You can use Squarespace 5 to create and manage podcasts. Your built-in RSS feed publishes your podcast to Apple Podcasts and other subscription services, while your website helps listeners find archived episodes, show notes, and more information about the podcast.
To podcast with Squarespace 5, you'll need to:
- Set up a podcast Journal Page.
- Add a blog post with your episode.
- Submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts.
- Continue posting new episodes.
This guide walks you through those steps.
Tip: iTunes Podcasts rebranded as Apple Podcasts.
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What is podcasting?
Podcasts are episodic series that use an RSS feed to let listeners subscribe using Apple Podcasts or other subscription services. Since podcast files are available through RSS, subscribers can automatically download new episodes to their computer or mobile device without having to visit a website and check for new content.
An increasingly popular format, podcasts cover a wide range of topics. Although some podcasts are released as videos, podcasting is primarily an audio broadcasting format. Squarespace 5 only supports audio podcasts.
Podcast limitations
- A podcast can't be submitted to Apple Podcasts if its Journal Page is password-protected or hidden.
- Squarespace doesn't support video podcasts.
- Squarespace 5 podcast feeds only display the most recent 30 posts/episodes.
- Blog posts have an upload limit of 20 MB.
Step 1 - Set up a Journal Page
Add a Journal Page to your site, and follow the steps below to set up its configuration area. If you've already created the page, enter Structure Mode and click Configure This Page to access these settings.
- At the top, ensure the URL identifier is something you’re happy with. Changing your URL slug later can affect your RSS feed and may cause issues with syndication.
- Scroll to the XML Syndication / iTunes Options section and ensure Syndicate as RSS/ATOM/RDF is checked.
- Scroll to Enable iTunes XML Tags and ensure it's checked. Add information to the tag fields below. Apple Podcasts uses these to display information about your podcast. See our tips below.
- Add a URL for the cover art for your podcast in the Image (URL) field. Review our tips below.
Tip: For Apple's technical specifications, visit their documentation.
Step 2 - Create an audio file
Record and save your podcast as an .mp3 file on your computer. Ensure the filename doesn't contain spaces.
Step 3 - Add the file to a blog post
On your Journal Page, add and configure a new blog post:
- In Content Mode, click Post New Entry.
- In the bottom-right corner, click Options.
- In the RSS Enclosure section, click File.
- Click Upload A File and Browse to upload the file from your computer, or click Your Files to choose one from file storage.
Tip: The size limit for a file upload is 20 MB. For larger files, we recommend hosting your file with a different source and adding the file's URL to the Enclosure URL field.
- Add the name of your episode in the Enclosure Title field.
- To continue editing your blog post, click Options.
- When you're done, click Save & Close.
Tip: You can only upload and display one audio file per blog post.
The podcast file displays at the end of your blog post. Visitors can click the link to download the file or listen to the episode, depending on their browser settings. The file is automatically added to your RSS feed.
Step 4 - Copy the RSS feed URL
To copy the RSS feed for your Journal Page:
- Go to your Journal Page.
- In Structure Mode, click Configure This Page.
- In the top-right corner, click Feeds.
- Click RSS. (The default view is ATOM, which doesn't work for podcasting.)
- In the Main Feed row, click Copy URL.
You'll need this URL in the next step.
Step 5 - Submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts
Follow these steps to submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts for approval:
After submitting your podcast, you'll receive a submission confirmation email from Apple Podcasts. You'll receive another email after it's approved.
Tip: You can also submit your feed to other subscription services, like Google Play and Stitcher. There isn't a standard format for podcast RSS feeds, so how your podcast and its information appears may vary across different services.
Updating your podcast
After you successfully complete all the steps above, each blog post with an audio file added to this Journal Page publishes as an episode.
You can add other blog posts without audio files on the same Journal Page. These won’t sync to Apple Podcasts.
Apple Podcasts refreshes podcasts about one time every 24 hours, so this is normally how long updates to the feed take.
Tip: If it's important that this happens faster, log into your Podcasts Connect dashboard and click Refresh Feed. However, Apple Podcasts warns podcasters not to do this too often—it should only be for special circumstances, not every new episode.
Creating multiple podcasts
If you publish multiple podcasts through your site, create a unique Journal Page for each podcast, and submit them for syndication separately. Each post on a Journal Page creates a new episode, but all posts on a Journal Page are considered part of single podcast by Apple Podcasts and other subscription services.
Design a podcast site
To create a branded home for your podcast, add information to your site such as an About page, host bios, and detailed show notes for each episode.
Your site can also help build community by linking to your social media profiles, encouraging fans to provide feedback through comments, and linking to your RSS feed.
You can view metrics for your podcast using RSS Subscribers Analytics.
Redirect your podcast feed
To change your podcast feed, create a 301 redirect from the old feed to the new one with a site-relative URL. Delete the old Journal RSS feed; otherwise, Apple Podcasts views the old RSS feed as an active feed on your site.
For more help, visit Apple's documentation.
Album art best practices
To create cover art for your podcast, follow these guidelines:
- Square .jpg or .png file
- At least 1400px × 1400px, but no larger than 3000px × 3000px
- RGB color format
- 72 DPI
To add the artwork to your podcast:
- Add the image file to file storage, then copy the image URL.
- Open the Journal Page's configuration area.
- Scroll to the XML Syndication / iTunes Options section.
- Ensure Enable iTunes XML Tags is checked.
- Add the image URL in the (optional) Image (URL) field.
Enter podcast details
Squarespace uses universal tags to update your RSS feed with your podcast's information. These RSS tags set titles, categories, owner information, Cover Art image, and other information for your podcast. Apple Podcasts requires this information when you submit a podcast.
You can ignore any fields not listed below. For example, XML Feed Presentation, Entries to Display, and Fixed Feed URL relates to how your podcast displays on your site. This information isn't submitted to Apple Podcasts.
In the XML Syndication / iTunes Options section of your Journal Page's configuration area, we recommend you add information for the following tags.
Under the Syndicate as RSS / ATOM / RDF checkbox:
- Feed title - Your podcast title
- Description - Your podcast description
- Copyright - Copyright information for your podcast
Under the Enable iTunes XML Tags checkbox:
- Author - Podcast author
- Subtitle - Podcast tagline
- Keywords - Keywords associated with your podcast
- Summary - A longer description of your podcast
- Owner - Required, but not visible in Apple Podcasts
- Owner Email - Required, but not visible in Apple Podcasts
- Image URL - Your podcast's album artwork
- iTunes Category - The most appropriate Apple Podcasts category for your podcast
Add tags for episodes
To add Apple Podcasts podcast attributes for individual episodes, you can add RSS tags as HTML in individual blog posts. The tags you add to each blog post appear in your RSS feed.
Here are examples of valid tags:
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-AUTHOR: Someone -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-SUBTITLE: Podcast -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-SUMMARY: A Summary -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-ENCLOSURE-URL: http://somewhere.com/somefile -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-ENCLOSURE-LENGTH: 1024 -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-ENCLOSURE-TYPE: audio/mpeg -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-DURATION: 00:00:30 -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-EXPLICIT: yes -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-EXPLICIT: no -->
<!-- RSS-ITUNES-EXPLICIT: clean -->
Note: HTML iTunes tags can't be left empty. Ensure you add all of the tags shown in the examples above or your feed won't validate and you may see an error. HTML is an advanced modification that's outside the scope of Squarespace support.