122 | Substack, blogging, and SEO in the era of AI
Substack vs blog vs email newsletter: what’s the difference? And is SEO pointless in a world of AI?
Should you start a Substack? Or have a blog or newsletter on your website? What actually is the difference and how does it all work with SEO (especially these days in the AI search era!)?
These are all the questions I’m being asked a lot by my web design clients recently, and what I’m answering in today’s episode!
Substack vs Blogging vs an Email List (My Honest Take for the AI Era)
It feels like Substack is everywhere right now, and honestly it's giving 2015 blogging renaissance vibes! But should you start one INSTEAD of a blog or an email list?
In this episode I'm getting into where Substack genuinely fits vs where it really doesn't, the big difference between renting your audience and owning it, and the question I get asked constantly right now: is blogging for SEO even worth it anymore when everyone's asking ChatGPT and Claude instead of Googling?
(Plus why AI traffic might actually be better for you.)
LINKS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:
The In Demand Identity Kit (uncover your personal brand + trust-building stories): https://www.byrosanna.co.uk/in-demand-identity-kit
The Sell With Your Site Kit (plan, write & optimise your website): https://www.byrosanna.co.uk/sell-with-your-site-kit
Sign up to my weekly ‘Re:Fresh’ emails: https://www.byrosanna.co.uk/newsletter
Say hi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/by.rosanna/
More about byRosanna (website design & business resources): https://www.byrosanna.co.uk/
Should you start a Substack? My honest take on Substack vs blogging vs an email list
I've been a blogger in some capacity since 2015 - both here on byRosanna sharing business and marketing content, and over on my award-winning travel and lifestyle blog, The Cornish Life. (Plus anyone remember MySpace and LiveJournal? I've been doing the chronically-online thing for a very long time 👀).
I say all that because lately my website design clients keep asking me the same set of questions: should I start a Substack? Would it be better than a blog on my website? Or better than an email list? So I want to answer all of that properly, plus tackle the big one everyone's nervous about: is blogging for SEO even still worth it now that everyone's asking AI instead of Googling?
Let's get into it (hot takes included).
Why is everyone suddenly talking about Substack?
To understand Substack, you have to rewind to about 2015/2016. Back then we had tools like Feedly and Bloglovin, where you'd subscribe to the RSS feeds of blogs you loved, all sitting on people's own websites (WordPress, Blogger, Squarespace etc). You'd get a little notification when your favourite writer posted, and you followed them specifically because you liked their perspective, their approach, their take (a bit like following a person on Instagram, and this was before Instagram was really a thing!).
Then somewhere along the line, blogging became more of an SEO exercise. Instead of writing to share thoughts, people wrote posts targeting specific search terms to get found on Google. Meanwhile, Instagram exploded, everyone moved there for that follow-a-person feeling, short-form content was easier to digest, and regular blog readers drifted away.
But now it feels like we're swinging back!
People are a bit fed up with Instagram, and AI has made it so easy to churn out generic, bland, samey SEO blog content that everyone's bored of it. We want personality injected back in! We want to follow specific people for their actual opinions again, exactly like the Feedly days. (I talked about this bigger shift in a previous episode too - it's all part of the same move towards more humanness.) That's the itch Substack is scratching: personality-driven, perspective-led, long-form content.
I use Substack myself to read specific people I love. So FYI this isn't a Substack hate post, but I do have some important caveats…
Substack vs a blog
Substack is a platform owned by a company. Your content, your views, your subscribers all live on that platform (similar to Instagram - although you can export subscribers from Substack - more on that later).
A blog on your own website is completely different. You own that content. It's hosted on your site, it's not at the whim of an algorithm or a platform that could change the rules or disappear tomorrow. And because it lives on your website, it actively helps your overall website SEO and AIO (AI optimisation). Substack, sitting on a separate platform, doesn’t help with your website's SEO because it's not actually ON your site.
Substack vs an email list
People also compare Substack to having an email list, but they're not the same thing either. Yes, your Substack subscribers get your content by email, and I believe you can send the odd one-off email. But Substack isn't a proper email marketing platform. You don't get the tools that actually grow a business - segmenting, automations, the more advanced things that let your email work for you in the background.
Back in the Feedly/Bloglovin era, our blog posts still sat on our own websites, helping our SEO, and we built our own email lists from our own sites with full control. That's the key difference. With Substack, you're giving a lot of that ownership up!
Substack is more akin to a social platform (and that's fine!)
With the likes, the comments, the follows, Substack is arguably more like a social media platform than a blog or an email list, just longer form. And once you see it that way, it actually becomes really useful for the right thing!
Where I think Substack genuinely shines is for more personal content, or content that sits a bit outside the scope of your normal brand and wouldn't naturally live on your business website. I see a lot of people using it to build in public - "follow along as I start this thing" - documenting a journey that doesn't fit their usual ecosystem. For that, it’s brilliant! But I would just approach it for what it is: another (longer-form) social platform, not a replacement for the things you own.
