Is My Website Already Set?
Go to your website and right-click anywhere on the page and choose “View Page Source.” Then press CTRL+F which will bring up find box and search for ” application/rss+xml ” and you may be surprised to find that you already have the code in your page. In almost all of my shows, when I do a search.
According to Google's Page
You need to have this code in the header section of your website. This does not mean you need to have an RSS button on your website (although that's a good idea). This code is woven into the fiber of your website. If you are not sure what this is, find someone who does. I have lined up some of the more popular themes and what and where to add this code.
<link type=“application/rss+xml” rel=“alternate” title=“Your Podcast's Name“ href=“Your podcast's RSS url“/>
According to a blog post at Libsyn.com “Google is keeping things simple. all you need is: a valid RSS feed and a the above link to your RSS feed on your website. That’s all!”
How to Do This Using Divi
Click on Divi on the left side (menu) of WordPress
Under Divi Theme Options click on Integrations
Then copy and paste into the gray code box on the right
Adding the Code Using a Genesis Theme
Click on Genesis on the left-hand side, and scroll down to the Header Scripts and enter the code and click save.
Adding the Code if Using the Generate Press
If you're using GeneratePress you need to be using GeneratePress Pro to use the wp_head hook. Under GeneratePress click on GP Hooks and add the wp_head
What If I Don't Have Any Options in My Theme?
There is a plugin called Header, Footer, Post Injections that you can activate and click on Settings > Header and Footer and enter the code into the Header
What If I'm Using BluBrry Powerpress as a Player Only?
You might do a search for application/rss+xml and see that it is using the default information from PowerPress. If you enable Channel casting in PowerPress > Settings
You can enter the RSS feed from your media host in the field for the Feedburner feed. This will show the PowerPress feed, but redirect others to your other feed.
There is still more that we need to learn
According to Google's documentation, “The homepage cannot have another <link type=”application/rss+xml” rel=”alternate”> element on it.” I'm not sure how this is going to work for websites that have networks of shows. Out of the gate, WordPress has multiple “application/rss+xml” statements as you have two by default. One for your feed, and one for your comments.
Make Sure Your Website is In Your Feed
If you use your media hosts feed (which I would recommend as long as they offer a 301 redirect option that you don't have to ask for), make sure your website address is listed in your feed. For example, if you go to Settings > Edit show settings at libsyn.com you can set your website address there (get a free month at Libsyn.com using the coupon code sopfree). PowerPress using the website under Settings > General for your website (there are ways to customize this with things like Channel casting). In podbean.com it is under settings > advanced settings (
One More Thing To Consider
While I'm happy to hear Google say they are making podcasting a priority, I will be ecstatic when I SEE Google provide the tools to make podcasting a priority. As I write this Google Play Music is still not available globally, so the fact that I'm not sure what happens if there are two mentions of an RSS feed on my website doesn't really worry me. I'll do what I can (add the header code) and adjust as more input is available.
More Information/Reference
Libsyn Supports Google's Podcast Strategy
Exclusive: Inside The New Google Podcasts Strategy That Could Double Audiences Worldwide
Hi, Dave. Your Genesis solution didn’t work for me. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work – it just didn’t show up in the source code. So, instead, I added a custom HTML widget block to a section of my front page, just the code, and that worked just fine. Regards, Jon