If you're a podcast host or you're delving into the world of podcasts as part of your business marketing strategy, then podcast transcription offers numerous benefits to both you and your audience.

But manually typing out the content of the podcast is a long and arduous task, especially if your episodes are nearing the hour mark. Fortunately, other methods are at hand, and in this guide we'll walk you through your options and give you step-by-step instructions to help you transcribe your podcasts quickly and easily.

Jump to:

• The benefits of transcribing a podcast

• 3 ways to convert a podcast to text

• How to transcribe a podcast with Transcribe

• How to transcribe podcasts to text for free

• SEO

SEO (AKA search engine optimisation) is about improving the visibility of your website in search engine results. Since Google crawls written content far better than audio content, providing a written transcript alongside your podcast helps to boost your searchability, improve your rankings and ultimately reach a wider audience and increase your traffic. One study by SEO experts Moz saw a 15% increase in organic traffic and a 50% keyword lift after adding podcast transcripts.

Find out more about SEO for podcasts.

• Accessibility

Creating a written transcription of your podcast makes the content more accessible for members of your intended audience who might be deaf or hard of hearing. It also makes your podcast more accessible for members of your audience who find it easier to read than listen to the language in the recording.

• Marketing material

Once you've got your written podcast transcript, there's no limit to how you can use it. Turn it into a blog post, pull out quotes to share on social media or repurpose it into training material for your workforce.

Read more: The ultimate guide to content repurposing

• Manual transcription (the DIY method)

If time isn't an issue, then the good old-fashioned method of speed-typing a podcast transcription is one option. It's not one that we would recommend though, especially for long podcasts - with all the rewinding and re-listening, manually transcribing takes even longer than you might expect!

• Human transcription services

Transcription services using real-life humans promise accuracy, but since a human can only work so fast, these services are far slower and generally far more expensive than automated services. An hour of audio takes approximately four hours for a professional to transcribe, and the average price is 75 cents to $1.50 per minute. That works out as $45-$90 per hour of audio transcription.

• Automated transcription services

Automatic transcription services like Transcribe offer a faster and more affordable alternative. Since the process is automated, using AI-powered software, you'll get a podcast transcription within minutes of uploading the file. Depending on the quality of the audio in your podcast recording, you may need to make some small tweaks to the text, but this is quick and easy to do using our app or online editor.

1. Download the Transcribe app or launch the online editor

2. Upload your podcast

You can import audio files from any app or cloud storage system, including Google Drive and Dropbox. Supported file formats include mp3, m4a, wav, m4v, mp4, mov and avi. If your podcast is in a format that isn't supported, get in touch and we'll help you to convert your file.

The clearer your podcast recording is, the more accurate the transcription will be, so take care to ensure that voices can be clearly heard, speakers don't talk over one another and there's no background noise or echo.

3. Choose your language

Select the language of your recording from more than 120 languages and dialects.

4. Start the transcription process

Your podcast transcription will be ready within minutes, so make yourself a coffee and we'll send you a notification when your transcription is complete.

5. Your transcription is ready!

Now that your podcast transcript is ready, you can proofread and polish the text in the app, online or in your preferred file format - with or without timestamps and speaker separation. With our standard version you can export your transcribed text to TXT, or upgrade to our PRO service to export to PDF, DOCX, SRT and JPG.

Then all that's left to do is upload it to your website, add it to your playlist description on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and repurpose the content to your heart's content!

With Transcribe, you can enjoy the first 15 minutes of transcription time for free, so if your podcast recording is on the shorter side then this could work out as an entirely free option.

Once you've used up your free credit and seen for yourself whether our service meets your needs, you can buy additional credit for just $5 an hour, or get 10 hours for just $30 ($3 an hour). Better still, upgrade to our PRO service for $14.99/month or $99.99/year, and you'll receive an additional 5 hours of transcription time each month - ideal if you publish weekly episodes.

Download the Transcribe app or launch the online editor to get started.