Podcast Transcription SEO

Why It Matters

Full transcripts make podcast content searchable, dramatically improving discovery. Pages with transcripts rank for 10x more keywords than show notes alone. Transcripts also improve accessibility, user engagement, and provide quotable content for social sharing.

How It Works

Transcripts convert spoken audio into indexable text. Optimization involves cleaning up filler words, adding heading breaks, highlighting key quotes, and including speaker attribution. Search engines index this content, allowing podcasts to rank for long-tail conversational queries.

Use Cases

• A business podcast publishes full transcripts, ranking for 500 long-tail keywords per episode vs 50 with show notes alone
• An educational podcast uses transcripts to create blog posts, 3x organic traffic from repurposed content
• A news podcast's transcripts rank for specific quotes and statements, driving traffic from news-related searches

Best Practices

• Use professional transcription services or AI tools (Otter, Descript) for accuracy
• Clean transcripts by removing excessive filler words (um, uh) while maintaining natural language
• Add H2/H3 headings to break up transcript into topic sections for scannability
• Highlight key quotes or insights in bold or pullouts for social sharing
• Include speaker attribution (Host:, Guest Name:) for clarity and entity recognition
• Add a table of contents with timestamps linking to relevant sections