Marketing Teardown: 🤖 Programmatic SEO

Hey, Marketer! 

You know when you Google search something like: “best mediterranean restaurants Tarrytown Austin”...

And you think – how is there a Yelp page dedicated to literally this specific query?

I’ll give you a hint: they didn’t send someone out to the Tarrytown neighborhood in Austin to try all the Mediterranean restaurants and then write a web page about the best ones. 

They used programmatic SEO.

They had AI, agents, robots, or whatever you want to call them find and organize this content and then turn it into a web page. 

And they can do it at scale – not dozens, not hundreds, not even thousands, but tens or hundreds of thousands of web pages.

today's treasure trove

• What is Programmatic SEO?

• How to use Programmatic SEO

  • pSEO for Content Creation

  • pSEO for Link Building and Reputation Management

• Shining examples of Programmatic SEO

  • Make.com

  • Yelp

  • ReplyGuy

What is Programmatic SEO?

Let’s get real: SEO used to be all about crafting blog posts, sprinkling in some keywords, and crossing our fingers that Google noticed. 

Those were the days, right? 

But now, we’ve got AI in the mix, and it’s taking SEO to a whole new level.

Welcome to programmatic SEO (pSEO) – the strategy that scales your content faster than you can say “algorithm update.”

Here’s the deal: back in the day, SEO was all about writing quality content that aligned with search intent. You were basically signaling to Google, “Hey, this page is exactly what they’re looking for.”

But now, AI lets us take that to the extreme. With pSEO, you can create loads of hyper-specific pages for long-tail keywords that people are actively searching for.

If you’ve got user-generated content or a chunky database, you’re sitting on a goldmine. AI can organize and structure that into optimized pages that basically scream, “Rank me, Google!” 

And if you’re in e-commerce, media, SaaS, or even auto or medical, this strategy is chef’s kiss 🤌

So why settle for being stuck on page two when pSEO can help you scale up and show up where it really matters? Let’s glow up your SEO game and make it work smarter, not harder.

How to use Programmatic SEO

pSEO for Content Creation

First things first: can your brand snag some quick pSEO wins? Ask yourself:  

• Does your product or service integrate with a ton of partners?  

• Act as a marketplace or platform?  

• Deal with user-generated content (UGC)?  

• Have a gazillion SKUs?  

• Offer personalization?  

If you’re nodding along, congrats – you’ve got prime real estate for pSEO. Now, let’s talk strategy.  

Decide your tech stack and map out the content game plan. 

Is it landing pages? 

Aggregated pages like Yelp’s UGC-driven magic? 

While Yelp's goal is traffic for traffic's sake, most businesses need visitors to do something.  

If you’re in a niche vertical – say legal services – tailored landing pages are your MVP. Think hyper-specific:  

• “Top probate lawyer in [every nearby town/city/county]”  

• “Best attorney for [specific legal headache]”  

People search for lawyers who get their exact problem. Whether it’s custody battles, zoning nightmares, or bankruptcy blues, your pages can shout, “I’m the expert you’re looking for!”  

Here’s how to pull it off:  

1. Templates FTW – Build a dynamic landing page template in your CMS.  

2. Focus Your Lis –: Narrow down by geography, product, industry, or any juicy niche.  

3. AI-ify It – Use AI to churn out URLs, page titles, and H1 tags tailored to each situation while keeping the rest of the content consistent (and persuasive).  

You might need to rope in your dev team for some heavy lifting, but trust me, it’s worth the effort.  

pSEO for Link Building and Reputation Management

pSEO isn’t just about flooding your site with content – it’s your secret weapon for link building and reputation glow-ups too.  

Here’s the move:  

Got a killer piece of content? Build an AI backlink machine. It’ll:  

1. Crawl the web for relevant sites. 

2. Spot juicy articles (or broken links – jackpot).  

3. Identify the author.  

4. Automate an email that gently nudges them to link to your masterpiece.  

RIP to old-school backlink begging. 😮‍💨 

Reputation management? Easier than you think. Forget canned replies to Google or G2 reviews. Instead, jump into conversations you didn’t even know existed.  

Use AI to:  

• Scan social platforms for mentions of your brand or the problem you solve.  

• Auto-reply with thoughtful, tailored responses.  

It’s like being omnipresent but without the creepy vibe.  

With pSEO, you’re not just optimizing for search engines – you’re building connections, credibility, and a reputation that slaps (as long as it’s done well – that’s why it’s best to keep a “human in the loop” approach”).

Shining examples of Programmatic SEO

Make.com

Make.com is an (amazing) iPaaS tool – kinda like Zapier. It helps connect data from one source to another.

Want to tweet out your WordPress blog posts? Want to upload newsletter subscribers to your CRM? Want to schedule Google Sheets updates with orders from your Squarespace website?

With so many integrations available, they created an Integrations page that lists all of them. But when you click on one, you land on a page like this: 

The page title, profile card, Webflow links, and documentation links are fully dynamic. But wait, there’s more – below the fold, they’ve included ready-to-go templates designed specifically for Webflow integrations. These templates are perfect for getting users started with the exact solution they’re hunting for.

And the kicker? They’ve pulled this off for over 2,000 integrations. 😲

Yelp

Did you think I was joking earlier?

Yelp created thousands of these pages for whatever sort of business in whatever neighborhood you’re looking. They’ve taken their user-generated content and sliced it into a zillion different categories. 

Yelp makes money through ads from these local businesses, so they really want online searchers to go from Google to Yelp and land on these pages. That’s why they’ve named these pages “The Best 10 …” and not simply a categorical search. 

They use these pages like they’re curated lists.

Ha. Sneaky. 

ReplyGuy

Picture this: a potential customer posts on Reddit about “Best CRM for lawyers?”

Oof. 

That pSEO content you created doesn’t get served up because they didn’t post this query on a search engine!

But wait – tools like ReplyGuy listen in on social media platforms for the conversations you want your brand to show up in and makes it happen.

Wrap Up

While pSEO may seem like it only works with companies that rely heavily on UGC or databases, with a little creativity, you can use pSEO in your next campaign. 

You might create a link-building campaign or start doing social listening – but either way, you can (and should) start harnessing the power of AI in your marketing.

Oh and btw – this survey about marketing tools is still open (I’m going to send a $20 Amazon gift card to 3 randomly selected responders 😉 )

Thanks for reading this week and I hope you have a wonderful weekend (and read the other deep dives here).

✌️,

tom from marketer gems