Substack ain’t it—Not if You Want to Get Started with SEO
Discover Which is Best for You: Blogging with SEO vs Substack
“There's a very strategic, super simple way to approach blogs on your website that allows you to be creative AND get found in the process.”
I’ve got a bone to pick with Substack.
Well… not with Substack, but with the stupid Substack craze that’s going on right now.
Everyone—maybe you—is losing their ever loving mind over this platform.
I get it, but there are some yellow flags that are obvious to me as an SEO expert.
Specifically SEO pitfalls that you’ll want to consider IF you’re a business owner… who has a website… AND the content you’re creating is, in fact, related to your business.
Tune in & take notes so you make sure you’re going with the best & most aligned choice for your business.
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
Ways to monetize your blog posts
Why thought leadership should begin on your website
Why you absolutely shouldn’t copy+paste a Substack to your blog
When starting a Substack is a good fit
When blogging on your website is a better fit
I hope this gives you some perspective with this whole Substack craze.
Really take time to be thoughtful & strategic with your next step.
The goal is to have you be able to make a confident decision about your next step.
Mentioned Resources:
🔗SEO & Grow 🌱 (for website SEO foundations)
🔗Shine with SEO (blogging workshop)
Connect w/ Brittany:
This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows
Hello and welcome to The Basic Bee Podcast. I'm your host and favorite SEO coach, Brittany Herzberg. And dear listener, friend, I have a bone to pick with Substack. Well, not so much with Substack, but more with the stupid craze that's going on right now around it. Everyone, maybe you, is losing their ever-loving mind over this platform. I get it, but I also get that there are, mmm, let's say some yellow flags that are obvious to me, but not to everyone. Specifically SEO pitfalls that you'll want to consider if you're a business owner who has a website and the content you're creating is in fact related to your business. I've shared lots of these thoughts and hot takes over on Threads in the last couple weeks.
Brittany Herzberg: If we're not friends there yet, go find me and follow. But if we are friends, you may already know some of what I'm going to share. I have 3 core things that I want to get across to you, mostly just so you can make a well-informed, educated decision about what your next step is. First up, there is more than one way to monetize a blog. No, you do not need to run display ads on your blog. No, you do not need to have a Substack to make money from your thoughts. This next part could be a little trigger-y, so I want you to brace yourself. I find that far too many business owners We think too small.
Brittany Herzberg: We go gaga for someone spending $10 a month with us versus thinking about how we can position our blog posts as the perfect intro into, here's that program or that workshop or that service that could help you with this thing. That is how we should be thinking about our blogs, not just as a way to distribute educational how-to articles. People have enough freaking information. They want help knowing who to go to and what to do next. They want your opinions. They want to see your case studies and social proof of what you say actually working for people. And yes, I know, don't look at my website too closely just yet. I told you just last week that I'm spending this year getting my own SEO on point.
Brittany Herzberg: Do as I say, not as I do, okay? Just know that there's a very strategic, super simple way to approach blogs on your website that allows you to be creative and get found in the process. That was what one person responded about in one of my threads. She was writing content that was related to her business, but she was saying they weren't how-to blogs, so she didn't feel like they would be the type of content to have on her blog on her website. And she even went on to share that they were more creative writing, creative essays. Friend, I literally optimized a blog post about a Taylor Swift song that was written by a therapy practice. I also optimized a post for the same client about how foam rolling is like therapy. I promise you, it can be done. I've been saying this a lot recently.
Brittany Herzberg: Party in the front, business in the back. That is how SEO can be. It allows you to be creative and flowy, but to still have a way to optimize things on the backend so you actually pop up when and where people are searching for you. It's incredibly magical. For additional resources, you'll want to check out the Shine with SEO workshops. This is the 2-part workshop with 2 Google Docs complete with blog templates that help you map out 12 very strategic blog posts and optimize blogs in a way that brings more traffic to your site and helps you guide people to the resource that will help them. As they say in Inception, dream a bit bigger, darling. Next, thought leadership should begin at home, aka your website.
