Why Substack Fails at SEO (And How writely Fixes It)

I've been using Substack for a while now—long enough to feel the tension between its strengths and its gaps. On one hand, it's probably the easiest way to start a newsletter and actually get paid for it. On the other hand, if you're trying to grow an audience through search traffic, you'll quickly notice Substack's editor is fine for writing but terrible for SEO.

That's where the comparison starts. Substack vs. a more SEO-aware workflow. And the tool that changed my approach was writely.

What Substack does well

Substack handles distribution better than almost any standalone blog platform. If someone subscribes, your posts land directly in their inbox. No algorithm gatekeeping. No SEO waiting game. For relationship-driven writing—personal essays, thought pieces, niche commentary—it's hard to beat.

I also like that Substack keeps things simple. The editor is clean. No clutter. No upselling. You just write and publish.

But here's the friction: Substack's built-in SEO tools are basically nonexistent. You can set a custom meta description and a URL slug, but that's about it. No structured data controls. No readability scoring. No keyword suggestions. Nothing that would help you rank for terms like ai seo content generator free or best ai writing assistant 2026.

Where Substack falls short

The search intent behind "Substack" reviews isn't just "should I use Substack?"—it's "how do I grow on Substack without running ads?" And the honest answer is: you need good SEO, which Substack doesn't natively support well.

When I started testing this, I wrote a few Substack posts the normal way. Just wrote them, published them, shared them on social media. The engagement was okay, but search traffic? Almost zero. Substack posts can rank, but only if you know how to optimize them properly.

That's not Substack's fault. It's designed for email-first publishing, not Google-first. But if you're writing content that should attract organic search traffic, you need help.

Pairing Substack with a better writing workflow

This is where I started using writely to draft posts before moving them to Substack. The workflow goes like this:

• Draft the post in writely, where I can use its SEO tools to optimize headings, meta descriptions, and keyword placement.
• Check readability and structure—writely gives feedback on sentence length, paragraph flow, and whether the content is actually scannable.
• Export or copy the finished draft into Substack's editor and publish.

The difference was immediate. Posts that took me 3 hours to research and write in Substack's editor took about 90 minutes with writely, and they were better optimized for search. One post about newsletter growth strategies started ranking for best free ai writing tool 2026 within a few weeks—basically unheard of for Substack content.

I will say, though, this two-tool workflow isn't perfect. Copying formatted text from writely into Substack sometimes breaks the formatting. Headings might not map cleanly. You have to do a quick visual check before hitting publish. It's a small friction, but it's real.

The tradeoff you need to know

Here's the thing: Substack is great for writing that's personal and email-first. If you're building a loyal subscriber base who reads you because of your voice, Substack is probably the better platform overall. But if you're writing content that needs to be found through search, Substack alone isn't enough.

The tools aren't competing with each other. Substack is a distribution platform. Writely is a writing and optimization tool. They work best together—but only if you're willing to accept a slightly clunkier publishing workflow.

If I were recommending a path for a new writer today: start on Substack for the distribution and the built-in audience features, but use writely to draft and optimize every post you want to rank. Don't rely on Substack's editor for anything beyond polishing the final version.

Substack handles the sending. Writely handles the writing. That split has been the most practical way to grow both email subscribers and search traffic without burning out.