Podcasts are a great way to get your message to a large audience, and you can leverage this medium to promote your company or brand. A podcast show can be a very powerful marketing channel to increase brand awareness and boost customer loyalty.
Juggling so many marketing channels can be challenging. These days, brands must maintain an official website, e-commerce store (if applicable), social media accounts, and now, podcasts.
Fortunately, there is a platform that can take care of all of these for you: Squarespace. It is one of the most popular website designing platforms in the world as it offers very appealing templates and design options.
It also has all the functions you need to manage your business and host your website, podcast, and show notes, too.
Read on for a complete guide on podcast hosting with Squarespace and why this platform is a fantastic choice for your brand.
Does Squarespace Offer Podcasting Services?
Squarespace is an excellent platform for creating and managing podcasts. It provides a built-in RSS feed so you can publish your show on the world’s biggest third-party podcast services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher.
You can also create a stylish and effective custom podcast website on Squarespace. The platform’s key features will allow you to set up and manage a podcast website in just a few clicks. It also provides plenty of beautiful templates that you can start with.
With a beautiful podcast website, listeners can discover archived episodes, read show notes, and access other information about your show and brand.
Next, let’s dive into the pros and cons of this platform regarding podcast hosting. This will help you decide if Squarespace is a good fit for your show.
Pros and Cons of Squarespace for Podcasting
Here are the benefits and drawbacks of podcast hosting with Squarespace:
Pros
- Easy to use
- Clean, modern design and layout
- Host your podcast show directly on your website
- Connect more than one podcast to the same website
- Modern and professional-looking templates to choose from and customize
- Unlimited storage space and bandwidth on all pricing plans
- Distribute your RSS feed to multiple podcast directories, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and Stitcher
- Embed audio player inside podcast show notes
- Add a sidebar to your blog to showcase courses, programs, or freebies without cluttering your podcast notes
- Track unique feed subscribers with built-in RSS analytics
- Add third-party analytics to track more detailed audience metrics, such as episode downloads and listens
- Links to social media accounts
- Built-in SEO and e-commerce features
- A wide array of third-party integrations
- Add a PayPal button to get donations
- 14-day free trial
- Affordable pricing plans
- Money-back guarantee
Cons
- Not dedicated to podcasting
- Only basic podcast-related tools and features
- No support for video podcasts
- Cannot submit a podcast to Apple Podcasts if the site is on trial
- Cannot submit a podcast to Apple Podcasts if the site is private or password-protected
- Only 300 of the most recent posts or episodes are shown on podcast feeds
- Upload limit of 160 MB for audio blocks
- Limited grid system and design flexibility
- No free plan
How to Set Up a Podcast on Squarespace
Setting up a podcast on your Squarespace website is easy. All you need to do is add a blog page and format it as per your podcast episodes.
Note that Squarespace formats podcast RSS feeds using Apple Podcasts’ podcasting guidelines and standards. But you can submit your RSS feed to other podcast services, too.
For simplicity, this step-by-step guide covers Apple Podcasts’ standards. Follow the six steps below to add your podcast on Squarespace:
Step 1
First, create a blog page. You can then add episodes by inserting blog posts embedded with audio blocks.
If a blog post has multiple audio blocks, note that Apple Podcasts will feature only the first audio block as a podcast episode.
Create a permanent URL slug for your podcasts. Modifying your URL slug later can impact your RSS feed and create problems with syndication.
To create a blog page, click Pages in the Home menu and tap the + icon in the Not Linked section at the bottom. Select the Blog option in the pop-up window and add your podcast title in the text field.
If you plan to use an existing blog page, proceed to the next step.
Step 2
Squarespace uses universal RSS tags to update your podcast’s information on your RSS feed. With these tags, you can add a title, category, podcast owner details, cover art, and other related information.
Apple Podcasts also requires you to submit this information before you can host a podcast in their directory.
To do this, click on Pages in the Home menu. Hover over the blog page title and tap on the gear (Settings) icon next to your podcast title to open page settings.
Click on the Feeds tab. Select Podcasting.
Step 3
In the Podcasting tab, fill in all the information related to your podcast in the given fields:
- Podcast title
- Author
- Podcast description
- Cover art
- Type (Episodic or Serial)
- Length (Standard or Optimized for Podcasting)
- Categories and subcategories
- Explicit content
- Language
- Copyright
- Contact details
These details will help listeners discover your show on the Apple Podcasts app.
Step 4
To insert your podcast’s cover art, scroll down and drag your artwork into the image uploader.
Your artwork should conform to the following requirements:
- Square JPG or PNG file format
- A minimum of 1400 × 1400 pixels but not larger than 3000 × 3000 pixels
- RGB color format
- 72 DPI
Once you add all your podcast information, click on Connect in the top-right corner of the page.
If you need to change the cover art in the future, upload the new artwork with a new filename to update your directory listing.
Step 5
Next, post your episode to submit your show to Apple Podcasts for syndication. Add a new blog post by clicking on your podcasting page in the Navigation menu and the + icon in the Blog panel.
Add an audio block by clicking an insert point in the post editor and choosing Audio from the menu. Click Upload File in the Embed tab or drag your audio file into the uploader.
Once you insert an audio file, the uploader will display the file name and file size. Edit the episode title and artist or author as you wish.
Click the Podcasting tab in the audio block editor and fill in the fields that will become metatags and appear in your podcast show’s RSS feed:
- Episode title
- Subtitle (a brief episode description)
- Summary (a detailed episode description)
- Episode note
- Episode type (Full, Trailer, or Bonus)
- Season number
- Episode number
- Episode duration
- Explicit content
Click Apply to add the audio block to your blog post. Note that the Apple Podcasts app does not show text formatting in the Episode Note field.
At this stage, you can track your podcast episode’s analytics with a third-party service by adding a tracking URL or an analytics prefix. Go to the Podcasting tab and add the tracking URL in the Podcast Analytics URL field at the bottom.
You can also view podcast metrics in your RSS subscribers’ analytics panel.
Finally, publish the podcast episode.
Step 6
After publishing your episode, find your podcast’s RSS feed URL and send it to Apple Podcasts for approval. Just log into Podcasts Connect using your existing Apple ID or create a new ID.
Next, validate your podcast show manually to ensure that it meets Apple’s technical requirements and does not run into issues later.
You can now submit your podcast to the directory.
Best Squarespace Themes for Podcasts
Some of the best Squarespace themes for podcasts include the following:
- Paloma
- Brine
- Sundew
They are simple yet elegant themes that will display your branding and audio blocks to maximum advantage.
Monetizing Podcasts on Squarespace
There are many ways to monetize your podcast. However, note that you must select monetization methods best suit your needs.
Here are some of your options:
- Premium content and subscriptions
- Donations
- Sponsorships and advertisements
- Partnerships with other podcasts or brands
- Affiliate marketing
- Content-based networking
- Masterminds and private communities
- Live events such as conferences and workshops
- Coaching and consulting
- Books and other info-products related to your podcast
- Brand-related merchandise
Conclusion
Squarespace is a fantastic platform for hosting your podcast. You can choose from a wide range of clean and modern templates to create an appealing website with a layout that your listeners will love and navigate with ease.
You can also use the built-in SEO and marketing tools to promote your podcast and brand.
Squarespace offers just the right mix of features and tools podcasters need to host their brand website and episodes.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article on podcast hosting with Squarespace and found it helpful. Browse our website for more such guides and blog posts.
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