SEO automation simplifies search engine optimization by using specific tools or software. These solutions transform complex and time-consuming tasks into fast and efficient processes, freeing up valuable time for marketing teams.
SEO improves the visibility and traffic of a website on search engines like Google. It integrates various elements, including content, keywords, and user experience, to attract qualified visitors and promote conversions.
This article explores how automation can enhance your SEO, when to use it, and the criteria for selecting the right tools. Also, learn about the benefits and challenges of this approach, as well as a practical example. Ready to boost your SEO with automation?
What is SEO Automation?
SEO automation refers to the use of specialized software or tools to perform search engine optimization (SEO) tasks in an automated manner. These tools aim to simplify operations that would otherwise be very time-consuming, resource-intensive, and require considerable manual investment from marketing/SEO teams.
There are multiple ways to automate SEO, depending on the tasks you want to delegate. There are two main approaches to this: basic automation and advanced automation via no-code tools. Here are some examples of tasks that the right tools can handle.
Automation makes it easier to identify keywords that are relevant to your target audience, with tools like Semrush or Ahrefs helping you analyze competitor keywords, discover new ideas, and assess their potential.
Generate automatic reports on your SEO performance with tools like Google Analytics, Google Data Studio to get instant insights on your traffic, performing content and where your visitors are coming from.
The different forms of automation in SEO
Ranking Tracking : Monitor your ranking for specific keywords in search results and compare your performance to your competitors with tools like Monitorank.
Structured Data Markup : Simplify the generation and validation of structured data for your site. This information, added to your HTML, helps search engines better understand and present your content. Use tools like Schema.org or Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper.
Advanced automation via no-code tools (see example at the end):
For those looking to take automation further, using no-code tools opens up advanced possibilities without requiring programming skills; here are some examples:
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Content brief writing : Produce automatic content briefs for your writers using well-thought-out automation combining Google Sheet, YourtextGuru, GPT & of course Make!
Content Creation : Produce optimized blog posts and web content using AI to efficiently integrate keywords. Create Make scenarios that will retrieve Google SERP, extract the main keywords, write you an outline, and then your blog post via GPT.
Image optimization : Automatically improve page load times by optimizing images for SEO without sacrificing quality, using tools like Cloud Convert or Imagify. This can be done in bulk using tools like Make and using Cloud Convert which will retrieve the image, transform it to webp format and update it in the back office automatically, for all images on your website. As illustrated, automation offers many possibilities to simplify and optimize your SEO tasks. However, it is vital to know when and how to use it to maximize its benefits.
When is it wise to automate your SEO?
When tasks become repetitive and time-consuming
SEO requires essential but often repetitive tasks, such as keyword research, backlink analysis, positioning monitoring, or technical audit. Thanks to automation, these activities can be performed by specialized tools according to your needs, allowing you to save time and optimize your SEO strategy .
When data accuracy is critical
Automation offers improved data quality and reliability . Automation tools collect and process information quickly and reliably, reducing the risk of errors and bias. They provide valuable reports and dashboards to track your SEO performance with key performance indicators (KPIs).
When managing large sites
It is especially beneficial for managing large and complex websites. Automation tools can analyze thousands of pages, keywords, and links quickly, allowing you to efficiently manage large-scale sites without being restricted by your production capacity.
When you are limited by your production capacity
Automation can increase your production capacity by helping to create quality content, optimize images, and generate structured data. It allows you to produce faster , while respecting the quality criteria of search engines, and staying up to date with algorithm developments.
What tools should you use to automate your SEO?
To automate your SEO , selecting the right tools is essential. This selection should take into account your specific needs, your budget, and your level of expertise. The market offers a wide range of tools, but we will focus on those that are both popular and effective.
Here is a selection of recommended tools to automate your SEO :
These automation platforms allow you to connect different web services and create automated workflows without the need for programming. Whether it’s to automatically notify your team of a change in position in the SERPs, or to publish your blog articles on social networks, Zapier, Make and N8N offer great ease of use and appreciable flexibility for your SEO tasks.
It is important to note that these tools differ in terms of features, price, and complexity:
Zapier, while the simplest, is also the most expensive. It makes it easy to create simple workflows with many apps, but its customization options and conditional logic are limited. Make, oriented no code, offers more advanced automation, accessible even to beginners, offering more customization and integration than Zapier.
N8N, on the other hand, is the most advanced and complex, allowing the development of sophisticated workflows with conditional logic and custom functions, but requiring coding skills. Its open source nature and the ability to host it on your own server make it the least expensive option.
The price also includes the API access needed to enable apps to communicate with each other via the selected tool.
Classic SEO Tool: SEMrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog
These SEO analysis tools assist you in auditing, reporting, and optimizing your site. They offer automation features to notify you of position changes, perform scheduled audits, track backlinks, and more. They also offer the ability to receive periodic reports and alerts on link opportunities and site issues. These tools are essential for improving your site’s technical SEO, content, and link profile.
Open AI – GPT API
GPT is able to generate quality content from a simple text input. Using the latest language model available, it produces coherent and relevant advertising resource text on various topics. Ideal for creating SEO-optimized content, such as blog posts, product descriptions, or meta tags, it can also be used for creative writing.
