How to create a podcast website with WordPress

Decide what visitors need to find first: the latest episode, the full archive, show information, the host or guest details, and a contact or newsletter page. Keep the main navigation short, such as Home, Episodes, About and Contact.

Prepare a consistent title, summary, cover image and episode format. Apple requires an RSS-based show to have at least one episode and artwork before submission.

Create a static homepage or design the front page to show the latest episode, a short description of the show, the main call to action and links to listening apps. Create an About page with the host details and a separate Episodes page for the archive.

Use a featured image for each episode and add categories or tags for recurring topics. Check the layout on a phone before publishing, because episode titles and audio controls often wrap badly in narrow columns.

For a small site, you can publish normal WordPress posts and insert an Audio block in each episode. The block accepts an upload, a file from the Media Library or an external audio URL, and provides an in-page player.

This route is fine for a private archive or a website that only needs embedded playback. It is not a complete podcast distribution system by itself: you still need a public RSS feed with episode enclosure data, stable identifiers and suitable audio hosting. Managing those details by hand becomes easy to get wrong as the archive grows.

For a public podcast, install a podcasting plugin or connect WordPress to a podcast host that supplies the RSS feed. A podcast plugin can provide dedicated episode fields, a player, show metadata, artwork settings and a feed for podcast directories. Seriously Simple Podcasting, for example, documents feed details, episode publishing and audio player blocks.

Enter the show title, description, category, author, copyright information, explicit-content setting and cover art in the podcast settings. Keep the feed public. Apple requires a publicly addressable RSS 2.0 feed, unique episode enclosure URLs and a GUID that does not change.

Create each episode with a descriptive title, a short summary, show notes, links mentioned in the episode and the audio file. Use the podcast episode fields provided by your plugin or host rather than relying only on a normal post and an embedded player.

Do not rename or replace an episode file casually after publication. Podcast apps may cache the old enclosure URL, and changing identifiers can create duplicate episodes or break existing subscribers. Use simple filenames and URLs containing standard letters and numbers where possible.

Open the feed URL in a browser and test several episode links. Check that the feed is public, each episode has playable audio, artwork appears, descriptions are readable and the newest episode is present. If a feed validator reports an error, inspect caching, security, redirect and optimisation plugins first; those layers can alter RSS output or block enclosure URLs.

Submit the working feed to Apple Podcasts Connect and other directories. Apple requires at least one episode and artwork, and the audio server must support streaming-related requests such as HTTP HEAD and byte ranges.

If you want to spend less time assembling templates, use Podover as the site theme. Its podcast-focused layouts, episode presentation, audio player, widgets and streaming support give you a quicker starting point for the homepage and archive.

Install the theme ZIP from Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme, activate it, then customise the homepage, menus, colours, typography and episode templates. A theme does not replace the podcast RSS feed or audio-hosting setup, so keep the feed-management step in place.