How to Write Podcast Show Notes That Get Found

Search engines and podcast apps cannot listen to your episode. They can only read the words around it. That makes your show notes the single biggest chance to be found by someone who has never heard of you. Good notes are also useful to your regular listeners, which is the best test of whether they are any good.

What show notes are

Show notes are the text that goes with an episode: its title, its description, the links and the names mentioned. In your feed, they are the episode description. Apps show them under the episode, and your show's public listener page shows them on the page for that episode, where a search engine can read and index them.

Start with a clear episode title

Your title is the most important line you write. Say what the episode is about in plain words, the way someone would search for it.

• Name the topic or the guest. "How to Price Your Photography, with Dana Reyes" beats "Episode 42".
• Keep it short enough to read. Apps cut long titles off.
• Put the episode number in the number field, not in the title, so the title stays clean.

Write the first two sentences for a stranger

Apps show only the first few lines before a "more" link. Those lines decide whether someone presses play. Use them to say who the episode is for and what they will get from it, in your own voice. Save the greetings and housekeeping for later.

What to include

1. A summary of two or three short paragraphs.
2. Guest names and a one line description of each guest, since people search for names.
3. Links to everything you mention: books, tools, articles and the guest's own site.
4. Timestamps for the main sections, written as text such as "12:40 Why most prices are too low". Listeners use them to jump around, and they add useful words to the page.
5. One call to action, such as "leave a rating" or "send this to a friend". One is plenty.

Keep the formatting plain

Simple formatting works everywhere. Short paragraphs, bold for emphasis, bulleted or numbered lists and links all display correctly in apps. Fancy layouts, tables and pasted web page styling often break or get stripped, so do not rely on them. Write in a document, check it reads well as plain text, then paste it in.

Use the words people actually search for

Think about what someone would type to find your episode, and make sure those words appear naturally in the title and the first paragraph. Do not repeat a phrase over and over, or fill the notes with a list of keywords. Search engines handle that badly, and listeners can tell.

Consider a transcript

A transcript is the full text of an episode, and it gives search engines far more to read than any summary. It also makes the show usable for people who cannot or prefer not to listen. Even a lightly edited transcript on a page of your own site helps. If you add one, keep your show notes short and link to it.

A simple template to copy

• One sentence saying who the episode is for and what they will learn.
• Two short paragraphs of summary.
• Guest name, with a link and one line about them.
• Timestamps for the main parts.
• Links mentioned in the episode.
• One call to action.

Use the same order every time. Regular listeners learn where to look, and you will write each set of notes faster.

Fix old episodes, too

You can edit show notes at any time without changing the episode's unique ID, so nothing is re-delivered to listeners. If an older episode keeps getting downloads, spend ten minutes improving its title, summary and links. It is one of the cheapest ways to get more from work you have already done.