Title: TopoSEO Importer for Substack Author: toposeo Published: October 19, 2026 Last modified: October 19, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/toposeo-importer-for-substack/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev =3755632) ![](https://ps.w.org/toposeo-importer-for-substack/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3755638) # TopoSEO Importer for Substack By [toposeo](https://profiles.wordpress.org/toposeo/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/toposeo-importer-for-substack.1.2.4.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/toposeo-importer-for-substack/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/toposeo-importer-for-substack/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/toposeo-importer-for-substack/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/toposeo-importer-for-substack/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/toposeo-importer-for-substack/) ## Description TopoSEO Importer for Substack brings your existing Substack posts into WordPress as native posts, from the official Substack export file you download from your own account. It cleans out Substack’s subscribe and share widgets, copies every photo into your Media Library (so nothing hotlinks back to Substack), and can sort each post into the right category using configurable filing rules. It is built for a one-time migration of your own history, and it is safe to run repeatedly — nothing is ever imported twice. When you publish more on Substack later, create a fresh export and run the importer again; it brings in only the new posts. #### What the free plugin does * **Imports every published post** with its photos, dates, titles and subtitles, from a Substack export .zip. * **Copies photos into your Media Library** — full-resolution copies, de-duplicated so a photo used in several posts is stored once, with the first image set as the featured image. Nothing hotlinks to Substack. * **Strips Substack widgets** — subscribe, share and other Substack-only blocks are removed so you get clean WordPress content. * **Auto-files into categories** with smart match and an ordered list of custom rules (contains / starts with / exactly equals / regular expression), a fallback category and guardrails that protect posts you have filed by hand. * **Rewrites internal links** — links between your own posts are repointed to their imported WordPress copies. * **Canonical option** — keep Substack as the canonical home (so the WordPress copy is not treated as duplicate content), or let WordPress stay self-canonical. * **Gentle, resumable imports** — gentle mode (on by default), a Stop button, a posts-per-cycle pacing control, live progress and a Status tab, so large archives work even on tight shared hosting. Posts can be imported live or staged as drafts. #### Pro A one-time [TopoSEO Pro upgrade](https://www.toposeo.com) adds a 301 redirect map for your old Substack links, AI image alt text, AI SEO meta descriptions, AI category suggestions and selective import (by keyword, series or date range). The free importer keeps working with or without it. #### What it sends and fetches The plugin downloads your post images from Substack’s image CDN while importing. By default it only retrieves images hosted on Substack’s own infrastructure (the only images a Substack export references); any image a post embeds from another site is left linked to its original source unless you turn on “External images” in Settings. It makes no other external requests and sends no data anywhere. ### External services This plugin imports the images in your Substack export by downloading them from the servers that host them, so your published posts do not hotlink back to Substack. This happens only while you are running an import. For every image referenced by your export, the plugin sends an HTTP request to fetch that image from: * **Substack’s image CDN** (`substackcdn.com`) and the Amazon S3 storage Substack keeps media in (`amazonaws.com`). Only the image URL from your export is requested— no account credentials, personal data or site data are sent. These are Substack’s own services; see Substack’s Terms of Use (https://substack.com/tos) and Privacy Policy (https://substack.com/privacy). If you enable the optional “External images” setting, the plugin will also download images your posts embedded from other websites, by requesting those image URLs directly from wherever they are hosted. This is off by default. The plugin makes no other external requests, performs no license or activation checks, and sends no data to TopoSEO or any other third party. ## Installation 1. Install and activate the plugin. 2. On Substack, go to **Settings Import/Export Export**, create a new export, and download the .zip. 3. In WordPress, go to **TopoSEO Importer for Substack Settings**, enter your Substack address, confirm you own the content, and (optionally) set up the **Category Setup tab. 4. Go to **TopoSEO Importer for Substack Import** and upload the .zip. ## FAQ ### Is this a scraper? No. It does not crawl or scrape Substack. It imports the official export .zip that you download from your own Substack account, so it only ever touches content you own. ### Will it duplicate my posts if I run it twice? No. Posts are de-duplicated by their Substack slug and images by their original URL, so the import is safe to re-run. Re-running brings in only posts that are not already on your site. ### What happens to my old Substack links? The free version gives you a canonical option: keep Substack as the canonical home so search engines are not confused by duplicate content, or let WordPress stay self-canonical. A full 301 redirect map for old Substack URLs is part of the Pro upgrade. ### Does uninstalling delete my imported posts? No. Uninstalling removes only the plugin’s own settings. Your imported posts and their photos stay in WordPress. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “TopoSEO Importer for Substack” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ toposeo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/toposeo/) [Translate “TopoSEO Importer for Substack” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/toposeo-importer-for-substack) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/toposeo-importer-for-substack/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/toposeo-importer-for-substack/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/toposeo-importer-for-substack/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/toposeo-importer-for-substack/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.2.4 * First WordPress.org release of the free importer. Imports your Substack export. zip into WordPress: posts with photos copied into the Media Library, Substack widgets stripped, rule-based category filing, internal-link rewriting, a canonical option, and gentle, resumable imports with live progress. ## Meta * Version **1.2.4** * Last updated **1 day ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.5 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.1.3** * PHP version ** 7.4 or higher ** * Tags * [import](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/import/)[importer](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/importer/) [migration](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/migration/)[newsletter](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/newsletter/) [substack](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/substack/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/toposeo-importer-for-substack/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/toposeo-importer-for-substack/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/toposeo-importer-for-substack/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ toposeo ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/toposeo/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/toposeo-importer-for-substack/)