Type here to search
Search

Podcast Website Guide: Quick, Easy, Affordable Tips & Tools

article featured image

 

Welcome to our ultimate podcast website guide! Here, I’ll answer all your questions, from “Does my podcast need a website?” to “How do I make one?” Let’s get into it!

Podcast websites didn’t exist 70 million years ago, and there were a lot of dinosaurs running around eating stuff. These days, podcast websites are abundant, and you can nip down the shop for some milk and a paper without being chewed in half by a T-Rex.

Of course, we don’t know for sure that you’ll be contributing to this dinosaur-free future by setting up your own podcast website. But you might be. And, at the very least, you’ll make your podcast more shareable, discoverable and easier to grow.

Affiliate links! We use them! But only for services we use ourselves and would recommend. We may earn a small commission should you choose to sign up via them, though never at any extra cost to yourself. Affiliate income helps support all the free content we put out here 🙂

Does a Podcast Need a Website?

No podcast needs a website, but the benefits of having one are almost too good to ignore.

One of the big strengths of podcasts is that they exist in so many different places. You create one by signing up to a podcast hosting provider, and that’s the place where all your episodes are uploaded, distributed and stored.

Once your podcast exists, it can be found in a plethora of directories and apps dedicated to listening and curation. Apple and Spotify are the big two. But, other popular platforms include Podchaser, Overcast, and Podcast Addict.

So your podcast has no shortage of couches to sleep on. But you might want to give it a home of its own. That way, listeners can come visit, and you can decide on the food, the drinks, and the wall art.

Think about it: When someone visits your show on a directory, they’ll see the basics—your title, artwork, description, and a list of episodes. But when someone visits a podcast website that you actually run, you can curate their experience. This is useful in all sorts of ways, from monetisation (like selling products or services) to presenting your best episodes front and centre on a ‘Start Here’ page.

Your podcast website is that one single place to send people FOR EVERYTHING. No more “find us on iTunes, hit us up on twitter, support us on Patreon… blah blah”. You can add all those links to your website and then just send everyone there.

How to Make Your Own Podcast Website

So you’re now sold on why you want a podcast website. But how do you actually get one? Fortunately, there’s no shortage of options, and most of them are super easy.

Here are three of your best options:

1. The Site That Comes With Your Podcast Hosting

It’s worth mentioning up top that, in almost all cases, you’ll be gifted a basic podcast website the minute you create your show in your hosting account.

The vast majority of hosting providers offer the ability to create a podcast website for free. The quality and customisation options vary pretty dramatically, though.

As of right now, in my opinion, Captivate is a standout on this front, offering the best design and growth options of it’s type.

A Captivate podcast website in action, showing the header and standard player

The downsides of a podcast host website generally include things like:

  • Limited design customisation, compared to a site you own
  • Limited add-on tools, compared to a plugin marketplace like WordPress

But, these downsides are often worth it, since the sites require basically no setup, are entirely free and are run and maintained by the hosting company. Couldn’t be simpler!

2. Podcast Website Maker Tools

An increasing number of services will automatically build a podcast website for you, so long as your podcast already exists.

A recent one on the scene is Free Podcast Websites from hosting provider Transistor.

But, my favourite option here is Podpage. This service has been around a while and has many tools and features built-in, including options to receive listener voicemails, build a mailing list, track analytics, write a blog, collect comments, offer memberships, and loads more!

Check out our full Podpage review for more info, or jump straight in and create your podcast website in just a few minutes. Podpage costs $12, with annual savings and a two-week free trial available.

Podcastpage is another podcast website builder that works in much the same way. See Lindsay’s Podcastpage review for more details.

These tools tend to have more extensive design and customisation options, so you can make the site your own. Podpage, for example, has every feature you’ll ever need as a podcaster, as well as features and tools you might not even have considered yet.

Yes, podcast website makers are third-party services, so you won’t technically own your podcast website outright, but there’s a huge advantage to not having to maintain the site’s nuts and bolts yourself. Instead, it’s run and maintained by the tool maker. That alone is a huge plus.

3. Building a Podcast Website Using WordPress or Wix

Building your own WordPress website can give you the ultimate freedom, with unlimited design and customisation options. You can add tools for just about anything, and it’s a site that’s entirely your own and under your control.

A popular route is to sign up for web hosting with a company like Bluehost, and then build your website directly in their WordPress platform.

Of course, with ultimate freedom and customisation options comes the risk of accidentally breaking stuff and constantly tinkering with things that you’re never quite happy with. This option isn’t difficult, but equally, it’s not exactly for the faint-hearted.

