This episode of Podcast Answers explores the value of podcast reviews. While they don't directly impact algorithm rankings, reviews provide valuable social proof, listener feedback, and can attract potential sponsors. The Andy also provides tips for encouraging listeners to leave reviews, such as providing clear calls to action and engaging with reviewers.

Podcast reviews. Do they actually help?

Welcome back everybody to Podcast Answers. It has been a few hot minutes since I've been on this

show, guys. I am super sorry about that. I've been meaning to get on. There's a topic that I was

going to discuss and it just didn't come together like I wanted it to come together. And so,

now you get me. Now you're here. What do I do? What does this show all about, guys? This is

a show where I help people start and grow their podcasts, answering any podcasting questions along

the way. And that's right. I really want to help you grow your show and start your show.

So if you've had any podcasting questions that you've been dying to ask, I would love to answer

them. But today, like I said, podcast reviews, does it even matter? Does it matter that we have

ratings and reviews? I hear a lot about ratings. I hear a lot about reviews. I hear people say

things like, "Review our show. It helps people discover the show." But does it really? Does it

really? Well, first guys, we will get into that topic. But first, I wanted to let you know that

we are going to be changing the time. I think I'm going to be changing the time of this show.

I do record this show live and it's during the day. And so I don't get a lot of feedback during

the show. It's usually when I'm on my lunch for work. And so I just don't get a lot of people

talking back with me, watching live, joining with me. So I want to change that.

So I'm going to be changing the live recording to happening Tuesday evenings at 9pm Eastern.

So again, you heard that again, Tuesday, 9pm Eastern is when we are going to be doing this

show live from now on on YouTube. You can find our YouTube channel at podcastanswers.com/youtube.

That'll get you over to our YouTube channel. But again, we're going to be doing this show

live on YouTube and it's going to be... Yeah, we're going to do it 9pm Eastern on Tuesdays.

That way we can hopefully get a little more people in there. But I wanted to come during

our regular time this time. So you missed it. If you're joining us now, it's not here. So

with that, yes, next time we record, we will record 9pm Eastern.

So we're talking today about ratings and reviews. And again, like I said, I hear a lot of people say

things like, "Hey, rate and review our show. It means a lot to me. It will help people find the

show." Part of that statement is true. It means a lot to me. That is where people are. Yes, people

love hearing ratings and reviews. But does it really help people discover the show? So a couple

different things. Why are ratings and reviews so important? Social proof. So if you don't know what

social proof is, essentially, it's when you look at that Amazon, you're searching on Amazon for

the next greatest blanket that you want to buy. I don't know. Give me some room here. I don't know

why you'd be looking for blankets. But if you are, you're looking for that next great blanket and you

say, "Hey, there's no reviews here or there's one review here." You don't think it's probably that

great of a blanket, do you? You have no experience of it. You can just read what the description says,

but you don't know if it's going to be a great blanket or if it's going to be a terrible blanket,

because you have no experience with that. Because the only thing that you see is one rating.

So social proof is just that. When you look at an item on Amazon, say you're looking for,

again, a blanket and you come on this listing for this blanket that has 100 reviews, and

75 of them are good, but maybe 25 of them are bad. You still are going to probably buy that blanket,

right? Because the bad reviews outweigh or don't outweigh the good reviews. The good reviews outweigh

the bad ones. And so honestly, you are going to be doing that. And you're going to buy those.

That's what social proof is. It's the idea of regular people like you,

reviewing the product and saying it's either good or bad. That's social proof in a nutshell.

So social proof is, you're seeing socially, whether that's on Facebook or Instagram,

or the review comment of a website, you're seeing the comments and people coming in,

you're seeing that where people want to see the show they want, they want to come in and they want

they want to, they want to view your show because people, other people have said that, yes, this is

good. You should listen to it. A show that doesn't have any, any reviews is probably going to be

skipped over when people are looking at it because there's no social proof. Also, why can, how can

reviews be important? It's listener feedback. You're getting direct insight on what your audience

enjoys about your show. Yes, that may come with some downsides that may come with some things

where people are saying, Hey, I don't like this show. This voice guy's voice stinks,

or it could be made. This is, you know, this is terrible quality, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

That's not really great yet. I mean, it's an opportunity for you to take those feedback

and get direct insight on what the people are saying about your show. So maybe you are,

you do have bad audio quality. Maybe you do have something that can be

improved, or maybe you are doing a great job and, and your people are going to tell you in the

feedback. That's what reviews do. They are reviewing your show. And so your listeners

are giving you direct feedback and insight on what you, they like, they are telling you

what they like right away. They are telling you. And so use this as a chance to get feedback.

Maybe that even means printing those out and hanging them on the wall behind your camera,

behind your microphone so that you can look up and see when you do have a bad review.

Oh, there's one bad review, but there's 100 good positive reviews.

