You have likely heard of the term “podcast”. There are podcasts on various topics, such as science or sports, but some of the most popular ones have been political podcasts. A podcast is essentially a collection of audio files, or episodes, which can be streamed or downloaded on any device. Sometimes video content can be added as well, but usually podcasts are audio-based.
Podcast topics vary widely, covering everything from current events and curious facts to personal stories. A podcast may feature a single host presenting the content, or there may be one or a few guest speakers. The format was developed in 2004, and the term was derived from the words “iPod” and “broadcasts”, as the first podcast episodes were created for Apple’s platform.
- Why do you need a podcast website?
- How to choose the right hosting plan?
- What platform to choose?
- Setting up a podcast website with WordPress
- Best practices for your podcast website
- Promoting your podcast website
- Wrap-up
Why do you need a podcast website?

If you want to take your place in the vast online world, starting a podcast is a great way to do so. Podcasts have been gaining in popularity lately, and you don’t need much to start your own podcast. It is easy to record and upload episodes, so virtually anyone can create a podcast.
Currently, there are over 5 million podcasts worldwide with more than 500 million listeners. The podcast industry market size is estimated at over $30 billion, and it still has a huge potential (Source). This is a great opportunity for you to start your web presence and build a loyal community of listeners while you earn a decent amount of money.
There are dedicated podcast platforms out there that make it easy to start uploading your episodes and get subscribers. Building your own podcast website offers greater advantages, though. You will have full control over your content, and you can build a brand name around it. Using your own podcast website will allow you to monetize your content in various ways – paid content, selling merchandise directly on the site, using various affiliate platforms to promote related content, etc. Even if you decide to use a dedicated podcast platform for storage, you can still integrate the episodes and enjoy all the advantages of having your own website.

How to choose the right hosting plan?
Choosing a hosting plan for your podcast website requires a careful consideration, as there are a few things you should check in advance. You have to make sure that the plan will have sufficient resources to handle the traffic to your site. The following features are essential for most types of websites, but even more so for podcast websites. You should also pay attention to the fine print when you sign up with a hosting provider. Some companies have certain restrictions, which can affect your podcast website, but they are not disclosed on their homepage.

- Monthly transfer and storage. Podcast files (audio or video) are large binary files. The more episodes you record, the more disk space you will need to store them; the more listeners your podcast attracts, the more traffic it will generate. This is why you should look for a provider that offers ample storage and bandwidth.
Here is the catch – you will come across many providers that offer large space and traffic quotas, even unlimited ones, but only if the storage is used for website files and if most of the traffic is generated by these files. As podcasts are binary (non-website, non-text) files, storing even a small number of such files may be in breach of the provider’s Terms of Service. As a result, you may be asked to remove some of your files, or you may be allowed to keep them, but the provider may refuse to back up your account.
At ICDSoft, we believe that being honest with our customers is very important for building a strong and long-lasting business relationship. This is why we clearly list the system resources on our website, with no hidden terms regarding the storage or monthly transfer quotas that we offer. You can utilize the entire disk space of your account for binary files, including our top-tier managed VPS plans, which come with up to 1 TB of SSD space. We will always back up your entire account, and we will not automatically limit your podcast website no matter how much traffic it generates.
- Speed and uptime. You should use a host that provides good access speed and excellent uptime. If your podcast website or episodes load slowly or they are not available at all, your listeners are likely to leave. User experience is a substantial factor these days and considering how many podcasts there are out there, fast loading speed and no downtime can set your podcast apart.

- Scalability. You don’t have to start with a high-end plan, but you should have room for growth as you add more episodes and attract more listeners. You should have the option to upgrade the disk space easily. You should also make sure that the hosting plan can handle traffic and load spikes if an episode goes viral. With a plan that has a strict limit for the CPU load, for example, your site will start timing out once the threshold is exceeded.
We rank among the top web hosting providers in the WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks, the industry’s most extensive and trusted WordPress hosting tests. With 99.99%+ uptime and flawless results during peak performance tests, we have earned a top-tier award. The tests were conducted on a standard web hosting account without any special tweaks or performance enhancements. In other words, all our clients enjoy the same level of service. You can see the full results here: https://wphostingbenchmarks.com/company/icdsoft/
What platform to choose?
There are different options you can choose from for building a podcast website. The easiest one is to use a dedicated podcast platform. The two main issues here are that you will have to adhere by their potentially restrictive Terms of Service, and you will have limited branding options, i.e. your podcast will be just one of many, with similar features, similar look, etc. And, of course, you will not have a standalone website.


