Hi Julie! I probably need to reread this when I am firing on more brain cells and not after a day of parenting… but can I back up for a minute? I didn’t know what SEO was before this post. You say you adjust headlines for different searches and maybe go back and adjust other things from past posts… what does this mean exactly/ how do you do this? Thanks so much!
Adjust was probably not the best word choice! I just mean edit them.
So I do that in two ways: 1. If something is ranking/getting traffic then I usually just re-read the post and try to make sure it is clear/flows well/has good info and that I have links to whatever I might want to point people to (e.g. another post, a sign-up link, my website, etc. since that post might drive traffic to other things). For example, when that humor markets list started getting a lot of traffic I initially went in to add a link to my website and then later went back to add a link to my Substack.
2. The other adjusting/editing I have done to old Substack posts if I think it's something that might get picked up in Google search is to go into the Substack post settings for an individual post and then edit the "Advanced SEO options" (Substack has a guide for how to do this here: https://on.substack.com/p/substack-seo-guide). Under those options there is a place to edit the SEO Title and Description for that post. Then I can change those to what I want to show up in Google. I try to do this before I publish a post now but I sometimes forget, but you can always go back and edit later
Awesome write-up, Julie. I'm bookmarking it for future reference! In the short term, I'm certain a few of my posts could do with an SEO description revision. Thanks for sharing your know-how!
Of course! I have gone back and updated the SEO description on older posts (or when I forget to do it!) and I think it doesn’t hurt and hopefully helps.
I know this is really helpful. I just have no how to implement. When I looked on Google it seems I need a web site to drive traffic. I cancelled my web site because it was too expensive. Sigh. So I'm back to-- how to use Google SEO to drive traffic to my Substack. Hmm.
I think Substack is already set up pretty well for it, it’s just a matter of coming up with some posts that might bring you some traffic although you may already be getting some. Does your incoming traffic sources show Google already?
I just mean where the traffic sources on your Substack are coming from. If you click on your dashboard "Stats" and then click on "Traffic" it should show your top traffic sources. If Google is one of your sources then you are getting some traffic from it.
So glad I finally got to check this out, Julie. Thanks for these! I'm still learning so much about SEO and every bit helps.
Thanks for reading! Add this to the list of other things we could talk about :)
Thank you so much, Julie! I’m going to be returning to this one frequently! 😀
Of course :)
Hi Julie! I probably need to reread this when I am firing on more brain cells and not after a day of parenting… but can I back up for a minute? I didn’t know what SEO was before this post. You say you adjust headlines for different searches and maybe go back and adjust other things from past posts… what does this mean exactly/ how do you do this? Thanks so much!
Adjust was probably not the best word choice! I just mean edit them.
So I do that in two ways: 1. If something is ranking/getting traffic then I usually just re-read the post and try to make sure it is clear/flows well/has good info and that I have links to whatever I might want to point people to (e.g. another post, a sign-up link, my website, etc. since that post might drive traffic to other things). For example, when that humor markets list started getting a lot of traffic I initially went in to add a link to my website and then later went back to add a link to my Substack.
2. The other adjusting/editing I have done to old Substack posts if I think it's something that might get picked up in Google search is to go into the Substack post settings for an individual post and then edit the "Advanced SEO options" (Substack has a guide for how to do this here: https://on.substack.com/p/substack-seo-guide). Under those options there is a place to edit the SEO Title and Description for that post. Then I can change those to what I want to show up in Google. I try to do this before I publish a post now but I sometimes forget, but you can always go back and edit later
This was super helpful. Thanks for writing it, Julie.
Glad to hear that, Chris. Thanks for reading!
Wow-- amazing info! And I recommend your humor list roundup to my writing classes all the time. :)
Glad to hear that and thanks for sharing that roundup in your classes!
Awesome write-up, Julie. I'm bookmarking it for future reference! In the short term, I'm certain a few of my posts could do with an SEO description revision. Thanks for sharing your know-how!
Of course! I have gone back and updated the SEO description on older posts (or when I forget to do it!) and I think it doesn’t hurt and hopefully helps.
Thank you so much for this! I’m a newbie, and your post is gold.
Of course! Glad to hear that :)
I know this is really helpful. I just have no how to implement. When I looked on Google it seems I need a web site to drive traffic. I cancelled my web site because it was too expensive. Sigh. So I'm back to-- how to use Google SEO to drive traffic to my Substack. Hmm.
I think Substack is already set up pretty well for it, it’s just a matter of coming up with some posts that might bring you some traffic although you may already be getting some. Does your incoming traffic sources show Google already?
When you say, "...show Google..." do you mean new subscribers? It's rare when I get a "direct" new subscriber. They're usually from Substack.
I just mean where the traffic sources on your Substack are coming from. If you click on your dashboard "Stats" and then click on "Traffic" it should show your top traffic sources. If Google is one of your sources then you are getting some traffic from it.
Ah! Thank you.
Not good. 4 views.
Better than nothing I guess! But you could think about some SEO posts that might pull in more readers.