What are WordPress Custom Post Types?

Everything in WordPress is considered a post. From your blog articles, to images, to the media files you upload for your podcasts, each of these items are stored in the WordPress backend as a post. However, all of this content isn't the same and you wouldn't want to display these items to your readers or listeners in the exact same manner — there is different information that needs to be stored for your podcast audio files than your regular blog content. That's when we want to use what is known in WordPress as a Custom Post Type, or CPT.

The Seriously Simple Podcasting Plugin creates a CPT called 'podcast' which is a way you can add podcast episodes you add to your site. This CPT is the type of post where you upload your audio file and it displays on your site like a blog post. In the admin editor window it is different than a blog post because it has the necessary fields to enter detailed information about the time, duration and more about your podcast audio file.

What does this mean for your WordPress website? Two things:

1. The SSP CPT is displayed in two ways on your site — via the podcast archive page and a podcast episode post. Both of these items use template files already found in your theme files, meaning you control the look and feel of these pages on your site. The standard episode page uses the single.php template file and adds your selected audio player style with each podcast audio file to the page automatically. You are free to style the page and add additional content as you see fit.
2. Your podcast episode posts can be displayed where you want them to be seen by your readers and listeners. Because it is a post it can be added to your main blog page with each podcast episode displaying in the archive view along with other blog content. If you prefer, you can also choose to display the posts in an archive page for the CPT, where you see only your podcast. If you are working with the Series feature, you can display an archive page for each podcast show created as a Series.