Programmatic SEO: What, Why & How

Every business strives to streamline its SEO efforts – we've all been there. And at this point, many teams opt for programmatic SEO as a powerful approach that automates and scales your strategies. Sounds quite promising, right?

But before you dive in, it's crucial to understand that programmatic SEO is not a one-size-fits-all solution. While it offers a number of benefits, it also comes with some challenges and nuances.

In this guide, I’ll explain why programmatic SEO may be the game-changer you need and how to implement it effectively. Buckle up, and let’s get started.

What is programmatic SEO?

Programmatic SEO (also referred to as pSEO) involves using automation to create lots of unique web pages, each targeting a specific keyword. In most cases, this refers to the bulk creation of landing or product pages.

Imagine a large e-commerce website that needs thousands of product pages. Online retailers may use programmatic SEO to create optimized pages with unique descriptions, meta tags, and reviews, all based on a predefined template.

In fact, programmatic SEO is not suitable for every business. It proves particularly valuable in niches that:

In other words, you should think carefully when considering if it's right for you.

Basic principles of programmatic SEO

At its core, programmatic SEO comes down to three fundamental principles:

Let’s discuss each of them in detail.

Niche keywords

Programmatic SEO is about identifying and targeting low-competition keywords. As a rule, these specific search terms are easier to rank for and can drive targeted traffic without the intense competition.

For instance, if you run a website for a yoga studio, ranking for the keyword “yoga” can be challenging because too many websites already rank for it.

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You need to consider long-tail keywords that are less competitive, like “yoga retreats California” or any other variations that can relate to your website.

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Search intent

You should know your potential visitors before optimizing anything. What do they expect when typing a search query? Do they search just for some info or are they already planning to buy something?

There are four types of search intent: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. You can discover more about each type in our in-depth guide about search intent in SEO.

Programmatic SEO shines brighter for queries with transactional and commercial intents. In both cases, keywords indicate a user's readiness to buy, which is a perfect fit for generating targeted content.

For instance, someone searching for "buy mountain bikes under $500 near Chicago" (transactional intent) or “best mountain bikes in 2024 reviews” (commercial intent) has a clear purchase-oriented intent. Using pSEO, you can create pages optimized for these specific searches, showcasing relevant options.

In our example, Google lists online shops that have catalog pages for “Mountain bikes”:

Programmatic SEO can also be effective for informational searches, especially for long-tail keywords. Imagine someone searching for "training tips for a half marathon for beginners." Programmatic SEO can generate informative content like training schedules, dietary advice, or common beginner mistakes, all tailored to this specific informational query.

However, pSEO may struggle with navigational searches where users know exactly what website they're looking for. For example, a search for "login for Instagram" is a navigational query – a user is trying to access a specific platform, and programmatic SEO wouldn't be helpful here.

User experience

When landing pages are generated automatically, the natural flow of content and design can be easily lost. That’s why you need to pay extra attention to UX if you use programmatic SEO.

Remember that good UX isn't just about aesthetics – it means creating pages that are informative, engaging, and easy to navigate. Here are a few simple rules:

High-quality content: Automatically generated content shouldn't be robotic or repetitive so try to give it a human touch. Make sure your texts are grammatically correct and easy to read before publishing.

Meeting user needs: Your content should directly address the user's search query and provide valuable information that fulfills their intent.

Logical flow: The page template should be organized in a logical and easy-to-follow manner. It also needs visual appeal – incorporate relevant images, infographics, or videos to break up text-heavy sections. Depending on the page type, you can also incorporate engagement elements like reviews and ratings.

Tech optimization: Ensure that your pages are responsive and display well on all devices, especially mobile phones. Also, optimize the loading speed to prevent users from becoming frustrated with slow page performance.

A good example here is Indeed — a website for job search. It has many pages with the same layout, but they are well-optimized and eye-pleasing.

Traditional SEO vs. programmatic SEO: difference

In essence, both traditional and programmatic SEO strive to improve your website's visibility and drive more qualified traffic. However, their approaches differ, and understanding these differences can help you choose the right strategy for your particular case.

Traditional SEO

I bet all SEOs would agree that the traditional approach requires significant time and effort. But it’s quite universal, as traditional SEO can be applied to any page type, including blogs, landings, and service pages, among others.

Traditional SEO relies heavily on human expertise and strongly focuses on individual page optimization. You need to manually tweak each page to maintain and improve search rankings. The goal here is to prioritize quality above quantity and produce content that provides value to users, even if it means creating fewer pages.

