A podcast is the one thing you make that people cannot consume where they found you. They hear about the show on Instagram, TikTok or X, and then they have to leave that app, open a different one, and type your show name into a search box that will also offer them four other shows.
Which app they open is not your decision. It was made years ago when they picked a podcast player and let it collect their subscriptions. Your job is not to move them. It is to make the app they already use one tap away.
Linking Spotify only is a decision you did not mean to make
Most podcast bios carry a single link, and that link goes to whichever platform the host looked at last. Usually Spotify, because that is where the dashboard lives.
For everyone who already uses Spotify, that link is perfect. For the person with Apple Podcasts open on their home screen, it is a dead end wearing a green button. They will not install a second podcast app for you. They will either search manually, which most people do not bother with, or they will close the tab and get on with their day.
There is no correct platform to pick here. The page works because nobody has to leave the one they already have.
What belongs on a podcast link page
Open your hosting dashboard and look at the platform breakdown for the last 90 days before you build anything. Most shows find that three platforms carry nearly everything and the rest are rounding errors. Put those three at the top and stop there. A page with eleven buttons on it makes the listener do work that the page was supposed to do for them.
A page that works usually reads in this order:
- Subscribe buttons for the platforms your numbers actually show. Apple Podcasts and Spotify first for most shows, YouTube after that if you publish video.
- The latest episode, linked directly, because a new listener wants to hear one before subscribing to anything.
- A link to your newsletter signup or community, the only destination on the page you own outright.
- Support, merch, or a link to your guest form, depending on what the show needs this month.
Reorder the cards whenever the show changes. That is the part that makes a link in bio page worth the setup: the URL in your profile never changes, so you never touch a profile again to promote a new season.
Apple Podcasts and Spotify links both open in their apps on a phone when the app is installed. You do not need to detect anything or ask the listener what they use. You only need to show both buttons and let them tap the logo they recognise.
Give each platform its own link so the page can tell you something
A bio page reports how many people clicked. It will not tell you which button they hit, and that turns out to be the number worth having.
The way to get it is to point each card at its own short link instead of pasting the raw platform URL. Create linx.ly/showname-apple, linx.ly/showname-spotify, linx.ly/showname-yt with a branded short link for each, then use those as the card destinations. Every one of them keeps its own count.
Say your page takes 300 taps in a month and they land 180 Apple, 90 Spotify, 30 YouTube. That changes three things you were guessing about: which platform to name first when you promote an episode, which one to ask for reviews on, and whether the YouTube video version is worth the editing time. Link click tracking also gives you country and device for each tap, which is how you find out that a third of your traffic is from a country you never mention.
Your hosting analytics cannot answer this. It sees plays after the fact, not the choice someone made on the way in.
Sharing a single episode without breaking it
The page is for the show. Individual episodes need something else, because an episode URL from a hosting platform is typically 90 or more characters, ends in a numeric ID, and gets truncated the moment someone pastes it into a group chat.
A short link with a readable slug fixes the reading problem and one other thing that matters more. linx.ly/ep42 can be repointed later. Podcast shows change hosts, re-upload episodes, replace a bad audio file, or move an old episode behind a members feed. Every one of those breaks the URLs you already sent out, unless the link you sent was yours.
For episodes you promote across several places at once, add UTM parameters to the destination so the newsletter click and the Instagram Story click stay separate in your reports.
Links you have to say out loud
Podcasting is the one channel where the audience has no screen in front of them. You will end up reading a URL into a microphone, and linx.ly/showname survives that while a hosting platform URL with a numeric ID does not.
The same link turns into a QR code for the things that happen in a room: a live show, a conference badge, the back of a business card, the merch table. Scans report into the same numbers as taps, so a live event stops being a thing you hope worked. Tracking QR code scans covers what that data looks like.
Where the link actually goes
One page, then paste it everywhere the show is mentioned:
- Instagram gives you one bio field, so the page goes there. If you want the show named in the bio text as well, adding multiple links to an Instagram bio covers the placement.
- X has a Website field that costs nothing from your 160 characters. Links in an X bio explains the three slots.
- TikTok takes one bio link, and clips cut from episodes are the format that travels furthest there.
- YouTube allows links in the channel banner and in every description, so the page belongs in the first line of your description template.
- An email signature and a newsletter footer keep collecting clicks for years after you set them once.
Do not put the RSS feed URL on the page as a main button. It looks like a broken link to anyone who is not already the kind of listener who knows what to do with it, and it will get tapped by people who then see a wall of XML. Keep it as the last card, labelled plainly, or leave it in your hosting page.
Setting it up
- Sign up for Linxly and start the 7-day free trial.
- Check your hosting dashboard for the platform split, then build a page with only the platforms that show up in it.
- Set the slug to
linx.ly/shownameso it matches what people hear in the episode. - Create a separate short link for each subscribe button and use those as the card destinations.
- Paste the page URL into every profile, then read the per-platform counts after two weeks and move the winner to the top.
Frequently asked questions
What should a podcast link in bio include?
Subscribe buttons for the two or three platforms your hosting dashboard actually shows, the latest episode, and one card pointing at the thing you own, usually a newsletter signup page. Anything past four or five cards costs you taps on the first one. The best link in bio examples post has layouts worth copying.
How do I make one link for Spotify and Apple Podcasts?
Put both on a single bio page as separate buttons and share that page's URL. Each platform link opens in its own app when the listener has it installed, so the only thing they have to do is tap the logo they recognise rather than search for your show.
Can I see which podcast app my listeners use?
Not from the bio page alone, since it counts total clicks. Point each subscribe button at its own short link and each one keeps a separate count, with country and device for every tap.
Do I need a website for my podcast?
Not to be found or subscribed to. A link page covers subscribing, the latest episode and the newsletter, which is most of what a show's website does in its first year. Build the site when you have something a page cannot hold, like transcripts or a searchable archive.
What is the best way to share one episode?
A short link with a readable slug, pointed at the episode. It fits in a caption, reads correctly when someone screenshots it, and can be repointed if you change hosts or re-upload the file later.
Should the link go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify if I only have one field?
Neither. That field is where the page goes, and the page is what keeps both platforms one tap away. Sending everything to one player means the other half of your audience does the searching.
The short version
Your listeners are already committed to a podcast app, and a bio that links one platform quietly asks the rest of them to do the work. Build one page with a button per platform, give each button its own short link so you can see which app the audience opens, use a readable short link for individual episodes, and keep a QR code of the same page for anything that happens in a room.