Another option is to use a website builder or a content management system to build a custom website for your episodes. As most online site builders are closed-source ones with various limitations as well, we will look at a more versatile option that you can use with any web hosting service – WordPress.
The platform is easy enough to use even if you are a novice, and you can install a number of free and paid themes and plugins that are suitable for a podcast website. We cannot recommend one theme/plugin over another, but we can mention a few.
For a theme, you can choose between Podcast, Soundbyte, Podcastin, Podcaster Radio, Podcasty, Wpcast, or Audio Podcast, for example. Some of them are free, others are paid, so you have to choose whether you want to invest some money in building the site or not. Depending on the theme, there may be demo content, ready episode pages with transcript excerpts, RSS feed support, a slider, an audio player with controls, etc.


Of course, you can use any other free or premium theme you like and install a few plugins to add the functionalities you need. A few suitable plugins that include an audio player and various customizable options are PowerPress, Seriously Simple Podcasting, Fusebox, Liteweight Podcast, Podlove Podcast Publisher and Podcast Player.


If you decide to use a dedicated podcast platform to upload your episodes, you can still build your own WordPress website and make use of all the advantages of such a website. For that purpose, you should embed a player or an RSS feed of your podcast on the site. You can still use any podcast-oriented themes and plugins you need. In fact, some of the plugins we have mentioned above will help you with embedding episodes from a dedicated platform onto your own website. When you upload a new episode to the platform, it will appear on your website as well.
Setting up a podcast website with WordPress
There are a few things you have to do to set up a podcast website with WordPress. We assume that you already have a web hosting plan.
First, you need a good domain name. It should be memorable and it should reflect your podcast’s brand. Usually, you can register one through your web hosting provider.
Find out how to choose a good domain name in our article: https://www.icdsoft.com/blog/how-to-register-a-domain-name-in-2019/
Once the domain is active, you can proceed with installing WordPress and setting up the podcast content. Most hosting providers have a script installer, so you can install WordPress with a couple of clicks. You need at least a few key pages/sections on your podcast website. The pages may already be included in the theme as demo content, or you can create them using the Pages -> Add New Page option in the WordPress dashboard.
- Homepage. Here you should have a brief description of your podcast and a list of the latest episodes. Podcast websites should have a simple structure and a simple navigation as the main focus should be on the episodes. You can also add one or a few featured episodes, even if they are not new.

- About. This page should contain more detailed information about you and about the mission of your podcast. Share what made you start the podcast and what your goals are.

- Archive. The section should include all your podcast episodes, usually sorted chronologically. They should be separated into pages, and there should be an option for your listeners to search through them (by name, date, etc.). It should be easy for listeners to navigate through the episodes.
- Contact. The page is necessary for any type of website, and podcast websites are not an exception. Usually a contact form and/or an email address should be sufficient, but if you offer paid subscriptions, you may have to add a phone number or a live chat as well (provided that you can handle real-time calls/chat).
If you prefer to embed an existing podcast channel from a dedicated platform instead of uploading the episodes to your hosting service, you can add an HTML block using the WordPress block editor, and add some code provided by the podcast platform. In some cases, you may need an iframe plugin as well. Here are the official instructions how to embed episodes from some popular platforms:

Other podcast platforms that support embedding typically provide similar help articles.

