Why You Should Create A Podcast Transcript & How to Do It

More and more podcast-distributing services adopt this functionality and allow creators to transcribe their podcast episodes. As such, Spotify introduced a transcription feature last year, and Apple Podcasts, following in the footsteps of its rival, also introduced a similar functionality this year. And since more services adopt it, more podcasters do as well.

In this article, we’ll talk about why you should join those who do and make transcriptions of your own podcast episodes.

What is a podcast transcript?

Let’s start with defining the term. A podcast transcript is a written document that contains a word-for-word account of a podcast episode. It includes a record of dialogue spoken by both the podcast host and any guests present on the podcast.

Why bother creating a podcast transcript?

Well, the benefits are numerous. Improved accessibility, SEO boost, catering to those who prefer reading, easier access to cite your show and link back to it are just a few advantages to name. Let’s dive into them in a bit more detail, though.

Podcast transcripts make your episodes more accessible

According to the World Health Organization, over 1.5 billion people—or 1 in 5 of the global population—suffer from some degree of hearing loss. By 2050, nearly 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss, and at least 700 million will require hearing rehabilitation.

In the United States, about 3.6% of the population, or around 11 million individuals, consider themselves deaf or have serious difficulty hearing. The Hearing Loss Association of America estimates that 48 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss.

So, given that podcasting is primarily audio-only type of content, you're losing these audiences as your listeners. But not if you have transcripts of your show episodes because when you have them, you allow these people to enjoy your podcast, increase the show reach, and follow you on socials.

Apart from hard-of-hearing or deaf people, non-native speakers can also enjoy your show without limits. Those who only learn a language or don’t speak it at all will have an opportunity to consume your content, too.

Transcriptions boost your SEO reach

Speech-to-text transcripts help Google understand what your episodes are about and provide a significant SEO boost for your website, making it easier for new listeners to find your content.

In 2014, This American Life decided to publish audio transcripts of their entire archive to study the impact on SEO. They found that:

• New inbound traffic increased by 4.36%.
• New inbound traffic via search increased by 6.68%.
• Inbound links increased by 3.89%.
• At least one transcript was viewed by 7.23% of all unique visitors.

If you use a YouTube channel to attract new listeners, you can upload the podcast transcript to YouTube and create closed captions for your podcast video. Closed captions have also been shown to enhance YouTube and video SEO.

Podcast transcripts provide more backlinks, references, and quotes opportunities

Journalists and bloggers don’t typically link to podcast episodes without a transcript because there’s nothing for their readers or followers to explore without listening to the entire episode. So when your episodes have transcripts, you increase the chances of your show being noticed and linked back to in an article, research, social media post, or any other piece. This is also great for SEO because if search engines see that credible sources feature you, it makes their robots “think” your content deserves to be shown to more people.

Researchers or bloggers may find a particular episode via Google search, and an accessible audio transcript makes it easy for them to quote your podcast and cite you as a source.

If you’re looking to get press for your podcast, having a transcript is a real bonus. Journalists writing about podcasts listen to many shows and don’t always take notes while listening. A good transcript helps them find accurate quotes for articles and reviews, check spellings, and locate timecodes for parts they’d like to revisit. This makes the journalist’s job easier, and you want to make writing about your podcast as simple as possible.

Podcast transcript creates more content repurposing opportunities

You can convert sections of the transcript into detailed blog posts to expand on the podcast content and attract readers who prefer text over audio. For social media posts, you can extract key quotes and insights from the transcript to create snippets that can draw attention and drive traffic back to your podcast or website.

Besides, you can repurpose your podcast transcripts as email newsletters, infographics for social media, and guest articles to magazines, blogs, and other outlets.

How to create a podcast transcript

Basically, there are three ways to do that: Transcribe it manually (daunting, dull, and time-consuming, so we won’t cover this method in our piece), use a text-to-speech tool if your episode is already recorded, and use a tool that records and transcribes your podcast at the same time. Let’s start with the latter.

Record & transcribe your podcast right away with Waveroom

If you want to create a transcript or summary of your interview, podcast, call, or video meeting, you can do that with Waveroom. This online recording studio powered by AI will accurately capture everything you say and create an SRT file with the transcription. Just follow these steps:

1. Log in or sign up to Waveroom.
2. Create a recording room by pressing +.
3. Select your microphone, camera, and headphones in the Devices tab under the video preview.

4. In the AI tab, toggle on Remove Noise and Transcribe Speech. The transcription feature doesn't work unless noise removal is applied. If you want to summarise your call, also select Create Summary.

5. Click Start Meeting to begin recording your podcast or interview. If you want to test it first, opt forStart Test Record.

6. Click the Record button when you’re ready to start recording.

7. When you finish, click the Stop button to end the recording.

8. Wait a few seconds until the recording is saved.

9. Once you see the Upload Completed notification at the bottom right corner, click the X sign to leave the meeting.

10. Press the downward arrow icon and select Transcription to download the transcript. It will be saved in SRT.

11. Now open the file in any text editor of your choice.

The transcribed recording will be marked with a notebook icon that says “transcription applied” so you can download it by pressing the downward arrow icon. Your transcription will be saved in .srt and will have time stamps along with your speech.

How to create a transcript using a podcast transcription service

If you’ve already recorded an episode elsewhere, you can use one of a plethora of tools available on the market. Online solutions like TurboScribe, HappyScribe, Otter.ai, Notta, and dozens of others work practically the same: You just upload your audio file and press a button to have it transcribed.

Note that these tools might have a limit on free uploads. For instance, some allow you to upload only a 10, 20, 30-minute recording for free, so we’d recommend you use Waveroom—it’s free, it records your show locally, and transcribes it right after you finish recording.