Get Started
Get Started
When a show underperforms, the instinct is usually to look at content, format, or marketing. A quieter, easier-to-fix problem often sits underneath all of that, one that's easy to miss even when you understand how discovery actually works: the show simply isn't listed in every directory it's eligible for, which means some potential listeners can't find it no matter how good the episodes are.
When Buzzsprout redesigned its directory submission workflow, it found that more than 70% of its active podcasters were missing from at least one available directory. That's not a small, edge-case number. It suggests distribution hygiene is one of the most commonly skipped steps in running a podcast, not because creators don't care, but because nobody prompts them to check it after the initial launch submission.
The redesigned tool lets a show submit to 16 audio directories, collectively reaching more than a billion monthly listeners, without leaving the hosting platform. In the first two weeks after launch, more than 5,200 shows added at least one new directory listing they'd been missing, often without realizing the gap existed until the tool surfaced it.
Submitting to a directory starts the review process. It doesn't guarantee acceptance, and it doesn't mean the show is live and indexed the moment the button is clicked. Each directory reviews submissions on its own timeline and by its own criteria, so a directory audit is something to check back on, not a single task you complete once and forget.
1. Check your hosting platform's directory dashboard first
Most modern podcast hosts, including Buzzsprout and Spotify for Podcasters, show which directories a feed has been submitted to and which are still pending or missing. That's the fastest starting point before manually checking individual directories.
2. Search for your show by name on directories you haven't checked recently
If your show doesn't come up on a directory you assumed it was listed on, that's worth investigating even if you remember submitting to it originally, since a show can be removed or fail to update after a feed change.
3. Re-check after any hosting migration
Directory listings don't always carry over cleanly when a show switches hosting providers. A migration is one of the most common, and most overlooked, causes of a show quietly dropping out of a directory it used to appear in.
This kind of distribution audit costs almost nothing beyond twenty minutes of checking, and unlike a content or format change, it doesn't require the audience to notice anything different for the show to start showing up where it wasn't before.
Not sure whether your podcast is actually listed everywhere it should be? Talk to Poddster about running a full distribution audit alongside your existing production workflow.
