Here’s something I know to be true: if you have a podcast, you’re sitting on a goldmine of content.
Every one of those podcast episodes is full of wordy wisdom, whether it’s one nugget or a whole, err, pan of them (this is where the gold mining metaphor falls apart, clueless as I am about goldmining – sorry to disappoint).
I am not, however, clueless about small business, podcasting or writing – as a messaging mentor and previous co-host of RE: The Podcast.
Wouldn’t it be great if this insight could make its way over to some blog posts, too?
It would be great, actually, and here’s why:
- It’s an excellent way to increase internal links on your site. Creating internal links – when you link to a piece of content that’s elsewhere on your site – is a very helpful thing to do, which is a quality Google loves. Plus, it keeps visitors on your website and engaging with content, which helps search engine optimisation (SEO).
- Another SEO winner: it means there’s more (useful) pages on your website, and this means there’s more pages to appear in Google search results.
Time out! What’s SEO?
SEO – an acronym for Search Engine Optimisation – is the process of tweaking and growing a website with the goal of ranking higher and more often in Google search results.
Visitors from Google searches tend to be the most engaged and highest spending, so we want as many of them as possible. That’s also why the team at Studio Cotton can’t stop blogging about SEO, so once you’re done reading this banging article, dive into their SEO article archive.
Ok, back to some more reasons why transforming your episodes into blog posts is all killer no filler:
- This is a biggy (though who am I kidding, they’re all biggies!): it makes your content work harder for you. Whether you’re a business owner who dreads content creation or a marketing manager who has a never-ending to-do list, repurposing content frees up time and brainspace.
- Also, with the best will in the world, some people will never EVER listen to your podcast; it’s just not their jam. But we want to help them too, so let’s take the same content and put it into a format they can enjoy.
How to transform podcast episodes into SEO-rich content
Before we go onto what we should do to transform podcast episodes into SEO-rich content, let’s discuss what we shouldn’t do: just copy the show notes.
Imagine a QI-style red buzzer going off right now (and the kindness of Sandi Toksvig as we deliver this next bit). Although copying the show notes would technically tick all of the above boxes, something much bigger would be at play: the fact that it was duplicated content.
You see, content duplication confuses a search engine. It doesn’t know which page it should direct people towards, which reduces the effectiveness of both of them.
But that doesn’t mean all is lost!
Here’s how to turn podcast episodes into content that’s juicy for people AND SEO:
(Note: There *are* AI tools that can do these for you in theory, but neither I nor the team at Studio Cotton use them.)
1. Straight-up extracting an article from a podcast episode
Turning a podcast episode straight into a blog post means creating a piece of content that sits somewhere between your episode show notes and a transcript.
It still pulls out the best, most useful bits, but adds a structure that makes the info easier to digest than if it was just in the big block of text, as spoken.
In theory, this type of blog article is the most time consuming; but you’ve at least created the content once already, with your mouth, so you get to skip the ideation stage.
It’s the most straightforward method, but also the least creative (if that kind of thing matters in your rankings).
E.g. These are the 7 things I learned about marketing on Threads, from Threaddie Threadmayne
2. Podcast episode round ups & starter pack listicles
The format of a round up listicle is, as the name might suggest, a list rounding up certain podcast episodes. (And a starter pack, which a couple of people mentioned to the team at the Studio Cotton stand at The Podcast Show, is a bundle of podcast episodes that will help new listeners get to know the hosts, or some common topics.)
For each podcast episode, you’d write a blurb including what it’s about and why it made the round-up, including snippets and those all-important internal links wherever necessary.
These kind of round-ups are an easy way for users/readers/listeners to easily navigate a mountain of content – plus, a really enjoyable way of deep-diving and getting the vibe of the show straight away.
This is perhaps the laziest way to turn your archive of podcast episodes into blog content, but I mean that in a good and respectful way: so many things in business ownership and podcasting are a lot of effort, we should actively celebrate and encourage things that are lower effort but higher reward, where applicable!
These kind of round-up listicles are also doubly helpful for users/readers/listeners because they help them easily navigate a mountain of content. Look at you go, you helpful business owner, you.
E.g. Get to know the hosts of X Podcast in our 5 funniest episodes
Start here: the lore of Nerdy Game in 5 podcast episodes
3. “Best of” podcast episodes article
This is a different type of article, because it’s chosen by your listeners. What have your most popular episodes been in the past year?
Or maybe the most popular ones within a certain area? Dive into your data and stats to see what the people are lovin’, and help it reach even more keen ears.
E.g. Our best small business podcast episodes, as chosen by you
10 podcast episodes for when you’re in an Instagram rut
4. “As mentioned in” curated content listicles
This one requires a little more research if you’re looking back on your episodes; alternatively, keep track of this in one place as you record going forward.
You probably recommend things on your podcast from time to time. If you’re a knitting podcast, for example, you might shout out your favourite needles and yarn, with different colours depending on your project.
If you’re a finance podcast, you might recommend certain apps and services. (When I used to co-host RE: The Podcast, we used to reference books we thought people should read).
All of these can make excellent blog posts, too, because of their aggregated quality: just make sure you remember to link to the episodes, so that people can read more about it!
E.g. My favourite tools for knitting, as a crafting podcast host
The 23 small business books we recommend all the time (literally)
The 5 tools you need to get on top of your personal budget
Podcast episodes are excellent long-form content, so full of juicy conversations and useful tips. This means they deserve better than a push notification, an Instagram story, and then being consigned to the Content Graveyard.
Transform those bad boys into SEO-rich blog posts, and you’ll be thanking yourself!
(Also, if you want a podcast website designing, you should check out the fine folk at Studio Cotton, whose blog I’m writing on right now. They really are the gold standard of wonderful podcast websites – do you like how I thematically brought it back to gold at the end? A professional at work.)
