Show notes are probably the most consistently neglected part of podcast production, and the gap between what most people publish and what show notes should actually be is significant enough that it's worth getting specific about.
Thin show notes are actively working against you in two ways: they damage discoverability on Google, and they undermine trust with cold visitors who land on an episode page and decide in about eight seconds whether it's worth their time. Both of those things affect whether the right people find the show and whether they stay once they do.
What most people publish
The typical show notes situation: two or three sentences summarizing what the episode covers, a list of things mentioned, maybe a link or two, and a boilerplate call to action that's been pasted in since episode one. It's technically show notes. It's about as useful to a new visitor as a contents page with no actual book attached.
Google can't meaningfully index two sentences. A stranger landing on that page has no real sense of whether the episode is worth 45 minutes of their time. The episode might be excellent, but the notes aren't earning it the listen.
What show notes should actually do
Good show notes function as a standalone document. Someone who finds them through a Google search and never listens to a single second of the episode should still get genuine value from reading them. That's the bar. Not a summary of what's in the audio, but a real piece of content that covers the territory in written form.
This matters for two distinct reasons. First, Google indexes text. The more specific and substantial the text on your episode page, the more opportunities the page has to rank for the terms someone might actually be searching. A health practitioner's episode on cortisol and sleep has the potential to rank for people searching that topic… but only if there's enough written content for Google to understand what the page is about and consider it authoritative. Two sentences won't do that.
Second, a new visitor who finds an episode page cold is making a trust judgment before they press play. A page with substantial, well-written show notes signals that the podcast is serious. It signals that someone cared enough about this episode to document it properly. That's a trust signal, and it matters especially for the kind of client who's doing due diligence before deciding whether to follow you.
What well-written show notes actually contain
A real introduction - not "in this episode we discuss X," but something that earns the read. The problem the episode addresses, or the tension it sits inside. Something that makes the visitor feel like this is about them.
Structured sections that correspond to what the episode actually covers. Not timestamps necessarily, but real headings with real content under them. Enough for a reader to understand the territory.
Specific language that mirrors how the right person would search. The terminology they use. The way they phrase the problem. The exact words that would appear in a Google search from someone with that exact situation.
A clear next step - low friction, specific. Some direction that makes sense for someone who just read this particular document and might be ready for something. So not just a “work with me” link, although it could be.
Minimum length: around 400 words for a standard episode, more for something substantive. There's almost always enough in a well-recorded episode to support 600 words of proper show notes. The material is there. Someone just needs to write it. 📝
The compounding case for doing this properly
Show notes, unlike social posts, don't expire. A well-written episode page continues pulling search traffic for months and years after the episode drops off the front page of your feed. That's compounding value from a one-time investment of care. It's one of the few pieces of podcast infrastructure that keeps working without any additional effort once it's been done properly.
For every episode already published with thin notes: those pages are sitting there, technically accessible, generating essentially nothing. Going back to the most relevant ones and writing them properly is often one of the highest-return activities available to an established podcaster. If the episodes are good, the notes just need to reflect that.