Feed URLs Preview and Settings

Published on

Each podcast has a feed URL and a preview URL.

Find them in Selfhost Podcasting > Manage Podcasts > open a podcast > Podcast Overview.

Feed URL

The feed URL is the XML RSS feed read by podcast apps and directories.

With pretty permalinks:

https://example.com/feed/podcast-slug

With plain permalinks:

https://example.com/?feed=podcast-slug

Use the feed URL for:

  • Apple Podcasts.
  • Spotify.
  • Podcast apps.
  • RSS validators.
  • Directory submissions.

Preview URL

The preview URL is the browser-friendly version of the feed.

It adds this query parameter:

?shp_preview=1

Use the preview URL for:

  • Checking podcast artwork and metadata.
  • Playing episodes in a browser.
  • Reviewing episode list and show notes.
  • Sharing a readable preview with team members.

Do not submit the preview URL to podcast directories.

Feed Settings

Find these settings in Feed Settings.

Maximum Number of Episodes in the Feed

Controls how many published episodes appear in the RSS feed.

  • 0: show all published episodes.
  • Any positive number: show only that many latest episodes.

Use this if your feed is very large and you want to limit it.

Preview Website Link

Controls whether the podcast website link appears on the browser preview page.

This does not remove the website link from the actual RSS feed.

Preview Feed Link

Controls whether the RSS feed URL appears on the browser preview page.

This does not change the actual feed URL.

Preview Show Notes

Controls whether preview visitors can open episode show notes in the preview modal.

Episode Summary Style

Options:

  • Excerpt: episode cards show a shortened summary.
  • Full Content: episode cards show the full description.

Apple Podcasts URL

Optional. Add your show URL on Apple Podcasts. The preview page can display it as a listening option.

Spotify URL

Optional. Add your Spotify show URL. The preview page can display it as a listening option.

Feed Ordering

The feed includes only published episodes.

Episodes are sorted newest first by publish date. If two episodes have the same date and time, the newer WordPress post ID appears first.

Private Feed URLs

With Pro private podcasting, public private-feed admin URLs look like:

https://example.com/shp-private-podcast/podcast-slug/

Subscriber feed URLs include a token:

https://example.com/shp-private-podcast/podcast-slug/token-value/

Only share tokenized URLs with the subscriber they belong to.