Compared to a programmatic approach, traditional SEO carries a lower risk of penalties from search engines (if done right), as it avoids the pitfalls of automated content generation.

Programmatic SEO

Programmatic SEO is associated with an automated and faster process. It uses data-driven algorithms to handle large-scale optimization. But don’t rush to switch to pSEO right away as it has nuances.

This approach is particularly practical for websites with a large number of similar pages, such as e-commerce product pages, local business directories, product landings tailored to different locations, etc. Programmatic SEO helps you generate and update such pages based on patterns and templates.

Programmatic SEO is less personalized than traditional methods. While it allows the rapid scaling of content, it also requires careful management, as excessive automation can lead to search engine penalties.

Pros and cons of programmatic SEO

Before I guide you through the implementation steps of programmatic SEO, let's take a moment to break down its key pros and cons. This way, you'll be fully confident in what to expect.

Pros:

Cons:

Programmatic SEO strategy: implementation steps

Step 1: Explore your industry and current trends

First things first, it's crucial to understand your niche and analyze your competitors. This knowledge will ensure your programmatically generated pages don’t fall behind and resonate with current trends and topics.

Check what is trending in your industry right now. For that, use tools like Google Trends to see topics that gain popularity.

Also, monitor industry-specific forums and social media groups. Platforms like Reddit, Quora, and Facebook can help you find out what your target audience is discussing. Their questions and pain points are the opportunities for your content.

Another way to gain inspiration is to browse your competitor's websites to discover the topics they cover, the layouts they use for landing pages, and the design solutions they implement.

Step 2: Identify head terms

After reviewing your industry and competition, it's time to delve into keywords. While programmatic SEO focuses on long-tail keywords, it all starts with identifying head terms. These are broad keywords with high search volume.

The simplest way to discover head terms is to examine your own website. List the words and phrases that most accurately describe your products and services. For example, if you have an e-commerce site selling sports equipment, head terms might include "running shoes," "yoga wear," "hiking gear," etc.

Head terms allow you to create broad categories under which more specific topics with long-tail keywords can be organized. This broad coverage will be essential for targeting as many user queries as possible.

How to Do Keyword Research Learn more

Step 3: Refine head terms with modifiers

With a list of head terms in place, you can quickly refine them by adding specific modifiers that users might include in their searches. When you combine head terms and modifiers, you get long-tail keywords.

Let’s take the travel website Expedia as an example. In this case, the page uses the head term “Find Cruise Ships” with the location modifier “in Greece.”

With the help of Rank Tracker, you can get a bunch of new ideas for your website. Rank Tracker offers 20+ keyword research tools so you can conduct in-depth keyword research for your programmatic SEO campaign.

To do that, jump to the Keyword Research module and choose any method you want to try. Say, you use Autocomplete Tools. Just type any head terms, for instance, “running shoes”, and check the long-tail suggestions that Rank Tracker provides.

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For example, if your head term is "running shoes," potential modifiers could be "for marathons" or "for wide feet." Combining head terms with these modifiers will help you create a vast list of highly targeted keywords.

Step 4: Craft a page template

A page template is a foundation for your programmatic SEO campaign. You need to design a flexible page that can be easily customized to include specific content tailored to different user queries.

So, it’s time to outline the structure of your template. The layout may be similar on all programmatic pages – same placement of content blocks, images, dynamic content, CTAs, etc. Even some parts of titles and phrases may be similar but make sure that pages won’t have identical content (to avoid making Google angry about duplicates).

Upwork is a good example of a website that has same-looking landing pages optimized for various job specializations:

Tools for creating landing page templates

Here are some tools you can consider for creating landing page templates, categorized based on their approach:

Drag-and-drop builders (easy to use):

Content management systems (more customization):

What’s the Best CMS for SEO? Learn more

Coding (most flexibility):

Step 5: Automate content generation

Now that you've built an SEO-optimized page template, it's time to use the power of automation for content. The most obvious choice for quick content generation is ChatGPT but you can opt for some GhatGPT alternatives as well. It all depends on your preferences.

Once you've chosen your content generation tool, you need to configure the automation process:

Step 6: Build your pages with a content database

To effectively implement pSEO, you'll need a structured database where you store all the content needed for generating multiple pages. This database can be easily managed using tools like Google Sheets or Excel.

First, create a comprehensive spreadsheet that includes all the variables and content elements for your pages. This might include location-specific information, reviews, ratings, or any other relevant data.

