How to transcribe your podcast
Recording and publishing valuable and engaging audio content already takes a lot of time and effort, however when it comes to successfully promoting your podcast it becomes even more complicated. There are a lot of options and ways you can promote your show, however today we’ll only be discussing podcast transcription. Podcast transcript is a document that lays out every word that was spoken during the episode. Now that may sound very time-consuming and weary, however it is very beneficial. Here’s why…
Why transcribe a podcast?
One of the main reasons you should transcribe your podcast is the SEO recognition. The transcripts of your episodes might include certain words and phrases that the search engines can use to direct new listeners to your show. That is very helpful for expanding your audience and attracting new listeners. Another good thing that the podcast transcripts will give you is adaptation to a more varied audience. Deaf and hard of hearing listeners will have a better accessibility to your show once there’s a transcript they can read or skim through to understand what the episode’s about.
How to transcribe your podcast?
Now that we’ve given you a short summary about why podcast transcription is worth your attention, let’s take a look at how you could make not only a great but also not a very time-consuming podcast transcript.
The DIY method Most podcasters that decide to transcribe their show start off by doing it all by themselves. Transcribing the audio yourself might be a good idea, because you know what you said in the show better than other people or machines do. It also saves you money and unlike text and speech tools you won’t stumble across slang, accent or dialects. However, it can be extremely tiring and time-consuming, especially if your episodes last longer than 10 minutes. That’s when Automatic transcription tools come in very handy.
Automatic Transcription Tools Automatic transcription tools (like Podsqueeze) can have a great podcast transcript ready within minutes. It’s simple to use and you don’t even have to pay a fortune for that. There are a lot of great transcription tools that are cheap or even free and you can easily use them on the web or as apps. Transcribing your show this way is really time saving and effortless. Here we’ll give you a few different automatic transcription tools that you might want to consider.
Google recorder Google is a smartphone application that transcribes recorded audio material for free. So when you’re recording your show you would also be recording everything on the app once the recording is finished you’ll have a fully transcribed podcast! It’s simple and effortless. Another good thing about this specific tool is that it allows you to search certain keywords and phrases in your transcript that allows you to quickly jump to certain sections and quotes. It’s simple, free and effortless.
Microsoft Word Outline like Google recorder, Microsoft Word Outline is a cheap yet effective transcribing option. All you need to do is upload your podcast MP3 and it will be converted to text with an option to edit the mismatches.
Youtube Transcription apparently can transcribe your podcast as well! And while it won’t accept audio-only files you can easily get away with a simple image to your recording. One thing that’s good about transcribing your podcasts with Youtube is that unlike Google recorder it doesn’t require you to separately record it as you’re making the podcast. All you’ll need to do to get a transcript is upload your audio with an image to Youtube, enable captions and your Youtube video will create a generic transcript. Once that’s done click publish and then on the 3 horizontal dots next to the save option you’ll find an “Open transcript” option. Once you click on it you’ll have the transcript that you can select, copy and paste into a document. And there you have your transcript! However, one thing that happens with Youtube transcripts a lot is false or mismatched words and meaning. Youtube’s transcripts tend to mistake a lot of words and phrases so that might get in the way. Of course, you can still fix and change the entire transcript once you have it pasted in your document.
Final thoughts
Promoting your podcast is essential and while there are many ways to do that, podcast transcription is one of the most useful and beneficial options. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive either. Above we’ve listed only a few ways you can transcribe your show, however there are many other great options and tools to do that. From doing it yourself to hiring people or using automatic transcription generators it all does the job and in the end helps you gain recognition and new listeners!
The SEO Benefits of Podcast Transcription
One of the most overlooked advantages of transcribing your podcast is the significant boost it gives to your search engine optimization. Search engines cannot crawl audio files directly, but they can index text content. By publishing full transcripts alongside your episodes on your podcast website, you create rich, keyword-dense pages that rank for dozens of long-tail search queries your audience is already searching for. Each episode transcript can be hundreds or even thousands of words long, giving you substantial content that naturally targets topics in your niche without any keyword stuffing.
Transcripts also serve as the foundation for repurposing your content across multiple formats. You can extract key quotes for social media posts, turn sections into blog articles, or compile related segments into comprehensive podcast show notes that add even more value for your listeners. This approach multiplies the reach of every single episode you produce. Platforms like OnPodium make this workflow easier by keeping your hosting, website, and content tools in one place, so you can publish transcripts alongside your episodes seamlessly.
Beyond SEO and repurposing, transcription improves accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, non-native speakers, and people who simply prefer reading over listening. It also helps with growing your podcast audience by lowering barriers to entry — potential listeners can skim a transcript to decide if the full episode is worth their time. As your transcript library grows, it becomes a powerful knowledge base that keeps attracting new visitors to your site month after month.
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