146. Podcasting Secrets to Rank on the Apple Podcasts Charts in 2025

Want your podcast to be seen, heard, and ranked? You might be surprised at what actually moves the needle. In this episode, I’m sharing what the Apple Podcast Charts actually measure, how to use them strategically in your podcasting game, and which free and paid tools will help you track your rankings across the globe.

Resources Mentioned:

• Apple Podcasts Chart Info: https://podcasters.apple.com/support/3146-apple-podcasts-charts
• Rephonic: https://www.rephonic.com/search
• PodStatus: https://www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/podstatus (partner link)

Take Your Next Step:

• Podcast Startup Academy: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/academy
• Podcast Growth Collective: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/collective
• A free consultation: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/consult

This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

My show hit the Apple Podcast charts every day last week. I had just finished speaking at the Content Entrepreneur Expo. Shout out to all my new listeners from cex. And what happened next was exactly what I anticipated. My show started climbing the charts, and fast, not because of chance, but because I understood what triggers the algorithm. And I'm going to teach you exactly how to do it, too. So what actually makes a podcast chart on Apple is it reviews total downloads? A famous guest? You're about to find out. Hey there.

I'm Julia Levine, AKA the Podcast Teacher, and you're listening to Podcasting for Solopreneurs, the show that helps online business owners grow their podcast to get more listeners, leads and and sales. In today's episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on what triggered my chart appearance. You'll learn the exact signals Apple's algorithm looks for, when to time your biggest pushes, and how to track your podcast's ranking without losing your mind. If you've ever thought, I would love to be on the Apple Podcast charts, but I'm just not big enough yet, this is your episode. So let's start with the basics. What even are the Apple Podcast charts? You can think of them like the Billboard charts for music or the New York Times bestseller list for books. It's Apple's way of surfacing the most actively consumed shows right now across their platform. And before you ask, yes, there are charts on Spotify as well.

They work differently and are much harder to rank on, so most people don't spend time and effort talking about them. Apple Podcast charts reign supreme, and that's what we're going to talk about here today. But most podcasters don't realize that the Apple Podcast charts is not just one chart. There are actually a bunch of different charts. There's the overall top shows chart and top episodes chart. Those two are are the big dogs. They are incredibly competitive and are usually dominated by celebrities, networks, or other shows with massive reach. So if you're a solopreneur or an independent creator, those charts can feel completely out of reach.

Because, to be honest with you, they probably are. But here's the good news. There are also category and subcategory charts. And this is where the real opportunity lives. Apple Podcasts breaks everything down into over 100 different categories and subcategories. Things like business, entrepreneurship, marketing, health and fitness, education, and so on. And it gets even better. Each country has its own charts for each of those categories.

So if you're listed in entrepreneurship and you're looking at the Canadian charts, you're only competing with entrepreneurship shows with listeners in Canada. That is a much smaller playing field and a much more achievable target. Your show could actually be charting right now in the uk, in Australia, Singapore, somewhere across the world and you might not even know it. I won't say that it's easy, but it's easier to rank on those category and subcategory charts. And it's also easier to rank in countries outside of the us so don't chase the overall top shows or top episodes. Start by understanding where your show fits in, what category you're in, and how to target the right chart. That's how you build momentum strategically. All right, now let's talk about what actually moves the needle.

How the Apple Podcasts algorithm works Apple doesn't publish their exact ranking formula, because of course they don't. But they have confirmed that it focuses on three core listening activity, following activity, and completion rate. So let's break those down. Listening activity measures how many people are hitting play on your episodes in a relatively short period of time, typically within 24 to 72 hours. A slow trickle of downloads over a week or two doesn't do much. You need a concentrated burst of listening activity. Following activity is how many new followers your show picks up during that same time frame. Apple's system is looking for growth.

Not just consistent listeners, people tuning in week after week, but new people who are hitting the follow button. And finally, the completion rate, sometimes called the consumption rate, is the percentage of your episode that gets listened to. So listening to all 20 minutes of a 20 minute episode would be a 100% completion rate. And the higher the completion rate, the better. If most people drop off after five minutes, that's a red flag, and the algorithm is not going to promote that episode. So in simple terms, the algorithm is looking for new followers and content that's being listened to. It rewards momentum. It wants to highlight shows that are getting a lot of traction right now, not just ones that have a large back catalog of episodes or a ton of passive followers who aren't actually listening.

And here's one of the biggest misconceptions in podcasting. Apple does not use reviews or the star ratings in its chart ranking system at all. I know that goes against what a lot of the podcast gurus say, but it's confirmed in Apple's own documentation, and I'll drop a link in the description just in case you want to read it for yourself. So while reviews are great for credibility and social proof, they don't help you rank on the charts. If you want to show up on the charts, you need a coordinated push, a spike in followers and plays happening fast. That's what gets the Apple Charts algorithm's attention. Now let's talk about timing. You could be ranking on the Apple Podcast charts at any given time, but there are key windows of opportunity where your chances of breaking in are significantly higher, especially if you're strategic about it.

