Don't Move Your Blog to Substack Without Reading This First

I need to talk about something I'm seeing more and more often, and it's breaking my heart a little bit each time. Business owners I work with are getting excited about Substack  (that’s not the concern at all), they’re getting so excited about Substack that they want to move everything over there. If you’re like me and hearing all about Substack right now, you may be wondering if it’s the next move you should make for your business. You may also be wondering if you should move your blog to Substack, and I want to talk about that today because that, my friend, is a big mistake if you’re blogging for SEO and to benefit your business and boost your online visibility.  

 

Why Substack Is So Appealing  to Small Business Owners?

 

Substack is gaining in popularity because it feels like an alternative to social media. So many people, especially entrepreneurs, are burnt out on posting to social media to try to grow their businesses. They’re tired of chasing the algorithm and spending hours creating content that only a small portion of their audience ever sees. I get it. I am too. If you’ve been in my world for long, you know that I don’t do much on social media because, for me, I don’t see the return on investment that I want for my marketing from organic social.

 

Rather than chasing an algorithm on social, you can write a blog-type article and send it to your readers on Substack as a newsletter. It gets delivered right to their inboxes, so you don’t even have to worry about whether or not they’ll see it on the platform.

 

It sounds great. Not only do you have the advantage that people can find you on the platform, but you can also send your updates directly to their inboxes, so you know they see what you write. You can also set up a paid newsletter and let people support your writing or teaching.

 

Being active on Substack isn’t the concern at all. If you love it and want to post there, do it! It’s a great way to help get your message in front of more people. Just make some smart strategic decisions about what you’re going to post on Substack and how you’ll set it up. Don’t move your entire blog to Substack and remove it from your website if you want your blog to help with SEO for your small business.

 

 

What Actually Happens to Your SEO When You Move Your Blog Off Your Website

 

Here's what most people don't understand, and I want to make sure you do before you make a decision that can hurt your business in the long run. Being on Substack is not problematic; moving your entire blog to Substack is the issue.

 

You're Building Someone Else's Credibility Instead of Your Own SEO

Every time you publish a great blog post on your website and someone shares it, links to it, or references it from their own site, Google takes notice. As new sites link to your website, you slowly build a reputation, boost your Domain Authority (which makes it easier for you to rank for more keywords and be more visible online), and become known as a place that has valuable, trustworthy information. Over time, that reputation grows, and Google starts showing your content to more people when they search for topics you write about.

 

Building high-quality links to a website is one of the most important things you can do for SEO for your business. SEO is about creating great, high-quality content and earning links to that content to boost your site’s authority, so you can rank for even more keywords and become more visible. When you move your blog to Substack, you give all of this up.

 

When you publish that same content on Substack instead of on your website, all of that reputation-building goes to Substack.com, not to your website, which means all of the work that you’re doing benefits them, not you. This is my main concern with small business owners moving their blogs to Substack without understanding the ramifications fully. Your website needs the links that your blog posts can earn to help it build it’s authority so that you can rank for more keywords and be more visible online. When you move your blog to Substack, you greatly reduce your opportunities to rank for more keywords, build authority, and be visible because you’re giving all of the benefits of your hard work to Substack rather than keeping it for yourself. Don’t do that. You work too hard to create content. You should be the one who gets rewarded.

 

Where does Substack fit in your SEO Strategy? 

Substack can actually be part of your overall SEO strategy. It can be part of your marketing plan. It can be your preferred place to post content outside of your website. All of that can happen and not hurt you.

 

What you want to do is make sure your blog posts live on your website. If you want to be active on Substack, that’s great. Create one, have a newsletter there, and share information that goes along with your post, but don’t share your blog post there. You don’t want to just copy/paste your blog post on Substack.

 

At first, I thought that would be my recommendation, but as I looked into how it works, I quickly realized that it will hurt you too. Substack isn’t set up to let you use something called a canonical tag (I know, that’s sounding a little bit technical and it is, but it’s a really simple concept – it tells Google, hey, I know this page is a duplicate of this page over here, so I want you to index and give credit to this page right here – the canonical URL). Your website can likely do this, but Substack can’t (at least as of now).

 

 So what happens is you post your blog post on your site, and then you post it on Substack, and hopefully Google takes note of the fact that your site was the first one that posted the blog post. But then, Google sees duplicate content on two sites because your site and Substack have the exact same blog post on them, and now it’s not 100% sure who to credit, and because Substack is so much more authoritative than your website, Google will likely share the link from Substack, not your website.

 

Now, if you’re not worried about SEO for your small business, then you may be OK with this happening, but if SEO is one of your marketing channels you focus on, then you want your website to be the one that shows up in the search results and is referenced by AI-based search.

 

Another thing that’s good about Substack for your small business SEO is that the link you’ll get from Substack is what we call a follow link (it shares some of its authority with your website), so when you do link to your site from Substack, you give yourself a little boost. There is a point of diminishing returns here, the first link is really the only one that gives you the boost, so don’t go link happy thinking you’re making some huge impact on your SEO. Link each post once, and you’ll be set. The first time you link to your website from Substack will benefit your site overall, any additional links really won’t make a difference.

