The short answer: good podcast show notes have six parts: a two or three sentence summary that says what the listener will learn, chapters with timestamps, three to five key takeaways, the links and resources mentioned, a line about the guest, and one call to action. Use the same structure every week so listeners know where to look, and write the summary for someone deciding whether to press play. Three templates you can copy are below.
Show notes are the most-read and least-loved part of a podcast. Most hosts write them last, in a hurry, and it shows: a sentence of summary, a guest bio pasted from LinkedIn, and a "thanks for listening". Yet the show notes are what a would-be listener reads before deciding to give you an hour, and they are the only part of the episode a search engine can read.
This guide gives you a template for the three most common kinds of episode, the rules for chapter timestamps in each app, and what makes show notes work for search.
Who show notes are for
Show notes have three readers, and a good set serves all of them:
- The skimmer in a podcast app. They see your title and the first line or two of the description, then decide. Most of them never scroll down.
- Search engines. Audio on its own gives them almost nothing to work with. The text on your episode page is what can rank, for the topics you discussed rather than just your show's name.
- Your guest. A guest who gets a clear, accurate page about their episode is far more likely to share it.
What to include
| Part | What it does | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Summary | Tells the skimmer why this episode is worth an hour | Two or three sentences. Lead with the problem or question, not "In this episode…" |
| Chapters | Lets people jump to what they care about | Start at 00:00, at least three, see the rules below |
| Key takeaways | Gives value to people who won't listen | Three to five, each one a full thought |
| Guest | Says who is talking and why they're worth hearing | One or two lines, with a link |
| Links and resources | Everything mentioned on the show | Books, tools, articles, people, with links |
| Call to action | One next step | Subscribe, reply, join the newsletter. One, not five |
Optional extras: a standout quote, a link to the full transcript, and related episodes.
Template 1: interview episode
This is the most common format and the one with the most moving parts. Replace everything in square brackets.
[One sentence on the problem or question the episode answers.]
[One or two sentences on who the guest is and what they explain.]
In this episode:
- [Takeaway 1: a full thought, not a topic label]
- [Takeaway 2]
- [Takeaway 3]
Chapters
00:00 [Intro: the question in a few words]
[mm:ss] [Topic 2]
[mm:ss] [Topic 3]
[mm:ss] [Topic 4]
[mm:ss] [Topic 5]
"[The best line from the episode.]" — [Guest name]
About [guest name]
[Role, company, and the one thing they are known for.]
[LinkedIn or website link]
Mentioned in this episode
- [Book / tool / article]: [link]
- [Person or company]: [link]
[One call to action: subscribe, newsletter, or reply.]
The summary is where most interview notes go wrong. "This week I talk to Jane Smith about growth" tells the skimmer nothing. "Why Jane Smith's team stopped running paid ads, and what grew instead" gives them a reason to listen.
Template 2: solo episode
Solo episodes have no guest to lean on, so the notes need to make the argument clear. Lead with your position.
[Your main point, stated as a claim someone could disagree with.]
[One sentence on why it matters to the listener right now.]
What I cover:
- [Point 1]
- [Point 2]
- [Point 3]
Chapters
00:00 [The claim]
[mm:ss] [Why most people get this wrong]
[mm:ss] [What to do instead]
[mm:ss] [An example]
Resources
- [Anything you referenced]: [link]
If this was useful, [one call to action].
Keep solo notes shorter than interview notes. There are fewer names and links to include, and a long page of notes for a 15-minute episode feels padded.
Template 3: B2B or company podcast
A company show has an extra job. The notes should help a buyer, not just a listener, and they usually go through someone's approval. This template adds the business context and keeps the call to action soft.
[The business problem the episode addresses, in the words your buyers use.]
[Who the guest is: role, company, and why their experience is relevant.]
Key takeaways
1. [A practical point a reader could act on this week]
2. [A second one]
3. [A third one]
Chapters
00:00 [The problem]
[mm:ss] [How [guest]'s team approached it]
[mm:ss] [What worked, with numbers if they gave any]
[mm:ss] [What they would do differently]
[mm:ss] [Advice for teams starting out]
About the guest
[Name], [role] at [company]. [Link]
Resources mentioned
- [Report / tool / framework]: [link]
About [show name]
[One line on who the show is for.] [Link to subscribe or to the relevant page on your site.]
Two rules for B2B notes. Use your buyers' vocabulary, not your internal jargon, because that is what they search for. And don't turn the notes into a product pitch. A link to one relevant page is fine. A paragraph of sales copy makes the whole episode look like an ad.
A real example
Here is what the chapters look like from a real run: episode #862 of Smart Agency Masterclass, where Jason Swenk talks to Charlie Clark about why the biggest agency clients aren't always the most profitable. These came straight out of PodRescale, untouched:
00:00 Welcome & Elevate Event Announcement
04:00 Meet Charlie Clark: Agency Origins
09:00 Early Pricing Struggles & Learning Curve
13:00 Scaling Up: High-Value Clients & Risks
18:00 Finding the Sweet Spot: 3-6k Clients
23:00 Productizing Agency Services: Internal vs. External
28:00 Team Alignment & Predictable Growth
Notice what makes them useful. Each title says what happens in that section, so a listener can jump straight to the pricing story or the part about client size. The same run produced the summary, key insights attributed to each speaker, action items and the resources mentioned. You can see the chapters and notes in the public pack for that episode.
