This is super helpful, thank you for sharing this. Like many people here I didn't know you can do this with substack. However, a quick question: following the steps you listed I still get the "unable to verify as the tag wasn't detected". I suspect that this is because the substack shows the gated "welcome" page for people new to substack, and Google refuses to crawl it. I am trying to find out how to remove this "gate" from the welcome page to my site - any tips here? Substack chat says that its impossible...
and Update - the problem fixed itself within 30 minutes. I just checked back in ready to dive into the tech documentation to troubleshoot and the verification just magically happened.
Hmm! I was able to do it on a test publication without a custom URL. The first thing I would do is double check that the GTM ID is saved correctly in your Analytics settings.
I don't usually bother submitting a sitemap. I just make sure all my pages that I want indexed are indexed. As long as long as everything is well linked internally, Google shouldn't have any issues crawling your website.
You are lucky. We have 7 newsletters, with thousands of posts (some of them almost 4,000 words long), and Google barely indexes them, because maybe Substack doesn't put a sitemap, or because Substack does some "magic" so that only some newsletters are well indexed and others are not. Maybe it's waiting for us to get some paying subscribers.
That's so frustrating! A shallower link structure can sometimes help bigger sites maximize their crawl budget. This can achieved from doing things like adding more sections to your homepage or adding navigation or footer links for category pages.
Thanks for the advice. But Substack has here other technical problems. For example, in https://cienciasocial.substack.com we have 5 sections. But the "sections" structure is not working. It only shows "Recent posts" as you can see. I tried with all the newsletters, all have the same problem. The bot has not idea how to resolve this problem.
In https://dempresa.substack.com/ we have 12 sections, and the same problem. In fact, this is the newsletters that is working bad in Substack (no search console, not control on paid posts, etc).
Interesting! I was able to verify a test publication (no custom domain) this way. You definitely don't need a sitemap to verify. The first thing I would do is double-check that the ID is correct.
You are right. I've tried it again with another newsletter without sitemap, and it does work (the thing is that I've found another way, perhaps a little faster).
Researching, I realised that we have that newsletter in which, without knowing why, many things don't work: I can't even put the payment posts properly, and Google tag manager is not working. And as there is no human support in substack, it can take a year before someone listens to me. The bad thing is that it's the one with the most posts: https://dempresa.substack.com/
It's a very useful guide Casandra! Thanks so much! I did not have problem to follow your instruction until I found that I don't have the Google Site Verification on Substack's setting. Weird!
I didn't know this was possible. Thanks
Really interesting. Ty!
This is super helpful, thank you for sharing this. Like many people here I didn't know you can do this with substack. However, a quick question: following the steps you listed I still get the "unable to verify as the tag wasn't detected". I suspect that this is because the substack shows the gated "welcome" page for people new to substack, and Google refuses to crawl it. I am trying to find out how to remove this "gate" from the welcome page to my site - any tips here? Substack chat says that its impossible...
and Update - the problem fixed itself within 30 minutes. I just checked back in ready to dive into the tech documentation to troubleshoot and the verification just magically happened.
Glad to hear it!! I think it takes Substack time to propagate the change.
So here's what I got in reply,
________________________________________________________________________________________
Verification method:
Google Tag Manager
Failure reason:
We could not find a Google Tag Manager container ID on the home page of your site.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Am I doing something wrong? Is it because I don't have a custom url?
Hmm! I was able to do it on a test publication without a custom URL. The first thing I would do is double check that the GTM ID is saved correctly in your Analytics settings.
Got it! I had to use the HTML tag method & the "meta tag" to achieve verification.
Ok great!!
Yep, it saved correctly.
I was able to install with another newsletter which yes, it has sitemap from Substack.
But after submitting the sitemap, Google console says:
Sitemap can be read, but has errors
Sitemap is HTML
1 instance
Your Sitemap appears to be an HTML page. Please use a supported sitemap format instead.
Examples
Line 2 Tag: html
I don't usually bother submitting a sitemap. I just make sure all my pages that I want indexed are indexed. As long as long as everything is well linked internally, Google shouldn't have any issues crawling your website.
You are lucky. We have 7 newsletters, with thousands of posts (some of them almost 4,000 words long), and Google barely indexes them, because maybe Substack doesn't put a sitemap, or because Substack does some "magic" so that only some newsletters are well indexed and others are not. Maybe it's waiting for us to get some paying subscribers.
Thanks a lot for your reply.
That's so frustrating! A shallower link structure can sometimes help bigger sites maximize their crawl budget. This can achieved from doing things like adding more sections to your homepage or adding navigation or footer links for category pages.
Tagging should help, but not; no indexing. And adding tags in bulk is a nightmare in Substack: no comma-separated tags.
Thanks for the advice. But Substack has here other technical problems. For example, in https://cienciasocial.substack.com we have 5 sections. But the "sections" structure is not working. It only shows "Recent posts" as you can see. I tried with all the newsletters, all have the same problem. The bot has not idea how to resolve this problem.
In https://dempresa.substack.com/ we have 12 sections, and the same problem. In fact, this is the newsletters that is working bad in Substack (no search console, not control on paid posts, etc).
Thanks. I followed the steps, using “Google Tag Manager”, but Google said:
Ownership verification failed
Verification method:
Google Tag Manager
Failure reason:
We could not find a Google Tag Manager container ID on the home page of your site.
Please fix your implementation and reverify, or use another verification method.
Are you sure is possible without a sitemap?
Interesting! I was able to verify a test publication (no custom domain) this way. You definitely don't need a sitemap to verify. The first thing I would do is double-check that the ID is correct.
Thank you, Cassandra.
You are right. I've tried it again with another newsletter without sitemap, and it does work (the thing is that I've found another way, perhaps a little faster).
Researching, I realised that we have that newsletter in which, without knowing why, many things don't work: I can't even put the payment posts properly, and Google tag manager is not working. And as there is no human support in substack, it can take a year before someone listens to me. The bad thing is that it's the one with the most posts: https://dempresa.substack.com/
So strange that this one publication would be missing features! I'm sorry you're dealing with that!
Thank a lot.
It's a very useful guide Casandra! Thanks so much! I did not have problem to follow your instruction until I found that I don't have the Google Site Verification on Substack's setting. Weird!
Welp! it turns out that field isn't available for publications without a custom domain which is rude!
I've updated the instructions to use the Google Tag Manager field instead. It's a couple more steps but still pretty straightforward!
Thanks! I can't wait to receive your next newsletter!
Thank you Casandra. Great guide. I Instantly bookmarked it. Hi👌💯
Glad to hear it!