What impact do ratings and reviews have on your podcast?

Voice Over: 00:00:00

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Rachel Corbett: 00:00:10

Hello, welcome to the show.

Today, I'm talking about ratings and reviews. I had a great question from Ben who said, "Should I be asking for ratings and reviews for my episodes? I hear people say they help people find the show. How?"

Right question. Because they don't.

I think this is a bit of a myth that used to be rolling around years ago, and maybe Apple at one time might have used ratings and reviews to feed into the charts — because Lord knows, it's a black box over there at Apple. You've got no idea what's going on in there. But they certainly don't make an impact now.

They're not taken into consideration when shows are put into the charts. So I think that's where that kind of started. And if it was true at a certain point in time, it's certainly not true now.

So if you are using ratings and reviews thinking that you need to get all these if you want to make it into the charts, just take a deep breath. It's alright. It's okay. It will be fine. Ratings and reviews are really all about social proof. They are certainly valuable — do not get me wrong.

I'm not saying that just because they don't chuck you into the charts, they're not valuable. They are absolutely valuable because they are often the reason that people will go and check out your show.

People go and see your show, they see your artwork, your title, your description — “Is this something I like?”

The next thing they might check is your episode titles, to see “Is this content I'm interested in?” But they could definitely go to your reviews and say, “Do people actually like this show?”

It’s part of the research people do to work out whether this is something they want to consume. And ultimately, that is essential when you’re trying to get people to come to your show and press play.

Anything — any piece of real estate that you've got that can get people to think “I’m going to press play on this” — is so important. So your ratings and reviews are that.

I would say bad ratings and reviews are a real kicker.

I saw a show the other day and it was being pitched to me, and the ratings were below 2 stars. And I thought to myself, “I cannot remember a time when I've seen a show that had ratings that low.” Like, it's a real achievement… to get ratings that low. And actually, that's a big red flag for me in terms of — it doesn’t matter how big the audience is — I’m like, “The sentiment around this show is not good.”

So it can really impact what people think when they see your show.

If you had audience and you wanted to partner with a network or you wanted to do something else, that is actually publicly available information that can really cloud someone's judgement about your content. So it is essential. It's really important.

I think it's a great idea to ask people to leave a rating and review. I just don't think it's true that you can say it will help people find your show. You can certainly say it will help people understand whether this is a show worth checking out. It will help people know that other people love it.

All of those things are true. But it won't necessarily help your show be found. That doesn't mean it's not super important — because it really is.

Like, I mean, ratings and reviews are everything, right? No restaurant wants a bad review. No podcast wants a bad review. And I would also say, if you do get bad reviews — it's okay.

Some people will not like your stuff.

If you're getting 99% bad reviews and your show has one star and you've had quite a considerable amount of people giving you feedback, I think there's probably some data there to mine into — because something is not resonating.

But if you get a lot of positive reviews and then you get one one-star review, then okay. You know, I got that on my other show, “Me and My Tiny Human.” They didn’t leave a comment. They didn’t leave anything. Just one star. And I was like, someone’s… someone’s making a point there.

And I think I know who you are.

But for the most part, going through those reviews and getting good feedback from your audience — it’s so validating.

It’s such a wonderful thing because it is a bit of a step for somebody to go and do that in their podcast app.

It does mean somebody has to go and make the choice to do that. And I think that's a really fabulous thing. So they're valuable. They're wonderful. Ask your audience for them, for sure.

But are they going to be the be-all and end-all of the success of your show?

No. It's just another data point — in a whole bunch of different data points — across a whole bunch of different areas that you're trying to get in front of people to say, “This is a show worth checking out.”

And it's really nice if people click into the reviews when they find you and say, “Oh wow, people really love this show. So maybe I'm going to love it too.”

Thanks so much for the question, Ben. If you want to submit one, you can head to the link in the description of the episode.

You'll also find there a link to all the ways you can work with me, including my online podcasting course, PodSchool.

And hey — if you find this show valuable, why not leave me a rating and review?

Yeah, that's a good idea. Great.

Alright, time for me to go away now.

Bye.

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That's all for today.