The last thing you should take care of is SEO optimization. While audio content cannot be indexed by search engines, you can add some keywords in the episode titles and descriptions. One of the advantages of having your own podcast website is that you have full control of the content that will appear along with each audio file. It may help if you add a transcript of each episode as a text file as well. You will accomplish two key objectives – you will enhance search engine optimization (SEO) as your content will be indexed more effectively, and you will improve the site accessibility for visually impaired people who use screen reader software.
Best practices for your podcast website
If you decide to build your own podcast website, you should adhere to some good practices. They will improve the user experience on your site, make maintenance easier for you, and reduce costs. We focus primarily on good practices that are related to the hosting space or the site setup. There are lots of tips you can follow on how to record your episodes and what topics to discuss, but they are beyond the scope of our article.
- Optimize media files. Use high-quality, compressed audio files such as .mp3. They are relatively small in size and preserve sound quality. This way you will save bandwidth and ensure fast streaming. Raw formats offer negligible improvement of the sound quality and take much more disk space.
Format | Quality | File Size (15 minutes) | Compatibility |
MP3 | Good quality, especially at higher bitrates (256 kbps or 320 kbps). | ~14 MB at 128 kbps; ~28 MB at 256 kbps. | Highly compatible with all devices, browsers, and media players. |
WAV | Excellent quality, uncompressed, lossless format. | ~1500 MB (1.5 GB) for 15 minutes. | Supported by most devices but less optimized for web streaming. |
OGG | Comparable to or better than MP3 quality at the same bitrate. | ~12 MB at 128 kbps; ~24 MB at 256 kbps. | Supported by most modern browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome) and some devices. |
FLAC | Lossless compression, excellent quality without data loss. | ~100 MB for 15 minutes. | Widely supported for high-quality audio playback but less compatible than MP3. |
- Promote your best content. When you build your site, make sure that your best content is featured on the home page or on any landing pages you use. It is important that you keep first-time visitors on the site and your most popular content is likely to be the best way to do that.
- Focus on audio content. The idea of maintaining a podcast is to deliver fresh audio content regularly. People listen to podcasts as they are interested in the topics being discussed. You may need some additional content on the site, but do not stray too much. If you want to have lots of blog articles, for example, you should start a blog, not a podcast. Of course, a small blog can help in terms of SEO, but you should focus on audio content.
- Monitor website performance. Due to the nature of podcast websites (larger files, higher load due to streaming), it is important that you monitor daily and monthly traffic stats and CPU load to make sure that your site fits within the limits of your hosting plan. Upgrade the plan promptly if necessary. You can occasionally play random episodes yourself to make sure that the site provides smooth playback to your audience.
Promoting your podcast website
Once your podcast website is live and you begin uploading new episodes, you should think about promoting it. There are different ways to attract and retain listeners. Once you have a decent number of regular listeners, things will get easier, but the first steps may be difficult. We have listed a few effective strategies that do not involve paid advertising.
- Add social media sharing options, so people who like an episode can share it with their friends. Every potential new listener counts, especially for a new podcast, so you should make it easy for people to share your content.

- Send a regular newsletter and add a subscription box on the site. Informing subscribers about new episodes will likely bring them back to your site.
- Add a blog, which will drive additional traffic to your site. You don’t need to publish regularly or to write long articles as the main content is the podcast you record. Nonetheless, you can write short articles about the topics you discuss in the podcast episodes. This way, people who come across your blog are very likely to listen to a podcast that covers similar topics.

- Offer exclusive content and do not copy content, which has already been covered elsewhere. Nobody will want to listen to a podcast that repeats the exact same things as other popular podcasts. Share your unique point of view.
- Host a giveaway. Many podcasters and vloggers collaborate with popular brands and offer their products as prizes in giveaways in exchange for advertisement and brand exposure. This way you can easily boost engagement.
Wrap-up
If you are passionate about a particular topic, and you want to reach people from all over the world, you can create a podcast. You will find many dedicated podcast platforms out there, but having your own podcast website offers greater benefits.
The website will allow you to build a brand name and monetize your podcast more effectively. You will have full control over its design, so your podcast will stand out. You should only make sure that you choose a scalable hosting plan with ample storage.
Using a versatile web application such as WordPress, along with podcast-specific themes and plugins for it, will allow you to build your podcast website in no time.