When I first launched my own blog, I produced over 100 posts in two years without earning enough traffic (or cash) to justify the commitment. I finally understood that this method was faulty and that, in order to scale, I needed to investigate programmatic SEO. I was able to complete the task using no-code tools.
In this article, I’ll delve headfirst into the world of programmatic SEO and teach you how to get started without any coding skills.
What exactly is programmatic SEO?
Programmatic SEO Optimization is a method of creating a large number of SEO-optimized web pages at once by utilizing current data and pre-programmed principles. The goal is to assist a website drive more traffic and income by making relevant (and typically bottom-of-the-funnel) pages easily available to potential customers—but at scale.
And scale is at the heart of programmatic SEO.
The challenges of programmatic SEO
If programmatic SEO were a universal fix, everyone would be using it. Here are some considerations to make if you decide to use it as a tactic.
Not every business is a good fit for programmatic SEO. If your business doesn’t lend itself to providing this kind of information, your effort will be lost. The content on the page must be pertinent and helpful.
A lot of technical and content debt may be passed down to you. You have to maintain more pages the more there are. The developer must always ensure that the content on the page is current. This also applies to the content side of things.
The world is changing because of generative AI. In light of the ambiguity around generative AI and how it will impact SEO, it’s feasible that programmatic SEO could lose value over time.
Until you give it a try, you won’t know if it will work. I began by linking up with other blogs that already had pages that were comparable to the ones I had in mind when creating a programmatic SEO approach for one of my firms. I gained a greater understanding of how effectively they converted, which dramatically reduced my risk and gave me enough information to deal with.
How to build pages for programmatic SEO
While there isn’t a single, effective strategy for programmatic SEO, I’ll walk you through the one I used because it’s straightforward to follow and doesn’t involve writing any code.
Step 1: Keyword research for programmatic SEO
Keyword research is the cornerstone of programmatic SEO. To determine whether there is adequate search volume for keywords that are relevant and profitable, you’ll need to identify the head term and any modifiers. Though it would be wonderful, you don’t necessarily need to choose keywords that receive thousands of searches each month. As these are likely to be less competitive, try to locate thousands of keywords with some search volume.
Step 2: Building the content template
You need to know how the page will look in order to know what material you need before you can start creating the content database. Your page should be comprehensive, accurate, and helpful in order to fulfill the user’s aim. You run the risk of Google no-indexing these pages if you omit this step.
I personally make wireframes of the pages’ layouts using Canva Whiteboard, including the precise pieces of content that must be included. However, you can choose whichever wireframe or design tool suits your needs the best.
Step 3: Identify and collect your data
Every site will have a different version of this step.
While some websites may not contain dynamic material, others—like investing websites—may require daily content updates. Make sure you have done your homework to guarantee you have something meaningful and original because you need to be careful not to provide thin material.
There are numerous techniques for gathering data, each with differing levels of sophistication. The primary techniques involve manual data entry, scraping websites for private or difficult-to-access information, and curation of user-generated content.
Step 4: Build the database with content and labels
Programmatic SEO may be carried out in a variety of ways and with a variety of technologies, but I’ve found Airtable to be the simplest solution, particularly considering the product is created for customers with little to no database or coding experience.
The metadata, which includes information like the page title, URL, and description, should also be included. This should be simple because you’ve already constructed the page template in Step 2; all you have to do is create a field for each item of material on the page. But simplicity doesn’t always equate to speed; because there are hundreds of rows to fill up, it will take some time.
Step 5: Create the CMS collection and page template
In my case, Webflow hosts the webpage to which I’m posting. The associated fields for each item of material you wish to present on the page will be added to a specific CMS collection once you have an account. To ensure that every field is filled out, be sure to refer to your Airtable database.
Step 6: Connect the database to the website
The challenging task has already been completed at this time. Right now, I’m using Whalesynch, a highly specialized SaaS application that provides thorough two-way connections between Webflow, Airtable, and Postgres. It is a crucial tool for creating programmatic SEO web pages without coding.
Step 7: Check the website and make any necessary updates.
Once everything is configured, make careful to check that the site functions properly on various browsers and mobile devices. To offer your site the best chance of ranking, make sure everything—from the page content to the metadata—is formatted properly.
Conclusion
Programmatic SEO service offers a scalable method for generating traffic and sales by building SEO-optimized web pages based on pre-programmed rules and up-to-date information. While it’s a potent strategy, not every organization can benefit from it, and there are difficulties like technological and content maintenance. But even without coding knowledge, you can be successful with the right approach.
The construction of a content database, data collection, developing page templates, and website integration are important aspects in this process. Even while programmatic SEO may change as generative AI advances, when used properly, it may still be a powerful tool for increasing online visibility. Unlock success with programmatic SEO methods. Learn to drive traffic without coding skills. Get started today!