The reason behind providing transcript of a podcast or a video on one’s blog is two fold – providing your readers an alternative means to consume your content while optimizing your blog for search engines.
Readers who want to skim through your content are given the choice to do so; instead of subjecting them to listen to the whole of your podcast.
Search engines index your transcript (or blog post) and rank your page in order of what it believes is most relevant.
Hence, it is very important to optimize your podcast transcript for search engines to drive more traffic to your blog. This can be achieved with little or no effort.
Below are a few suggestions:
SEO Optimized Headline
Many podcast bloggers fail to optimize their podcast headlines. It doesn’t have to be clever or over the top. Keep it relevant and descriptive.
Take for example this headline Podcast: Donna Spencer on Geek Girl Blogs.
I’m sure there is a better way to writing the headline. It is an interview podcast so Podcast Interview with Donna Spencer is relevant and descriptive. If the person interviewed is considerably well-known and you want to capitalize on their name!
Other alternatives -
Donna Spencer on How to Organize a Conference from an Experience Design perspective
Donna Spencer on How to be a freelancer & balance work & family life
My point is, there are many ways to write a headline.
If your podcast blog is about interviews like BlogcastFM then Podcast Interview with Donna Spencer might be good enough. If your podcast blog is about freelance and business, you might want to try Donna Spencer on How to be a freelancer & balance work & family life.
Podcast transcripts don’t have to be verbatim
Most transcription service providers will transcribe audios or videos verbatim. That is, they will type up whatever is recorded on the audio or video including filler words like ah, um, etc. Although it’s a sign of a good transcriptionist, that is not your objective. You are not publishing your podcast transcript to show the world how accurate your podcast transcription provider is!
Podcast transcripts need not be verbatim. It is important to realize that you can edit the transcript and make necessary changes. That’s the basic premise for optimizing podcast transcripts for search engines. Remember, as your spoken words are reproduced as written words some paragraphs may be too long, some too vague, etc. Get to the point – your readers will appreciate it. The best way is to almost summarize your podcast! If you are utilizing the services of a transcription provider you should instruct them of your needs.
An exception would be an interview podcast – even here I would filter out filler words and false starts.
Keywords
Are your targeted keywords appearing too often or not? Where are they most prominent?
The best way to optimize podcast transcripts for search engines is to incorporate relevant and targeted keywords. These Keywords may be lacking in your recordings as search engine optimization may not occupy your thoughts while you record our podcast.
When speaking we don’t normally use nouns over and over; it is replaced by relevant pronouns. But if such noun is your keyword, it is wise to change all or some of the pronouns to nouns in your transcript.
For example: Transcriptionistforbloggers.com is my blog. It is my online shop for selling my transcription services to bloggers or any one who needs help. It is also an outlet to learn from and connect with others.
The above second and third sentences both start with it. If need be, it can be changed to Transcriptionistforblogger.com in both instances.
Add relevant headings and subheadings
To signal a change in the topic do provide headings and subheadings on to your transcripts. They also make it more interesting and easier to read/skim through.
I normally turn away when I see large chunks of texts without any heading, subheading or bullet points. I bet you do too.
Almost the same thing as above, do format your transcript to good presentation.
Add images
You’ve heard this one before. Add pictures to your post. In this case, add relevant interesting image(s) to your podcast transcript. And optimize your images!
Below is what Chris Pearson has to say about How to Optimize Your Images for Google.
Every standards-compliant, Google-sensitive image reference should contain 5 key items:
- A
srcattribute specifying the URL of the image- A
widthdeclaration in which the width of the image is specified in pixels- A
heightdeclaration in which the height of the image is specified in pixels- An
altattribute that describes the content of the image—this is the #1 element of image-oriented SEO- A
titleattribute that contains text to be displayed when the user hovers his/her mouse over the image
So, what are you waiting for?
Is there anything you might want to add? Does your podcast transcriptionist work with you on these? Or, do you do it yourself?
photo credit: iancapstick
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that was useful, thanks carey