So that's, that's what the listener feedback allows you to do. It allows you to get that

feedback. It also helps attract sponsors. Sponsors are going to look at your reviews when,

when they're looking for to sponsor your show. They're going to say, Oh, podcast answers has

no reviews. Maybe it's not a show that we actually want to do because we don't know that

he's actually there are actually people listening to it or podcast answers has 150 reviews or 3000

reviews. This looks like a show that a lot of people are listening to. And so it actually

helps attract sponsors. So yes, it does matter in that. Does it really help though, with the

algorithm people? That's what I'm hearing. People say a lot. It helps people find our show.

If you're meeting social proof, if you're meeting listener feedback, attracting sponsors, then yes,

it does do that. But Apple has said over and over and over and over again, it does not help

with the algorithm. Just because you have 3000 likes and reviews does not put you higher on the

charts for us to display your show. There are a lot of other things that Apple takes into

consideration when they're going to recommend your show, but not necessarily the feedback

and ratings and reviews. So does it really help that? I'm going to say no, I'm going to go out on

a limb and say no. Yes, it helps you. It helps you get the warm and fuzzies inside to know people

like you. It helps social proof. It helps people see it. No. Yes, it's gonna be a good show.

But it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be delivered more on the recommended charts or

things like that. So how do you go about getting reviews? Reviews can sometimes be scary because

you have to actually, a lot of times ask for them. A lot of times when I'm listening to a podcast,

I don't think I should go out and rate and review this podcast unless I'm actually asked.

So that's where a call to action or a CTA comes into play. Keep it simple and tell them exactly

what you want them to do. If you've not heard our episode on CTAs or calls to actions, we did an

episode a while back about that. And one of the most important things is to keep them simple.

Don't have like three or four calls to actions in your podcast because people aren't going to do them.

You can maybe get away with one at the top and one at the bottom. But most of the time,

just have your call to action at the bottom. Tell them what you want to do. Keep it simple.

So along with keeping it simple, it could be something like, "Hey, rate and review our show.

It really just helps other people know that this is a great show." Or "It helps give me

warm fuzzies. Helps me know that you guys love this show." But keep it simple and then also

make it easy. Provide direct links to your review pages in your show notes. So show notes are super

helpful. If you're not familiar with show notes, a lot of times you'll hear people say, "We're

putting that in our show notes. We're putting that in our show notes." Well, what exactly are show

notes? Show notes are that in your podcast app, you can click and see the description. It's a

description of the episode. So you have a title, something like on this episode, it's going to be

podcast reviews. How important are they? But then the description is me saying, "This is what I'm

talking about. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." You can put your links in there. Most playing apps will

allow you to click those links. But even if they don't, having them in there and having them super

simple is easy. And again, if you've not heard our episode on URL shortenings and short shorteners,

do that. Listen to that episode because that's a good episode as far as how to keep your links

simple and brand your links. So keep it simple. Provide an easy, provide the direct links to your

review pages in your show notes. Because again, while they're listening, they can go in,

click the link and be taken right to the review page, whether that be on Apple podcasts, Spotify,

YouTube, Podchaser, those are all places to get reviews and many more. But put a few of those

links in your show notes. Again, give them instructions because maybe people don't know

how to leave a review or that they can leave a review or where to leave a review. So make sure

that when you're telling them not just go and rate and review the show, tell them how, tell them how.

Say, "Hey, there's a link in the show notes. Click on that. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review."

Both matter. Engage with your reviews. This is a super important topic here. Engage with your

reviews. When you get a review, mention it in your show. Give a shout out on your show.

People love hearing their names said on a podcast. It's amazing. Guys, podcasting, anybody can do

podcasting. I'm a firm believer. Anybody can do podcasting. And I think that they should, if they

have something to say, but anybody can do podcasting, not in the days of old, where you had

to become trained in radio, you had to go to a studio, you had to get hired by a radio studio

and do a radio show. Anybody can do a radio show now. And so people still think that you're famous.

You're doing a show and it makes them feel warm and fuzzy when you say their name on the show.

So you can say something like, "John Huvogoviak just sent him a review this last week.

And he said, "Loving the show. It's such a great help for me when I'm trying to make my podcast.

I've learned so much from Andy." And say, "Thanks, John, for sending that in. We love to hear you.

We love making the show for you." Engage with your reviewers. Give them shout outs. They love

hearing their names on the show. They love hearing their comments on the show. One of the other

things you can do is incentivize your reviews. And by incentivizing, I'm meaning doing a contest.

Give something away. Say a contest like, "Hey, we're running a contest for the next two weeks."

And everybody who puts a review in gets their name entered into a contest to win the next

RODECaster Pro or whatever. That's not a contest I'm giving guys. That's not a contest. But you

could say something like that. Or, "Gets a free consultation with me for doing podcasts." Or,

whatever. So you could do a contest and say, "I'm going to give away one of these things. I'm going

to give away a free hour of consultation with me on how to build your podcast or starting your

podcast." Or whatever. For the next two weeks, anyone putting in a review gets entered into the

drawing. That's a great way because people want to win things. And so if you are giving away things,

they're most likely, more likely, to enter in and actually put those in. Now again,

you're not buying them. People are honestly putting their reviews in.

