Why your podcast needs a website.
If you’re serious about making your podcast, and want a following behind it, you should have a website attached to it. Making your podcast is just the first step in creating a big following behind it. You are going to have to put effort into making a brand for your podcast, as well as the show itself. That means creating social media accounts and a website with a theme around all of that. It’s not as hard as it sounds, you just need to find something to help you pick a color set, or maybe you already have one based on your podcast graphic. There are a lot of services out there to help you with the graphic design aspect of your brand. It’s never been easier to start a website and it’s super important to have one along with your show. Here’s a few reasons why your podcast needs a website.
Branding
As I mentioned in the opening, building a website can really cement your brand as a show. You can really stylize the way your site looks and feels. That can really support the way the show runs and your personality. When your listeners visit your website, you want it to reflect the same feelings as your podcast does. Otherwise, your audience could be confused about what you are offering. Branding is more of a broad topic than just your website, but whatever you want your brand to portray, try and match that with your website. It just makes it a little more smooth for the audience to handle when visiting all your platforms.
Ownership
You not only can style the site exactly how you want it to look, but you will be able to own your website completely. When you host your podcast on popular podcasting platforms you technically don’t own the rights to the audio that is being uploaded. All the content is really owned by the hosting sites and the platforms. While it is your audio that you’ve recorded and most likely nothing will happen to it, the possibility is always there that the platform might change its rules on how many episodes you can have in a month, the rules about the content, anything could change and really effect the process of making your podcast.
Merchandise
There are plenty of ways to make money from your podcast, but a great way to get some extra income from your show, is to sell merch. If you have a big enough audience, and people enjoy what you do then selling merch labeled with your show is a great investment. There’s a few ways to actually sell those products online, when you’re selling your products, you want the consumer to visit your website. Everything should be in one place, it’s easier for the audience, and better for you because they will stay on your site, and check out the other content you have.
SEO
If you don’t know SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. It’s how people find your website or online content through search engines like Google. The basic way that SEO works is that the more content you have on your website, the more likely it will start to show up in the searches. There is certainly a lot more to it than that and there’s entire businesses based on optimizing your sites SEO. When you post your podcast to your website, you will start to show up in searches when people look for your podcast over Google. That will give you an advantage over other podcasts, especially for your certain niche. The more you publish with your podcast, the better the results will be, for example, show notes, a blog, accompanied video. Anything that will make your show stand out, will make your website stand out.
Perceived Value
It’s pretty easy these days to make a website, and it’s fairly easy to make it look good. When you are able to plug a website that looks good alongside your podcast that sounds good, people automatically perceive your show as having a lot of value. When your show has value, more people will be willing to hear what you have to say, and more people will get hooked week after week. Your show is something that you’ve put a lot of work into creating, let people know that by having a great looking website that helps convey your message.