OK, do you need a website for your podcast?  Yeah, that’s the topic today.  We are going to dive into whether you really need to purchase that domain name and have your podcast stand-alone or whether you just need to share space on your current website.  We’ll even talk about what options you have if you don’t have your website and what you can still do with those free options.

The goal of your podcast is to keep people engages and in your sphere.  Keeping them on platforms that highlight you and your offers is the goal.  Listen in as I give you a few choices on what you can use.

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This podcast is Produced by KP Creative Media.

You. Hey, welcome back. I am talking all things about your podcast website. Yes. So I've had a couple of people ask me along the ways whether or not you need a podcast specific website. Now if you already have a website then it's possible that you may not need an actual website for your podcast. What you'll want is a portion of your website to be directed to your podcast. That way you can always create links that will link back to your website, which ultimately hopefully will get people to stay on your website and then make sure that they are going to get all of the information and all of the needed assets there.

So that is always going to be the bottom line. Whether or not you have all of those links in your show notes, any of those links should be going back to your website or some way for people to be able to get in touch with you. If you don't have a website and you only have like a link tree or you have any of that, all of those show notes should be pointing to that. But this one here is just more specific to whether or not you need a website for your podcast. Now there are a couple of different companies out there that specifically will create you a podcast website and actually you can do this right in your hosting platform in most cases. Now I know that the ones that I use on a regular basis do. That would be Captivate, Libson and Buzzsprout. Those are the three that my clients all seem to gravitate towards.

And of course my favorite is Captivate. Love them, Love, Love. That's who we use here. And you can just create a podcast website directly in your host, which is also a fantastic thing because you could actually use that as your website. So if you don't have one, don't want to pay for one or whatnot you could still put a little bit, it's not going to allow you to do well actually I can't even say that. Some of them allow you to do a lot on them and some of them will allow you to do just showcasing your actual podcast on there. It will still let you have any of your links that you want to have and you can certainly point to any kind of like calendar and whatnot right inside there. So if you have something similar to that, if you do not have a podcast website, just check in your host because I'm going to say that nine times out of ten they will allow you to have one inside.

Now as far as grabbing that domain name, so you have this podcast, maybe it is connected to your business in some fashion but you're also thinking it's named a little bit differently than your actual business name because maybe you just enticed it a little bit, added a little bit of extra words or maybe it's totally different. You never know. Should you own the domain for that particular name, this is going to be completely up to you, the direction of your business and whether or not you think that this is going to be a long term goal of yours. If you are thinking to yourself that you would like to make this podcast continue on in perpetuity for quite a bit of time, you may want to consider whether or not you can purchase the domain of your podcast name. Now I wouldn't necessarily go out and purchase the name of your podcast with the word podcast in it. So for this one here, I know this is a little bit different. So this one's creative podcasting. I wouldn't go out and purchase the Creativepodcastingpodcast.com URL, right? I would just maybe just leave it at creativepodcasting.

Now I don't currently own that. Maybe I should take a look at that before this airs, but I don't actually own that. But what I do have is I have it all directed right to my actual business website, which is Kpcreativemedia.com. And then if you forward slash Creativepodcasting on there, then you'll see that that pops right up. So that is how I do mine. But you can certainly create your domain or purchase your domain name with your podcast name. Now some people have that and then what they do is a Redirect, right? So you'll purchase, say you purchase Creative Podcasting and then if somebody types in Creativepodcasting.com, that will actually get redirected right over to Kpcreativemediacreativepodcasting and then you don't actually have to create a website for it, but you actually own that. So in the event that you want to grow that bigger or better, you'll have that ability to do that in the future.

Once you own the domain, you could also then create emails and then you could maybe even do some sort of like pretty links or any kind of links like that that are again very specific to your URL. And that way, you know when people are clicking on those, they're actually getting to your website in the fashion from your podcast episode. So not rather just a Google search but actually clicking on that link inside of your show notes, you'd be able to see that. Now that would have a little bit of know how. You would need to know how to use pretty links and you would need to know how to do a Redirect. But for the most part those are actually pretty easy. It's usually done in a hosting platform. So if you already have a website, then you'd probably have some sort of a hosting platform.

