Podcast transcription: How to transcribe your podcast

Over the past few years podcasts have become really popular. They deal with all sorts of topics from nutrition to business. In fact, some people believe that they’re the modern alternatives to radio stations. However, like radios, they have one major problem: they can only be listened to. This means that people who have hearing problems will not be able to enjoy them.

Podcast transcription: How to transcribe your podcast
Podcast transcription: How to transcribe your podcast

As a podcaster, transcribing your podcast can solve this. You can transcribe the podcast yourself or use a podcast transcription service. If you’re going with the second option, we know the best podcast transcription service you can use.

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What is podcast transcription?

To define it in a simple way, podcast transcription is simply a typed document of what you have said during the podcast. It can be done by you or to make it easy, you can get a transcription service to do it for you. A podcast with transcription is better than a podcast episode without one because it allows you to reach out to more people, including that have difficulty hearing. 

Another benefit of transcribing your podcast is that it will be easier to rank on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Who uses podcast transcription?

Anyone who has a podcast can use podcast transcription to help their podcasts rank higher on search engines or help people who have difficulty hearing enjoy their shows more.

Why you should use transcripts? What is the benefit of transcribing my podcast?

There are several reasons why you should include podcast transcriptions with your audio files.

1. Accessibility

Think of it this way, there are a lot of people who are deaf or hard of hearing in the world. Podcasts deal with audio files and people with auditory processing disorders will not be able to enjoy it. But you can change that by making your content available in written form.  

Non-native speakers will also be able to access your podcast. If there’s anything they don’t understand, they can always look it up in the available transcription.

2. Podcast transcription SEO

Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo use how relatable a page is to the query inputted by a user to bring up results. If your podcast website only has audio files, there’s no way these search engines will be able to bring it up.

Of course, your show notes may have everything that may interest a person about your podcast, but you can only write a few words on it and that’ll not help your episodes show up on the first page of Google.

On the other hand, transcripts can have a lot of words on them depending on how long the episode is or how fast you speak. With that amount of words, you can take your website from appearing on the 30th page of queries to the first.

3. Backlink opportunities

It’s difficult to link to podcast episodes without transcripts because there’s nothing to explore and listening to a 30 minutes or 1 hour long podcast.

Many writers don't want to link to a podcast because there's nothing to serve as a reference and it takes too long to listen to a 30 minutes or one hour episode just to get one fact or the other. A podcast with a transcript is different. 

Whoever clicks on the link can just skim through the transcript to get the relevant information. Reading will also go faster. So, transcripts are great for backlinks and backlinks are great for SEO.

4. You can use it for other content

A transcript is a great source for other content. You can convert it into a blog post or draw out email marketing campaigns or infographics from them. Whatever you choose to do, you won't have to try hard because there's already a primary document for you to tweak a little bit.

DIY methods for podcast transcription

You can certainly do the transcription of your podcast by yourself. The simplest way is to listen to it and write down each word as you say them. However, this method can take a lot of time.

Transcription Software

While some people are fast enough to transcribe their podcasts on their own, the truth is, transcribing a podcast manually yourself can be a long and tedious job. If you don't want to go through this stress, you can use speech recognition sofware or have a transcriptionist transcribe it for you.

Speech-to-text

SpeechLive can transcribe podcasts using speech to text, where you will receive a written transcript of your podcast. It is a speech-to-text software solution that you can use without to have to download anything complex software on your computer. It allows you to transcribe what you have said during the course of your podcast.

You can use this software at the same time you're recording your podcast on your favorite platform. You can record within SpeechLive or the mobile app ad the speech-to-text software will convert it into a transcript for you. Once you're done recording, press stop and both the audio and the transcript will be available for you to save or share.

The best thing about using speech-to-text software is that you can later search the transcript for single words and find passages you would like to revisit easily.  

Human transcription

This is the most accurate version of podcast transcription. It is done by humans and as a result, the accuracy is greatly increased because the transcriptionists will of course have a greater understanding of your podcast than a machine would. They also have a better understanding of any accent or dialect you may have. They also understand similar sounding words and will accurately put them where they ought to be.

But that's not the best thing about human transcriptionists. That honour goes to their ability to understand industry related jargons and make research to perfect your transcripts. Furthermore, side talks, background noises and filler words will be omitted by them to create a document you can easily publish as a blog post.  

Types of podcast transcription services

Webcast lecture transcription

Webcast lectures are recorded by experts. The purpose of the webcast is to allow online students to access lectures that are presented by expert lecturers. Students can get all the information they need from the lecture even if they are at home or on the go.

Research webcast transcription

This is like webcast lectures but instead of the expert giving lectures on the internet, they are providing information on a chosen topic. These webcasts can be recorded in different formats like streaming or video and audio formats. You can get them transcribed.

Interview webcast transcription

Just like the other kinds of webcast transcription, the only difference is that instead of giving lectures or providing information on a topic, experts are being interviewed. There are usually two speakers or more in this sort of webcast and it's a little harder to transcribe.

Multi-participant webcast transcription

These webcasts are a little more complicated to transcribe because there are more than one speaker and multiple audio recordings. Of course, they can be much easier if it's just an interview rather than lectures or presentations.

Sports event transcription

Sports events are recorded and then transcribed into text. The purpose of this is so that people can review past games, especially those with controversial outcomes. This may include the commentary or analysis of that game.

Podcast transcription: Summary

If you're having a webcast or podcast transcribed, decide whether you would like to use speech recognition or human transcription. You can then use the SpeechLive speech-text-service or our human transcription services for the best transcription results and to get even more out of your podcast creation.

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