The Sandbox Guide to Programmatic SEO
What is programmatic SEO?
Programmatic SEO is a strategy that combines dynamic templates and a data source to generate, publish, index, and rank large volumes of unique, high-quality landing pages at scale.
Like a forest that grows and captures natural resources, programmatic applications grow and capture organic traffic and brand awareness.
Here’s what we’ll cover in this guide:
Traditional SEO vs Programmatic SEO
The key difference between traditional and programmatic SEO lies in their approach to content creation:
Traditional SEO typically targets head keywords with manual content development (from copywriters), organized into topics and articles.
In contrast, programmatic SEO uses automated content development to target long-tail keywords. The content is organized by templates that target specific keyword sets (built on entities and modifiers). It is also data-driven, relying on some type of database (SQL, noSQL, or even Airtable). This is often supplemented with AI-generated content pulled into the database using APIs from models like GPT.
| Traditional SEO | Programmatic SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Targeted Keywords | Head keywords | Long tail keywords |
| Content Creator | Manual content development | Automated content development |
| Hierarchy | Topics and Articles | Keyword Sets - Entities & Modifiers |
| Content Type | Heavy on copy | Heavy on data and AI-generated copy |
| Data Source | No Data source | Database |
| Design | Blog format | Templates |
Entity sets drive programmatic
One key aspect of programmatic SEO is the use of entities. Entities are categories that have a large number of subcategories or children below.
Here are some examples of large entity sets:
nasdaq stock tickers
dog food ingredients
US cities
pharmaceutical brands
carnivorous birds
By creating programmatic content around entity data sets like these, it is possible to generate a large volume of high-quality content that is relevant to a specific topic or theme.
And for entity sets, both quality and quantity are key. This requires careful planning and research around the entities that will be used; identifying the most relevant and popular entities and ensuring that there is sufficient information available for each entity.
Data Sets for Programmatic SEO
You need data. And not just any data. You need reliable, structured, accessible data. And it has to be affordable. There may be an API that has what you need, or there might not be.
We have found some interesting API collections here:
If your desired API doesn’t exist, you may have to build it. Many programmatic SEOs build scrapers and robot jobs to collect data. If you’d like to learn more, check out this video on building a web scraper with Selenium and Python.
So, you’ve acquired a data set and you’ve populated a database. Now, the fun begins. You can start using the data to bring templates to life, generating landing pages on the web.
What does a Programmatic Build look like?
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What are programmatic SEO Templates?
A template is simply the shell of a web page. The first step in creating a template is often a wireframe. You can see some low fidelity wireframe examples here.
The template is core to the success of programmatic SEO. Like any web page, it must be designed with the user in mind, so an exceptional UX is crucial.
It must allow for easy and efficient creation of new content, and have a system in place for regularly adding new content and updating existing content.
Programmatic SEO examples
Using our programmatic SEO keyword tool, we have identified many examples of entity sets and programmatic SEO applications in the wild. Hopefully, this helps you understand what a finished programmatic SEO project looks like:
Redfin has built programmatic SEO pages that target keywords like “phoenix housing market”
2.4 Million - annual US traffic of the housing market pages
20K - indexed housing market pages
Color Hunt launched a programmatic collection of pages around color palettes.
3.5 Million - annual US traffic, across all devices
120 - pages across all color palettes
Wanderlog launched a programmatic collection of pages around road trips.
4.9 Million - annual US traffic, across all devices
50K - pages across all road trip starting and ending locations
Wise launched a programmatic collection of pages around exchange rates.
6.9 Million - annual US traffic, across all devices
13K - pages across all international currencies
Convertio launched a programmatic collection of pages around file conversion.
10.6 Million - annual US traffic, across all devices
2.7K - pages across all file conversion pairs.
Internal Linking in Programmatic SEO
Internal linking in traditional SEO can be a tedious and time-consuming process, often involving manual updates to individual pages with the appropriate anchor text to link to a target page. This method is challenging to scale and is typically considered more of an art than a science.
Programmatic SEO operates differently. By leveraging the database you built to generate landing pages, you can systematically cluster objects to create an internal linking model. For example, in a programmatic build that generates landing pages for different cities, you could use geographical data to recommend nearby cities or randomly select cities within the same state.
While a recommendation system helps identify relevant targets, it's essential to have content blocks within your template that serve as placeholders for internal links. Using the cities example, you could incorporate an "Explore Other Cities" content block with a discrete number of placeholders for recommended cities.
Redfin, for instance, leverages data points relating two housing markets to create logical internal linking opportunities within their housing market pages.
Ultimately, internal linking in programmatic SEO begins as an art, as you decide on the content elements to include in your landing page template. Once you've designed the model, you'll already have the data and infrastructure necessary to dynamically insert target links.
In programmatic builds with hierarchical structure, there are additional internal linking strategies to consider. Certain programmatic SEO builds resemble content silos with a pillar structure. In other instances it is more in line with e-commerce site structure of a product detail page (PDP) that links back up to a relevant product listing page (PLP). To link back to the parent page, you can use fields in your database to define parent and/or child objects, enabling an effective internal linking structure that points back to potential high-volume money pages.
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Indexing Programmatic SEO Pages
What's the point of creating all these pages if they lurk in the shadows, hidden from search engines? It’s like throwing a party but forgetting to send out the invites.
Unique Content is a Must
First, make sure your content is as unique as possible. With programmatic builds there will naturally be overlap between pages, but you’ll want to mitigate this. Focus on maximizing unique content above the fold. It is also important to reduce the risk of duplicate content by having unique header tags (H1, H2s, H3s) and meta data.
Consider Your Website’s Current Index Size and History
Not all sites are equipped to index large amounts of pages at once. You’ll have to weigh in your site’s trust, history and size when crafting an indexing strategy. Consider the number of pages you’re attempting to index in relation to the total number of pages on your site:
If your website is already well-established with tens of thousands of pages indexed, adding another 1,000 programmatic pages is a relatively small increase.
Conversely, if you're a new site with less authority, it's prudent to introduce these programmatic pages gradually. Start with a modest batch, say 25 pages. If about 80% of these get indexed promptly, you can confidently scale up.
Tips for Ensuring Your Programmatic Pages Get Indexed
Dedicated XML Sitemap:
It's vital to ensure your programmatic pages have an XML sitemap. We recommend maintaining a separate sitemap from the rest of your website content.
Internal Linking:
Establish strong internal linking between your programmatic pages and other areas of your website. This not only passes link equity but also introduces referral pages which can further boost the importance of your programmatic content.
Visual Sitemap:
Consider having a dedicated landing page that acts as a visual sitemap or an outline for your programmatic build. This can serve as a central hub, making it easier for search engines and users alike to navigate and understand the structure of your programmatic pages.
Manual Indexing Request:
When necessary, you can manually request search engines to index specific pages. However, there's a cap, Google allows up to 10 manual requests per day. Prioritize these for pages with the highest potential traffic or commercial value.