Podcast Show Notes Case Study: Toxin Free Ish

Wendy and I have worked together for a few years, and I can’t wait to share more about her amazing business. I write long-form podcast show notes for her podcast, Toxin Free(ish). 

I love working with clients in diverse industries because I learn so much from them. Wendy is no exception! As a toxin-free living coach, I’ve learned the importance of adopting a non-toxic lifestyle and prioritizing purchasing clean products. Wendy has made a difference in my business and my personal health, which I’m so grateful for!

I want to share more about our work together and the results we’ve earned in this case study.

Business Overview

Wendy at Toxin Free(ish) is an environmental toxins lawyer turned clean living coach. She encourages people to embrace their ‘ish’ when transitioning to a toxin-free lifestyle, meaning it’s okay not to be 100% perfect because no one can be! Wendy educates people about living toxin-free through her podcast, Toxin Free(ish). It’s a great listen! She also has tons of resources for people just starting on their non-toxic journey or those who are looking to take the next step.

Challenges

Wendy sells an online course but primarily earns income from affiliate sales. She also has a Toxin-Free Shopping Guide with all her non-toxic product recommendations and earns affiliate commissions from it. So, although she markets herself on Instagram, email marketing, and through her podcast, it was crucial for her to drive organic traffic to her website to increase her affiliate income.

Wendy rebranded her business around the same time I did (early 2024). She launched a new website, www.toxinfreeish.com, from www.wendykathryn.com. Because of this, she saw a slight decrease in her SEO analytics. This is to be expected since she transitioned to a new domain. It takes some time for Google to understand the relationship between the two.

Wendy was relying on her Instagram audience and her own knowledge for podcast topic ideas. Of course, it’s always great to listen to your audience, but sometimes those ideas are so niche that they don’t work well for SEO purposes. 

Solution

Wendy hired me to write long-form show notes for her podcast. These are different from what you see on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Those are just a few paragraphs describing the episode. Long-form podcast show notes are similar to blogs. They’re posted on her website and optimized for SEO to drive organic traffic. Long-form podcast show notes outline what you’ll hear in the episode, touch on a few main points, and have an embedded listen link. Here’s an example!

Since her goal is to increase affiliate income, we always include affiliate codes and links wherever applicable. If the topic doesn’t have an affiliate product that makes sense to include, I link to her toxin-free shopping guide, which has several opportunities for her to earn income.

We also collaborate on podcast topics. I love that she pulls topic ideas from her audience and offers a way for people to ask her questions to address in an episode. Part of my job is to recommend ideas from an SEO and keyword perspective. Now, she has a mix of audience-requested and search-driven topics. Her audience-requested topics are also optimized for SEO, of course!

Results

Okay, bear with me because her analytics are a little confusing since she switched domains! 

These were her analytics in April 2024, right before she launched her new website. She was bringing in a decent amount of organic monthly traffic and had a pretty good domain authority.

These are her analytics as of January 2025. The growth in organic keywords and organic monthly traffic in less than a year is amazing! 

You’ll notice that the domain authority is the same as it was about nine months ago. There are a few reasons for this:

1. It’s the hardest SEO number to grow because it’s an estimate of how authoritative Google thinks you are.
2. Domain authority doesn’t transfer over to a new domain right away.

You can see here that she had to regain that authority when she launched a new domain. I had to do the same thing when I switched domains! However, Wendy’s domain authority is growing faster than most because Google at least knows that the www.toxinfreeish.com domain is the new version of www.wendykathryn.com. Clear as mud?

Long-Form Podcast Show Notes

It’s clear that Wendy’s long-form podcast show notes are working well. I can’t speak on her affiliate sales, but with almost 5,000 clicks coming in each month, I’m sure she’s making a decent amount!

Long-form podcast show notes are a great way to make the most of your content efforts. You’re already recording episodes, so you might as well turn them into a blog that you can optimize for SEO. It’s working for Wendy and will work for you, too!

And if you want to outsource writing podcast show notes, let’s chat on a discovery call! Wendy isn’t the only client I write long-form podcast show notes for 👀 Are you going to be next?