One of the most powerful means of reaching an audience, sharing your expertise, and growing a brand is podcasting. Even though many podcasters pour a lot of effort into creating their podcast episodes, they often forget that one of the most powerful supporting features for a podcast is podcast show notes.
Podcast show notes are a description of a podcast episode. This provides listeners with a clear idea of the podcast episode. It also provides them with additional resources that are relevant to the podcast’s discussed topic.
We often tell podcasters at Growth Professor Studios that podcasting is not just about creating podcast episodes. It is a powerful means of reaching your audience. Listeners want to revisit something memorable. These notes turn a regular podcasting experience into a powerful interactive content platform.
Podcast Show Notes vs Episode Descriptions
One of the biggest misconceptions within the realm of podcasting is the difference between the episode description and the podcast show notes.
An episode description is often a short teaser that can be found on a podcast platform, for instance, Spotify or Apple Podcasts. The goal of the episode description is to entice the audience to click the play button.
They are a detailed analysis of the episode, which acts as a companion to the podcast. Rather than a sales pitch, the podcast notes are a guide that can aid the audience in completely understanding the content of the podcast episode.
Some of the common information that can be found within the podcast shownotes are:
- Key points discussed within the episode
- Main topics and insights
- Biographies of the guests
- Resources that were used
- Timestamps within the episode
- Social media handles
- Websites
- Call-to-action for the audience
Show notes for the podcast expand on the content of the episode. They can be found on the podcast page and that can give the audience a better user experience.
Why Podcast Show Notes Matter
1. Convenience for Your Audience
The medium of podcasts is audio-centric. Not all people have the same preferences. Some may want to read a brief summary of the content to determine whether they want to listen to the podcast or not. This is where the importance of the podcast show notes comes into the equation.
There are a number of ways the podcast shownotes can provide the much-needed convenience to the audience. These are as follows:
- Skimmable Summaries
- Organized Sections
- Access to Resources
When people value their time, providing a quick solution to understand the content of the podcast gives your podcast a competitive edge.
2. A Built-in Resource Library
In most podcasts, there are references to useful resources like books, websites, tools, studies, videos, and statistics. Without podcast show notes, it is hard for a listener to remember these resources for future reference.
Some of the resources that a podcast may include are:
- Articles or blog posts that are discussed in the podcast
- Recommended books or courses
- Graphs or charts
- Tools or software that are discussed in the podcast or by the guests
- Websites or social media profiles of the guests
The podcast then becomes a repository for educational resources.
3. Easy Episode Navigation
Long content can contain a number of topics within a single episode. This can make it difficult for the audience to locate the specific point of the content they are interested in. This is where the use of podcast show notes can benefit the content creator.
This way the audience can immediately skip to the most important point of the content.
Example of a structured format for the podcast show notes webpage:
- Episode Introduction
- Guest Background and Expertise
- Key Discussion Topics
- Actionable Insights
- Resources
- Listener Call-to-Action
This provides a highly effective solution to keeping the audience engaged with the content.
4. Podcast Show Notes Improve SEO
One of the biggest advantages of podcast show notes is their impact on search engine optimization (SEO).
Search engines cannot easily analyze audio files. However, they can index written content. This means people searching for topics related to your podcast may discover your episode through Google or other search engines.
Benefits of SEO podcast notes include:
- Increased organic website traffic
- Higher discoverability for your podcast
- Better keyword visibility
- Expanded reach beyond podcast platforms
Strategically placing keywords like podcast show notes within your article helps improve search rankings without overwhelming the reader.
5. Stronger Calls-to-Action
A podcast can have several calls to action such as subscribing to a newsletter or downloading a resource. However, a listener might forget all this after the podcast ends. The podcast show notes help ensure that your calls to action do not get forgotten.
The calls to action that can be included in the podcast notes:
- Subscribe to the podcast
- Leave a review for the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
- Join an email newsletter
- Download a guide or resource
- Follow the podcast on social media
Conclusion
Podcast show notes are more than just a recap of your content. They are a tool to organize your content and leverage your audience engagement. Creating structured show notes podcast pages is a must if you are looking to grow your podcasts continuously and reach more people. Reach out to Growth Professor Studios to embrace the ideas that can reshape the future of your podcasts.