Why does your podcast need a website, and how can you build one?

If you wanted to connect with people through written words, you would have created a blog, not a podcast. That’s a fair point, but just like any other business (yes, your podcast is a business), in 2024, it needs a website. Yes, sure, it’s not something mandatory, but a website does tend to offer some outstanding perks that no other medium can bring.

You can share your work across all platforms. Moreover, you can advertise your episodes on Social Media. You can spend hundreds, if not thousands, to put your podcast on some popular lists and rankings, but when all is said and done, the only way to go viral is to have the means to utilize the search engines. A place where your audience can call home and where it can find all your past episodes. A place where you can build credibility and authority. In short, you need a website.

Naturally, with podcasts becoming ever so popular, we’ve created a detailed checklist for building your podcast website. But before we get there, let’s discuss the five most significant benefits a website will bring to your podcast.

Еlevatе your credibility and authority

This point may seem meaningless if you are a well-recognized person who has earned fame through different means. You already have credibility and authority, and that’s precisely your selling point. However, how many people can genuinely say they are well-recognized by the mass viewer by name? Joe Rogan – sure. But can you, for example, tell me for sure who Mark Manson is? He is still well-known in podcasting and for those who love self-help books. But for the general public, his name will always play second fiddle to his most famous book – The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** for a vast part of the audience. Despite his fame, Manson still has a personal website, which allows him to demonstrate his credibility and authority to those having no idea who he is.

That’s the point behind your website as well. As a podcaster, you will share your opinions on various topics in a specific niche you are familiar with. It might be astrophysics, or it might be Minecraft gameplay. Regardless, people want to see why they should listen to you. Your background and know-how will determine whether anyone cares about your opinion.

So, giving your listeners a place where they can learn more about you will boost your credibility, and having the proper credentials and know-how will increase your authority.

You can make your podcast as entertaining as SNL, but if you lack the trust and respect of your listeners, your podcast will be a one-hit wonder.

Getting new listeners much easier

While your credibility and authority are essential for retaining your listeners, a website can also help you attract new ones. Getting discovered is the most significant challenge for any podcaster. With 5 million podcasts worldwide and more than 70 million episodes between them, the competition for every single listener is brutal. Any advantage that can give you an edge over your competitors is vital.

Targeting only the 505 million people who actively seek and listen to podcasts is counter-productive. You must utilize the power of search engines, where the potential audience is in the billions.

The best way to do that is with your website’s SEO. That’s one of the most significant advantages of having a web portal for your podcast. It allows you to target people who rarely seek podcasts and don’t use platforms like Spotify, Anchor, iTunes, and others.

We’ve written many articles on enhancing your website’s SEO, so we won’t get into details today. However, a good piece of advice is to optimize your episode notes based on keyword research and add them under your podcast episodes. This way, users will find them through the search engines. Write a short intro and mark with bullet points what the episode will discuss. These bullet points should correspond with long-tail keywords so they can appear in as many search results as possible.

This is a great way to promote your new episodes and get your old ones in front of a brand-new audience.

A website will enlarge your audience, and though many of those coming from the search engines will stay only for an episode or two, a good portion of them will remain for the long run.

It’s a place for your audience to hang out and engage.

The website won’t just bring in new listeners. It will also give your regulars a place to interact, communicate, and provide you with feedback. This is where your contact page will come into play. Having a direct communication channel with your audience is the only secure way to improve your podcast.

Furthermore, your website will allow you to ensure your audience doesn’t miss an episode and tunes in as soon as it is out. An email list will also help. Naturally, you must be respectful of people’s tolerance and preferences. In other words, if you blast them with nonstop emails, they will instantly unsubscribe.

But your website can be much more than that. It can be where your listeners continue the discussion on your episodes through comments. This can give you new ideas or point out where you might have been wrong. Getting direct feedback for your episodes can not only enhance their quality but also make them much more personalized. For example, if you see that a certain topic is a pain point that sparked a debate, you can make a sequel, even mentioning some good points from your listeners. Sharing your listener’s opinions live is a masterclass of showing that you care about your audience’s views and you actually go through the comments rather than letting them duke it out on their own. This will inevitably lead to higher engagement levels and better SEO results. It will also allow you to build a community around your podcast.

Much easier for listeners

Your podcast’s website is much more than a place for your audience to hang out. One of the main benefits of having a website for your podcast is actually giving a more convenient place for your audience to listen. When they use a platform, they can rarely find a particular episode or filter your content based on topics. For example, if you have a history podcast, you can divide it into categories like military history, cultural history, and others. This way, a person interested in wars won’t have to click on each episode to find out what it is about, and they can segment it on your website and get precisely what they want.

Moreover, searching for a particular topic will be much easier through tags and a search box on your website rather than on Spotify, for example.

Finally, your listeners will be able to find all your content categorized and tagged. This will increase your secondary listens, as no one will scroll way back in platforms like iTunes, for example.

Better opportunities for monetization

When push comes to shove, your podcast is a business. Yes, it may be your passion project, but it’s always better if you can earn an extra dime from it. Typically, podcasters have limited earning streams. They monetize through sponsorships, partnerships, affiliate marketing, merchandise, donations, or dynamic ad insertion. Having a website will open the possibility for new streams.

First and foremost, you will be able to sell merchandise on your own platform without sharing the profit with someone else. Moreover, though a podcast is a great way to generate leads, it’s not very useful for sales. A website allows you to create a proper sales funnel and customer journey. Also, you can increase the revenues from ads and utilize your traffic to generate more donations and merch sales.

