Podcast Posts

Our podcast pages (like our other pages & posts) are optimized for maximum SEO with microdata automatically created to provide search engines, like Google, additional information about their content. This helps the search engines better categorize, understand and serve our content (Hopefully at the top of search results).

Most of this microdata is handled automatically without our assistance, however some content, like our podcasts, require some additional manual help. For this reason, Jason created a special WordPress shortcode tool that will take a few urls and a little data from us and ensure we serve meta-rich pages.

Quick Style Tips

• Use the H2 Tag for section headings. Podcast pages have special CSS that will make the H2 sections appear different from normal pages.
• Don’t use H1 tags – those are for the page heading.
• Make sure to set the Post Format as “audio” (see right column in the post editor).
• Tag the post with “podcast” and 2-3 other tags that relate to the subject of the episode. Try to use established tags, if possible, as it will tie together related content better. It will also make it easier for our guests to see all the content using that tag.
• Use a fairly large (1024x1024px +) image for the featured image. Be aware that the final crop will be squarish and take the center of the image as its focus.

Inserting Podcast Player & Metadata

In order to keep our podcast pages looking consistent and to allow for easy maintenance we use a special shortcode to insert a chunk like this:

Shortcode Example

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" duration="107" description="Join us as we look back at the EPCOT Center pavilion - The Living Seas"]

It looks intimidating, but it’s really just a bunch of copy and pasting and one or two simple parameters.

Shortcode Parameters

The shortcode includes several parameters that will need to be filled out in order for the player to properly work. The easiest thing to do is to use the RDW icon located on the top row of the text editor to inject the podcast shortcode base template. Then alter the parameters.
( RDW Button > Shortcodes > Podcast Player)

Required Parameters

player_url

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" duration="107" description="Join us as we look back at the EPCOT Center pavilion - The Living Seas"]

This parameter refers to the url to the embedded player. We’re using a customized api call that allows us to have better control over the player (and have it be responsive). To obtain this URL:

1. Go to http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/ and locate your desired episode.
2. At the bottom of the episode summary are a set of links. Locate the Share link and click it.
3. In the pop-up that appears, at the top, click on the embed tab.
4. Under the “Code and Preview” section use your mouse to highlight the url in the url parameter and use crtl + c to copy it to the clipboard. You may need to hold down the left mouse button while you highlight the url, then use the copy command and then release the left mouse button.
5. IMPORTANT: Make sure to only use the part of the url up to the question mark (?) in the url – the question mark and anything beyond it are not necessary for the player.
6. Use this url in the player_url parameter. It should start with https://www.podbean.comn/media/player or something similar.

podbean_page

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" duration="107" description="Join us as we look back at the EPCOT Center pavilion - The Living Seas"]

The Podbean_Page refers to the url of the page the podcast article on the podbean website. To obtain this url:

1. Go to http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/ and locate your desired episode.
2. Right click on the title of the episode and choose copy link address (or similar) to copy the url of the Podbean article to your clipboard.
3. Paste that url into the podbean_page parameter.

mp3

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" duration="107" description="Join us as we look back at the EPCOT Center pavilion - The Living Seas"]

This parameter isn’t used by the player but is instead used to provide metadata for Google and other search engines to improve our SEO rankings.

1. Go to http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/ and locate your desired episode.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the section right underneath the player.
3. Click on the download link. A new page will load with a green button that reads “Download“.
4. Under the green button is a link, right click on it and choose copy link address (or similar) to copy the url of the mp3 to your clipboard.
5. Paste that url in the mp3 parameter.

duration

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" duration="107" description="Join us as we look back at the EPCOT Center pavilion - The Living Seas"]

This parameter isn’t used by the player but is instead used to provide metadata for Google and other search engines to improve our SEO rankings.

1. Determine the length of the episode in minutes.
2. Enter that number in the duration parameter.

description

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" duration="107" description="Join us as we look back at the EPCOT Center pavilion - The Living Seas"]

This parameter isn’t used by the player but is instead used to provide metadata for Google and other search engines to improve our SEO rankings. Try to keep it short as I’m not sure exactly where this is used exactly by Google, but most meta descriptions are under 255 characters.

Do not use double quotes (“) inside the parameter quotes – this will cause an error in parsing and may affect the whole SEO metadata validity. If you must use quotes, use a single quote (‘), it may not be as grammatically correct, but it will get the message across.

1. Simply enter a short description of the main subject of this episode into the description parameter.

Optional Parameters

The following parameters are optional and if not included will automatically fall back to their default states listed below. Note, they can be added typically anywhere in the shortcode after the defining parameter podcast but are typically added at the end for clarity.

share

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" share="true" download="false" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" duration="107" description="Join us as we look back at the EPCOT Center pavilion - The Living Seas"]

Enables the sharing feature of the Podbean player. Default: true

download

[podcast player_url="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/qw63d-5f8adb" podbean_page="http://podcast.retrodisneyworld.com/e/ep-19-the-deluge-the-living-seas/" mp3="http://retrowdw.podbean.com/mf/web/rpm65u/Episode_19_-_The_Deluge.mp3" share="true" download="false"]

Allows the user to download the mp3 file from the Podbean player directly to their system. Default: false

Listener Feedback

We want to encourage our listeners to reach out to us and in order to make that a tad more obvious, we have a short code that goes at the end of the Corrections & Listener Mail section.

Put the following shortcode at the end of the Correction & Listener Mail section:

[listenerfeedback]

This is what it’ll generate:

End of Post – Contact Info

At the end of every podcast post we always encourage guest to interact with us. To make sure we always include all of and the latest options I’ve written a shortcode to include all this info at once using a simple code:

[listenermemories]

Put this code at the end of the post and all the proper contact info will be automatically inserted:

Support Us

To allow us to always have our latest products showing in any page where we mention them, I’ve created a shortcode that handles inserting our last four products on Redbubble. The contents of this product listing can be edited by modifying the “Support Us 1” page:

[supportus]

Put this code in the section we mention buying our stuff and this will be automatically inserted:

Buy Our Stuff Example:

Be sure to get your shirt, iPhone case, tote bag, pillow or coffee mug today: www.retrowdw.com/supportus

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