How to create a podcast player on your Elementor website (2024)
You're probably a podcaster looking to publish your episodes on your site. Elementor offers one of the most intuitive solutions for achieving this. This article covers everything you need to know to build your professional Elementor podcast website.
Over 18.5% of all WordPress websites worldwide today use Elementor, making it the platform's most popular page builder. Its versatility and ease of use are largely responsible for this wide adoption. Though podcasting is one of its less common use cases, Elementor is also perfect for building audio sites.
Combined with WordPress's beginner-friendly interface, Elementor allows virtually anyone to build an elegant podcasting site in a couple of hours. This way, you don't need to double as a podcaster and developer to create a personal site with your episode listing.
Beyond building an Elementor podcast website, you may also want to add a podcast database with powerful search and filter features to your homepage or any site location at all. This means you not only get to add podcast episodes to your site easily. People can also find these episodes faster. You can get this done with Posts Table Pro, like this:
In this article, we'll explain why you need an Elementor podcast site of your own and show you how to build one in minutes. We'll then walk you through the process of building a searchable podcast database.
Let's get to it!
Why all podcasters need a website
As a podcaster, you probably started your journey by submitting your episodes to podcast directories like Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, and Google Play. But once begin to scale, you'll quickly realize that these platforms don't come with the tools you need to grow your brand.
For example, these big podcast listening apps simply don't offer as much control over your content as you need. You get limited customization options when it comes to the streaming interface, call-to-action (CTA) buttons, and lead generation.
Of course, this doesn't rule out the option of publishing on third-party directories. But there are many business advantages you get to enjoy running your Elementor podcast website. Let's examine a few.
It's a central hub that links to all your resources
Having podcast listeners tune in and navigate through your Spotify or Google Play episodes is great. But in most cases, you often need more to turn them into lifetime subscribers and keep them coming back.
Your social profiles can come in handy here. Unfortunately, third-party publishers don't let you link to them. An Elementor podcast site can help you get around that hurdle.
Some listeners are also more familiar with certain streaming platforms. On your personal Elementor site, you can link out to all other podcasting services where they can find your episodes.
Additionally, you can also link out to your podcast guests and interviewees. Linking to their sites and social profiles may act as an extra incentive for them to come to your show. Everyone loves extra backlinking and more visibility.
You can use it for branding purposes
Unlike third-party publisher sites, you can use a personal Elementor podcast site for all your branding efforts. You can add your own logo, brand colors, animations, CTAs, and any other brand item of your choice.
After listening to your episodes, site visitors will also be able to navigate to other pages like the "About" and "Authors" pages. This lets them learn more about you and your creative brand.
It can help you gain more subscribers
Another key advantage of committing to your personal podcast site is the ability to build your following using different approaches. Some of the common ways you can employ include:
- Invite listeners to sign up for an email newsletterEmail marketing is still king. Getting site visitors to sign up for your email newsletter is a proven way of turning one-time listeners into loyal subscribers.
- Incorporate blog contentA blog is also a good way to attract and keep members of your audience who prefer written content. You can link to other blog posts on similar topics beneath individual podcast episodes.
- Get them to subscribe to other servicesDo you want your site visitors to join a coaching course or book consultations? Your Elementor podcast site offers as many linking opportunities as you want.
- Add a feedback form or comments sectionThis is a very good way to build a strong community. Allowing subscribers to communicate in the comments section can achieve similar results as your social profiles. A feedback form can also help you improve your show while proving to your listeners that you're also listening to them.
An Elementor podcast site is good for cross-selling
Your Elementor podcast hosting site can also double as a full-fledged eCommerce store. This allows you to sell physical and digital products like online courses, special edition audio libraries, and ebook downloads.
You can also link to your site's landing pages within episode descriptions on other third-party podcasting apps.
A professional site gives you more credibility
Anyone can add podcasts to large podcast directories. But building a personal site and running it professionally often requires extra effort. Like every other industry, a well-designed website often adds more credibility to your brand.
You get to engage your audience better and acquire sponsorships
Finally, when building a personal Elementor podcast site, you get the liberty to incorporate every element you need to keep your potential audience engaged. For example, it makes sense to add supporting educational resources to a podcast about architects in the USA.
This way, you get to offer great value to your subscribers and keep them glued to your site. In most cases, the result will be better traffic and more niche authority. And this is often all you need to acquire sponsorships and advertisers. Additionally, you can also receive paid subscribers and process recurrent payments on your site.
In general, the biggest pro of owning an Elementor podcast site is the complete control you get. If managed properly, this can offer countless benefits in terms of profit and brand growth.
Elementor: The perfect foundation for podcasting in WordPress
As a WordPress user, you probably already know the power and versatility of Elementor. The plugin is arguably the most beginner-friendly drag-and-drop page builder in the WordPress space. Its What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) front-end editor makes it very easy for even a newbie to build any type of website quickly.
When it comes to hosting podcasts, the plugin features many interesting widgets and templates that help you get your streaming site up and running quickly. Here are a few:
- Castos PlayerThis is a modern audio player that sports elegant navigation controls and allows you to display an episode's artwork.
- Subscribe ButtonsUse a selection of attractive buttons to convince listeners to subscribe to your podcast on their preferred streaming app.
