Podcast descriptions not showing

Hi,

Where are you writing the description in your post? The main blog post content should get into the RSS feed and be used by all apps. IF you are putting that in another spot other than the main blog post content area or are using a Page Builder, it could put it in another tag.

What is the feed address for your show? I can take a look to see what tags are there.

Hi MIke,

Thanks for your response. My feed address ishttps://thealblackshow.com/feed/podcast/

I got this from my Blubrry PowerPress Settings page within WordPress.

The only place I’m putting any description is in the Edit Post section where I fill out the section under Episode Info. Under Episode Title and Episode Description, there ‘s nothing to edit, and it says it pulls this info from the WordPress Post Title and WordPress Post Content, however I don’t know where that is. I’ve been using Divi Visual Builder for all my pages/posts.

I then enter info in the Title and Summary for Apple Podcast Optimization.

Thanks,

Al

All I’m seeing in the description tags is “The post Darren Glen appeared first on The Al Black Show.” (which is from Yoast SEO).

Let me suggest a few settings to try.
1. In WordPress Settings > Reading Set the syndication feeds to the other settings. If it’s on Full text, set it to summary or if it’s on summary, set it to full text (it acts differently dependong on other settings in WordPress.

2. In the feeds tab of PowerPress Settings, make sure you have “do not allow other plugins to modify podcast feeds” checked. (save changes)

Give it a day or so to update in Apple Podcasts.

—

Hi Mike,

Thanks again for your input. I’ve made those changes so I’ll see how they work out.

Cheers,

Al

Hi Mike,

Thanks again for your assistance. I now have info being pulled through, but it’s very different depending on which publisher it appears on.

Stitcher – https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-al-black-show
Each episode description when you select it, or when it is the most recent episode, is displaying every episode description all jumbled up into one description which looks very bad. It seems to be showing all my Related Episode info that appears on my website, and there is no formatting.
Further, when you’re looking at the main page for the show, only the most recent show has a description, and all the others only have the name of the interviewee.

Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/08IdD2r6G56ysCj8HXMzB1
This publisher only displays the interviewee’s name. Example attached.

Mixcloud – https://www.mixcloud.com/alblack/uploads/
This publisher only displays the interviewee’s name. Example attached.

TuneIn – https://tunein.com/podcasts/Podcasts/The-Al-Black-Show-p1253778/
This publisher only displays the interviewee’s name. Example attached.

Apple Podcasts – https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-al-black-show/id1481445116
This one almost gets it exactly how I want it. It has the interviewee’s name, and the short description of around 156 characters (in most cases this
would be the Google Snippet/meta description which I’ve copied). The only thing it’s missing is the episode subtitle. I have attached two examples of where this appears. On the page/post on my website, and in the Apple Podcasts Optimization. In the episode I’ve used as an example, the subtitle is Blaggin’ It.

Obviously Apple Podcasts are treated differently due to the unique optimization feature within WordPress. One of the things I don’t understand is why Stitcher is receiving some info, albeit not in the best format, but the others are not.

Ideally I’d like Interviewee Name – Subtitle – Short Episode Description (snippet) to appear everywhere.

Sorry, I forgot some other info that could be of use to you.

This is the info being displayed by Blubrry – https://blubrry.com/thealblackshow/ As you can see the most recent episode has the short description/snippet, but the rest do not.

Lastly, when I typed my RSS feed info into a Google tool I got two errors (attached), however, on Google Podcasts, the episode directions are
all the same, and they are the old The post Saul Bliss appeared first on The Al Black Show – https://podcasts.google.com/?q=the%20al%20black%20show

This is the Google tool that I used – https://search.google.com/devtools/podcast/preview

Thanks again,

Al

Al,

Unfortunately, we (or you) can not control completely which tags the syndication points show. Some are good at it and some are not so good at it. I have found that putting what you want to show everywhere in the main post content box is the best bet. IF you are using a “page builder” instead of the stock WordPress editor (either block or classic) they will have no choice but use the same thing everywhere. Formatting is another issue. Some are good at following formating, and some are not. As podcasters, we can not force the formatting on the apps and directories.

The good news is most listeners see you have a new episode, hit play, and put their phone back in their pocket and listen. They will not see or notice your “show notes”.

What is the RSS feed you are using? I can take a look to see if I see anything technically wrong with it.

Thanks again Mike! Yes I’m using Divi’s page builder.

That all seems to make sense. My RSS feed is https://thealblackshow.com/feed/podcast/

Divi can cause issues with the RSS feed. To be sure it doesn’t mess with it, drop to the stock WordPress editor when making podcast posts. You can use Divi builder for everything else (pages and whatnot) but POSTS for podcasts can be an issue because they don’t put your text in the right spot in the RSS.

I’ve never used the stop WordPress editor before. Looks like I need to start learning. If you’ve got a good learning resource link you could send me I’d be most appreciative ??

No, it’s a simple editor. Just type what you want to show everywhere in the big box. You can drop photos and whatever in there as well. The photos do not show in most Podcast Apps.

Each of my episodes are their own posts, not pages. Does this mean I now have to go back and rebuild each one of my posts in this editor? Is there a way to just import the Divi page into the editor and then just tweak the settings rather than starting from scratch? Can I copy/clone a post in the editor once it’s been built? How can I ensure that I will be able to replicate background/layout/general look and feel of the posts I have already built from within the builder.

Sorry for all the questions!

You could try setting the Reading settings for Syndication feeds in WordPress settings to “summary” instead of “full text”. Or if it’s already on summary, try full text.

Spotify in this regard is becoming a huge problem. Obviously, it displays the ‘extract’ tag content form the podcast feed if there is something present in it, and the first few passages of the blog post if there is no extract.
That means, if you compose extracts (usually some kind of very short teasers), you are fu**ed on Spotify.
Why?
Because Spotify seems to offer related content based on the keywords present in the extract!
That means, if you use Powerpress for podcasting and blogging, and use extracts on your blog, you are at a huge disadvantage. (Your short extracts are clearly not ‘dense’ enough information-wise to get your content promoted as related content.)
That is a very serious issue in my opinion. I would not shrug it off so easily.
Is there any chance for podcast providers to cooperate on this with Spotify dev teams?

Szabolcs