Substack and AI SEO or AI-based search

Substack is a site that many of the AI tools like to cite. Being active there can be helpful to your business. If you’re focused on SEO and you’re also on Substack, think about the questions and phrases your audience might be searching for, especially via AI search tools, and make sure you’re answering those in your Substack update before linking them over to your blog for more information.

 

We don’t want to have everything here because, remember, your site needs to build its own authority to be more visible in general. When you have great content that you help people find, and it earns links, it makes your site more authoritative so that in the future, you start showing up even more.

 

This Isn't Just About Substack and SEO

I want to zoom out for a second because this is a bigger pattern I see playing out repeatedly. Someone hears about a successful business owner who's going all in on a particular platform. This person has been in business for years. They have a huge audience. They're making it look easy. As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to immediately think that whatever shiny object we’re hearing about is the missing piece for us and what we need to succeed.

 

I want to encourage you to slow down before making decisions about your marketing channels. Yes, it’s exciting when we hear about something that’s working great for someone else, and we want to envision ourselves having that same type of success, but the reality is sometimes the circumstances are very different.

If you’re just starting out and don’t have a big audience, and the person you’re learning from has a huge audience, their experience will likely be vastly different from yours because your businesses aren’t at the same level. Honestly, it’s easier for people with a bigger following to start a new platform and succeed than for smaller businesses.

 

We also don’t want to give our authority over to another platform. With Substack, moving your blog there very literally gives away your authority. With other social channels, you’re creating content and trying to get in front of the right audience, but always make sure you’re also linking people back to your website or working to get them on your email list so that you can contact them in the future. You don’t want to build your business on someone else’s platform, just as you wouldn’t want to build your house on someone else’s land. You want to have control of the situation.

 

One more Substack note. Don't Import Your Email List Without Asking

While I'm on the subject of Substack, there's something else I've been experiencing personally, and it annoys me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. If you start a Substack, please don’t upload your email list there and just start sending emails to everyone from Substack.

 

I know it’s tempting, but people who joined your email list did not subscribe to your Substack, and in some cases, adding them to your Substack without their permission will go against the rules, and you could get in trouble.

 

Also, you don’t want to damage your trust and relationship with your readers. Your email list is one of the most valuable assets your business has. It’s a list of people who have raised their hands and said, “Yes, I want to hear from you.” Guard that with your life; don’t risk that trust because you’ve decided to try a new platform.

 

If you’re going to start a Susbtack, let your email list know. Share a link to it in your weekly email. I don’t recommend stopping the weekly email that you send out to your list and replacing it with Substack because remember, you’re not going to move your blog over there, you’re going to keep it on your website.

 

Create different content for Substack

 

What to do with your Email List for Substack

Invite your audience. Don't force them.

Send your existing list an email letting them know you've started a Substack. Tell them what you'll be sharing there and why they might enjoy it. Give them a link to subscribe on their own terms. Put it in your email footer. Mention it in a P.S. Dedicate an email to the announcement if you want to make it special.

But let people choose. Your email list was built on trust. Every single person on it gave you their email because they believed you'd use it respectfully. Signing them up for something they didn't ask for — no matter how great your intentions — is a fast way to crack that trust. And once it cracks, it's really hard to repair.

 

If I wanted to use Substack to help my business grow, without hurting my SEO, here’s what I’d do

This is also what I’m likely going to do in the near future. I’d start a Substack and begin sharing insights, information related to my posts, behind the scenes, maybe even a bit more fun information, and then I’d link to the posts on my website.

 

I’d encourage new followers to get on my email list by having my opt-ins prominent on my Substack.

 

I’d email my list weekly, as I’ve done for years, and I’d link to the blog post and let them know there’s more on Substack, too. That way, if they’re fans of Substack and want to read there, they could easily find the latest post.

 

I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I’d bother with the paid tier on Substack. I know several people who’ve done that and ended up regretting it. They had a few people, made a little money, but never enough to feel like it was worth the effort. I have a large enough following that I could likely add the paid tier, but I don’t know that it’s something I want to do.

 

If you’re thinking about starting a Substack, I’d encourage you to give it 6-12 months to see how consistent you are, how it’s growing, and if it’s a platform you want to be on regularly before adding a paid tier. Don’t rush right into paid too.

 

The Bottom Line: Substack and SEO

If you’ve already moved your blog to Substack, don’t panic, but also prioritize moving it back. At least get the most important blog posts back on your website. The most important ones will vary for each person, but generally they’d be the ones that rank, drive traffic or visibility, and help generate leads or revenue for your business.

 

Moving forward, find a strategy that works for your Substack and keeps the core content you’re creating for SEO on your website.

 

Use Substack to help you grow your email list by sharing your opt-ins there and telling your email list about your Substack. Don’t just move your entire list over there. Maintain control of the most important assets for your business; don’t give them away to a platform, no matter how easy they make it for you.

If you'd like my guidance on how to market your business, which channels are the best for you, and what you can do to grow, let's chat. I help clients with this in my one-on-one marketing consulting program all the time.