Ever felt jealous watching your competitors attract millions in traffic and show up on a diverse range of keywords? That too, without any large-scale manual content strategy execution?
All this is possible due to programmatic SEO.
Today, building a foolproof and scalable SEO strategy is a manual, time-consuming, and complicated process. Therefore, having an automated strategy becomes a necessity for marketers and brands.
In this blog, I’ve comprehensively covered its meaning, examples, how-to process, challenges, tools, etc.
Even if you’re a non-coder, you can get started after reading our blog. Let’s begin.
What is Programmatic SEO?
Programmatic SEO is a process through which automation is leveraged to create hundreds of pages that target low-competition keywords.
Contrary to the tiring manual process of researching each keyword, preparing the outline, and writing the content piece, programmatic SEO involves the usage of pre-ready templates and automation tools to generate thousands of pages at once.
For brands involved in travel, e-commerce, e-sports, etc., programmatic SEO can help generate decent traffic through multiple comparisons or informative pages.
Difference between Traditional SEO & Programmatic SEO
The key difference between traditional and programmatic SEO is how they approach content creation.
On one hand, where traditional SEO focuses more on producing properly researched, high-quality content and ensuring it aligns with the user intent, programmatic SEO is driven more through the automation angle.
Here, marketers deploy templates and data to generate hundreds of pieces simultaneously.
In simple words, traditional SEO involves manually producing and publishing 10-15 intent-based pages. In contrast, programmatic SEO involves targeting long-tail keywords and building a massive library of pages in one shot.
Despite being different, there’s one element that stands in common in both approaches – Keyword Research.
Because whether you’re optimizing a handful of pages or trying to generate hundreds or thousands, getting your keywords and the search intent right will determine your content strategy’s overall success.
Limitations of Programmatic SEO & How to Fix them
While effectively executing programmatic SEO may yield excellent results, certain elements can raise problems in failing to generate ROI from SEO.
1. Low-quality Content
Generating content at a massive scale through templates might compromise quality over quantity.
Also since Google’s E-E-A-T framework prioritizes producing people-first content for the audience, you are unlikely to witness any page rankings or traffic if your content fails to address user intent.
Apart from quality, content generation at large may also result in publishing pages with similar content, which can lead to keyword cannibalization.
How to fix it:
- Offer comprehensive and in-depth content in your blogs or articles
- Integrate statistics and real-time data to boost relevancy and authority
2. Keyword Cannibalization
This usually happens when more than 1 or multiple pages at once on your website begin targeting one keyword. As a result, these pages end up clashing against and eating into each other’s page impressions.
When this happens, your website fails to send clear signals to Google or any other search engine crawler about that particular page’s primary identity.
This leads to low visibility and decreased ranking opportunities while also affecting the rankings of other pages.
How to fix it:
- Conduct a keyword overlapping sitewide audit
- Review existing keyword targeting and identify search intent
Merge, redirect, or kill respective pages that may end up creating this issue
3. Content Duplicacy
It is imperative that while generating content in bulk through automation tools, it is bound to end up being duplicated in one or the other manner.
Doing so can confuse search engines and increase the chances of plagiarized content being present on your website.
Plus, it can lead to lower click-through rates.
How to fix it:
- Prepare dynamic templates instead of static ones to pull unique data every time.
- Implement proper canonical tags to indicate sources.
How to do Programmatic SEO
Before beginning with programmatic content creation, it’s important to understand the dynamics of planning and executing such a strategy.
Because if you’re planning to climb up the SERP and trick Google into believing you’ve content ready to answer every single query, you’re likely to lose the race.
Here’s a 5-step no-code procedure for implementing programmatic SEO at scale:
1. Research high-intent keywords
Finding long-tail keywords for programmatic SEO is the first step toward execution.
The first step is to identify a seed keyword. Once done, jump to any advanced keyword research and SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest to find hundreds or thousands of similar variations.
How to identify High-Impact Keywords for Programmatic SEO:
For this, we will consider using Ahrefs here. Navigate to the Keyword Explorer feature and enter your seed keyword. Then, click on the ‘Matching Terms’ option and expand the list of all possible keywords and their similar filters.
Let’s consider the keyword ‘temperature in New York’ as our primary keyword.
You will find multiple keyword variations ‘by terms’ on the left side. These sub-options by terms also contain hundreds of short and long-tail variations that could help create sub-cluster pages.
This list of 1807 keywords is enough to implement programmatic SEO at a large scale because the content for ‘temperature in new york’ will sound similar to ‘temperature in Buffalo new york’ without minor changes to the fundamentals.
How to target long-tail keywords:
To find long-tail keywords, explore the multiple filters that are available with Ahrefs.
