If you’ve ever copied and pasted a podcast embed code onto your site, you’re not alone. It’s a quick and easy way to add a player to your page without needing any extra tools.
However, one important aspect often gets overlooked: those podcast embed players can introduce a range of issues to your website. These include slower page loading times, SEO challenges, and limited customization options. As a result, they come with hidden costs that can affect both you and your listeners.
Let’s take a closer look at these problems and discuss a smarter, more flexible solution designed specifically for WordPress.
The Drawbacks of Traditional Podcast Embedded Players
Security Concerns with iFrames
Many podcast embed players utilize iframes to load external content onto your website. However, iframes can pose security risks, particularly if the source site becomes compromised. Because the content within the iframe is sourced from outside your website, you have limited control over what is displayed or how it behaves.
Page Speed and SEO Issues
iFrames can slow down page loading times because they require additional HTTP requests to load external content. This can negatively impact both user experience and SEO, as slow-loading pages may be penalized by search engines. Furthermore, search engines might struggle to crawl and index content within iFrames, which could hinder your site’s search rankings.
Limited Branding Options
Podcast embed players can be challenging to style and customize. Often, they do not align with the overall theme and branding of your website. These players typically offer limited styling options, making it hard to fully integrate them into your site’s look and feel. While some may allow you to change a color or two, adding custom CSS or seamlessly integrating the player into your brand aesthetic is usually quite difficult.
Locked into a Single Host
Changing podcast hosts means you must manually update every embed code on your site. For podcasters with many episodes, this can be a significant time commitment.
Manual Import
If you plan to create individual blog posts for each episode for SEO or content marketing purposes, you may find yourself repeatedly copying and pasting the title, description, and podcast embed code. While adding the embed code is straightforward if you only have to do it once on your page, it can become quite time-consuming if you need to add the embed code for each new episode that is released.
No Search or Filtering Features
Podcast Embed players have limited functionality; for instance, they often lack a search feature. This forces users to scroll endlessly through episodes to find what they want.
No Built-In Analytics
iFrames players are not part of your website. You cannot simply track anything about the player uses on your website. This leaves you with no clue if the player on your website is actually working. Getting basic stats like episode play count and search terms are not possible.
A Better Way: Podcast Player for WordPress
That’s exactly why we built Podcast Player, a WordPress plugin that gives you full control over how your podcast is displayed — and how your audience experiences it.
Here is how it solves the problems above:
Secure and Self-Contained
The Podcast Player runs directly on your website. There are no external iframes or risky embeds to worry about. Our plugin thoroughly sanitize all podcast content and ensures that no malicious content ever enters your website.
Easy Customization
Unlike other embedded players, Podcast Player offers extensive customization options. You can modify aspects such as accent color, background color, font choices, and how episodes are sorted and filtered. Additionally, you have the option to show or hide specific player elements. You can also add subscribe buttons, social sharing options, and much more.
Host Flexibility
You are not limited to a single hosting service. The Podcast Player only needs your podcast’s RSS feed to operate. If you decide to change hosts, just update the RSS feed in the player or redirect your existing feed to the new one, and everything will continue to work smoothly.
Automatic Episode Imports
With Podcast Player, you can effortlessly create WordPress posts from your podcast episodes. After you set your import preferences once, future episodes will automatically:
- Generate a new post
- Include the title, description, and other relevant information from your feed
- Feature a single episode player in the post
- Publish automatically
This capability saves you a significant amount of time, especially if you have a large catalog of episodes.
Built-In Search and Filters
Podcast player’s Ajax-powered search swiftly locates episodes by title or description, even with minor typos. Additionally, if your episodes are categorized, the plugin can generate category filters for easier browsing.
Insightful On-Site Analytics
With Podcast Player Pro’s statistics feature, you can track how many times each episode has been played with the player, based on your custom playback threshold. You can also see what terms users are searching for, providing you with powerful insights into your audience’s interests.
Conclusion
Enhance your podcasting experience by tackling these key issues directly with Podcast Player. Ensure you unlock your podcast’s full potential and provide an exceptional experience for your listeners.
Want to give it a try? Check it out here or try free version on WordPress.