Now we use SiteGround for our hosting platform and this does get a little confusing. It's kind of similar to the whole RSS feed. So I don't want to lose you here, but you would need to purchase the domain if you wanted to go that way. And that would need to be re upped every year. Or you could purchase it in multiple years, certainly, but you would need to make sure that you keep an eye on that so that you are always keeping that fresh. Make sure the renewal goes to an email that you're going to be checking on a regular basis and then what will happen is every year they'll let you know, hey, it's up for renewal and you can make a decision then whether or not you want to do that. Now I buy all of mine through Google domains and it's $12 a year typically, so pretty cheap, right? And then once you have your domain name you would then need a hosting platform. Now that domain name for podcasts we kind of skip, right? We just kind of make up a name but we just jump right into the host, the hosting platform.

So that is where your website would live. Very similar to the hosting platform where your podcast would live. Right. So same thing but they are different types of companies for the most part. There are a couple that maybe overlap but for the most part you're going to go with somebody like maybe oh goodness, I can't even think of any others other than the one that I use. Oh, I think there's Green Geeks I think might be another one that people use. I use SiteGround. And SiteGround has been really good to me for the last three or four years.

And what I'll do on that is I will upload or let it know, not necessarily upload, but just put in the URL to the domain that I just purchased. And then once I do that, I will click right into it. And then there's a little area that says, like, redirect, and you can actually redirect it right to your website, which is kind of a neat way to do that. Again, certainly you could play around with it. I'm sure there is a YouTube or if you Google it they will definitely help you. Maybe even the people at SiteGround will help you too. But if you just want it done quickly and easily, there's definitely a couple of different people out there, types of people out there that can help you with that. I would go with a tech VA web designer or somebody like that.

Now once you have done that redirect and it's at your website, then every time you send people to that particular link they'll get dropped into your website, which is really sweet, right. And especially if all you're using that link for is for your podcast, then you're going to get a good idea of how many times people actually click on that link, which is super nice because that just quantifies how many people are also listening and taking action on those things that you have to say and the information that you have to give. If you have a website and you already have your podcast up on your website. That is awesome. And again you can use a pretty link so you can use like a bitly or something like that in your show notes if you wanted to. I think it's just the most amazing thing to be able to send people back to your website all the time. So whether or not you are writing a blog post or you're writing a newsletter and you're always dropping them right back into your website because if they're at your website and they're curious and they like what they have to hear and they like what they have to see, they will look around, right? They'll look around, they'll see what you have to offer, they'll see the types of clients that you have, they'll see your testimonials. It's just a little what is that? They get caught up in the whole want to know more and so then they just become very curious about everything else that you have.

So if you have some great content on your website and you're always adding content, then you can just keep them in your sphere. Don't have a website, but you are using the host website. Again, links there maybe to your calendly or your dubsato or whatever it is that you use. And then you would also maybe send them to your Facebook group if you have that set up or whatever it is that you are doing online now. I think overall, is it a good idea to have a podcast website of some fashion? I think it is, but I don't think that you should spend too much money on it unless that is part of your overall business. If that is your business plan is to just make your podcast your business, then perhaps you'll want to look at purchasing the URL for your podcast. But if it is just a portion of your business, keep it on your site. There's a lot of different plugins.

If you use WordPress, if you are using Squarespace, there are embed codes in your hosting that you can embed right into Squarespace and make them go live on the same date and the same time as your podcast. So it's seamless, it's an extra step but seamless. And then also there are other different types of websites that you can just send people to. Now, Pod link is a very simple and easy one. It will showcase your latest episode on there and it's not editable or anything like that to you, but it's definitely someplace that you could easily send people to in the event you wanted to send them all of your episodes or one episode or anything like that. There are a couple of others and there are a couple of different actual businesses that specialize in just podcast websites. So if you really wanted to go in that way, you could. But again, your host PodLink or using your own website already is probably best just to keep them in your own sphere and where you are.

So I hope this has been helpful for you and I hope that you got a little bit more information about whether or not you need a podcast website and whether or not you need to purchase the URL and whether or not you want to just keep it right there at the host or on your own website. So if you have a podcast website or you are linking to your podcast website and you want to share, I would love to know. So join us in our free Facebook community creative Podcasting. It is a group and I'll link that in the show notes and you can share your latest podcast episodes there. You can look for guests there and you can also share any information. If you have a question, we answer them. If you want somebody advice on something, we'll help you with that too, so you can jump on over there. It is a Facebook group, but it is Creative Podcasting and we would love to see you there.

So until next time, have a great day. Thanks.