Podcast RSS Feed Contents
Your podcast's RSS feed is the container that carries all of your podcast’s episodes, descriptions, cover image, and other information to distribution channels like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc.
The RSS feed URL is created for you in WordPress via our Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin. But it’s not ready to be submitted to distribution channels until you’ve added a title, cover image, and at least one episode, in addition to entering the other feed details.
There are two levels to your feed – the channel level, and the item level:
Channel level
The channel level includes the details that apply to your overall podcast such as the title, description, copyright, language, and a variety of other things. For the most part, this level of the feed is determined entirely by you, the podcaster. You can also update these details at any time in the WordPress Admin dashboard on the Podcast Settings > Feed Details page.
Below is a list of the channel tags included in your podcast feed:
- Podcast Title
- Podcast Subtitle
- Host Name
- Host email address
- Podcast Description
- Cover Image (must be between 1400 x 1400 and 3000 x 3000px, a perfect square and file size less than 1MB)
- Categories - can select up to 3 unique categories
- Copyright
- Funding link
- Explicit rating
- Language
Item level
The item level of your feed is where the episode information is supplied. There will be a separate item group in the RSS feed for each episode. The data contained in each will mostly come from your episode content and any episode-specific information you’ve added.
Each item group will contain the following:
- Episode Title
- Publish Date
- Description
- Summary
- Media file enclosure
- Duration
- File Size
- Explicit Rating
- Featured Image (if applicable)
Your RSS feed is where directories like Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts look for information about your show and about each episode. Ensuring that information is up to date and correct will help the podcasting directories recognize any updates you’ve made.
Each time a new episode is published, it’s added to your RSS feed which is shared with any podcasting distribution channel that publishes your podcast.