Podcast Website accounts come with exclusive website designs, called "themes."
These themes were designed for podcasts, complete with features designed to highlight your episodes and podcast information.
They're fully customizable, too! So you can change the look and feel of your website to match your podcast's brand.
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Podcast Websites uses a tool called WordPress to build your site. We may refer to it throughout this article. For more information about the WordPress platform, check out their website or our other documentation. |
Identify Your Chosen Theme
If you have chosen one of our exclusive podcast themes, we can show you the exact steps to customize your theme.
But first you need to know which theme you're using. You can check by:
- Logging in to the WordPress Admin Interface
- In the left sidebar, click Appearance
This will take you to the theme's page. The theme you're currently using will be displayed in the top left corner. The name of the theme is located at the bottom of the theme box.
Tip: Want to try a different theme? Hover over another theme and click the Preview button to see how it would look on your site.
Once you know the name of your theme, read its tutorial below for theme-specific instructions.
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If you are using a third party theme, or another built-in theme like Twenty Twenty-One, these steps may differ. See your chosen theme's documentation for specific steps. |
Access the Customizer
If you're using the Podcast Digest theme, follow these steps to access the website customizer:
- In the left sidebar, hover over Appearance
- In the drop-down, click Customize
This will bring you to the Customizer interface. You can make custom changes to your website theme here.
Customizer Options
There are a few options when you enter the Customizer interface. We'll walk you through the interface below so you can use it effectively.
Header & Footer Customization:
Image and Icon Customizations:
Individual Podcast Page/Post Customizations:
Homepage Customizations:
Navigation Bar Settings
Advanced Customizations:
See a specific action you'd like a tutorial for? Click on it to be taken to its instructions.
Site Title
The Site Title is the large text that appears at the top of your site.
To make changes, edit the text in the Site Title textbox.
Tagline
The Tagline is the line of text beneath the Site Title. You can edit the tagline by changing the text in the Tagline textbox. If you wish to remove the tagline all together, simply delete all the text in the Tagline textbox.
Site Icon
The Site Icon is an icon that is shown in browser tabs, bookmarks, and more. If you'd like to customize your site's icon, you can upload one in the Site Icon section.
To upload an image, go to the Site Icon section and click the Select Site Icon box.
Note: Icon images work best when they are square and at least 512 px by 512 px.
Theme Settings
Theme Settings allows you to edit:
- Site Colors
Site Colors
Change your site colors to match your podcast brand. Make the changes easily by going to Theme Settings > Site Colors.
You can select from a variety of preset color options, or manually select your colors. To select a preset color, choose any option under the Color Swatch section.
To manually select your colors, click Select Color next to the color you'd like to change, then use the color picker to select a color.
Menus
The Menu section allows you to:
- Create and manage a navigation bar
Add noteworthy pages and links to your navigation bar. Visitors will use your navigation bar as a way to explore your site. Navigation bars on podcast websites often include pages like:
- About the Host
- Sponsors
- Merch
- Contact
Have you created pages on your website? If not, check out our page creation guide: Create Website Pages on Podcast Websites
You can customize your navigation bar by using the Menus section. Once in the Menus section, you can follow the steps below to build your own navigation bar.
To create a navigation bar:
- Under the Menus header, click Main
- Click + Add Items
- Click on the type of item you'd like to add. For example, if you want to add one of your pages, click on Pages.
- Click the + button next to the items you would like to add. If you are adding something that requires input (like Custom Links), fill in the information, then click Add to Menu
- If you want to remove an item, click the red x next to the item
Don't see a red x? Click the Add Items button again to make sure it's selected.
Adding your navigation bar to your website:
Once a navigation bar is created, you need to add it to your site. To do so:
- Return to the Menus section. You'll know you're here if the title text says, "You are customizing Menus"
- Under Menu Locations, click View Location
- Under Main Menu, select Main from the drop-down
This will add your navigation bar to your website.
Widgets
Use the Widgets section to:
- Add content and information to your sidebar and footer areas
Not familiar with widgets? They are compact website features you can add to your website's sidebar or footer. Some common widgets include:
- Audio player
- Calendar
- Website categories
- Images
When you first enter the Widget section, you will see four tabs:
- Sidebar
- Footer Sidebar 1
- Footer Sidebar 2
- Footer Sidebar 3
These are locations where you can add widgets.
Once you know where you want to add your widget, click on its corresponding tab.
To add a widget, click the + Add a Widget button. This will bring up a list of widgets you can add.
Click on any widgets you want to add. Some widgets will ask for additional information after you add them. For example, a Gallery widget will ask for images to display. You can see how your widgets look in the live website preview.
Layout
Change the look of your site by using the options in the Layout.
The Layout option allows you to:
- Add a site logo to your header
- Hide the tagline
- Hide sidebar on pages/posts
- Show author of posts
- Choose how many podcast episodes should display on the homepage
Logo
Add a logo to your website's header. Add or manage your logo by going to Layout, then using the interface under Logo.
The first time you access this section you should see a box that says Select Image. Click this box to upload your logo. Once you have uploaded an image, the image will appear in the place of the box. Below the image, there will now be a Remove and Change Image button you can use to make further changes.
Tagline, Sidebar, and Author Options
Below the Logo section, you will see a few layout options to choose from. We'll cover them below:
Show the tagline beneath the logo?
A tagline (which can be edited in the Site Identity tab) is displayed by default underneath your Site Name. Select the No option to hide it.
Show a sidebar on posts and pages?
The sidebar is often used by default to display widgets. If you want to hide the sidebar, however, you can do so by selecting the No option.
Show the author on posts?
Your individual podcast posts (the web pages you go to when you click on one of your podcast squares) won't show the author by default. If you want to show the author, select the Yes option next to Show author on posts.
Keep in mind that the "author" that is displayed will be the name and image associated with the user account. You can manage your users by returning to the WordPress admin interface and clicking User in the left sidebar.
Posts to Show
Use this section to select how many podcast posts should display on your homepage. You can select between 6, 9, 12, and 15 posts.
Social Media
The Social Media tab allows you to integrate social media links into your website. All you need to do is open the Social Media tab, then add your social media links into their corresponding text boxes. Once you add a link to the textbox, a social media icon will appear on your live site preview.
Additional CSS
The additional CSS tab gives you a space to enter CSS into your site manually.
Not familiar with CSS? It's short for Cascading Style Sheets. You can find out more about CSS at this resource: W3 School's CSS Tutorial