Chapters and timestamps: the format that works everywhere
Chapters written into your episode description now work in the three places most people listen. Each has its own rules, and a list that breaks one of them can be ignored entirely:
| Where | First chapter | Minimum | Other rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 00:00 | 3 timestamps, in ascending order | Each chapter at least 10 seconds long |
| Spotify | 00:00 or 00:00:00 | 3 chapters | At least 30 seconds between chapters, one per line, plain text, no emojis |
| Apple Podcasts | 00:00:00 | 3 chapters | Apple's guidance: no more than six per hour, titles of 45 characters or fewer, chapters at least two minutes long |
A list written like this stays inside all three sets of rules:
00:00 The question this episode answers
04:10 How the team found the problem
12:45 What they tried first
21:30 What actually worked
35:05 Advice for teams starting out
- Start at
00:00. Apple's guidance writes it as00:00:00and Spotify accepts either, so if Apple is where most of your listeners are, use the longer form. - One chapter per line: the timestamp, a space, then the title.
- At least three chapters, and in practice one every five to fifteen minutes.
- Keep titles short and specific. "What actually worked" beats "Discussion".
- For episodes over an hour, write every timestamp with hours, from
00:00:00through to01:02:51, so the list uses one format throughout.
Apple can also read chapters from your RSS feed or your audio file, Spotify can read them from your RSS feed, and both now generate chapters automatically for some shows. If you supply your own, Apple shows yours instead of its automatic ones, which is a good reason to write them.
How to write show notes for SEO
Search engines can't listen to your episode, so your show notes are doing all the work. A few habits make a real difference:
- Put the episode on your own site. Your host's episode page and the apps are fine, but a page on your own domain is the one that builds up your site's search traffic over time.
- Title the episode for the topic, not the number. "Ep 48: Jane Smith" ranks for nothing. "Why we stopped running paid ads, with Jane Smith" can rank for the question people actually type.
- Make the first sentence count. It is what the apps show in previews and what search results often use. Say what the episode is about in plain words.
- Write the summary around one question. Think about what someone would search to find this conversation, and answer it in the first paragraph.
- Name people and things properly. Full names, company names and product names. People search for them, and your guest will look for their own name.
- Link out and link in. Link to what was mentioned, and to one or two related episodes on your site.
- Add the transcript, or a link to it. It gives search engines the full text. Keep it below the notes, or on its own page, so the notes stay readable.
- Make each episode's notes unique. Boilerplate paragraphs repeated on every page add nothing. Keep the repeated part to one line.
If an episode deserves more than show notes, write it up as an article. I cover how in how to turn a podcast episode into a blog post.
Where to paste them
Write them once, then use them in three places:
- Your host's episode description. This goes into your RSS feed and from there into every podcast app. Keep the chapters and links here.
- Your website's episode page. The full version, with the player embedded, the guest's links and, if you have one, the transcript.
- The YouTube description, if you post video. The same chapters work there, so viewers get the chapter markers on the progress bar.
Common mistakes
- Leading with housekeeping. "Welcome back to episode 48! Don't forget to subscribe" is the part every app shows. Put it at the end.
- Topic labels instead of takeaways. "Pricing" is a label. "Raise prices for new customers first" is a takeaway.
- A chapter list that breaks the rules. A first timestamp of 00:15 or a two-item list means no chapters at all on YouTube or Spotify.
- Misspelled names. Transcription gets names wrong more than anything else, whichever tool you use. Check the guest's name against their LinkedIn before you publish.
- Links that go nowhere. If someone mentioned a book, link the book, not just its title.
- Copying the guest's bio in full. Two lines on why they are worth listening to is enough.
Doing it faster
By hand, show notes mean a relisten plus, in a typical week, around an hour and a half of writing: timestamping chapters, drafting the summary and pulling quotes and links. It is the job that most often slips when the week gets busy.
That is the job our show notes generator does. Paste your RSS feed (here is where to find it if you're not sure) and PodRescale writes the show notes, timestamped chapters, a summary in three lengths, title ideas and an SEO title and description, all from the transcript. Everything is editable before it goes anywhere. It is one of eleven specialists that run on every episode, so the same run also produces the LinkedIn posts, clips, quote cards and newsletter. The how it works page shows the full pipeline, and the first episode is free with no card.
For the rest of what an episode can become, see the complete repurposing workflow.
Frequently asked questions
How long should podcast show notes be?
Long enough to include the summary, chapters, takeaways, guest and links, which usually means 150 to 400 words. The summary itself should be two or three sentences. If you want a longer piece for search, write a separate article rather than stretching the notes.
What is the difference between show notes and an episode description?
The episode description is the text in your RSS feed that podcast apps display. Show notes is the broader term for everything you publish about the episode, often including a fuller page on your website. In practice most people write one set and paste a trimmed version into their host.
Do show notes help podcast SEO?
Yes. They are the text search engines read, so a clear summary, specific titles, names and a transcript give your episodes a chance to rank for the topics you discussed. Notes on your own website help your site. Notes only inside podcast apps mostly help people already in those apps.
How do I add chapters to my podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts?
The simplest way is to write them into your episode description: start at 00:00, one chapter per line, at least three chapters, with at least 30 seconds between them for Spotify. Both apps can also read chapters from your RSS feed, and your host may have a chapters feature that adds them there for you.
Should I include a full transcript in my show notes?
Include it on the episode page, below the notes, or link to it. It helps accessibility and search. Don't paste it into the description in your host, where it makes the notes impossible to skim in a podcast app.
Founder of PodRescale and a PhD in Data Science. Questions about this post go straight to him.
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