Why and how can I create a podcast transcript?

Once you decide to invest the time and effort in making podcasts, you need to make sure it’s accessible and discoverable for everyone. And podcast transcripts can aid you.

What is a podcast transcript?

A podcast transcript is a word-for-word file of a podcast. You or an automatic software will listen to your file and write down every word spoken in that file.

You can’t publish a podcast transcript to Apple Podcast, Google Play, or Spotify, but you can post it on your own podcast website. It’s best to post the transcript of each podcast episode on the same page of the podcast.

What podcast transcripts benefit you

Why should you include podcast transcripts in your audio files? It brings more benefits than you think.

1. Make your audio files more accessible

According to the World Health Organization, 5% of people struggle with hearing loss. While podcasts are an outstanding means of conveying sound content, it doesn’t mean people with hearing loss can access podcasts.

However, transcripts make it possible for them to understand and enjoy your content. Podcast transcripts also help non-native speakers understand what you are sharing.

2. Maximize SEO

Descriptions or notes are effective ways to help Google understand every episode. However, notes only produce a few hundred words, and it’s not the long-form content Google wants to show at the top.

However, a podcast transcript can create up to 6.000 words for a 30-minute podcast. And indeed, it raises a huge SEO advantage for your website. Of course, good SEO will help your website climb on top so your audience can easily find you among hundreds of podcasts.

3. Podcast transcripts bring more backlinks

Most content creators don’t like linking to podcast episodes without podcast transcripts; their readers have to listen to the entire podcast to get helpful information.

But, with a transcript included, their readers don’t need to listen to the entire podcast but can still find the critical information by reading a transcript.

So, if you want more backlinks (great for SEO), don’t ignore posting transcripts.

4. You can reuse podcast transcripts

Not only serve as a regular interpreter for podcasts, but you can also reuse transcripts to create different types of content. You can use podcast transcripts for your marketing campaigns, social media posts, infographics, or blog articles.

How to create a podcast transcript

Manual creation

In the previous article, we covered creating podcast transcripts manually. You can listen to the podcast and type every word you hear in NotePad or TextEdit.

Although it saves money, this method is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially with hour-long podcasts. Sitting down to transcribe word by word will consume you half a day and exhaust you.

However, there is another way to create transcripts for podcasts to save time doing other tasks. It’s using automatic subtitling tools.

Using podcast transcripts tool

Creating a transcript with an automatic transcription tool is very simple. Follow the instruction below:

1. Sign up for a Motionbear account.

2. Select “Transcription.”

3. Click to upload, or drag and drop a file and wait some minutes.

4. Select the video language to start generating captions.

5. Correct spelling and grammar errors in captions.

6. Edit the transcription style here. In this section, you can adjust the font style, font size, position of subtitles, subtitles effects.

7. You can also add a headline to the video if you want, then tweak the headline using the same tools as for subtitles.

8. Motionbear also allows you to upload your logo to videos to make a unique impression for your products. You can edit the size, opacity, position of the logo. However, this function is only available with the Montionbear Pro and Premium versions.

9. Another cool feature of Motionbear is that you can resize videos to suit each platform. You can convert your video to landscape to post on Youtube, portrait for Facebook, Instagram, square for TikTok, Twitter, or vertical or original.

10. Select “Download Text” and then select “Download SRT” or “Download TXT”, upgrade your account to the Motionbear Pro package to quickly download srt or txt files.

All done! You’ve got a fast and accurate podcast transcript in minutes.

Examples of good podcast transcripts

If you are unsure how to create a proper podcast transcript, refer to the forerunners below. Their logical and neat, excellent transcripts will make you squeal.

Move your DNA

Move your DNA gives its audience cool features to view podcast transcripts easily. The first is to create a dedicated tab for podcast transcripts on the website, and viewers can find all transcripts here instead of only one for an individual episode.

Each transcript summarizes parts of each episode and interaction, so their audience can move to another part in the podcast.

In addition, the host’s transcripts are bold to distinguish between the interviewer and the guest’s section.

This American life

This American life has been creating transcripts for podcasts for nearly 4 years. All transcripts are neat and easy to read, and they are divided into different segments for identification.

Guest transcriptions are also intended to distinguish them from the host’s transcriptions.

Brain Science

Another benefit of podcast transcripts is that you can direct your listeners to other prominent features on your website. For example, Brain Science sells podcast transcripts for $1-$2, but premium subscribers only pay $4.99/month to access all transcripts. This is a pretty clever way to get more subscribers.

First Draft

At First Draft, each transcript links to the author’s works invited to the show, along with many valuable resources. These podcasts even have a searchable spreadsheet so listeners can easily find what they need.

Luke’s English Podcast

Luke’s English Podcast provides all sorts of fun facts and educational information about the English language. This is also a podcast channel with a giant London and UK source. Surely, you will find something stunning from the transcripts on this page.

Where can I put podcast transcripts?

Here are 3 recommended places you can place transcripts. Based on listener behavior and your show style, you can choose one of these 3 positions.

Each episode page (recommended placement): You’ll post transcription directly below the audio player. By this way, everything related to that episode will be aggregated into one location, and Google can easily know what that page is.

Podcast transcript collection page: You create a separate page dedicated to podcast transcripts on your website. This place is recommended if you don’t have many podcasts, or your podcasts are short.

Downloadable transcripts: Another way is creating downloadable transcripts. All you have to do is make a transcript, upload it to your website, and create a link linking the transcript to each podcast episode.

However, this is not recommended because the downloaded documents are not highly accessible, don’t help SEO, and people don’t link to them.

Podcasts are no longer a new concept, and it’s a favorite medium for many people to find and exploit information. Besides engaging content, podcast transcripts is an active way to help you boost your podcast channel SEO, and make it more prominent.

Motionbear can quickly help you create the perfect transcript for your podcast, whether it’s minutes or hour-long shows, with very reasonable prices. Experience Motionbear right on your browser without downloading any other software.

Read more:

• How to translate your videos to English and other languages?
• You might regret if you miss the importance of localized and translated videos
• You can’t achieve success if you don’t know these 5 values of subtitle videos