Programmatic SEO: What Is It & How To Do It

Have you ever wondered how some websites manage to rank for thousands of keywords without a massive team of writers? That’s the power of programmatic SEO. 

Programmatic SEO isn’t a new concept, but with the rise of AI and automation, it’s becoming more popular and accessible. Instead of manually creating pages for every keyword, programmatic SEO uses automation to support the generation of hundreds—or even thousands—of pages at scale. But it’s not for everyone.

Before you dive in, make sure programmatic SEO is the right fit for your site and that you’ve got a clear strategy. Done right, it can save you time and drive real visibility.

Key Takeaways

• Programmatic SEO allows you to scale content creation by automating the generation of hundreds or thousands of pages targeting low-competition keywords.
• Compared to traditional SEO, it saves time and resources, making it ideal for large websites or businesses with expansive datasets like e-commerce or real estate platforms.
• Data quality is crucial for programmatic SEO success. You need relevant, unique data to avoid creating thin content that Google might penalize.
• Programmatic SEO isn’t for everyone—it works best for sites that can leverage structured data but may not be suitable for websites that rely on highly personalized or creative content.
• Ongoing management is essential—you’ll need to regularly review and optimize your pages to ensure they provide real value and stay in line with user intent.

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• What is Programmatic SEO?
  • Programmatic SEO vs. Traditional SEO
  • Where Programmatic SEO Works Best
• Potential Benefits of Programmatic SEO
• The Programmatic SEO Process
  • 1. Identify Your Keywords
  • 2. Create a Page Template
  • 3. Source Your Data
  • 4. Automate Page Creation
  • 5. Review and Optimize
• Limitations of Programmatic SEO
• FAQs
• Conclusion

What is Programmatic SEO?

Programmatic SEO is an approach to search engine optimization that uses automation to create large numbers of pages, each targeting specific, low-competition keywords. Unlike traditional SEO, where content is manually crafted for each keyword, programmatic SEO relies on templates and automation tools to generate hundreds—or even thousands—of pages at scale.

The concept is simple: you create a template with essential elements like images, pricing, reviews, or data points, and then automate variations of that template for each keyword. This is especially useful for businesses with a wide range of products, services, or topics.

Source: UntalkedSEO

The example above is what a template looks like on the backend—making it easy to personalize based on your programmatic identifiers. On the front end, it looks like a clear, easy-to-consume webpage for the targeted visitors. 

Take WorkbookPDF as an example. They’ve created a highly successful programmatic SEO strategy by dynamically generating hundreds of pages for language learners. Each page is customized for different languages, levels, and topics, like “Korean workbooks for grade 11” or “German workbooks for beginners.” 

This setup allows WorkbookPDF to rank better on Google for specific, long-tail keywords that match user search intent—like “/

/level/

” or “/

/topic/

” for personalized content, such as “French workbooks about wine.”

Source: Workbook PDF

What’s made programmatic SEO even more accessible today is the rise of AI and automation tools like GPT-4, Frase, and SurferSEO. Tools like GPT-4 help generate the base content, Frase assists with optimizing it for user intent, and SurferSEO provides real-time keyword data to refine your strategy. With the right data and automation setup, programmatic SEO can drive serious traffic at scale.

But it’s not for everyone. It works best for websites that can offer unique, relevant data across a large set of similar keywords. Without quality data and a clear strategy, it’s easy to create thin, low-value content, which can hurt your rankings rather than help.

Programmatic SEO vs. Traditional SEO

The key difference between programmatic SEO and traditional SEO lies in scale and execution. Traditional SEO focuses on creating high-quality, targeted content for individual keywords, often built around user research, content optimization, and manual updates. It’s a hands-on approach, designed to deeply satisfy search intent for specific queries.

On the other hand, programmatic SEO is all about scale. Instead of writing a unique article for each keyword, you create a template and then use data to auto-generate multiple pages. 

While traditional SEO might involve crafting ten highly-targeted blog posts, programmatic SEO can help you churn out hundreds or thousands of pages targeting long-tail keywords with relatively low competition.

