rammatic SEO: The missing link to 1M+ sessions

SEO growth is in dire need of a rethink.

Some strategies don’t require a blog post that repeats the same information over the top Google results. Others may need to end up with an agency asking for links.

Companies must differentiate themselves in search engine optimization (SEO) as Google Ads become more expensive and organic discoveryability becomes less effective.

We have to push the boundaries and create something new online.

Programmatic SEO is a creative, thoughtful, and CSV magic that can bring in millions of customers every year.

It sounds impossible, but it is possible.

This guide will show you how to get started in programmatic SEO.

What is programmatic search engine optimization?

Programmatic SEO refers to the publishing of unique pages with high quality content at large scale by using a template or a database.

Programmatic SEO aims to produce content that is as detailed and thorough as traditional articles but which can be repeated thousands (or even millions) of times. Programmatic sites can have as few as 200 pages or as many as 4 million. It is important that each page serves a specific purpose in the search process.

Programmatic SEO can be simplified to build a database, connect it to a template and publish thousands of pages.

If this is all that you do, congratulations! You just created thousands upon thousands of spam.

Programmatically building content can be a powerful tool to grow a website or make it completely unreadable. We must think bigger, or better yet, “deeper” about SEO growth in order to be a real player in SEO.

Programmatic SEO has many benefits

Programmatic SEO unlocks traffic from all corners of the internet. No longer do you need to choose a few keywords, pay for content, and publish your post hoping it ranks for a group of terms. We can now target whole categories and win all search terms in one template.

Businesses can use programmatic SEO to:

• Scale your keywords wins
• Produce in-depth content quickly.
• Get a low engineering lift.
• This delicate method will get you “quicker” results. You can get results quickly, which means that challenges and problems escalate quickly.

Programmatic SEO has its drawbacks

Programmatic SEO has its drawbacks as with all strategies.

• Indexing can be difficult.
• Site growth can be affected by poor execution and high risk.
• Data resources are limited

You’ll lose if you try to programmatically SEO to trick Google, or to create People Also Ask (PAA), scraper websites.

Programmatic content that is rich in programmatic information enhances content production by increasing data depth and productivity.

This guide will show you how to implement a programmatic SEO structure in four steps.

Step 1: Keyword research to programmatic SEO

Instead of focusing on a few keywords and spending money for bespoke content hubs that are not relevant, programmatic SEO targets entire directories of keywords within the same entity.

These are the steps to identify your keywords.

Defining your goals and intentions

It will work in the same way as a traditional SEO keyword analysis. Determine which topical group or category will provide the most business value. It is hard to stop.

If the traffic isn’t moving the business forward, driving traffic to display a cool graph to your boss or client is pointless.

Remember that business value can be as clear as full conversions via transactional keywords, or as subtle as a session hit to introduce the brand and trigger a return visit later in research.

These resources will help you complete an in-depth opportunity analysis.

• 
  Keyword Research: The key element in SEO and content marketing
  
• 
  13 keywords to help you win in search engines
  

Identify the main topics

Begin broad. Once you have identified your target intent and goals, it is time to identify the category within which you want to rank.

This is one step below the head term. This is the “niche” or core of your website, driven by your product.

For example, the main topic “trucks” can be used as a head term. It’s not intuitive and doesn’t have strong intent to be a business-driving keyword. We want to go one step further.

“Ford F-150” is more specific, but still broad enough to be our target.

This is a brand-specific search. However, it’s perfectly fine.

Identify modifiers and terms that are related

Ford F-150 isn’t our keyword. It is the vehicle by which we will transform into a traffic machine.

This is done by identifying the questions that surround the main topic. This is where you can start building programmatic and content assets.

Your product might not be suitable for programmatic search if it is difficult to modify your main topic through repeated searches. If you are able to answer common questions about a product, you will be able to win scaled traffic.

• 
  It’s important to do so promptly
  
  : Questions that have a particular impact within a given timeframe.
  • Examples: 2022 F-150 stock prices at November 18, 2022, inflation rates last Year, scores of sporting events from the last week.
• 
  Comparable
  
  : Questions that compare to other people create value
  • Examples: F-150 Vs Chevy Silverado; housing costs 2008; book reviews vs book types; political affiliations by state; hobbies and interests according to zodiac signs.
• 
  Hyper-specific
  
  Questions that have limited value for a specific audience and are not relevant to broader audiences. Also called the hyper-long-tail.
  • Examples: F-150 available for sale in Marietta Georgia, 1997 crime rates Philadelphia PA, David Eckstein’s World Series batting average 2006, answering public queries (i.e. Reddit or UGC).

Take a look at our F-150 illustration.

• F-150 vs Chevy Silverado
• F-150 under $50k
• F-150 in Marietta, Georgia

If you used a traditional SEO system you would see three pages. You could possibly see 100 pages if you do the math for states and other cars. There are also weeks to scale handwriting on all of these pages.

We have at most three templates and possibly thousands of pages for programmatic approaches.

You should look for signs that the keyword could be altered. We have three modifiers in the example: “vs”, “under”, and “in”.

You can quickly find keyword gold in your topic by going back to your keyword aggregator, and typing in the [topic+ modifier] (i.e. “F150 vs”, “F150 under”, or “F150 in”)

This will give you an even better idea of the potential size of each directory.

You can also identify other topics that could be modified using the same keywords. For example, F-150 could be replaced by Chevy Silverado or Ram 1500. Additionally, targeting “Trucks”, with additional modifiers, might be possible to create a strong website.

This is how your keyword research should look:

The “parameters” column adds additional detail to your product. This can be built as far as you need. You’ll get more pages if you have more entities and modifiers.

Target long-tail search

A repeatable, long-tail keyword is the sweet spot.

