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Programmatic SEO is a method of automatically creating website pages using a database of structured information in order to capture more relevant keywords.
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If you own an ecommerce site, you need a search-optimized product page for each of your products. Product pages are vital parts of your store, as that’s where consumers learn about an item’s features, pricing, use cases, and more.
If you sell hundreds—or thousands—of products, creating product pages one by one can require a significant investment of time and resources. That’s where programmatic SEO (search engine optimization) comes in. Programmatic SEO uses automation to make creating product pages more scalable—and to help you capture more keywords than you otherwise could.
Programmatic SEO is a method of automatically creating website pages optimized for search and populated with content using a database of structured information stored outside the website’s HTML, such as in your CMS’s back end. The process involves using preprogrammed rules to pull data points (location, price, product variants, etc.) to create landing pages, category pages, or individual product pages with customized information.
While programmatic SEO can be implemented within a CMS that supports custom fields, complex projects use a static site generator such as Hugo or 11ty, which prebuild pages into static files like HTML.
With a traditional SEO strategy, like editorial SEO or content marketing, you create pages individually, manually creating content and optimizing the page. Programmatic SEO enables you to target specific keywords quickly, automate the content creation process, and create thousands of pages at scale.
Programmatic SEO also differs from technical SEO, which focuses on improving the technical performance of individual pages, such as page speed or crawlability.
Programmatic SEO is best suited for businesses with large volumes of data and content. Here are some examples of use cases and the types of pages you can create:
Ecommerce: Product pages with variants across categories, features, and locations
Data aggregators: Directories that combine information across industries or services
Reviews sites: Pages that compare product details or user reviews
Online education course providers: Pages that combine topics, courses, or instructors
Media sites: News, articles, and list-style content, segmented by topic or location
In ecommerce, if your products fit specific search queries with at least three variables, they’re good candidates for programmatic SEO. For example, a search query like “women’s canvas court shoes” is more targeted and a better fit for programmatic SEO than a broad query like “running shoes.”
Additionally, a successful programmatic SEO strategy can involve location-based targeting, particularly for service providers. Businesses that offer in-person services across multiple locations can benefit from a programmatic SEO strategy, as it allows them to spin up numerous pages to capture location-specific searches. For example, a window-washing business that serves multiple neighborhoods in Brooklyn could create pages targeting “window washing Fort Greene,” “window washing Williamsburg,” “window washing Carroll Gardens,” and more.
Programmatic SEO follows many of the same principles as traditional SEO, but what makes the approach different is its scalability for hyper-targeted keywords. Here are five essential steps you can take to implement a successful programmatic SEO strategy:
Programmatic SEO relies heavily on long-tail keywords (search phrases typically containing three or more words) targeting customers in the conversion stage or nearing a purchase. Keyword research will help you understand how your target audience finds your products online so that you can target relevant keywords to match their search intent.
A quick Google search is a good starting point. When you type a product name into Google’s search bar, the suggested searches displayed at the bottom show you more specific search queries. For example, a Google search for “court shoes” shows long-tail searches for volleyball or tennis court shoes. You can then create a programmatic page targeting each of these longtail keywords.
You can also use a paid keyword research tool like:
AnswerThePublic
Ahrefs
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool
All three of these keyword research tools offer great filtering precision. For example, in Ahrefs, you can use word count as one of your filtering criteria, helping you to identify those long-tail keywords with at least three modifiers.
Once you have a list of target keywords, the next step is to determine what content is already available on SERPs (search engine results pages). This exercise will help you identify opportunities based on what’s already ranking, the keyword’s search intent, and whether there’s an opportunity for a programmatic, scalable strategy.
For example, if a search for “best men’s waterproof tennis shoes” reveals top-ranking category pages, you can build targeted pages filtered by feature and use case. If top-ranking content is mostly high-level overviews, you can create more detailed content to stand out and rank higher.
If you’re using a keyword research tool, you can also use it to check search volume and keyword difficulty to determine how easily you’ll stand out in search rankings.
Start by identifying the various data points you’ll want included in your programmatic page template, such as:
Product name
Features
Use case
Location
Price
Decide what your product, category, or other page will look like. Creating a mockup or wireframe is a good idea, keeping in mind the search intent and the audience you’re targeting.