- Recent EpisodesGreat for linking to your last three episodes at the bottom of a single episode post.
- Podcast homepage or landing page templateWhether your podcast is your site's major feature or not, you can customize the ready-made homepage and landing page templates.
- Single episode templateThis template features all the widgets you need to add to each individual podcast episode page.
Elementor works with the Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin to deliver these templates and other features you need for your Elementor podcast site.
Let's see how to set it up.
How to add podcasts to your Elementor site
The first step to adding podcasts to your Elementor site is to install and activate Seriously Simple Podcasting. We assume you've already installed Elementor.
To get started;
- Log into your WordPress admin area. Go to Plugins → Add New.
- Search for “Seriously Simple Podcasting,” click Install Now followed by Activate.
- Then follow the setup wizard instructions.
Next, it's time to install the Elementor podcast templates that come with Seriously Simple Podcasting. To do this, navigate to Podcasting → All Episodes. You'll see a prompt recommending you install the new templates. Click Click here to install them now.
The WordPress audio playlist plugin will redirect you to the Extensions tab of the Settings page. Locate the Elementor Templates add-on and click Import Templates.
Now, go to Elementor → Saved Templates and you'll see your newly added landing page and subscribe page templates.
You can then use these templates in your posts and pages moving forward. Let's explore some of the most common use cases.
Creating a new Elementor podcast episode post
To get started, you need to upload your first podcast audio file. Go to Podcasting → Add New Episode. This will take you to the Block Editor where you can all the podcast details necessary. Click Upload File to add the audio file.
You can also add a cover image, a listen duration for display, and other important details in the available fields. Click Save Draft when you're done.
Next, click Edit with Elementor to switch over to the drag-and-drop editor.
If you don't see this button, navigate to Elementor → Settings and check Podcasts under the Post type section.
Within the Elementor editor, you can add different related widgets like the Subscribe Buttons and Recent Episodes widgets to the podcast episode post.
When you're done editing the post, click Update to apply the changes.
Creating an Elementor podcast homepage or landing page
After adding multiple Elementor podcast posts to your site, it's time to create a homepage or landing page for them.
To do this, go to Pages → Add New and click Edit with Elementor.
Then you can design the page and add all the widgets you want. To add a podcast feed to the page, drag and drop the Recent Episodes widget into a column.
Check out this tutorial to learn how to create an archive page to display all podcasts.
How to create a searchable podcasts database
At this point, we've successfully created an Elementor podcast hosting site and designed a homepage for your episodes. But your site visitors will most likely have a difficult time finding the episode they're looking for. This is particularly true when you begin to have a lot of podcasts on the site.
As we mentioned earlier, creating a searchable, filterable database of your podcast episodes is a good way around this. It helps your users to navigate the podcast directory more easily. And Posts Table Pro is the best plugin to implement this.
The plugin allows you to automatically create tables listing all your podcasts. Users will then be able to do an instant search through an unlimited number of posts using filters and keywords.
- To create your sortable podcast episode table, get your copy of Posts Table Pro here. You'll receive a downloadable ZIP file and license key afterward.
- Then go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin in your WordPress dashboard. Select the plugin ZIP file and click Install Now to add the plugin to your site.
- Upon activating, a setup wizard will appear, which will guide you through the process of activating your license key and creating your first table.
- On the ‘Table columns’ page of the wizard, choose which columns you want to add to the searchable podcasts table. For example, you can enter:
date,title:Name,excerpt:Listen Now. The values after the colon (:) rename the title of that specific colon.
Follow the remaining steps of the table builder to choose how you want your list of podcast episodes to work.
Insert the list of podcast episodes
Now you’ve finished creating a table, you need to choose where to display it on your website. There are two ways to add the list of podcast episodes to your WordPress site:
- If you're using the Gutenberg block editor, simply select and insert a table using the 'Post Table' block.
- Otherwise, you can copy the shortcode from the final page of the table builder or from the main Tables page in the Post Tables section of the WordPress admin, and paste it wherever you want the searchable database to appear on your site.
When you view the table on the front end, you should get a result similar to this:
Wondering how this works? Posts Table Pro integrates with Seriously Simple Podcasting to help you display a searchable podcast database anywhere on your site. The plugin combo also helps you to tweak the table columns in more flexible ways. For example, you can choose to include only podcasts with a particular tag or in a certain category.
While it's true that you can use shortcodes to customize the table's display, it's important to note that this actually involves specifying which categories or data to include in the table rather than determining the table columns themselves. There are lots and lots of customization options available with Posts Table Pro. Check out our documentation for more details and a full list of shortcode options.
Building a user-friendly Elementor podcast website
Hosting a podcast streaming service on a personal website holds a lot of benefits for any podcaster. For an even better user experience, it makes sense to upgrade your Elementor podcast website with a searchable database of podcast episodes.
In this article, we've demonstrated how to combine 3 powerful WordPress plugins to build a truly professional podcast website of your own:
Ready to build a searchable database of podcast episodes with Elementor? Then it's time to get your copy of Posts Table Pro today!
This has been a really detailed breakdown of how to create an Elementor podcast player. We hope this guide covered all your questions regarding the topic. Let us know if you run into any issues adding your own podcast database to your WordPress site in the comments section.