Anchor.fm is one of (if not The) most popular podcast hosting companies around the world. It’s a free podcast hosting platform that comes with many cool features for podcasters. It’s owned by Spotify and makes the process of launching new podcasts quite easy.
Anchor includes a basic podcast website, but it is quite limited – You cannot add your own custom domain (URL), create custom pages, change the design etc. Overall, it doesn’t have enough features to be your go-to website platform alongside your podcast. Luckily, Podcastpage.io is here to help podcasters create beautiful podcast websites in minutes for their Anchor.fm podcasts.
In this article, we’ll review the process of creating brand new podcast websites. If you’re already keen to get started, you can easily signup and try Podcastpage for freee today – no credit card is required!
Before we dive in, let’s review Anchor.fm a little further. Since launching in 2014, Anchor is already hosting over 1,500,000 different podcasts (according to ListenNotes). They are considered the largest podcast hosting company out there, and by a large margin (there are quite a lot of podcast hosting companies but Anchor seem to be about 10 times larger than their next competitor).
One may wonder how Anchor are able to offer all this for free for their users? While there are several answers, one reason would makes the most sense – Anchor was acquired by Spotify in early 2019. As you may know, Spotify is already offering free accounts on their own platform, with the main monetization method being the ads, so that is what they also do for podcasts, and Spotify is even able to share revenue with podcasters.
Spotify pulled a great effort to get into podcasting since the Anchor acquisition in 2019. They’ve locked exclusive podcasts to be published only on Spotify (like Joe Rogan’s show), acquired nearly half-a-dozen companies in the podcasting space, and really pushing to be the number one most used platform by podcast listeners.
How to create a podcast website with Anchor.fm
Beyond hosting your podcast audio files, creating your Podcast RSS Feed and distributing it, Anchor’s additional features include getting sponsorship (matching with brands), recording tools, podcast analytics, and more.
In December 2019, Anchor rolled out a “mini-site” or what they call – “Profile Page” – to help you showcase your podcast. While it may be a temporary solution for some podcasters, it is defiantly not good enough if you’re serious about your podcast. It doesn’t include any customization options, or linking your custom domain. You can’t even create custom pages or a blog.
By default, once you create your podcast and upload your first episode or trailer, your podcast “mini-site” would be automatically created, so there’s not much else to do to get started. Once it is ready, you can start customizing your page, but remember that the feature-set is quite limited –
First and foremost, you cannot even link your own domain with your Anchor site, so if you want to keep your brand name out there while sharing your website, it may be a good idea to look for an alternative. Furthermore, the mini-sites offered by Anchor are very basic in terms of what they offer – you cannot change the layout or create custom pages. While you can adjust a few basic settings, there are simply not enough features for most podcasters really need, and so in this article we’ll review a few additional website options like Podcastpage.io.
Meet Podcastpage.io – The most powerful website builder for podcasters
With Podcastpage, you get so much beyond a simple one-page website. It is the best podcast website builder out there – try it out today for free and judge for yourself.
There are so many features specifically created for podcasters – You can easily create separate pages per episode (which is great for podcast SEO!), set up custom pages, a blog, and customize many more layouts and color options. We also offer integrations with multiple 3rd party tools like Google, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and more. All that with minimal set up time and no coding whatsoever.
Podcastpage comes with a full drag & drop page builder, pre-designed templates and beautiful podcast website templates you can use to take your site to the next level with little effort.
Your podcast can benefit so much from using a custom domain. It adds legitimacy, and is absolutely great for branding. It’ll also make it much easier to find your show and can eventually get you traffic from SEO.
Most importantly, having a custom website gives you the full control of your own brand, you’re no longer dependent on where the podcast is hosted or available. Anyone can reach you and your podcast via your website, you can increase engagement with listeners and provide lots of different types of content.
Creating a full, custom website for your podcast has a lot of benefits. It can increase your podcast discoverability (did we already mention SEO?) as potential listeners can end up visiting your website organically through Google. A custom website is also directly connecting you to your audience. It is a place where you can share additional show notes, transcripts, videos, blog posts, links and so much more content related to your podcast. Keeping everything managed under the Anchor mini-site may not be the best idea considering everything you’re giving up while creating your website there.
Let’s dive right into it, and see how you can create a full podcast website for your Anchor.fm podcast:
1. If you don’t have a podcast just yet – Start your podcast!
If you don’t have a podcast set up on Anchor.fm, the first step would be to create one.
Start by creating your own account on Anchor.fm. Once you have an account, you can start recording your first episode on the spot. Anchor offers a built-in recorder for browsers or mobile phones. We always recommend to have a good microphone for recording your podcast.
