Someone downloads, listens while doing dishes, then moves on with their day. They need a destination you actually control – not a Spotify show notes section.
Listen Now:
So should each podcast episode be on its own page of your website?
I would say only if you want people to find and listen to it.
In last year’s State of Business Podcasting Report, we saw that 59% of the shows we looked at were putting each episode that they released on individual website pages, and there are tons of good reasons to do this.
Every episode that you release can become a piece of content that you optimize for different reasons, different purposes, and different outcomes in your business.
The first and most important of them is probably for the SEO and the interlinking possibility that you have with this content.
Every episode is unique and standalone and interesting, and it can relate to other things that you’ve talked about, other services that you offer, other resources that you recommend.
And so that becomes a web or an environment of content that people can get into when they start examining your content, when they find your podcast and start listening to more.
This happens because podcast episodes are ephemeral.
They come into someone’s feed, they download them, they listen maybe while they’re doing something else, and then they go on with their day and they do other things, and they don’t really think about that episode anymore unless they happen to remember it and look it up later.
And when they look it up later, or when they want that resource that you’ve talked about, or they want to connect with you in some way because what you said really resonated with them, your website’s a really good place for them to be doing that.
Apple Podcasts and Spotify don’t have great “hey, get in touch” or “hey, get a free discovery call” options within their show notes.
So as much as possible, you want to be directing people back to the part of the internet that you really control, where you can decide what people see, where you can give them the options they need to get in touch with you, to learn more, and even to buy something.
When you don’t have your podcast episodes on unique website pages, people are going to have to go to the podcast players, which aren’t going to be as optimized for them to take the next step, to get deeper into a relationship with you.
Ultimately, they’re not as effective as your own website is going to be.
So take the time to make every episode and the notes associated with it its own web page.
That’s a benefit that’s really going to stack over time, especially as your content continues to interrelate and get stronger and stronger in terms of its presence online and the authority that you have to speak on your topic area.