How do my WordPress Posts get to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant?

Each time you post a new article to your blog on your website, WordPress automatically updates your RSS feed with the new post and within two hours the Amazon Alexa Skill and/or Google Assistant Action will make the post available to all of the Google and Alexa Smart Speakers.

The Alexa skill and Google Action can process two types of blog posts: text and audio. If the blog post is text (the WordPress default), Smart Speaker will read the text. If the blog post is an audio formatted post, the audio will play.  When you use WordPress to create a new blog post, you can specify what kind of post you are creating. The standard WordPress blog post is text-based which means that the blog post will be read. If you specify to WordPress that your post is audio-based, WordPress will create a new type of RSS feed entry and include the necessary link to your MP3 audio file. If you create an audio-based post you can also include show notes.  When the Alexa skill or Google Action processes an audio-based RSS feed entry, it knows to play the audio instead of reading the text.

Some people who create Podcasts use a service to manage the RSS feed and storing the MP3 files.  While there is no requirement to use a podcasting service, both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant require the MP3 files to be stored on a server with HTTPS security. 

The following image shows the default Document settings for a standard post.  The blue arrow shows that the Post Format is set to "Standard".

The next image shows how the Document settings need to be changed for an audio post.  The Orange arrow indicates that an Audio file has been embedded in the post.  The Yellow arrow indicates that show notes can be included in the post as well.  The Green arrow shows the setting that changes how the RSS feed is formatted.  The Post Format should be changed from "Standard" to "Audio".