How to build a website for your podcast

Every podcast needs a website. Don’t forget these fundamentals.

We believe podcast websites have three main jobs:

Make it super-easy to sample your show Make it obvious and frictionless to subscribe Help your most engaged listeners dig deeper

To help our clients build websites for their own shows, we’ve put together a list of best practices. Here they are:

Mobile first

Obligatory stock photo of a person looking at an iPhone, browsing episodes of Call Your Girlfriend

According to The Infinite Dial 2018, 69% of podcast listeners say the device they use most often to listen to podcasts is a smartphone, tablet, or portable device.

Make sure your show’s website is optimized for mobile.

Of course, we love beautiful, desktop-sized full screen experiences, too. The team at Response built a gorgeous site for McAfee’s show Hackable?, and it’s filled with delightful easter eggs. Crucially, it scales down gracefully to a mobile screen, too.

Touch-friendly audio players

There are many different audio players out there — from the built-in player provided by your podcast hosting company, to third-party solutions like RadioPublic’s, to full-blown custom-coded players.

Mozilla uses embedded players from @Simplecast on the IRL website

Whichever player you choose, make sure it’s finger-friendly, easily tappable, and super-obvious for website visitors who aren’t yet familiar with podcasts.

Use official badges and branding

A section from Gimlet’s website for Heavyweight

Big podcast distributors like Apple, Google, and Spotify already have tremendous brand recognition and affinity. Use that to your advantage.

Do

Use official badges from podcast apps

Place the most important badges above the fold

Follow brand identity guidelines (here’s Apple’s)

Don’t

Make your own custom podcast badges

Search Google Images for “apple podcasts logo” and hotlink whatever janky weirdness you find there.

Which badges should you include? It depends on how much screen real estate you have to work with, but our “must haves” list includes:

Apple Podcasts

Google Podcasts

Spotify

RSS

Too many subscribe options can create a confusing or intimidating experience for new listeners. Prioritize the platforms that make the most sense for your audience, and trust that podcast listeners who use less-popular podcast apps will know how to copy/paste an RSS link, or search for your show in their favorite app.