Show notes are one of the most underused tools in podcasting. Most podcasters treat them as an afterthought — a quick summary dashed off after the episode is done, maybe a few bullet points and a link or two. That’s a missed opportunity.
Done well, show notes serve three distinct purposes simultaneously: they help listeners decide whether an episode is worth their time, they give podcast platforms the context they need to surface your episode in search results, and they give Google something to index and rank independently of the podcast platforms. One piece of content, three jobs.
Here’s how to write show notes that actually do all three.
Start with the episode summary
The first paragraph of your show notes is the most important one. It’s what listeners see in their podcast app before they decide to hit play, it’s what Google shows in search results, and it’s what platform algorithms use to understand what the episode covers.
Write it like a short pitch for the episode — what’s covered, why it matters, and who it’s for. Be specific. “This week we talk about marketing” tells no one anything useful. “This week we break down five ways to grow your podcast audience without spending money on ads” tells a listener exactly what they’re getting and gives a search algorithm specific terms to match against.
Keep it to two or three sentences. You’re writing for someone making a quick decision, not someone who’s already committed to listening.
Include the key takeaways
After your summary, list the main points covered in the episode. Not a timestamp list — an actual summary of the ideas, insights, or information a listener will walk away with.
This section serves the listener who wants to know what they’ll learn before investing the time, the search engine looking for topical relevance signals, and the listener who already heard the episode and wants to reference something you covered. Three different use cases, one section.
Write it in plain language. Complete sentences work better than bullet fragments here because they give search engines more meaningful text to work with and they’re easier to read quickly.
Links and resources
Any tool, resource, book, person, or product mentioned in the episode should be linked in the show notes. This is useful for listeners who want to follow up on something they heard, and it also signals to search engines that your content is part of a broader context of related information.
Include links to your own resources where they’re relevant — guides, blog posts, workbooks. Show notes are a natural place to point listeners toward the next step without it feeling like a hard sell, because you’re linking to things that are genuinely useful in context.
Guest information
If you have a guest, include a short bio and links to where listeners can find them — their website, social profiles, any projects or books mentioned in the conversation. This is something guests appreciate because it extends the value of the episode appearance for them, and it also gives you another source of relevant keywords and named entities for search engines to work with.
The CTA
Every set of show notes should end with a clear next step. Subscribe or follow so they don’t miss the next episode. Leave a review. Visit a specific page on your website. Download a free resource.
Pick one and make it specific. A vague “let us know what you think” is easy to ignore. “If this episode was useful, hit follow in your app so you don’t miss next week’s” is a concrete action someone can take in ten seconds.
Timestamps — when to include them
Timestamps divide opinion among podcasters and the honest answer is: they’re worth including when your episode has distinct segments that a returning listener might want to navigate, and less important for conversational episodes where the content flows continuously.
If you do include them, format them consistently and make sure the labels are descriptive enough to be useful. “14:32 — Interview begins” tells nobody anything. “14:32 — Why most podcasters get audience growth backwards” gives a listener a reason to jump to that point.
Writing for search
The SEO value of your show notes comes from using the natural language your audience would actually search for. You’re not stuffing keywords — you’re describing the episode accurately using the words your ideal listener would type into Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google.
Think about the question your episode answers and make sure that question — or something close to it — appears naturally in your show notes. If someone searches for “how to grow a podcast without ads” and your episode answers that question, your show notes should make that clear in plain language.
Length
Longer show notes aren’t necessarily better. A well-written 300-word set of show notes that covers the episode clearly, includes relevant links, and ends with a specific CTA will outperform a 1,000-word wall of text that rambles.
The practical floor is around 150 to 200 words — enough to give platform algorithms meaningful content to work with and enough to give listeners a genuine sense of what the episode covers. Beyond that, write as much as the episode warrants, not as much as you think you should.
A repeatable template
The fastest way to write show notes consistently is to have a template you work from every time. Something like: opening summary paragraph, key takeaways section, links and resources, guest bio if applicable, CTA. Fill in the sections, adjust the length to fit the episode, and you’re done.
This structure means you’re never starting from scratch, the quality stays consistent across episodes, and the show notes serve all three of their purposes reliably every time.
If you want to make sure the episodes your show notes are describing are worth finding, our Mic Technique Deep-Dive and Acoustic Treatment Deep-Dive cover the production side in full detail. And our free Strategy Workbook helps you build a content strategy that gives you something worth writing about every week.