Of course, your central product is your podcast, so you can even offer exclusive content for a small fee. This way, you can take out the middleman and collect the entire donation instead of giving 10-20% to a platform. Plus, a properly built website will inspire trust in your listeners, who will be much more obliged to use their credit or debit cards.

Naturally, to inspire trust, you need a well-designed, secure, and reliable website. So, let’s discuss what you need to build it.

How to build a podcast website

Podcast websites are really not that different from other websites. They still have the same basic needs with some small tweaks here and there. So, what do you need to build your website?

Choose a proper hosting plan and domain name.

The first step in creating a successful podcast website is choosing a great host. Without a doubt, VisualWebTechnologies should be at the top of your list. Our cloud-based technology guarantees your podcasts will always be available. We offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which is essential for your SEO efforts.

Moreover, we provide lightning-fast loading time, allowing seamless playbacks without delays. This is the cornerstone of user satisfaction when it comes to podcasts.

At VisualWeb, we also pride ourselves on the robust and top-of-the-line security features we offer to our clients. This will enhance your credibility and assure your listeners they can securely purchase or share their emails.

While the hosting provider is clear, you must still consider which plan will fit your needs perfectly. It all depends on the traffic you expect and how often you will provide new episodes. For example, if you post new podcasts every single day, even if you have 1000 listeners, they will accumulate to more than 30,000 visits per month. So, you’d want to go for the WebWarp option, which will cover an estimate of around 60,000 visitors per month. Moreover, all your podcasts will need storage space.

If your podcast grows, you should consider going beyond shared hosting.

Consider your needs, check out our plans, and if you still are not sure what to choose, don’t hesitate to ask our sales team. They will surely give you solid advice.

Regarding the domain, we suggest following these tips to help you buy a domain name that will be more than just an internet address.

Get WordPress

Many platforms can help you build your website. However, since you don’t need some complicated features and you are looking for a straightforward website, using WordPress will be the fastest, easiest, and all-around best choice. There is a reason why over 43% of websites use WordPress. With its vast collection of plugins, the platform can help you build up your podcast’s home in a matter of hours. Moreover, you won’t need complicated coding, or even IT help to install your own player and keep your website going.

VisualWebTechnologies offers a fast-track WordPress installation process. You can find precisely how to install the platform in our step-by-step guide.

Choose a suitable theme.

Once WordPress has been installed, it’s time to choose a proper theme that will fit your needs. WP has a vast library of themes for any and all business niches, including podcasting. All you have to do is go to the Dashboard –> Appearance –> Themes –> Add New Theme and write “podcast” in the search bar on the right. You will get 39 podcast-specific themes.

Take your time and look through the options. Use the “Live Preview” button to check their styles and features. Some themes will better fit your niche than others.

Once you find the one that perfectly fits your needs, click “Activate,” and the theme will be uploaded.

You can also check some developers for podcasting themes, but most often, they are paid. Still, if you are going all in and you want to impress, you can buy a theme and upload it to WordPress. Just download the theme from the developer’s website, go to Dashboard –> Appearance –> Themes –> Add New Theme, and click on “Upload Theme”.

Your website is almost ready to be set free on the internet. It just needs a bit of customization first.

Get the right plugins.

However, before customizing, you must address the website’s primary needs. To function properly, any WordPress website needs plugins. Plugins are third-party software that gives your website additional features. Now, each website requires different plugins, but some are almost mandatory. You can check our dedicated article on the topic.

After you’ve taken care of your website’s primary functionalities, it’s time to look at your business niche. WordPress offers a range of outstanding plugins that will help you display your podcast episodes, play them, and much more. You can check plugins like Smart Podcast Player, Seriously Simple Podcasting, and Buzzsprout Podcasting. Regardless of what podcasting plugin you choose, it needs to be easy to use, allow episodes to be added through shortcodes, have mobile device compatibility and speed control, and be preferably free or at least at an affordable price.

These plugins will be the beating heart of your website. Now that it is alive, it’s time to give it proper makeup.

Make the website your own

When it comes to web design, you can draw inspiration from your competitors. Check out how they renovated their websites and try to mimic them but with your unique twist.

What will make your website truly yours is your pages. The About page is mandatory, as it will allow your listeners to see who’s behind their favorite podcast. A proper About Page needs attention to detail, and you can learn how to build one from this article.

The Contact page is another mandatory addition to your website. As we already mentioned, getting feedback from your listeners is one of the prime reasons to get a website in the first place. Moreover, the connection will allow you to build a closer relationship with your audience.

The third component is your audio library, where you will keep your old episodes. As explained earlier, making each episode into a blog post is a great idea and will help you immensely with your SEO.

The rest is up to you and your taste. If you are selling merchandise, you can build an online shop. You have the freedom to test and try different views until you get the one that will receive the most positive feedback.

Once you’re done, it’s time to spread the word.

Spread the word

Spreading the word about your website is the easiest step of them all. First and foremost, share the information on your Social media channels. Also, remind your listeners to drop in and join the conversation. The more people visit your website, the more authoritative it will look in front of the search engine crawlers.

You can even start some paid campaigns, though we’d suggest trying the organic method first. After all, your website’s primary goal is to bring you organic traffic, not to be a landing page.

Some final words

Now you know why and how to build your podcast website. But remember that your website is only as good as your primary product. In your case, that’s your podcast. So, don’t neglect your podcasting when creating a website.

Also, don’t forget to stay on top of your hosting needs. If your audience booms, make sure to upgrade your hosting plan promptly. With VisualWeb, the process is effortless, and all you have to do is contact our team. They will help you upgrade your hosting plan and give you great advice if you are unsure what you need.