Substack is newsletter-first, SEO last
Great for email subscribers, terrible for organic search. No schemas, no indexing control, no performance optimization. If you want traffic that compounds, you need a platform built for rankings.
Migrate from Substack in under 10 minutes.
Trusted by YC startups to established enterprises
Loved by growth-focused teams
Why Substack fails at SEO
The platform is optimized for inbox opens, not Google rankings
Newsletter-first, SEO last
Substack is built for email subscribers, not search engines. Posts are optimized for inbox opens, not Google rankings. SEO is an afterthought.
Almost zero SEO controls
No JSON-LD schemas, no meta description editor, no sitemap control, no IndexNow, no image optimization. Limited URL structure control.
Email lists plateau, SEO compounds
Email acquisition gets harder over time. Organic search traffic compounds. You're optimizing for the wrong channel if growth is your goal.
Newsletter-first vs SEO-first
Substack measures success in email opens and subscriber growth. SEO measures success in rankings and organic traffic. These are fundamentally different acquisition channels.
Substack posts are designed for email readers: short updates, casual tone, clickbait headlines that work in an inbox. Search engines want the opposite: comprehensive content, descriptive titles, technical optimization.
Email acquisition
- • Gets harder over time
- • Requires constant promotion
- • Subscribers churn
- • Plateaus eventually
Organic search
- • Compounds over time
- • Old posts keep ranking
- • Traffic is passive
- • Scales with content
The best strategy: own your blog for SEO, use newsletter tools for distribution.
Publish on a platform built for rankings (like Superblog), then distribute via email using dedicated newsletter tools (Beehiiv, ConvertKit, or even Substack itself). Connect them via Zapier. You get compounding organic traffic plus direct subscriber relationships.
Trying to do both on Substack means compromising on SEO—and losing the traffic that compounds over time.
Superblog vs Substack
Side-by-side SEO feature comparison
| Feature | Superblog | Substack |
|---|---|---|
| Built for SEO | ||
| JSON-LD schemas | Auto (Article, FAQ, Breadcrumb) | None |
| XML sitemap | Auto-generated | Basic |
| IndexNow | ||
| LLMs.txt | ||
| Meta description control | ||
| Image optimization | Auto WebP, lazy load | None |
| Page speed | 90+ Lighthouse | Unoptimized |
| Newsletter built-in | Via Zapier/integrations | Native |
| Subdirectory hosting | yoursite.com/blog | name.substack.com |
You can focus on writing
instead of fixing
Superblog provides optimized UI, CMS, hosting, SEO, security, marketing tools, and performance out of the box.
Built for rankings, not inbox opens
Every technical SEO feature you need, automated
Auto JSON-LD schemas
Article, FAQ, Organization, and Breadcrumb schemas added automatically. Google understands your content structure without manual configuration.
XML sitemaps & IndexNow
Auto-generated sitemaps submitted to all major search engines. IndexNow protocol notifies Google of new content within seconds.
90+ Lighthouse performance
JAMStack architecture with global CDN. Auto image optimization (WebP, lazy loading, responsive). Fast pages rank higher and convert better.
Subdirectory hosting
Blog lives at yoursite.com/blog, not a separate subdomain. All SEO authority flows to your primary domain for maximum impact.
LLMs.txt for AI search
Content appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI search results. Substack doesn't support this emerging standard for AI discoverability.
Privacy-friendly analytics
Built-in Pirsch analytics (no cookie banners). Integrate Google Analytics, Search Console, or any tool. Own your data, track your growth.
Performance that ranks
Technical SEO handled automatically
Teams using Superblog
Guaranteed Lighthouse score
Uptime guaranteed
First Contentful Paint
Loved by
growth teams
200+ companies use Superblog to publish content that ranks. From startups to enterprises, teams choose us for speed, SEO, and zero maintenance.
Read Case Studies
Was looking for a tool which could optimize SEO from a technical standpoint, so we could focus our efforts on writing good content. Superblog is perfect for this.
Really impressed with how fast it was to get a blog running on my domain. Which meant more time for writing.
We've been using Superblog for about 6 months now. Getting a blog up and running has never been easier. I just can't go back to WordPress after this.
Just found Superblog looking for a quick SEO optimized, fast loading alternative to WordPress. Looks super awesome!
Just got Superblog up and running. Simple, yes. But so fast. Love that the editor is SEO focused.
If you want top of class optimization for SEO and performance, I would suggest Superblog.
Superblog has made it easy for us to launch and run a blog. It does most of the heavy lifting that can supercharge your blog.
A perfect and super easy platform for running your blogs. It has a very clean UI and is SEO friendly. Highly recommended.
Get the traffic that compounds
Migrate from Substack in minutes. Keep your email list, capture the organic search traffic. From $29/month.
Substack SEO questions answered
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