There are tools to help, though. Check out Second Line Themes for a collection of excellent templates that are plug-and-play on any WordPress website. They add players, subscribe buttons, share buttons and more, which help to turn a basic site into a podcast promotion machine.

If you want to go this route, read our full guide:

👉🏽 Building a Podcast Website in WordPress

You can also build your website on Wix, which many consider easier for non-techy and beginner folks. But again, the downside is that you reduce your options around plugins, layouts and branding.

If you’re a company or a network, then building on something like WordPress makes a lot of sense. Equally, if you’re looking to take your podcast seriously in future, even earn a crust from it, then you’ll really benefit from the extra growth tools, monetisation options and branding flexibility.

But for most beginners, or anyone just podcasting as a creative outlet, then a third-party platform like Podpage will easily be good enough to build a great podcast website and save you a whole lot of time and stress.

How to Add a Podcast to Your Website

If you already have a website, then don’t worry; you can use it as your podcast’s “home”. No need to create yet another thing to look after!

This is obviously based on the caveat that your website and podcast topics are the same. It would be a bit odd to send listeners to your garden gnome appreciation website to check out your podcast about high-intensity interval training.

Let’s say you run a business, and your new podcast is going to be a marketing tool for that business. You already have your own site, so you can use that as your podcast website, too – you’d just need to create a “podcast” category or section.

When you release a new episode, create a corresponding post on your site for that episode. The title would be the same, or, at least, very similar. You’d then add in your show notes and any images and embed the episode player from your hosting account, too.

Now, you have a post on your website that you can share each time you release new episodes. This means the bulk of the traffic comes to you, which means you can also tailor and optimise your listeners’ experience on your site. On top of that, you’ll reap the SEO benefits of more traffic, more searchable content, and a more discoverable website (and business) going forward.

As a final note here, it’s worth mentioning that there’s a difference between a self-hosted WordPress site (wordpress.org) and a WordPress.com site. The latter is really a ‘lite’, hosted version, and you might be unable to do even basic player embeds on the platform. If you’re using WordPress as your podcast website, then you’d want to sign up for web hosting via a company like Bluehost and set it up that way.

Can I Host My Podcast on My Website?

Why upload your episodes to one place (your hosting account) only to embed and share them in another (your website)? You can upload media to your website, after all. So why can’t you just host your podcast there?

This is a topic we cover in detail in our post “Why you should never host podcasts on your own website”. The key reason, though, is delivery and demand. Audio files are big, and hundreds or even thousands of listeners could be trying to access them all at once. This can easily lead to a website crash, or a furious web hosting service reaching out to you saying “I know we said unlimited bandwidth, but we didn’t mean that unlimited!”

Dedicated hosting providers are built to robustly handle the distribution of audio files all around the web. They can serve as many files as people want at any one time. They’re also completely unaffected by any time your podcast website goes down (which does happen), and that alone is a big weight off your shoulders.

Does My Podcast Website Need a Domain Name?

Just like websites, you don’t need a domain name, but buying one makes total sense. It’s the final cherry on the cake of your “one place for everything” approach. Buying one is all part of the set-up and signup process with hosting companies like Bluehost and Wix, and you can buy and add a domain name to point to your Podpage website, too.

“For shownotes, subscribe links, and the various ways you can support the show, head on over to mygardengnomefitnesstraining dot com”

You can buy domain names for a few dollars per year, though they can get very expensive based on how sought-after they are. Dot coms are the most memorable and tend to be more expensive because so many of them are already taken. You can save money on something like a dot net or a dot pretty much anything else these days.

There are a few best practices to consider when buying a domain name for your podcast website. For starters, avoid hyphens. Your domain should be memorable, easy to read, and free from ambiguity, too.

For example, if you wanted a number in your domain name, you might need to buy two versions of the domain—one with the number and one with the number spelt out—and point them both to your website.

Like literally everything else in podcasting, make it easy for your audience, and you’ll reap the benefits.

Podcast Website Guide: Summary & Takeaways

Okay, so it probably wasn’t a lack of podcast websites that killed the dinosaurs. But without one, your show might end up like a metaphorical prehistoric skeleton. Instead of ancient rock, though, it’ll be buried under layers of other podcasts with decent sites built around them.

It’s never been easier to set up a quality website for your show, as we’ve explored with the many options in this guide. When asked about podcast websites these days, though, we’ll almost always send folks to Podpage. It’s quick, easy, affordable, and packed full of brilliant features to help you run, grow, and monetise your podcast!

From idea to legendary podcast...

Plan & launch

From idea to recording

Explore

Produce & edit

Gear, software & tips

Explore

Presenting

Be the best show host

Explore

Grow & monetise

Promote and earn

Explore

We’ve got every step covered.