How to change hosting providers
From time to time, creators may move their shows from one hosting provider to another. When this occurs, listeners’ experiences should remain unaffected. This means downloaded episodes remain downloaded and other podcast attributes, including following status and play state, remain intact.
Choose a hosting provider
These hosting providers offer access to all Apple Podcasts tags and documentation on how to use them. If you offer a subscription or are considering doing so, be sure to select a host who supports Apple Podcasts Subscriptions.
Test your RSS feed
You can test your RSS feed to make sure everything looks great on Apple Podcasts. You should also use an RSS viewer application to compare your new feed with your old feed. Here are a few things to look out for:
Consistent metadata and audio
Make sure your show title, description, cover art, and audio files remain consistent in your new hosting provider’s dashboard.
Season and episode numbers
If your show includes season and episode numbers, make sure they’re accurate and your new hosting provider supports them. Keeping this information intact ensures that duplicate episodes aren’t created. If you offer premium content, this ensures that your RSS episodes and subscriber episodes remain linked, so there are no duplicates on Apple Podcasts.
Episode GUIDs stay the same
Each episode in your podcast has a globally unique identifier (GUID). It’s very important that each episode has a unique, alphanumeric GUID that never changes, even if an episode’s metadata, like title or enclosure URL, do change. If your hosting provider doesn’t use a GUID, the episode’s enclosure URL will be used instead. In this case, the episode’s enclosure URL should be unique and never change.
Most hosting providers don’t display GUIDs or enclosure URLs in their dashboards, so you’ll need to use an RSS viewer application to verify these remain consistent.
If you notice duplicate episodes on Apple Podcasts or a drastic change in your analytics after you change hosting providers, it’s possible that your hosting provider changed the GUID during the migration process.
Move your show
Most hosting providers can help you migrate your old RSS feed URL to a different feed URL by implementing a 301 redirect. Performing this action through your old hosting provider ensures that all followers (including those outside of Apple Podcasts) are seamlessly migrated to the new feed. Some hosting providers will also include the tag <itunes:new-feed-url> to help redirect traffic to your new RSS feed.
If you no longer have access to your old RSS feed with your hosting provider, you can follow these steps in Apple Podcasts Connect to ensure that followers on Apple Podcasts are migrated to the new feed:
- Sign in to Apple Podcasts Connect.
- Select the podcast you want to update.
- Click Edit next to the RSS feed URL.
- Enter the new RSS feed URL and click Save.
Hosting provider metrics
While you may see atypical download metrics among hosting provider dashboards after migrating from one solution to another, Apple Podcasts Analytics should remain consistent.