Brittany Herzberg: Look, I'm not sure if you're aware yet. But it is 2026, and people do want to know about your experience, thoughts, opinions, and success stories. I mean, case in point, you're here listening to me. People don't know all the things you know about your thing, so share that with them on your website. I mean, we're talking about writing, but I've heard that even podcasters are hosting their podcasts on Substack. No, I will leave that for Leah to more fully break down for you, but just know that even if you have a podcast, That can still turn into a blog post. And my SEO for Podcasts workshop guides you through that entire process if you're like, I don't even know how that could happen. Maybe that's how you're listening to this episode right now, on my blog, on my website.
Brittany Herzberg: YouTube videos, same deal. Those are your thoughts, your stories, your experiences, and your wins. Keep them on your site so you can get that SEO juice. People will come to your website. I think so many of us are used to looking at options not on our websites to send people to, but this is one of those, the answer was right under your nose kind of situations. It doesn't matter how pretty your site is or how fancy. It matters that the pages and posts are optimized so people can find them. You have things to share.
Brittany Herzberg: People want to hear them, see them, read them, and they're totally okay to come to your site. Lastly, for the love of everything, do not copy and paste a Substack to your blog. Google, first of all, hates duplicate content. And also, why are you going to put the same thing in both places? Again, vote in the pro column for a blog on your website. If you're going to have a Substack, use that to share content that's completely unrelated to your business. A passion project, or just a random interest. For me, that place happens to be Threads. The unhinged and the professional Brittany shows up over there.
Brittany Herzberg: Just depends on the hour and the day of the week. But if I wanted to pursue this idea I have of being like a book influencer or whatever it's called, sharing about my love of romantasy books, that I could take to the streets of Substack. Let's say you just adopted a baby and you want to share more of your story about how that entire journey unfolded to maybe help other families, but that has nothing to do with your business. You could also take that to Substack. See? But if it's a post you've created with thoughts that totally relate to your business, please publish that blog on your website. It helps Google and all of the other search engines to become really familiar with who you are, what you do, how you're different, and when they need to suggest your site on a search results page. If you're like, but Bea, I really want to show up all over the place, and I was really wanting to lean into Substack, is there literally no way I can do this? The answer is still not to copy and paste the same dang thing in both places. But I could make an argument to use the same topic, but say the copy in a different way, in a different order, in a different format on Substack.
Brittany Herzberg: Publish to your website first, and then take it to something like Substack. This way, you feel like you're still repurposing, but it's not just straight up copy pasting. And look, no website, no problem. If you don't have a website, you've got some options. If you don't have a business or don't want to have a business, Go on with your bad self. Have a happy time on Substack. I've even seen Substack be great for authors who are trying to build a following, many of whom don't have websites. See, I don't hate on it 100% of the time.
Brittany Herzberg: Substack just needs to make sense for your specific situation. Let's say you have a business. You need a website, period. And even a simple one-page site will be more than sufficient to start with. I do not want to see your coffee shop listing on a Facebook page as a quote unquote website. I'm talking a proper freaking website with its own domain name and everything, okay? Get that one page set up, then start blogging. Even one blog a month is something totally doable to aim for. As your capacity allows, you can totally increase that to one, maybe even two posts a week, if you want.
Brittany Herzberg: If you have the space for it. Especially if traffic and visibility and sales are things that are on your mind and that you're trying to grow right now. So just make sure that whatever you decide, it really is in line with what you have going on, what you want to have going on, and what your goals are. I hope this gives you some perspective with this whole Substack craze. Really, really take the time to be thoughtful and strategic with your next step. If it is to start a Substack, great! Now you can at least be confident in your decision, and you'll have an answer for me when I ask you about it in the future. If, however, you've decided to double down on your blogging efforts on your own website, hurrah! Again, you've been able to make a confident decision about your next step. If you're wanting further guidance on what to do to optimize your blog posts for SEO, I've got my Shine with SEO workshops, which I mentioned earlier, which you should ideally do after you've set up your website SEO foundations.
Brittany Herzberg: And if you need support doing that, the setting up of the website SEO foundations, yes, SEO and Grow, my group coaching program, will be your best next step. All of the links, of course, will be below. Share this episode the next time you hear someone talking about starting a Substack versus having their own blog. And remember, I'm always here cheering you on, on your SEO journey.