During this process, ensure that you are using unique data that only your business can access. Doing so is a triple win. For one, Google prioritizes original content, so the more unique information you include, the better your chances of ranking higher.
Two, proprietary data, such as internal research, first-hand reviews, and other user-generated content (UGC) unique to your website, can help you stand out from competitors that only share publicly available data like the manufacturer’s generic product description.
Finally, featuring UGC in your content strategy, such as customer reviews, ratings, and photos, creates a steady flow of fresh content that improves trust among customers.
Programmatic SEO relies on clearly defining the relationships between your various data elements. If your store is built on Shopify, your products and the collections/categories they are part of will effectively serve as the foundation of your database. Then, you’ll need to identify the metadata your target audience cares about within your products and collections. In other words, which features are the most important to them? This could include attributes like style, color, fit, and material.
Here is an example at the collection and product page level:
Collection page:
Collection: Athletic shoes
Product: Tennis shoes, gym shoes, and more
Metadata: Gender, fit, material, price
Product page:
Product: Heeled shoes
Metadata: Heel height, material, style
Structure and label this metadata clearly and make sure it is accurate and complete. The quality of your database directly relates to the quality of the resulting programmatic pages. Add all these to your CMS or database, so that the information can be pulled in a repeatable structure.
Generate the different pages once you have your template and data. In Shopify, you’ll generate programmatic pages by creating smart collections. Once you have your range of products, set it up to generate collections based on your chosen filter, such as canvas shoes.
If you are not on Shopify, you’ll need to access dynamic content from a CMS or other database to customize at scale. This is done through a headless CMS like Sanity or a static site generator, like Next.js, to pull data from your database and generate each page.
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The following are common mistakes businesses make with programmatic SEO:
Some businesses use filters instead of individual web pages because they’re easier to implement or because they prioritize UX over SEO. A filter works by updating the content dynamically without changing the page’s title or URL. The right way to implement programmatic SEO is to change the page title and create a unique URL when a visitor selects a filter.
For example, if you filter tops onAdored Vintage’s website, it creates a new URL and updates the page title. A new URL and page are also created for each variant the user selects, such as color, size, and style.
As programmatic SEO generates a large number of web pages at scale, there’s a risk that you’ll end up with significant amounts of duplicate content between pages and products, or content that is too thin to be helpful to users. If your pages are unoriginal and/or do not provide unique value to users, Google may flag this as spam.
Beyond search quality signals, these pages can also result in keyword cannibalization, when pages compete for the same keywords in search results, making it difficult for any of them to rank well. Creating many pages created at scale may also result in orphaned pages, which are standalone pages that aren’t linked anywhere on your site. This can make it difficult for Google to prioritize them in search results, as they have no connection to the broader site.
Before undertaking a programmatic strategy, review Google’s spam policies and Helpful Content Guidelines, which emphasize people-first, not search engine-first content. Wherever possible, leverage unique material on your pages, such as proprietary data or UGC. Create specific page titles and URLs so that each page has a unique focus. Establish a strong internal linking structure to connect related pages within the site’s hierarchy and signal importance to Google.
Programmatic SEO is more like a cruise ship than a speedboat. It’s a powerful strategy, but if you need to change direction, it’s less flexible to tweak details, as changes will affect multiple pages. Remember to regularly review and maintain the database if you’re using programmatic SEO.
For example, if all your programmatic pages have color as part of the URL path and header, such as /womens-white-sneakers, and you decide to remove color as a variant, you would need to redirect hundreds or thousands of pages to accommodate the change.
Programmatic SEO works by automatically generating customized website content at scale, particularly for location-based or product-specific landing pages and other web pages. It uses structured data stored in a back-end database or external spreadsheet to pull content in dynamically, eliminating the need to create each page’s content manually.
Good programmatic SEO examples in ecommerce are Pura Vida Bracelets and Meow Meow Tweet, which use programmatic SEO to build and optimize large volumes of category pages. Programmatic SEO is also used in other industries. Software site Zapier uses programmatic SEO to create web pages for thousands of app integrations, while marketplace site TripAdvisor creates localized pages for destinations, restaurants, and experiences.
With traditional SEO, blog posts and other content are created manually, typically by a writer. Programmatic SEO automatically fills in a page template using data stored on the back end. As the work is more technical, the process is usually overseen by a website developer instead of the content marketing team.
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