Benefits of Adding an Interactive Transcript to Your Podcast

The world of podcasting has exploded over the last couple of years. A December 2018 article from Podcast Insights states that the current number of podcasts is over 630,000. Apple reported the number to only be 550,000 in July 2018. That’s an increase of 180,000 podcasts in just six months.

Add to that the results from the Infinite Dial 2018 report by Edison Research that states an estimated 73 million American listened to at least one podcast a month in 2018 and it is clear that podcast consumption continues to be a popular medium in which 21st century individuals consume content.

But with this opportunity comes enormous challenges: How can you help your podcast get discovered? How can you get more viewers to listen to or watch your podcast? How can you differentiate your podcast from someone else’s on the same topic?

One solution is to include an interactive transcript.

An interactive transcript is a full word for word text of your podcast recording that highlights the words as they are being spoken. Happy Scribe’s SEO Friendly Embedded Player can appear alongside the video or audio of the podcast or on its own.

There are numerous benefits of adding an interactive transcript with your podcast. Here are just a few:

Generates a Higher Search Ranking on Google

One of the most important factors in ranking high on a Google search is quality content. However, if your content is in video or audio format it can be difficult for search engines to determine if the content is indeed high calibre.

Adding an interactive transcript with your podcast can greatly help.

Simply put, Google can’t watch or listen to your podcast, but its spiders can crawl an interactive transcript to determine what your show is about. If your podcast only has a title and short meta description, then Google has limited words for the search index to scan.

However, by including an interactive transcript with your podcast, you open up the number of relevant keywords for search engines to scroll through. What’s even better, is that your podcast is more likely to have the natural, keyword specific content that Google craves.

The combined effect is a higher probability of ranking towards the top of a search engine results page.

Meets Accessibility Requirements

Both America, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the EU, with the European Accessibility Act, have strong legislation in place to ensure equal access to content for all individuals.

As web usage continues to increase, so do the lawsuits against entities that don’t comply with these regulations.

One of the initial landmark cases in this area occurred in 2015 when Harvard and M.I.T. were sued for failing to provide closed captioning in their online lectures, courses, podcasts and other educational materials.

This ruling stands as a potential warning: video or audio content that doesn’t include closed captioning or a full translation may be at risk of being sued. In short, to avoid any potential issues, you should make all of your recording content accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.

Even if you are a just an individual producing your own podcast, an interactive transcript can help increase your viewership to those who are hard of hearing.

The European Federation of Hard of Hearing People (EFHOH) estimates that 1 in 10 individuals are either hard of hearing or deaf within the European Union. That’s over 50 million people. A huge target audience. Too huge to ignore.

Adding an interactive transcript to your podcast helps ensure that it remains accessible to all, as well as protect you from a possible lawsuit.

Caters to Different Listening Preferences and Learning Styles

Individuals absorb content in different ways. Some people comprehend material better if they are reading it, others by listening, and some individuals benefit from having both.

An interactive transcript gives your listener the option to read along as they listen. This caters well to the estimated 65% of the population considered to be visual learners, those who retain information best by reading instead of listening.

Additionally, a greater proportion of the population are now consuming podcasts on the go in noise-sensitive environments like commuter trains or busy cafes. Having the ability to read what is being spoken allows the viewer to still comprehend the message even if the sound gets obscured.

With thousands of podcasts out there, giving your listeners more than one way to consume your content will help differentiate your show and possibly help attract and retain your audience.

Offers Convenience to Your Listeners

One of the best features of an interactive transcript is its searchability function.

Since the entire interactive transcript is clickable, users can quickly scroll through the transcript looking for a specific keyword or phrase, click on it and start enjoying the audio or video from that exact point.

Being able to jump to the part of your podcast that interests your listener, provides another user convenience that will help differentiate your show. If a listener knows that they can find the information relative to them in a quick, easy manner, it may just make choose your podcast over the many others out there.

Supplies a Complimentary Aid

Podcasts usually offer a deep-dive into a specific topic, which usually means that they are packed full of high-quality, educational material within each episode.

In tandem, many listeners of podcasts are doing so for research purposes. This requires listeners to take notes and jot down important facts and figures as they listen.

Having an interactive transcript with your podcast provides a helpful complimentary aid, assisting listeners in catching relevant information and maybe even a direct quote that they might use, with reference back to your podcast.

This additional convenience may make the difference of your podcast being listened to compared to another which covers at the same subject.

In today’s competitive market of podcasting, any additional feature that you can add to enhance your podcast will undoubtedly increase your viewership and the success of your podcast.

Including an interactive transcript is one way to start.