The example above shows that we made an ecommerce site, which is very obvious. However, programmatic SEO is best for long-tail keywords with informational intent.

• Example Weather in Philadelphia, PA today
• pSEO Approach: Weather in the location and date

This might seem impossible, but it is possible to drive traffic.

Targeting specific ZIP codes or low-search volume areas can help a site with a decent profile win an estimated 3,000,000 sessions per month. *Estimated using traditional keyword research tools.

Google is taking in more of their own traffic, it’s obvious. Keywords with multiple intents or hyper-specific keywords often pull directly to the SERP , without the need for a click.

You must determine the value of each keyword group as a growth strategist and business owner.

Does a featured snippet help with brand introductions, even if it does not result in clicks?

If so, you should pursue it. If you don’t, search for keywords that are more focused on action and research.

A casual blogger may not find the weather strategy useful.

If your product is a weather application, however, you can programmatically win thousands (or even millions) of keywords that are highly relevant to your target audience and increase app downloads.

Step 2: Creating the content template

The most important aspect of a build is the programmatic template.

This is where SEO’s science and art collide. By stacking data points, you can create one cohesive piece of content that addresses the user’s programmatic intent.

The main difference between programmatic SEO and traditional SEO is that you build templates, not final web pages.

This means that all your custom updates, SEOs included, must be performed at scale, and yes, via engineering tickets.

Three goals should be met by a page template:

Goal 1: Create value in places where traditional content pipelines cannot.

Sometimes content is more valuable than trying to fit it in a blog post.

Programmatically comparing pain points is a wonderful use case for programmatic approaches.

G2 seamlessly does this by comparing prices and reviews of related products on a category page. This adds value to the page that handwritten text cannot.

Goal 2: Dig a mile into the query but establish boundaries

When creating your template, consider your audience and Google Search Results (SERPs).

Set limits. Ask yourself when you will stop creating geo-based content.

Is your offering subject to change? By county By zip code?

Gateway pages are pages that allow you to build thousands of pages from the same content. These pages are easy to remove by Google and very unhelpful for visitors.

A template’s goal is to go deep into a topic and produce scale. It’s not the other way around.

Goal 3: Provide access to previously unobtainable information

Programmmatic content can provide access to previously unavailable data because it is designed for humans and powered by a database. It can be used as a storytelling medium.

Today’s election data is so precise that it can be visualized down to the individual counties. This is new data?

No, it’s not. However, by visualizing a huge, overwhelming database in an easily digestible medium, we have added value to the conversation.

A great template will cover most, if no more, of your needs.

Google will quickly remove low-quality templates that check only one box from its index.

Step 3: Connect to a Database

Any source of information that is used to create content can be considered a database.

You can export CSV from government data sources or create complex data warehouses by updating the second.

It is important to build a database that meets your template’s goals.

Don’t be afraid of the word database. To find the right data, you don’t have to be a data scientist.

It’s crucial to be in touch with your audience and possibly have some Excel skills. If you don’t have the skills to use Excel or Python, you can always outsource.

Niche Site Metrics creator Ian Nuttall created a repository of publicly accessible data.

It doesn’t have to be open-source data.

• Listen to your customers.
• Create a repository for reviews.
• Questions about group support tickets by topic
• Keep track of industry prices by time and geography

Your database should be built around the transformation of your brand or product into a unique resource.

Step 4: Publish your article and have it indexed

Indexing is the first step to driving traffic using programmatic SEO. Everything happens at scale.

Do not be alarmed if your programmatic SEO best practices are not being followed and your indexing falls below 30%

Programmmatic pages will be similar to one another, so most pages will be indexed Discovered (currently not indexed) or Crawled (currently not indexed).

You can publish more content at one time, which means more pages are discovered, crawled and not indexed.

Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Take a look at the templates published and ask yourself if you are adding something to the SERP.

If so, continue with these steps

Improve your internal link structure

Internal links are 10x more valuable than traditional editorial pages.

If you are creating hundreds of pages, thousands or even millions from one directory, you will need context to connect each page.

Link silos can be created from Directory > Leaf pages. Google and the visitor will not consider hardcoding 20 identical links to every page. This renders it useless.

As you would with traditional SEO, take the time to discuss contextual linking. Also, work closely with your engineer to determine the logic for each page.

You’ll end up with thousands of pages that aren’t linked to internally and increase the number dead ends on your website. These pages will be viewed almost exclusively as non-influential and may not be crawled.

A sitemap structure should be created

As important as strong internal linking is programmatic SEO sitemaps, so are programmatic SEO sitemaps. A robots.txt sitemap can contain up to 50k URLs. You will need many sitemaps and indexes for larger sites.

Your robots.txt file should be structured in the same way as your site structure. Each directory should have a sitemap. This will allow Google to index each category easier by categorizing sitemaps according to subject, rather than publishing dates.

Once you’ve set it up, force crawl every sitemap twice or until Google has returned multiple times to the page.

Create HTML sitemaps

These are not your HTML sitemaps for 2009. These are not your HTML sitemaps from 2009.

You won’t have the ability to link to every leaf page on a site with millions, but you can target Category >Subcategory links.

This allows your directories function as link hubs, and creates an easy flow between Homepage > Category > Subcategory which enhances your internal link structure.

Here’s a recap of the repeatable steps involved in implementing programmatic SEO structures.

• Identify repeatable search opportunities.
• Create a variety of content templates.
• Connect and build a strong database.
• Incorporate internal links to templates
• Create robots.txt sitemap structure.
• Publish.
• Optimize, then repeat.

Search Engine land – The first post Programmmatic SEO: Your missing connection to 1M+ sessions appeared on Search Engine Earth .