The 10% fee (and the 0% alternatives)
One of the big reasons Substack blew up is how easily it lets you set up a paid newsletter where people pay monthly for your private content. Handy, yes, but Substack takes 10% of your subscription revenue, which, personally, feels like a lot!
You can actually do the exact same thing on your own website (Squarespace makes this easy), or through Flodesk (the email marketing platform I’d recommend), both hosted on things closer to your own ecosystem - and neither taking this big cut.
If you do use Substack, protect yourself
Whatever you decide, one security tip: if you're using Substack (or planning to), either write all your content off-platform first (in a Google Doc, say) so you always keep a copy, or regularly export everything you've created.
And regularly export your subscriber list too. You can't do that with a social platform like Instagram (if it vanished, your followers would go with it), but you apparently can with Substack, so make the most of it and back yourself up!
Is blogging for SEO still worth it in the AI era?
Now, I’ve mentioned having blogging on your own site being good for SEO.
BUT if everyone's asking ChatGPT and Claude, or reading Google's AI summaries instead of clicking websites, is blogging for SEO even relevant anymore? My answer is twofold…
Firstly, as we've covered, people are wanting to follow blogs and real perspectives again. The Substack trend suggests we could genuinely swing back towards blogging looking like the Feedly days! So blogging definitely isn’t dying out in that regard.
But secondly, and more importantly: it's still hugely helpful for your SEO and your AIO / GEO (AI optimisation, or generative engine optimisation).
People absolutely still use Google and click links, but even if they didn't, AI tools are out there recommending websites, blogs and businesses to their users - and you want to be one of the businesses they recommend!
What is AIO / GEO, and how do you optimise for it?
Optimising to get recommended by AI tools looks an awful lot like good old SEO!
The core principle - put as much helpful context on your website as possible and give both search engines and AI tools a really clear picture of what you do, what you specialise in, and exactly who you're for - is the same!
Because AI tools are essentially scouring the web for businesses that are specifically relevant to whatever their user just asked. So the more specific you are about your expertise and your ideal client, the easier you make it for AI to find you and recommend you.
That context comes through your website copy (homepage, about, services) - and a huge amount of it can come from blog posts too. The same posts you'd write for SEO ALSO give AI the context it needs to decide whether you're the right person to recommend.
So yes - blogging, with genuine personality baked in, is absolutely still relevant, and probably more important than ever!
Why AI traffic might actually be BETTER traffic
A lot of people are scared SEO is dead and they'll lose all their traffic because AI search results mean less clicks on website links. But the traffic you get from AI tools recommending you is likely to be better quality than Google traffic.
Google is great at matching the relevance of a topic, but it doesn't know much about the person searching, whereas AI tools know a lot about their user. So when ChatGPT or Claude recommends your business, that recommendation is deeply tailored to that specific person, which means they arrive on your website already well-matched to you and far more likely to convert, instead of trawling a list of Google results that aren't quite the right fit.
Fewer, better leads is a good trade!
FAQs
Is Substack better than a blog?
Not for SEO or ownership; a blog on your own website is content you fully own and it boosts your website's SEO and AIO. Substack is an owned-by-someone-else platform (more like social media) that doesn't help your website's search visibility, BUT Substack is great for personal or build-in-public content. It’s just not a replacement for a strategic on-site blog.
Does Substack help my website SEO?
In short, no, because Substack content lives on a separate platform rather than on your own website, it doesn't contribute to your website's SEO or AIO in the way a blog hosted on your own site does.
(Although the long answer is that there could be a small SEO benefit to be had if you end up getting lots more traffic to your website who are coming from your Substack, and your Substack boosts your overall online reputation and authority - but that’s a more complex topic!)
Is SEO dead because of AI?
No, people still use Google and click links. But of course AI tools now recommend websites and businesses to their users too!
Optimising for both (SEO and AIO) is still very much worth it - and AI-driven leads are often higher quality because the recommendation is so well matched to the person.
What is AIO or GEO?
AIO (AI Optimisation) or GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is optimising your website so AI tools can find, understand and recommend you. In practice it looks a lot like SEO: give search engines and AI as much clear context as possible about what you do, your expertise, and exactly who you're for.
Can I have a paid newsletter without Substack's fees?
Substack takes 10% of subscription revenue, but you could always set up paid content or newsletters through Squarespace or Flodesk instead who don’t take such a large cut, while keeping it closer to your own ecosystem.
Substack has a real place for personal, off-brand or build-in-public content, approached as the longer-form social platform it actually is. But it's not a replacement for a blog you own (which powers your SEO and AIO) or a proper email list (where you get the automations and control that genuinely grow a business). And blogging with personality? More relevant than ever.
If you want help bringing more of you into your content so it stands out to both humans and AI, my In Demand Identity Kit helps you nail your personal brand positioning, get clear on exactly who you're for, and create trust-building stories to weave through your website and blog content (it's a 2-hour, quick-win kit).
