Why you should transcribe your podcast

Podcast transcripts improve accessibility for listeners who are hard of hearing, and they can also give you an SEO boost. When you add a transcript to your episode, Transistor includes a readable version on your website and links to it in your RSS feed.

Here are some of the benefits of adding transcripts to your podcast.

Accessibility

First and foremost, transcripts make your podcast accessible to a wider audience, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing. By providing a written version of your audio content, you're opening up your podcast to more listeners.

SEO Advantages

Transcripts can significantly boost your podcast's online visibility. Search engines can't index audio, but they can crawl text. By transcribing your episodes, you're creating more content for search engines to find, which can lead to better search rankings and more potential listeners discovering your show.

Example of a podcast episode transcript

Allow users to browse and share specific timestamps

One of my favorite features is the ability to browse a text transcript on a podcast website and jump to any part of the audio. (Example)

Additional Perks

Beyond accessibility and SEO, transcripts offer other benefits. They provide a reference for listeners who want to revisit specific parts of an episode, and they can be repurposed into blog posts, social media snippets, or other marketing materials.

How Transistor Supports Podcast Transcripts

We're proud to support the Podcasting 2.0 tag <podcast:transcript>. Using this tag, we'll link to any podcast transcripts you generate (SRT, VTT, JSON, or TXT) in your RSS feed. Any podcast apps that support the tag, including Apple Podcasts and Podcast Addict, can show those text captions in their app.

Apple Podcasts and Transcripts

Apple Podcasts recently announced a new transcription feature, which will transcribe your audio in their app. Alternatively, Apple can use the podcast transcripts you've generated on your hosting provider (using the <podcast:transcript> tag). This integration not only boosts accessibility but also enhances the user experience by allowing listeners to follow along or revisit specific parts of an episode.

Apple Podcasts Transcripts Support

Spotify's Approach to Transcripts

Spotify, another key platform in the podcasting space, has also recognized the value of transcripts. They announced their support for transcripts, chapters, and enhanced show pages on International Podcast Day.

Spotify Newsroom Announcement

Introducing AI Transcriptions by Transistor

Transistor has an AI transcription feature! It will automatically transcribe your podcast audio, detect different speakers, and generate outputs in SRT, VTT, JSON, and TXT formats. Moreover, we'll also publish the transcript as a web page for each episode, making it even easier for your audience to access and engage with your content.

Transcripts are no longer just a nice-to-have feature; they're a must-have for any serious podcaster. With Transistor's support and new AI transcription feature, adding transcripts to your podcast episodes has never been easier.