It seems like everyone has a podcast nowadays, from your boss who talks about business strategies to that neighbor down the street who breaks down the greatest breakfast foods in human history.
So how can you make your content stand out, even among the bacon and eggs? One method that opens the door to a larger audience and simultaneously increases your podcast SEO is podcast transcription. Here is a quick guide on what that means, how to transcribe your podcast, and the opportunities this creates.
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What is a podcast transcript?
If you are going to investigate podcast transcription services, you should probably know what a podcast transcript is before you set off. A podcast transcript is a text script of the audio from a podcast. This includes the text from each speaker and indicates who is speaking for each section.
How do you transcribe a podcast?
There are quite a few methods to transcribe a podcast, from manual transcription by yourself to automated transcription service. For those who want to keep their budget low and have the time necessary for accurate transcription, you can open a Google Doc or similar program and turn on the voice-to-text app.
Play your podcast aloud for about one audio minute to test out the accuracy and make any corrections that you need. This might help you with your content itself, as you will be able to review your podcast in detail and determine whether you need to spend more or less time on certain subjects.
Another free method is uploading your podcast to YouTube and downloading the transcript through the system’s closed captioning program. This also requires careful attention to detail, as you will need to go back through your text and ensure it is an accurate transcript.
For those with a larger budget but a smaller amount of free time, the best choice may be an automated transcription service. Examples of these services include GoTranscript, Audext, Trint, Temi, and Descript.
These services generally offer free trials with paid subscriptions once you decide that you enjoy their services. The rates vary from annual subscriptions (typically costing under $100) to paying by the minute (around $0.25 per minute).
What are the benefits of podcast transcription?
Podcast transcriptions benefit podcast listeners and producers alike. Considering about 5% of the world population suffers from a hearing disability, this opens the door to more consumers and improves accessibility. For listeners who are still learning a new language, this may also help improve understanding and develop a larger audience for you.
Beyond growing your audience through accessibility, you will also increase SEO (Search Engine Optimization) traffic and visibility on Google. With so much additional text from each show or episode, your content will be significantly more visible on search results.
This makes your content easier to find and builds a larger audience. Another benefit of transcripts is that you are more likely to have backlinks from other content creators since their visitors can explore your podcast without committing to listening to a full episode.
What are you waiting for?
Whether it is small quote boxes on your website or excerpts in articles, the benefits of podcast transcription will continue to arise as you build your content and online presence.
You can include snippets from the transcription in social media accounts, blog postings, and other campaigns. With so many benefits from transcription, the only question is how you will choose to do it.
