Quickstart Guide: How to Start a Podcast


Podcasts have grown into a serious communication channel over the past few years. As of early 2025, over 464 million people worldwide are regular podcast listeners, and that number is still climbing. In North America alone, more than 40% of internet users tune in to at least one podcast per week. What’s more interesting is how small businesses and personal brands are jumping into the mix—not just to ride the wave, but to build real, engaged audiences. According to a recent survey from Edison Research, more than 43% of small business owners who have started a podcast reported an increase in customer engagement and brand awareness within the first six months.

If you want to start a podcast but have absolutely no idea where to start, we will look at what you might need to get started, how to distribute your podcast, and all the bits in between.

How to Start a Podcast: A Beginner’s Guide

Starting a blog is a fantastic way to share your thoughts, but in today’s digital world, podcasting is where the real engagement happens. With Spotify investing heavily in podcasting—acquiring platforms like Anchor and Megaphone—it has become one of the best places to start your podcast journey. Here’s how to get started, record quality audio, and syndicate your podcast across multiple platforms.

Why Start a Podcast?

Starting a podcast is about deepening conversations that can’t always be fully captured in a blog post or a tweet. It lets you talk with guests, share insights, and build a richer narrative around the work you do – whether that’s web design, life coaching, or entrepreneurial challenges. Podcasting lets you tell stories in a voice that’s literally yours. There’s a level of connection in someone hearing your voice in their ears during a walk, drive, or daily routine that’s hard to beat.

And from a business perspective? Podcasting offers a surprisingly strong return on investment (ROI) for the time investment. Compared to other forms of content marketing, podcasts are relatively low-cost to produce and distribute. Plus, they’re evergreen – an episode recorded today might gain traction months or even years down the line. With tools like dynamic ad insertion and cross-promotion on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, creators have more ways than ever to monetize and expand their reach.

Why Start on Spotify?

Spotify has positioned itself as a podcasting powerhouse, offering tools like Spotify for Creators (formerly Anchor) to make podcast creation easy. It allows you to host, edit, and distribute your podcast for free, with built-in monetization options. Plus, Spotify’s algorithm can help new creators get discovered faster.

While Spotify is a great home base, you’ll want to syndicate your podcast to reach a wider audience. When you set up your Spotify podcast, you will have an option to generate an RSS file. Syndicate by sharing the link to this RSS feed on different podcast platforms. The other podcast platforms will use this RSS feed to copy your podcast media and notes for redistribution.

Here’s how to get on other platforms:

Leverage Spotify for Creators as the host for your podcasts, and use syndication to provide easy, automatic, one-and-done distribution to these other platforms.

Recording Audio: Windows & Mac Options

High-quality audio is essential for a successful podcast. Here are two great free software options for Windows and Mac to get started with:

  • Audacity – Free, open-source, and great for beginners, you can download Audacity for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • GarageBand – Free and user-friendly, perfect for Mac users, GarageBand is available on the App Store.

Essential Podcasting Hardware

Believe it or not, you should have two things to record great audio for your podcast. A microphone is obviously important when recording a podcast. The ability to hear yourself is just as important! It’s great to be able to gauge whether or not you are speaking loudly enough. Headphones are also useful in preventing audio feedback. This is especially important if you’re doing your podcast interviews over a video meeting platform like Zoom, Google Meet, or StreamYard.

Most audio and video software has default settings that prevent feedback and dampen background noise. These settings do their job, but also tend to reduce audio quality. When you use headphones, you can turn those settings off, giving you greater control over how you sound.

Cardioid polar pattern

Using the microphone in your laptop will not provide the quality you want. Laptop mics tend to pick up the noise in the room, as well as the size of the room. A large room with the wrong microphone can sound echoey or have too much bass.

A good podcasting microphone will use a cardioid polar pattern. This pattern picks up voice well from the front, and reduces sound from the sides and back.

A solid setup will make your podcast sound professional. Consider these essentials:

Microphones:

Headphones:

Multitrack Recorders (for an all-in-one device):

  • Zoom PodTrak P4 – This is a great device for mobile recording. You can connect the PodTrak P4 to up to four microphones and headphones. You can switch out one of the mic inputs for a mobile phone connection, so you can add remote guests to your on-location podcast.
  • Rodecaster Pro II – A full recording studio in one device, the Rodecaster Pro II sets the bar for a podcast recording device. You can connect up to four microphones or instruments, and connect a mobile phone via Bluetooth to take calls.

Multitrack recorders can also be connected to your computer, allowing for more complex recording situations or combining with live video.

Podcasts and SEO

While podcasts aren’t directly indexed by search engines the same way blog posts are, they can actually be a surprisingly powerful tool for SEO when paired with the right strategy.

1. Podcast Show Notes = Searchable Content

Every podcast episode should be accompanied by a written summary—often called show notes. These notes can include a keyword-rich title, a well-written description, and even a full or partial transcript. This content is indexed by Google and can help your site show up in search results. The more episodes you publish, the more opportunities you create for your site to rank for a wide range of relevant topics.

2. Transcripts Boost Keyword Opportunities

Publishing full transcripts of your episodes is another SEO goldmine. Not only does it make your content more accessible (which is a huge win in itself), but it also gives Google a massive chunk of text to crawl. This increases your chances of ranking for long-tail keywords and spoken phrases that your audience is actively searching for.

3. Backlinks and Sharing Opportunities

Podcasts tend to generate backlinks in ways blog posts sometimes don’t. For example, if you host a guest, they’re likely to share the episode on their site or social channels, often linking back to your website. Other sites might also link to your episode if it offers unique insight or a good interview—especially if you start to build a reputation in your niche.

4. Improved Dwell Time and Engagement

Let’s say someone finds your site through search and sticks around to listen to a 20-minute podcast embedded on the page. That longer visit time—known as dwell time—is a positive signal to search engines that your content is valuable. When paired with good internal linking and calls to action, this kind of engagement can support higher rankings over time.

5. YouTube and Multi-Channel SEO

If you repurpose your podcast episodes as YouTube videos (even with just a static background or simple animation), you open the door to YouTube SEO, which is a whole other traffic stream. Google owns YouTube, and YouTube videos often rank high in search results—so you double-dip on visibility when you publish in both places.

Final Thoughts


Podcasts aren’t just an audio experience—they’re content. And when you treat them like the multifaceted digital assets they are, they can drive organic search traffic to your website, expand your keyword footprint, and boost your visibility across platforms.

Starting a podcast alongside your blog can help you reach new audiences and build stronger engagement. Spotify’s big investment in podcasting and easy syndication makes it the perfect time to start your podcast with little cost. Get the right gear, pick the best recording software, and spread the word to grow your audience!

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