Filter by:
- Phrase length [keep it to 4 or 5]
- Keyword difficulty [keep it between 0 to 30]
- Volume [choose between 0 to 150], and DR.
After setting the parameters, Ahrefs will provide you with a list of top long-tail terms that you can leverage to rank your website. You can even explore question-based terms like “how to”, “why is”, etc.
How to do keyword clustering for programmatic SEO:
After you’re done finding keywords, export data in a CSV file for further keyword analysis.
Now, perform keyword grouping by identifying common modifier patterns between them such as “best, top, how to, near me”, etc.
So if you’re a SaaS brand, you can perform keyword clustering for programmatic SEO by bifurcating search intent into 3 categories:
- Comparison: Best CRM for startups [A vs B vs C] or [A vs C]
- Feature-specific: CRM for AI analytics, CRM for cold outreach, etc.
- Industry-focused: best CRM for SMBs, best CRM for sales reps, etc.
To save time manually segregating keywords, you can even use a keyword clustering tool like Ahrefs Parent Topic. Or, you can process this via GPT through custom scripts for seamless automation.
2. Validate SERP and Search Intent
Before you begin the programmatic SEO process, check whether your seed keyword and its related variations exactly match the search intent your website is trying to fulfill.
If you Google ‘temperature in New York,’ you will find multiple websites, including core weather domains and news sites, discussing the topic.
The screenshot below shows forecasted weather for different periods of the day. This validates our keyword’s intent and hints at other search phrases that users could possibly use to get the same result.
For instance: ‘tomorrow afternoon temperature in new york’ or ‘tomorrow evening weather forecast for new york’.
3. Source relevant data
Next, it’s time to find out and pull relevant data from various sources.
While researching, you would generally come across 4 data types that could be leveraged to form a centralized database for automation during programmatic SEO.
Here are the 3 types:
- Primary Data – data that is fundamentally available and unique to you, your company, or your product. This is the data that isn’t published anywhere on the web.
- Public Data – publicly available data for citation, information, or any type of commercial usage. This could be public domains, institutional platforms, educational sites, statistical sites, etc.
- Scraped Data – data that automation-based scraping tools or LLM models extract from websites across the web.
4. Build Page Templates & Automate Creation
Template creation is yet another vital step. Consider your template as a blueprint of what your page will look like.
While designing the template, ensure proper headings and columns are created to offer clear navigation to visitors.
Plus, you also need to check placeholders like name, place, location, prices, etc. Since they are dynamic and will change with every page published, it’s necessary to demonstrate them functionally to avoid a bad user experience.
If you plan to do programmatic SEO for WordPress, you can use the WP All Import plugin.
For that, simply create a database [I’d suggest G-Sheets] so that you can pair it with WordPress & Webflow simultaneously to begin populating pages with concerned data.
While uploading data, break it down into multiple columns and categories for better readability and automation by tools.
After installing the plugin from your WordPress dashboard, click on New Import:
Next, upload your file and select the type of post you want to produce. Once done, it’s time to prepare the page template:
Now, drag and drop the required data fields and begin including your programmatic SEO variables in the title and content placeholders.
One important thing here to note is you cannot dynamically change content in real-time as WordPress’s editor won’t allow you.
If required, you will have to navigate to your database back and make the required changes so that correct data is pulled into your templates.
Image handling and assigning correct categories & tags is yet another critical element in building SEO site.
Access your Media library on your WordPress site and upload images through their file names.
Based on the items showcased on the page, allocate categories for smoother user navigation and crawlability for search engines.
5. Review data and Save the Template
Once you’re done setting up this process, the plugin pulls data from your database and begins generating new pages based on multiple long-tail keywords alongside their respective variations.
This automated approach allows you greater flexibility and opportunity to target hundreds of low-competition but intent-satisfying keywords without putting in manual research.
6. Publish content
Finally, this is your last step in the how to do programmatic SEO process. But before you hit the publish button, run a technical check on the content quality, SEO elements, images, infographics, etc.
Now why I say this is because while doing SEO automation at scale, there are chances you might end up generating thin or irrelevant content that fails to satisfy user intent.
If that happens, your entire effort will lead to nothing but a waste of time and effort.
7. Measuring & Optimizing Performance
After publishing, review your content’s performance by checking organic traffic, CTR, and bounce rate.
For instance – A high bounce rate would indicate low content quality and poor user experience.
How to Track Programmatic SEO Success with Google Tools:
Track your site’s SEO performance by analyzing metrics provided by Google Search Console and Analytics.
Check your site’s total impressions versus clicks using the central dashboard. Next, see the top-ranking keywords and the queries they are generating for respective pages.
Run a keyword ranking analysis check and check whether the targeted pages are generating the most impressions or not.
