How to Host Audio Podcasts in WordPress for free (2025 Guide)

If you’ve created a podcast and thinking of adding those episodes to your WordPress website or thinking of adding featured audio to your site, this is the right place where you’ve landed. Hosting audio podcasts into your WordPress site is a powerful way to engage your audience. You can choose to adjust your audio’s speed, rewind it, forward, mute etc and do a lot more to give your users a better experience. So let’s get started and move forward with this guide 🌟

How to Host Audio Podcasts in WordPress/ Set featured audio

To host audio podcasts in WordPress we are going to use the Really Simple Featured Audio plugin. It simplifies the process and the basic features are easy to use and free! Here’s simple demo image of what your podcasts would look like 🎤

Step 1: Install and Configure Plugin Settings

• From your WordPress dashboard navigate to Plugins > Add New and in the search bar, type “Really Simple Featured Audio“.

• Locate it in the results then click Install Now, and then Activate.

Step 2: Add Audio Podcast to Your Post

• From your dashboard go to Posts > All Posts and select the Post you want to edit.

• In the Edit Mode, you’ll now see a Featured Audio box at the bottom section. You can choose to Upload a Self Hosted Audio or an Embedded Audio. For embedded audio you just have to paste the video’s URL which ends with absolute file extension such as .mp3 or .wav Let’s see how it works for Self Hosted Audio. Click on > Upload Audio.

• Select the audio you want to Upload.

• Once uploaded, it will look like this. Click on save once done.

• Click on preview, to see how the post looks.

Step 3: Configure Plugin Settings and additional Customisation

• From your WordPress dashboard navigate to Settings > Really Simple Featured Audio.

• The first setting we have in the ‘general ‘ category is the Theme Compatibility Engine. You can see your selected theme in the ‘status‘ or select manually from the list of themes in case the auto doesn’t work. You can also request plugin support team for your desired theme, in case you don’t find it in the list.
• Then we have the post type support, by default it will be enabled for Posts, you can choose to enable featured audio for pages.

• Next, in the ‘Global‘ tab we have two categories. When the ‘blog archive‘ box is checked, the audio will be visible on blog home and archive page and when the box isn’t checked the audio will only be visible in the blog single page.

• In blog single page, if the box is checked it will show the audio in the blog single page and if not cjecked it wont show up in the single blog page.

• Next in the ‘Control Tab‘ you can set different aspects of audio. You can choose to have functionalities like autoplay, Loop and mute sound etc. Enable the features according to your preference that you wish to add by toggling it on. And click on > Save Changes.

Best Practices

• Writing detailed show notes and transcripts with each episode improves SEO and makes content more discoverable. It also caters to audience members who prefer reading or have hearing impairments.
• Although, WordPress allows direct audio uploads, it’s recommended to use a dedicated podcast hosting service as these platforms are optimized for media delivery, ensuring faster load times and better reliability.
• Also, don’t forget to regularly review site analytics to understand listener behavior. Analysing data metrics such as episode downloads, listener demographics, and engagement trends can inform your content strategy and give you a better idea relating to audience preferences. 

Conclusion

Using the Really Simple Featured Audio plugin to host audio podcasts in WordPress is an easy and efficient way to get your audience hooked. 🎤 The plugin is free and let’s you customise your audio controls for posts and pages. By following best practices, you can create an engaging podcast presence that resonates with your listeners.

For a better understanding on adding featured audio/ hosting audio podcasts you can watch the video linked below 👇

To know how to add featured audio to WooCommerce Products checkout 👉 our blog.

If you have any questions on how to add a featured audio/host audio podcasts in WordPress or how the Really Simple featured audio plugin works, feel free to share them in the comments section.

Also, Explore our JetixWP blog for more awesome and insightful articles like this one! 🌟