Despite the scale, both methods rely heavily on keyword research. Without it, your efforts—whether traditional or programmatic—will miss the mark. With programmatic SEO, you need to plan carefully. Without attention to detail, it’s easy to end up with content that doesn’t provide value.

Where Programmatic SEO Works Best

Programmatic SEO works best for websites that can leverage large sets of structured data. If your site deals with location-specific information, product pricing, or other scalable data points, it’s a perfect fit. Examples include:

• Travel websites: Creating landing pages for every destination with data like weather, activities, and hotel prices.
• Real estate platforms: Pages for each zip code or neighborhood, with relevant data like property prices and school ratings.
• E-commerce: Product pages that target keywords related to various product specifications or reviews.

Source: Thomas Cook

However, it’s not always effective for websites that rely on highly creative, nuanced content, such as blogs or media sites. If your audience is looking for creative, in-depth content, a templated approach might not hit the mark.

Programmatic SEO can be a powerful tool, but it works best when you have the right data and a clear strategy in place to avoid creating low-value content. 

Potential Benefits of Programmatic SEO

One of the biggest benefits of programmatic SEO is the ability to create a massive amount of content in a fraction of the time it would take using traditional methods. Instead of manually building individual pages for each keyword, automation allows you to scale up and create hundreds or even thousands of pages with just a few clicks. This approach saves significant time and resources, especially for large websites that need to rank for a broad range of long-tail keywords.

Another advantage is its ability to help you target a wider range of search queries. You can capture organic traffic that competitors might overlook by focusing on low-competition, niche keywords. This is especially helpful for sites looking to build authority in specific verticals or businesses offering services or products in various locations.

Incorporating programmatic SEO into your overall strategy also strengthens your website’s visibility. When done right, it can support your existing SEO efforts by increasing your total number of indexed pages, providing more opportunities to rank for relevant search queries, and ultimately driving more organic traffic.

The Programmatic SEO Process

Now that you understand the potential of programmatic SEO, let’s break down a straightforward, step-by-step process to get started on your site. While it may seem complex at first, with the right tools and workflows, programmatic SEO can be manageable and incredibly effective.

1. Identify Your Keywords

The foundation of programmatic SEO is solid keyword research. Start by finding a set of similar, low-competition keywords you want to target.

Use tools like Ubersuggest or SEMrush to generate long-tail keywords that fit a consistent pattern—think of queries like “cost of living in [city]” or “best restaurants in [location].” Look for keywords with multiple variations that you can scale across pages. The goal is to find terms with enough search volume but less competition, giving you a better chance to rank.

2. Create a Page Template

Once you’ve gathered your keywords, the next step is building a page template that will be used across your site. This template should have placeholders for dynamic elements such as product prices, location-based data, or other variables that change per keyword. Keep the design simple but functional. 

Think of it as a skeleton that you’ll fill with unique data for each keyword variation. The structure remains the same, but the content shifts based on what your users are searching for.

3. Source Your Data

The success of your programmatic SEO relies heavily on the quality of the data you use. Whether it’s product specs, geographic data, or other relevant information, make sure you have a reliable data source. 

You can pull from proprietary data (unique to your company), public datasets (available for commercial use), or even scraped data (from the web, but be cautious of copyright concerns). Using high-quality, up-to-date data is critical to making your pages relevant and valuable for users.

4. Automate Page Creation

Now, this is where programmatic SEO really kicks into gear. Automation tools make it possible to generate hundreds—or even thousands—of pages at scale, without the manual effort you’d normally need. Let’s walk through how you can do this with a few tools in action.

You can start with something as simple as Google Sheets, which acts as your database for the content you want to populate. Pair it with a CMS like WordPress or Webflow to bring it all together. 

For example, with WP All Import, you can dynamically pull data from Google Sheets into your templates, populating each page with unique details like product prices, locations, or specific content elements.

Using WP All Import:

1. Install and Activate WP All Import: Install the plugin directly from your WordPress dashboard.
2. Create a New Import: Upload a CSV file or link a Google Sheet, then select the post type you want to create.

Source: Practical Programmatic

3. Write Your Page Template: Drag and drop data fields into the page template to automate page creation with variables like product names or prices.

