When you have more podcast episodes than your RSS feed holds, it can affect your audience, marketing, and more. Here are eight options to fix it.

1. Learn about episode limits

Before you get much further in this episode (or in reading these show notes), learn “What You Need to Know about Episode Limits and Your Podcast RSS Feed” from my previous episode (https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-episode-limits-and-your-podcast-rss-feed-tap302/):

* The episode limit is set by whatever creates your podcast RSS feed

* More episodes make your podcast RSS feed bigger and slower

* Directory limits don't affect your subscribers

* Your old episodes could be irrelevant

* Your old episodes could be timeless

* Many people will want to binge on your podcast

* Every episode contributes to your podcast SEO

With these things in mind, you can determine which of the following options are best for your podcast and, most important, best for your audience.

2. Raise the limit

There is no universal hard limit to how large an RSS feed can be, neither in its file size nor in its number of episodes. There are, however, practical limits, as I discussed in my previous episode, such as the speed and compatibility of large feeds.

Most podcast-feed-creation tools default to 10, 20, 50, or 100 latest episodes. If you have more episodes than that and you want them to display in podcast apps and be downloadable by your subscribers, then you should raise the limit in what is creating your RSS feed.

* WordPress default or category feed: WordPress ➜ Settings ➜ Reading ➜ Syndication feeds show the most recent

* PowerPress feeds: WordPress ➜ PowerPress ➜ Settings (or your feed under Podcast Channels or Category Podcasting) ➜ Feed ➜ Show the most recent

* Libsyn (https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/libsyn): Libsyn (https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/libsyn) show ➜ Destinations ➜ Libsyn (https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/libsyn) Classic Feed ➜ Advanced Options ➜ Episode/Post Limit

Even if a podcast directory limits the number of displayed episodes (such as the Apple catalog's current limit of 300), you can increase your number of episodes beyond that. This will make those older episodes still fully accessible to your subscribers, even if they don't display in podcast catalogs.

3. Optimize the feed data

When you raise the limit on your RSS feed, it could add significant data to the feed, which could result in slower performance.

There are three ways to fix this.

* Use a highly-optimized, podcast-only RSS feed that contains minimal data (such as a Libsyn (https://theaudacitytopodcast.com/libsyn) feed separate from your website).

* Use “Feed Episode Maximizer” on your podcast-only RSS feed from PowerPress so it will reduce the amount of data accompanying older episodes.

* Switch WordPress to publish excerpts instead of the full content in the feed by going to WordPress ➜ Settings ➜ Reading ➜ “For each article in a feed, show” and set to “Summary.”

4. Remove irrelevant episodes

Make sure you use a podcast-only RSS feed for podcast apps and directories. Otherwise, including text-only posts in the same feed can cause unnecessary inflation and bump out podcast episodes from item-limited feeds.

If your feed contains only podcast episodes, you might want to consider cleaning up your archive. Look for any kind of announcement-only episodes—such as for a hiatus, upcoming event, or special circumstances—which are no longer relevant.

You could even consider filtering your feed to include only your best content. So you could remove:

* Replaced episodes, such as when you changed your mind or information significantly changed—especially if you're concerned the old content might lead your audience in the wrong direction

* Overly time-sensitive content (if your whole show isn't covering time-sensitive content)

* Low-quality episodes

But I actually caution against this.