The biggest one is your podcast's initial launch. So if you are an aspiring podcaster, listen closely. Your launch is your prime moment. It's your debut, your audience is curious about what's coming, and you've got a blank slate with the algorithm. If you launch with multiple episodes, I recommend at least three, and you're giving a clear call to action to follow the podcast. You're promoting it in other places, like social media, email driving traffic to your podcast. You absolutely can appear on the charts, even if you are brand new. But it doesn't end there.

Milestones are another major opportunity. So if you celebrate your 10th, your 50th, your 100th episode, crossing a thousand downloads or something like that, launching a rebrand, any type of opportunity where you're talking about the podcast a lot more than usual, these situations give your audience a reason to re engage. They're like, huh, wow, 50 whole episodes. I wonder what's in there that I've been missing. Or a thousand people have enjoyed it, but I haven't checked it out yet. Maybe I should. And so that surge of traffic is exactly what what the algorithm wants. Events and collaborations can also trigger big movement on the charts.

If you've just spoken at an event or been featured somewhere, you are reaching a new audience and you're getting fresh eyes and ears on your brand. This is what happened last week for me. I spoke at the Content Entrepreneur Expo and I told a whole bunch of new people about my podcast. They had no idea who I was beforehand, and many of them then followed my show and listened to episodes later that day or in the following days. There was a big concentrated burst of activity over a short period of time. This burst could also come from something less flashy. Releasing an episode that's of extra high interest to your audience could do it. This episode in and of itself could potentially cause another burst for me because most podcasters want to know how to rank on the charts.

If I'm strategic about my SEO and my promotion strategies, just releasing this episode could cause an increase in activity and land my show on the charts. I teach these strategies inside the Podcast Growth Collective. If you're interested in learning about podcast SEO, promotion strategies, content strategies, conversion strategies, and more. I invite you to check it out at thepodcastteacher.com/collective. 

Okay, so how do you actually know if you're ranking on the charts? Unfortunately, Apple Podcasts does not send you a Congrats email, so you have to track it yourself. The first option for tracking this is a free tool called Rephonic. And don't worry if you're multitasking. I'll include links in the episode description for you. Head to Rephonic.com search search for your podcast, click on your show and hit the Charts tab.

It will show you if you're currently ranking by the category and by the country. This is totally free, which is awesome, but the downsides are that you have to check it manually and it only shows rankings in real time. So that means that if your podcast was ranking yesterday but not today, you will never know that it happened with Refhonic unless you happened to check at the right moment. The chart rankings change every few hours, and with Rephonic there's no historical tracking, so while it is a viable option, it's not my first choice. I prefer to use Pod Status for tracking, which is a next level tool that has a small fee. It's just $5 a month and it sends you daily email alerts of your Apple Podcasts chart rankings. You'll see which countries you're ranking in which categories and your peak positions over time. It does also track the Spotify charts, which are much harder to rank on and so that's why I'm focusing on Apple here in this episode.

But Pod Status does show you that data, if there is any. It also collects your podcast reviews from all countries into one place. Most people don't realize that Apple only shows you reviews from your current location, so if you're located in the US and someone in Australia writes you a review, you're not going to see that. Pod Status solves this problem. Plus you can also download those reviews as image cards, which is perfect for sharing on social media, putting them on your website, or just featuring them in an email. So if you are serious about charting and tracking those rankings, Pod Status makes sure that you don't miss the moment because trust me, ranking without realizing it is a missed marketing opportunity that you don't want to repeat. You can check out pod status@thepodcastteacher.com podstatus charting on Apple Podcasts is not magic, and it's definitely not just reserved for the big players. You don't need to go viral, you don't need 100,000 downloads, you just need a little bit of strategy.

If you can create a burst of listening and following activity within a short time frame and pair it with high completion rates, meaning creating content that people actually want to listen to all the way through, you are giving Apple's algorithm exactly what it's looking for. It starts with understanding how the system works and then it's about timing your moves during your launch, during a milestone, a rebrand or just a high visibility moment, and then tracking your impact using the right tools and like Rephonic or pod status. And here's the thing, once you know how to chart, you can use that momentum to do so much more. Leverage your ranking as social proof as credibility. You absolutely should be using AnyChart rankings as a marketing tool for your business. If you want support beyond this episode so support of how to grow your audience, attract ideal listeners and convert them into leads and clients, then come join us inside the Podcast Growth Collective. This is my private membership packed with training templates and strategies that go way beyond chart rankings. You can find all of the details thepodcastteacher.com/collective.

Until next time, happy podcasting.