Source: Practical Programmatic

4. Handle Images and Categories: Link images via URLs or your Media Library, and assign posts to categories based on your data.

Source: Practical Programmatic

5. Save and Start Importing: Hit “Import” and let WP All Import build all your pages automatically.

Source: Practical Programmatic

This setup takes your template, pulls in the data, and automatically generates fully-formed pages for each keyword variation. Instead of building each page manually, the system does the heavy lifting for you. With tools like these, you can easily scale your SEO efforts and target thousands of long-tail keywords without getting bogged down in the details.

Automation like this doesn’t just save time—it opens the door to ranking for a much broader set of search queries, all while keeping your content structured and relevant.

5. Review and Optimize

After publishing your pages, it’s crucial to regularly review and optimize them. While programmatic SEO can scale quickly, it also runs the risk of producing thin or repetitive content if not managed thoughtfully. To avoid this, you’ll need to track specific metrics that can help you determine whether your content is performing well or needs improvement.

Start by looking at bounce rate and average time on page. A high bounce rate or low time on page could indicate that your content isn’t engaging enough or doesn’t fully satisfy user intent. You’ll also want to monitor click-through rate (CTR) from search results—if people are seeing your page but not clicking through, it could be a sign that your title or meta description needs optimization.

Another important metric to watch is organic traffic growth. If your pages aren’t attracting the traffic you expected, it could be because they aren’t ranking well. In that case, revisit your keyword strategy or check if you need to enhance the content with better data, visuals, or insights.

Lastly, monitor conversion rates. Even if your programmatic content is driving traffic, it’s important to measure whether that traffic is converting into leads or sales. Low conversions may signal a disconnect between what users expect and what the page delivers.

This is where a human touch comes in—tweak your template, update your data, and adjust any content that isn’t hitting these performance targets. A well-balanced approach between automation and manual oversight ensures your content remains high-quality and continues to rank.

By following these steps, you can effectively scale your SEO strategy while saving time and resources. Just remember, while automation is a powerful tool, the quality of your content still needs to stand out to provide real value to your users and meet search intent.

Limitations of Programmatic SEO

Programmatic SEO can be incredibly powerful, but it comes with several limitations you need to be aware of. One of the biggest risks is the creation of thin content—pages that don’t provide much value or are too similar to one another. Google closely monitors content quality, and if your pages fail to offer meaningful information, your rankings could suffer, or worse, your pages could be de-indexed.

Another major concern is the risk of duplicate content. Since programmatic SEO relies on templates and data to generate multiple pages, there’s a chance that your content could become too repetitive. Search engines, especially Google, have strict policies against duplicate content, and they may penalize sites that don’t differentiate enough between pages. 

To avoid this, it’s crucial to ensure that each page offers unique, valuable information, even if the structure is similar. You can do this by incorporating varied data points, using unique imagery, or offering localized or product-specific insights that other pages don’t cover.

Additionally, programmatic SEO requires ongoing management. It’s not a “set it and forget it” strategy. Regularly reviewing your pages to make sure they stay relevant and provide value is key to avoiding these penalties. Incorporating technical SEO audits can also help identify potential issues before they impact your site’s performance.

Finally, while programmatic SEO is great for scaling, it’s not the best fit for every website. Sites that rely heavily on personalized, creative content may struggle with this approach, as it can come off as generic or not providing value.

FAQs

What is programmatic SEO?

Programmatic SEO is a way to scale content creation by using automation. It involves creating a template that can be used to generate hundreds or thousands of pages, each targeting a different keyword.

How does programmatic SEO work?

Programmatic SEO works by pulling data from a database into a template. This allows you to create multiple pages quickly, each one tailored to a specific keyword variation.

Is programmatic SEO suitable for every website?

No. Programmatic SEO is most effective for websites that can benefit from large-scale content production, like those with lots of product or location-specific data. For websites that require unique, custom content, a more traditional SEO approach may be better.

Conclusion

As you start exploring programmatic SEO for your own site, remember that there are no shortcuts. While automation can save you time, it’s still essential to focus on quality and make sure every page delivers real value. Keep an eye on your content marketing, optimize regularly, and have a solid SEO strategy in place before diving in.