The other thing that you can do to get reviews is using your network. We all have those people. We

all have people we know. Mom, dad, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives. We all know people

that may or may not listen to the show, but they can be good inspirations to tell them that. Say,

"Hey, listen to this latest episode that I did and go ahead and put it on review."

They're going to probably do it because they know you and they want to help you out with

your endeavors and your endeavors being starting your show, starting your podcast. And so they want

to help you with that. We all have those people. We all have parents. We may not all have spouses.

We may not all have kids, but we all have parents. We all have friends that you can ask and say, "Hey,

go over to my show and leave a rating and a review. I would love it if you would do that."

Also, you can collaborate with other podcasters that are in your niche. Ask them to review.

You know, like I'm doing this podcast about podcasting and there are 150 other podcasts

that do podcasts about podcasting. I'm not the only one. And so you can ask those other

podcasters, say, "Hey, would you mind reviewing my show and giving me a like, subscribe,

review or rating?" That also helps social proof too, because if people see, "Oh,

this podcaster who is talking about the same topic likes Andy's podcast,"

they're likely to give it a try. Now, they may not stick around, but they may.

You can also promote it on social media. Ask people in an IG or a Facebook story,

do a YouTube short, something where you're saying, "Hey guys, if you like our show,

if we've given you any value at all, go ahead and give us a like, a subscribe,

whatever, a review. Give us... And here's how you do it. Click on this link right here in this story."

And again, you could go ahead and set a page on your website. And that's actually probably

the best way to do it. So have a page on your website that says like, you know,

slash rate and review. So podcastanswers.com/rateandreview. And then you can have all

the ways in there. Say, "Hey, are you an Apple podcast listener? Click here. Are you a Spotify

listener? Click here. Are you a YouTube subscriber? Click here." These are how you can go and rate and

review our show. Do not listen to any of those. You can go and do it on Podchaser.

Because that way it allows them to choose what they want to review it in.

Their podcast app of choice promoted on social media. Now, where can you focus on getting

reviews? I've mentioned a lot during this episode already. You can go to Apple podcast.

That's like one of the largest directories around. It's Apple podcast. Lots of people have Apple

phones, iPhones, and they will, would love to review your show. Spotify is another great thing.

Spotify, now they don't allow for written reviews, but they, but you can rate your podcast. So give

them a five star or whatever. Podchaser is not really a app of to listen to podcast him, but

what it is is it's like the IMDb of podcasts. So if you've heard of IMDb before, it's where you're

watching a show and you're like, "Hey, I think that that actor was in such and such an other

show." And so you go back and you look at IMDb, it's the internet movie database. Podchaser is

like that. It's like the IMDb of podcasts. You can look at a specific podcast and you can see who

was guesting on it. You can look for specific people and see what podcasts that they were on.

It's a great tool. It also allows you to rate and review podcasts. Go there, check and see if your

podcast is in podchaser. If not, you can submit it. If you do video, like I do for this show,

I'm this episode, this podcast is on YouTube. Encourage people to comment on the YouTube video,

comment on the YouTube video and let me know what you like about it. So you can tell people,

"Hey, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you comment on this video. Tell me how much you like

the content of this video in a comment." All right, guys, that is pretty much what I have as far as

as far as ratings and reviews go. But I want to remind you quickly,

don't... These are some mistakes. Don't do that. Don't beg or sound desperate. It kind of shows

that you are whining. Like, "Help us! Help us show out! Please, please, please, please, please,

please!" Don't do that. Don't do that. People read that all day. People will see that and say,

"I'm not going to do that." They're just begging. The other thing you don't want to do is pay for

reviews. Do not pay for reviews. It's not only not ethical, it's not honest, but it can get you banned

from a lot of the shows. So don't pay for reviews. So guys, with that, I want you to know if you've

not rated this podcast, do that as soon as this episode ends, right? If you're listening to Apple

podcast, go to the show and leave us a rating or review. So this is my call to action right now.

If you've not rated this podcast, go ahead and do it as soon as this episode ends. Because

I would like to see your ratings or reviews. I'm just gonna be honest. I would love to hear what

you know about... Like about the show. What you don't like about the show. If you're in Spotify,

click the rating. Let us know. 1 star, 5 stars. If you're on YouTube, leave us a comment or go

to podchaser.com and search "podcast answers". I would love to see the comments that you have

about this show. And just in general, what you enjoy about this show.

So guys, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. If you have topics for us,

make sure you send us in the topics. We would love to cover that because again,

this is a podcast answer show. This is a show where you ask questions and we answer them.

Guys, have a great week and keep podcasting.