outstanding Listeners Experience
By providing a transcript, listeners can follow along with the podcast as they read, enhancing their understanding and engagement. Taking it a step further, interactive transcripts allow users to click on specific words and instantly navigate to that point in the audio, facilitating a more dynamic listening experience.
Repurposing content into different formats also improves the user experience for desktop audiences who may prefer reading blog posts or consuming bite-sized content on social media rather than listening to full audio episodes.