Examples of Programmatic SEO
1. Zapier – Automation & Integration Pages
Through programmatic SEO page generation, Zapier produces hundreds of automation workflow landing pages such as “How to connect Slack with Sheets”, “Best Gmail automation workflows”, etc.
Now, it builds these pages using a structured template that automatically pulls data through integrations, use cases, etc., from their respective APIs and databases.
Why it works for Zapier?
- For tools like Zapier, searches like Tool [X] integration with Tool [Y] often surface in thousands. Zapier dominates these long-tail keywords on the SERP and wins traffic.
- Comparison and informative pages filled with high-quality content justify the searcher’s intent and provide direct answers.
2. Nomad List
Nomad List pulls and consolidates dynamic content in the form of real-time data from multiple sources to generate lengthy yet detailed city-specific pages.
So if you visit their website, you will find new user-generated content, local trends, tourist spots, etc., automatically updated.
Why it works for Nomad List?
- Real-time updated content ensures accessibility to fresh data, thus signaling Google as a website with an active source.
- The website’s layout is neatly structured and largely caters to multiple search intents which ensures wider discoverability & visibility on the SERP.
3. TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor’s programmatic SEO process is more localized and inclined toward businesses operating in a specific geographical area.
It pulls data and generates millions of pages citing necessary business information such as names, locations, reviews, working hours, etc.
For queries like “best Mexican restaurants in Rome” or “best Korean cuisine restaurants near me”, localized content pages are automatically created.
Why it works for TripAdvisor?
- The website is highly inclusive in terms of keyword coverage and high-intent search terms, making it easy to rank.
- Through strategic internal linking to related pages and businesses, it improves crawlability and authority distribution.
Best Tools for Programmatic SEO
Now that you’re familiar with how it works, check out a few SEO automation software that will help you scale your SEO efforts drastically:
1. Webflow / WordPress
- Best for: Producing & managing thousands of automation pages without getting involved in heavy development activities.
- Webflow and WordPress combo offers you excellent flexibility in dynamic & custom CMS collections, templates, and API integrations for large-scale programmatic SEO.
- More Alternatives: Framer, Wix, and Strapi.
2. Airtable / Google Sheets + Scripts [for Database]
- Best for: Storing, sorting, and structuring massive datasets pulled from sources before publishing them.
- This combo ensures you have an organized database before you push it to your website through APIs.
3. Sheet2Site / Softr
- Best for: Robust launching and implementation of SEO pages without the need to code.
. - If you run a directory website or a listing platform, you can smoothly convert your Google Sheets, XLS file, or Airtable into fully functional web pages.
4. Browse AI / Scrapy (For Web Scraping)
- Best for: Making data extraction run on auto-pilot to improve your SEO automation campaign efficiency
- Imagine you own a property listing website. You can first scrape real estate data from multiple sources, enrich it with third-party data [locality, nearest station, schools, etc.], and finally auto-generate SEO-friendly pages from it.
More Alternatives: Octoparse and Apify.
Conclusion
SEO automation will indeed save you tons of time as compared to manual research and execution.
However, it’s important to note that while implementing programmatic SEO, keeping an eye on content quality, structure, and scalability is key.
Ensuring every page delivers value is what will make your website stand out, generate traffic, and strengthen SERP authority.
Frequently Asked Questions [FAQS]
Q1: What is programmatic SEO?
Ans: Programmatic SEO is the process through thousands of pages on thousands of keywords created at scale through automation.
Without manual coding, web designing, or keyword research, brands can target mass keywords in one shot through automated processes.
Q2: How does programmatic SEO work?
Ans: Programmatic SEO follows a comprehensive process beginning from bulk keyword research, content strategy creation, SEO automation through template creation, webpage integration through APIs, publishing content, etc.
Q3: How to create a content strategy for programmatic SEO?
Ans: Steps to create a successful content strategy:
- Begin with keyword clustering followed by grouping long-tail, high-intent driven keywords by topics.
- Identify patterns in search queries, prepare headings, and structure content accordingly.
- Automate template creation. Ensure each template/page adds value & uniqueness using content blocks, FAQs, internal links, and schema markups.
- Offer decent UX, scalability, and crawlability to make sure Google indexes the right pages.
Q4: What are the best programmatic SEO tools?
Ans:
- For keyword research & clustering: Semrush, LowFruits, Keyword Planner & Ahrefs.
- For website crawling & indexing: Screaming Frog and Google Search Console.
- For technical SEO analysis: PageSpeed Insights, GTMetrix, GSC.
- For AI-content generation: GPT, Claude, and Perplexity [research]
- For building programmatic websites: WordPress, Webflow, etc.
