Podcast Reviews (Usually) Don’t Matter

Many podcast hosts love to chase vanity metrics…

Their favorite?

The number of reviews on Apple Podcasts. 🤦‍♂️

At Speak On Podcasts, we’ve seen podcasts with 100s of 5* reviews, yet the podcasts were horrible.

We’ve also seen shows with less than 10 reviews and they were top-notch.

You see, podcast hosts often incentivize their listeners (or guests) to leave reviews in exchange for *insert whatever*.

What’s worse, these reviews can be bought too (Mark Colgan posted about this yesterday).

Hosts often think that the # reviews will boost their ranking and that more people will discover their show.

It’s not true (see the first comment for source).

Reviews might help listeners to decide if they want to tune in or not.

But that’s it.

A podcast won’t magically appear on the Top 10 list just because you go from 49 reviews to 51 reviews.

Do you think reviews are important?

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PS: We're not hating on reviews at all as they are one of a very few ways for the listeners to let the host know they’re enjoying the show. What I don’t like is that many hosts treat them as a holy grail and, as a result, get distracted from putting effort into things that *actually* matter.