Best Practices for Links in Podcast Episode Descriptions
If you’re not using links in your podcast descriptions, you’re missing a golden opportunity to capture an audience on another platform and portal them to your own space. That might be a website, a YouTube channel, a Discord thread, or even a paid membership. The bottom line is, people who are reading your episode description are already engaging with your content, in the moment. Links can help you capitalize on that engagement, to solidify it, and deepen it over time.
Here are three ways links can help your episode description.
1) Links Stylize Your Episode Description
Let’s be honest, episode descriptions aren’t that visually appealing. In fact, they’re kind of dull. Links help break up the otherwise monotonous typography of a podcast episode description. In other words, it links make your description more visually interesting, which makes it more digestible for your audience.
Of course, style matters, and the way you present links to your audience matters too. Here’s an example. If you wanted to portal folks onto your website, you might start simply by pasting your website address and hyperlinking it, like this:
Take it a step further, you could use a simple:
Having the whole sentence makes it stand out, but it’s also hard to read. So here’s an alternative:
→ Check out my website.
Personally, I’m a stickler for not having the hyperlink extend to the period.
You can choose you own style!
But wait…there’s so much more to links.
Did you notice that all of those links open in a new tab? That’s not by accident! Most times wherever you’re pasting links, you have and option to set the link to open in a new tab. Always do this, like always, as a rule. First, it’s just nice. No one likes to get lost on the internet, and having the tab they were just on stay open when you successfully grab someone’s attention is just courteous. This works on phones too!
2) Good Links Boost SEO
Beyond their utility for your audience, which absolutely should be front of mind, links are a great way to improve the SEO score of your various podcast pages. Links, to reputable, trusted sites on the internet, increase your own athority, at least in the eyes of Google. So if you’re referencing an article, drop a link to it in the description, especially if it’s on a popular site. Which leads me to the third way links in your episode description can help your podcast.
3) Links Spur Action
Links are a natural call to action. Let’s be honest, we don’t always read the episode description of every podcast we listen to. I don’t at least. But when the host references a link–maybe to a past episode, a specific resource, or how to connect with that episode’s guest, I pay attention. More than that, I open the episode description, and more often than not I click the link. Right then and there. And, because the link is to a webpage, and I’m listening to a podcast, most of the time my listening experience continues, uninterrupted, while I peruse a cool new website. Sometimes those links lead me to a site that autoplay music though, which ruins my listening experience. Another reason to always check out what you’re linking to, before you link to it.
Looking for some help with your episode descriptions? In need of a podcasting coach to bounce ideas off of? Or ready to take the plunge and hire your first outside producer? I’d love to chat with you!
