Podcast popularity has increased exponentially over recent years, with some placing the figures at 70% of UAE’s population tuning into a podcast each day. Last year these figures were sitting at around 25%.
However, podcasts can be limiting in their ability to reach new audiences, or add SEO value to a company’s website, due to the limit on languages and text.
A podcast – basically an audio episode available online – doesn’t encourage listeners who speak another language, or allow search engines to pick up on valuable content contained within the audio, however, by translating and transcribing your podcasts you make them available to both search engines, and new foreign listeners.
The following points highlight why translating and transcribing your podcasts can be beneficial for business or pleasure.
1. One Podcast – More Content
If you have gone to all the effort to create a flawless podcast, why not make the most of it and share the content in other ways?
If you transcribe each episode, you are then able to use them as a traditional text blog, saving time, money and effort on creating new blog posts.
Of course, not everyone likes listening to podcasts, so your audience reach is limited to those who prefer this method. However, once transcribed, your information will be available to those who prefer different formats.
If you also translate this transcription, you are then able to access a far wider audience, which can be then be applied to your multilingual website and can be localised for maximum effect.
2. Translation and Transcription Boost SEO
At present, search engines index text far easier than audio or video content. Search bots are only able to crawl the metadata information as opposed to the content contained within the file.
For example, a blog post would be assessed for all the text (alongside the metadata) whereas, a podcast would only be assessed for the metadata it contained.
This means that podcasts, videos and any other audio-only content on your website, is not aiding your SEO rating.
However, transcribing your audio content, and uploading this along with the podcast, can significantly increase your keyword content, thus increasing web traffic.
If this transcription is also translated into one, or more other languages, then you’ll be boosting your keyword hits in multiple locations – all from one podcast.
If you only use YouTube (or an equivalent), it is still possible to benefit from transcription and translation services linked to your podcast as you can use closed captions. These are also helpful in boosting SEO.
The increase in traffic to your site will generate new listeners, improve popularity and encourage wider audience participation.
3. Translation and Transcription Increases Audience Accessibility and User Experience
Podcasts are used by millions of people around the world on a daily basis. However, there are many who are not able to access them for a number of reasons, such as:
• Those who are hard of hearing or deaf
• People whose native language isn’t English
• Listeners with Attention Deficit Disorders for whom focussing on listening is difficult
By utilising translation for your podcasts you can easily attract a new audience who may otherwise have struggled with all, or parts, of the podcast. Listeners whose native language isn’t English may grasp the outline of your message but fine details can easily be missed.
Likewise, transcription will allow advanced participation for those users who struggle with listening for any length of time, or who are hard of hearing, or for those who can read English, but not translate well at a usual speaking pace.
It also allows your podcast to be accessed just about anywhere. For instance, if in a public place with no headphones a user would struggle to listen to the podcast, but once transcribed, it is possible to read it just about anywhere.
Podcasts also often lack visual engagement – they are fine for listening while driving or completing tasks on the go, but not so great to sit and listen while at a desktop or on a mobile device.
Transcription and translation can improve user experience at a basic level through being able to read along with the audio, but it is also possible to add interesting visuals, create audiobooks, or generate interactive navigation in a bid to improve user experience and increase audience interaction.
If you would like to discuss options for translation and transcription services please contact Creative Word and we will be happy to advise you.
