Member-only story
SEO for Substack: The Practical Guide (and a Puzzle to Solve) for Ambitious Writers
Got a newsletter on Substack? Here’s how to get it found on Google!
Read the whole story because if you follow what is written in full, you will be able to understand how I also managed it, and if you need further information, you can also write to me in the comments.
Hi everyone!
If you’re here, you probably share my passion: creating content that reaches the right people. And if, like me, you’ve decided to embark on the Substack adventure, you know how powerful this platform is for connecting with an audience interested in your ideas.
I, too, have recently launched my newsletter on Substack, where I explore how artificial intelligence can become a valuable ally for our productivity, both at work and in everyday life. I try to explain complex concepts in a simple and accessible way because I believe that everyone can benefit from these technologies.
But not all that glitters is gold.
Substack is fantastic for sending newsletters to your subscribers, but the pages of your posts are also actual blog articles, visible to anyone. And here a crucial question arises: how can we get this content found on Google and other search engines?
The idea is enticing: a steady stream of new readers discovering your newsletter through a simple online search. New subscribers who arrive organically and completely free.
I’ve noticed that there are several tutorials online explaining how to connect your Substack blog to Google Search Console. The process is quite simple: Substack provides a field to insert the Google Tag Manager code, and once the ownership of the subdomain is verified, you’re ready for the next step, or so it should be.
But here’s the problem.
After following all the steps, Google Search Console recognizes your Substack subdomain, but when it comes to requesting indexing... it stalls. The reason? Substack’s robots.txt file (the one that tells search engines what they can and cannot index) contains a NOINDEX for all pages. This means that, in practice, none of your Substack posts will ever be found on Google.
