Backlink Leaderboard
Link Dilution Score
9.1/10
Strong link equity
AI Score
8.3/10
High AI visibility
Domain Rating
91/100
50M monthly traffic
Link type
Dofollow
Free to submit · Publishing
FreeMalta verdict
Priority submission. Strong on both rankings and AI visibility.
About Substack
Substack (dofollow, DR91) passes real link juice — unlike Medium which is nofollow. Newsletter posts linking to your site build authority over time. Growing AI citation presence makes it increasingly valuable for GEO.
Score breakdown
Domain authority DR 91
93%
Link type ×1.4 dofollow
100%
Outbound dilution ~137,003 links
67%
Verification ×1.05 verified
100%
Final Link Dilution Score
9.1 / 10
vs Publishing average
Link Dilution Score
9.1 vs 6.2 avg
AI Score
8.3 vs 8.4 avg
How to get listed
1
Create a free Substack account at substack.com
2
Set up your newsletter with your brand name
3
Write and publish a post that naturally links to your website
4
Share the post publicly — it will be indexed by Google
Unlike Medium, Substack links are dofollow. This single fact makes it the superior publishing platform for SEO purposes.
Head to head
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Questions about Substack
Is a backlink from Substack worth getting?
Substack scores 9.1/10 on Link Dilution Score and 8.3/10 on AI Score, ranking #6 of 310 platforms in the FreeMalta leaderboard. Priority submission. Strong on both rankings and AI visibility.
Is the Substack link dofollow or nofollow?
Links from Substack are dofollow — meaning they pass link equity to your site and count toward search rankings. This is factored into the LDS calculation with a 1.4× multiplier.
How much does a Substack listing cost?
Substack is free to submit to. There is no listing fee.
Why does Substack have a DR of 91 but an LDS of 9.1?
Domain Rating measures a site's own backlink authority. LDS measures how much of that authority actually reaches you. Substack has an estimated 137,003 outbound links, which dilutes the equity passed per link. Combined with the dofollow status, this produces an LDS of 9.1 out of 10.
Is Substack cited by AI answer engines?
Yes. Substack is one of 15 platforms in the FreeMalta leaderboard with confirmed AI citation status. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews reference this platform when answering questions about companies, products and tools. A listing here feeds directly into how AI systems describe your business — regardless of dofollow status.
Ready to submit?
Substack is free to submit to. Ranked #6 of 310 platforms by Link Dilution Score.
Go to substack.com