Programmatic SEO: What is It and How to Do It?

One such SEO tactic that has gained significant traction is “Programmatic SEO.” As traditional SEO techniques focus on optimizing individual pages for ranking, programmatic SEO takes a broader approach. In this blog, we will explore what programmatic SEO is, its benefits, real-life examples, how to create programmatic SEO pages, the challenges it presents, and how we can help implement this strategy effectively.

Programmatic SEO is a tool based web page creation strategy to generate many landing web pages for search engines. Through the process, you can generate a bulk amount of web pages, keeping the common structure of your business site. 

How Does Programmatic SEO Work​?

Unlike traditional SEO services, programmatic SEO allows you to automate creating and optimizing content at scale. It leverages algorithms, templates, and the analysis of large datasets to improve rankings across various long-tail and low-competition keywords.

The Purpose of Programmatic SEO

The primary focus of programmatic SEO is to create content on a massive scale while ensuring that each page is optimized for search engines in an efficient and automated manner. It relies heavily on data-driven insights, ensuring content is created based on user search behavior and search intent.

UpGrowth once reported on programmatic SEO that 90M+ monthly organic traffic could come from programmatic SEO, if it is done perfectly. There are benefits like scalability, efficiency, cost saving, and visibility that keep the organic traffic intact.

The overall programmatic SEO benefits are—

• Scalability: Programmatic SEO allows businesses to scale their content production effortlessly. Instead of optimizing individual pages one by one, you can quickly create thousands of optimized pages, which is invaluable for large websites and e-commerce stores.
• Efficiency: When you are automating the content creation process, you can focus on higher-level tasks like strategy. It is beneficial because it leaves the repetitive aspects to the programmatic approach.
• Cost-Effective: Although there is an initial investment in tools and technology, programmatic SEO reduces the need for manual labor. With AI-powered tools, you can now cut down long-term costs for content keyword-based content creation.
• Increased Visibility: With programmatic SEO, you can target a wide variety of long-tail keywords, giving your website more chances to rank across different search queries and attracting a broader audience.
• Data-Driven: The approach is powered by data. So you can be sure of content creation aligned with what users are actively searching for, leading to better relevance and engagement.

There is no limitation to use programmatic SEO. But few industries can leverage is a bit better than other industries. For example—e-commerce websites, real estate, and travel websites successfully rely on these tactics to have information about new products, space, or areas.

1. E-commerce Websites

Large E-commerce platforms like Amazon utilize programmatic SEO to optimize thousands of product pages. Each product page is tailored with specific keywords based on search trends and user intent. But it creates organic rankings across a wide range of products.

Even one of the popular marketing experts, Jeff, shared an hour-long programmatic SEO explanation guide on YouTube just on this topic. It is simple. You can check this for references.

2. Real Estate Websites

Real estate platforms use programmatic SEO to create location-specific landing pages (e.g., “2-bedroom apartments in Manhattan”). They have templates for this. This action lets them target multiple cities, neighborhoods, or property types at scale.

3. Travel Websites

Travel agencies and booking websites create destination-specific pages for thousands of locations, each optimized for relevant keywords like "cheap flights to Paris" or "best hotels in Tokyo." Programmatic SEO helps these sites target many search terms with minimal manual input.

At VISER X, we have done programmatic SEO multiple times for both our works and our clients. So, if you are looking for a programmatic SEO case study, you can contact us and get in touch!

• Step 1 - Keyword Research: The first step is to conduct comprehensive keyword research to identify relevant long-tail, low-competition, and location-based keywords your audience is searching for.
• Step 2 - Template Creation: Create page templates that you can dynamically fill with data. The page could include product descriptions, location details, or service offerings. The templates should allow for automation and scalability while ensuring the content remains unique and relevant.
• Step 3 - Data Integration:  At this step, you have to integrate data sources that automatically populate the templates with the correct information. You can include APIs for product details, real-time data, or user-generated content.
• Step 4 - Automated Content Generation: Once the templates and data sources are in place, use automated tools to generate content at scale. This could involve natural language generation (NLG) tools or other programmatic content creation methods that adhere to SEO best practices.
• Step 5 - On-Page Optimization: Ensure that each page is optimized for SEO with correct meta tags, headers, internal linking, and keyword placement. Tools like content management systems (CMS) or SEO plugins can help automate some of this.

• Step 6 - Monitoring and Optimization: Continuously monitor the performance of your programmatic pages. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to analyze traffic, engagement, and rankings. Based on this data, optimize your strategy further to enhance performance.

If there is no landing page optimization mistake detected, search engines will not differentiate the page from the handedly created page. Well, now that you are done with the process, let’s head to the programmatic SEO challenges you may have to face during campaigns.

Programmatic SEO faces challenges like maintaining content quality, as automated content can feel robotic, or sometimes there is the probability of AI content penalization. 

But if you avoid AI and duplicate content is crucial, as large-scale content generation risks thin or repetitive pages, leading to SEO penalties. You can follow how SEO magic debunked the programmatic SEO myths.

After that, technical complexity is another hurdle, requiring three things—

• Expertise in automation
• Data integration
• Proper implementation. 

Additionally, search engine algorithms constantly evolve, making it essential to adhere to SEO best practices to prevent ranking penalties. Balancing automation with quality, uniqueness, and compliance is key to successfully leveraging programmatic SEO while avoiding common pitfalls.

To successfully implement a programmatic SEO strategy, partnering with an experienced agency or platform like VISER X can be immensely beneficial. The digital marketing team in VISER X specializes in all types of SEO through advanced strategies, including programmatic SEO. 

We provide tools and tactics that make the entire programmatic SEO process easier, including:

• Automated content creation
• Data integration
• Ongoing optimization

What is the difference between programmatic SEO and regular SEO?

Programmatic SEO automates large-scale content creation using templates and data. On the other hand, regular SEO involves manually optimizing individual pages for search engines through keyword research, content creation, and on-page optimizations. 

Are Google ads considered programmatic?

Google Ads is not fully considered programmatic advertising. The Google Display Network (GDN) is a subset of available ad inventory. GDN operates as a single ad exchange, but programmatic advertising involves 20+ ad exchanges across multiple platforms.

What is the best programmatic SEO strategy?

The best programmatic SEO strategy should contain four parts of work— keyword research, scalable templates, data integration, and automation. The pages will bring user engagement if you continuously monitor performance and update content.