Say, you’re creating programmatic pages for hotels. General info may look like this:

Next, you need to add the data to a universal template. Here’s a generic one:

Most content management systems support combining data with a template to automate the page creation process. But you can also create formulas in Google SpreadSheets (or ask ChatGPT to create one) to merge info with a template quickly.

Here’s the formula that ChatGPT offers:

All you need to do is to place the formula in a new column (let’s say column H) and enjoy. This formula will add all the variables automatically for all hotels on the list.

Step 7: Test and publish

A well-designed programmatic page should meet high UX standards. Here are the things you need to thoroughly test before your pages go live:

Mobile responsiveness: Your template must load quickly, be fully responsive, and adjust seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices. Make sure buttons, links, and other interactive elements are easily clickable on touchscreens.

Intuitive navigation: Users should be able to easily find the main sections of your site. Use a clear menu structure and implement breadcrumbs to help users understand their location within the site.

Visual consistency: Maintain consistent use of colors, fonts, and styles across all pages generated from the template. Thus, you create a cohesive brand experience.

User-centric layout: Arrange content in a logical order that aligns with the user’s journey. Also, place CTAs strategically throughout your pages to guide users toward desired actions.

Step 8: Monitor the success of your programmatic pages

And last but not least, regularly monitor how your programmatic pages perform. You can do that quickly with WebSite Auditor.

To check visits and bounce rates on your programmatic pages, set up integration with your Google Analytics account. To do this, navigate to Preferences > Google Analytics Account and enter your credentials.

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Next, go to Site Structure > Pages and switch to the Page Traffic tab. Select the pages you want to check visits for (use Ctrl + A to select all) and click Update Pages. In the pop-up window, make sure to tick Google Analytics data.

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To add the Pageviews and Page Bounce Rate columns to your table, click the Edit visible columns button and select the appropriate options. Once you've done this, you'll be able to view these metrics in the table.

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Additionally, you can check the organic traffic of your programmatic pages. For that, again select the pages you want to analyze (use Ctrl + A to select all) and click Update Pages. In the pop-up window, tick the Organic search option.

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Once the info is updated, you'll see organic traffic in the relevant column in the table.

If you see that the metrics start to decrease, make adjustments to keep your programmatic SEO strategy fresh.

Common mistakes to avoid

While programmatic SEO can be a powerful strategy, it’s essential to avoid some common pitfalls to ensure your efforts lead to success. Here are the critical mistakes to watch out for (and tips on how to sidestep them):

Thin сontent trap

It’s tempting to quickly generate a large volume of pages. But you may be too caught up by quantity and forget about content quality. If programmatic pages are filled with thin content, they won’t perform well. They are unlikely to engage users or rank high in search results. In worst cases, programmatic pages can even provoke penalties from search engines.

Solution: To check if your website has pages with thin content, you can use WebSite Auditor. Head over to Site Structure > Pages. In the table, you'll find the Word Count column, which shows the number of words on each page. Set up the Word Count filter – choose less than 300 words, as this word count is considered the brink of thin content. The tool will quickly identify pages that may need more content.

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Keyword cannibalization сhaos

Creating too many similar pages can lead to keyword cannibalization, where multiple pages compete for the same keyword. This can dilute your SEO efforts and confuse search engines about which page to rank.

Solution: Rank Tracker can help you find pages that are ranking for the same keywords. To do so, open your project and navigate to Preferences > Rank Checking Mode. Here, you need to tick Track multiple results for keyword.

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After that, go to Rank Tracking > Tracked Keywords and update rankings.

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When the information is updated, navigate to Ranking Details and review the Google Rank column. If you notice a small circle with dots next to a rank, it indicates that multiple pages are ranking for that keyword. Click on the circle to view the URLs of these pages.

Neglecting technical SEO

Focusing solely on content and keywords of programmatic pages can sometimes lead to overlooking technical SEO aspects such as site speed, mobile optimization, and proper indexing. This can put your rankings at risk.

Solution: Conduct regular technical audits using Website Auditor and/or check Google Search Console for any issues. Make sure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and technically sound to provide the best user experience and boost your search engine rankings.

Technical SEO Audit in 12 Steps Learn more

Final word

Programmatic SEO seems like a nice time saver. And it really is, but only if applied correctly. Automating SEO tasks can save time and effort, but relying too heavily on automation without human oversight is a risky path.

Have you ever created programmatic pages? Let us know about your experience in our private Facebook community.