If you are not ready to record your first episode right away, you can simply record a short trailer. This trailer is a quick 1-2 minute intro for your podcast so you can get the word out there.
If you already recorded your content with a different software, you can upload the recordings to your dashboard. Now you can edit the episode, add an intro or a sponsored ad or change the order of the recordings.
2. Setting up your Podcast profile
Now that the episode is ready, you will need a profile (also known as “Channel” or “Show”) for your podcast – to help the relevant audience find your content. These details would appear on the different podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and so on. The details you will need to fill out are:
- Name – The name of your podcast.
- Description – A short description about your podcast and the hosts.
- Image – Upload a square (1:1) image to serve as the main podcast artwork.
- Category – Add the relevant category of your podcast.
Next, you will see the dashboard homepage – where you can manage everything from a single view.
There are two ways to publish your podcast. The first and easy one, is to let Anchor.fm do it automatically. The second one is to handle and control it yourself. All you need to do is get the RSS feed.
The RSS feed is a list of all your episodes. It allows external platforms like Apple, Spotify or Google to track your new podcast episodes and include those in their platform as soon as you release them.
You can find your RSS feed in the Distribution section. Just click on the Settings (on the top right hand of the screen). Copy the link and you are good to go.
How to create the perfect podcast website for an Anchor.fm podcast?
The easiest way to build a full podcast website for your Anchor podcast is to use Podcastpage.io. It’s an all-in-one platform that enables you to build a podcast website in minutes, while including all the important features podcasters typically need.
Once you have a Podcastpage account, you will simply need to choose a name for your website. The website’s name will also determine the temporary URL for your podcast (i.e. – sitename.podcastpage.io), but once set up, you can easily change that to a custom domain if you already have one.
Once the initial setup is ready for your new site, all you need to do is connect your RSS feed and fetch the episodes and the relevant data to support it. Click on the podcasts section in your site’s settings, and add your RSS Feed URL (the one you received from your podcast host – in this case Anchor.fm).
Now you should be ready to publish your own website. You can start making changes through the live customize screen, or start editing your pages, blog posts, or editing your episodes. As soon as you import your RSS feed, your basic layout would be set, for example:
It’s easy to start making changes and modify your entire website. Start editing colors, layout and more settings in the Customize screen. Podcastpage makes it very straightforward, regardless of your website building experience:
You can adjust the colors, replace the logo, add links to the navigation bar etc.
After that, you can and add blog posts or custom pages. Add your social media links and subscribe buttons so listeners can find you on their favorite platforms.
Additionally, you can start integrating with other platforms via the “Integrations” tab:
Don’t worry about syncing your new episodes, we do this automatically for you in your Podcastpage website.
Anchor.fm Custom Domain Names
Most podcasters would rather use their own custom domains instead of just using Anchor.fm’s landing page for their website. We’ve seen many requests around the web for checking how to add custom URLs on Anchor.
Currently, you cannot use a custom domain for your Anchor.fm podcast feed or website/page.
With the Anchor “Mini Site”, you can modify your own slug (the text that comes in the URL after anchor.fm/). However, it’s not possible to use your own custom domain or URL. You’ll have to use an external podcast website builder or CMS that supports custom domains if you want to use one for your Anchor podcast.
Bonus: How to add an Anchor Audio Embed Player to your Podcast Website
Anchor provide their own audio player which you can embed into any website. It appears on the free website you can get directly from Anchor. It’s also easy to import it into custom website.
Podcastpage, for example, supports importing the Anchor audio embed players automatically into your website. (every time you release a new episode). Once we import the player embed “Iframe”, you can toggle between the Anchor embed audio player or the default one provided by Podcastpage. You can do all of the above with your Anchor podcast, without installing a single plugin.
In WordPress, for example, you can paste the Iframe code provided by Anchor to display the audio embed. Alternatively you can use a plugin that supports automatically importing embed players from Anchor.
Conclusion
In this article, we covered the ins and outs of creating a podcast website for your Anchor.fm podcast. Your show surely deserves a real website, and Podcastpage.io is the easiest solution for that.
Podcastpage helps Anchor users to create podcast websites, with your own domain, and build your brand at the same time. It’s the best solution for any podcast owner to create a full website.
Regardless of if you’ve never written a line of code before, or if you are an experienced developer, Podcastpage.io is the easiest platform for building a full website. It’s a completely no-code solution for podcasters to create fast and automated websites for their podcasts, while offering powerful features and lots of integrations.
If you’re still thinking about starting your own podcast, or not sure where to host it, we’ve got you. Just check How to plan and start a podcast and our list of all podcast hosting services.