The power of GPT is increased tenfold in processes used in no-code tools like Make, because they allow reasoning and therefore progress in the process without human intervention. However, its effectiveness depends on the quality of the prompts used, which must be well defined to obtain the expected result.
SEO Automation Example
In this section, we will explore real-world examples of SEO automation to inspire you and make it easier for you to dive into this adventure.
Automatically generate SEO-optimized writing briefs
To produce quality content for your website, it is essential to start with clear and precise writing briefs, defining the topic, keyword, tone, style, structure, and objectives of each article. However, this task can be tedious and time-consuming, especially with a large volume of content.
Automate the generation of SEO-optimized writing briefs by following these steps:
From a Google Sheet containing the keywords, use Make to extract the desired keyword. Make is a no-code tool for connecting different web services and creating automated workflows without programming.
API to generate a writing brief based on the extracted keyword. Your Text Guru offers an AI-assisted writing service, suggesting keywords, titles, subtitles, etc. to create SEO-optimized content.
Ask ChatGPT to generate a writing brief with Hn markup in JSON format for easy integration. ChatGPT, thanks to its GPT language model, produces coherent and relevant text on any topic.
Update the Google Sheet cell with the finalized writing brief. Use Make to do this update, ensuring you have a complete and SEO-optimized brief.
Send the optimized brief to the writer via email or a project management tool such as Trello or Asana, adding any additional information needed.
This method allows you to automate the generation of SEO-optimized writing briefs, saving time and improving the quality of your content.
Automatic generation of FAQs from proprietary content
Improving the user experience of your website often involves an FAQ section that answers your customers’ most frequently asked questions. But how can you identify these questions and answer them effectively?
Automate FAQ creation from your proprietary content by following these steps:
Collect customer questions through Zendesk or another support tool, then export them to a CSV file.
Use ChatGPT to generate relevant and coherent answers to collected questions.
Automatically publish questions and answers on a dedicated page of your website, using Make with the WordPress API or another CMS.
This process helps you create a relevant and credible FAQ section, improving user experience and your SEO.
Generating content for product pages
Having attractive, informative, and SEO-optimized product descriptions is essential for an e-commerce site. But creating quality content for a large number of products can be challenging.
Automate content generation for product pages by following these steps:
Collect product information from your database and export it to CSV file.
Use ChatGPT to create engaging and relevant product descriptions.
Publish these descriptions on your site, using Make with Shopify API or another e-commerce CMS.
This method allows you to automate the creation of content for product pages, thus increasing your conversions and online visibility.
Analyze weekly SEO reports and generate performance summary
To track the progress of your SEO, analyzing weekly SEO reports is essential. They provide valuable data on traffic, positioning, conversions, etc. But how can you effectively synthesize this information?
Automate SEO report analysis and performance summary generation by following these steps:
Use Google Analytics or another SEO tool to generate a weekly SEO report.
Extract key data from the report via Make’s API.
Send this data to ChatGPT to get a summary and insights into the week’s SEO performance.
Send the generated summary by email to the marketing team, adding comments or recommendations to improve SEO.
By following these steps, you can simplify the analysis of your weekly SEO reports and continually optimize your SEO strategy.
Automatically publish excerpts of new blog posts to social networks
To boost your website’s visibility and traffic, it’s essential to share your new blog posts on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. But how do you generate engaging, information-rich, and SEO-optimized excerpts ?
The solution is to automate the publication of excerpts from your latest articles on social networks by following these steps:
When publishing a new blog post on WordPress. WordPress is a CMS that simplifies the creation and management of your website and blog, allowing you to easily publish your articles and make them accessible to your readers.
Use Make API to extract post content. Make is a no-code platform that makes it easy to connect different web services, allowing you to create automations without programming. With Make, easily extract the content of your WordPress posts, including titles, subtitles, texts, images, etc.
Send the extracted content to ChatGPT to create an engaging description and article excerpt. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that can generate ig users high-quality content from simple text input. It relies on an advanced language model, GPT, to produce coherent and relevant text. Use ChatGPT to get a captivating description and article excerpt, by feeding it the extracted content via Make.
Schedule social media posts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) with the created excerpts. With Make, schedule social media postings using Buffer API or another social media management tool, and enrich your posts with hashtags, mentions, or links to your site.
By adopting this method, you can automate the publication of excerpts from your blog posts on social networks, thus improving the visibility and traffic of your website.
The Benefits and Limitations of SEO Automation
SEO automation allows you to:
Save time and resources on repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as keyword research, backlink analysis, positioning tracking, or technical auditing.
Improve the quality and reliability of your data , minimizing errors, oversights or human bias. Automation tools offer reports and dashboards that make it easy to track your SEO performance with key performance indicators (KPIs).
Process data at scale , analyzing thousands of pages, keywords, links, structured data, etc., in record time. This allows you to manage complex and large websites, without being limited by your production capacities.
Increase your production capacity by creating quality content, optimizing your images, generating structured data, etc. You are thus able to produce more content, more quickly, while respecting the quality criteria of search engines.
Adapt your SEO to changes in search engine algorithms, alerting you to changes and opportunities to seize. This way, you can stay at the forefront of SEO and stay ahead of your competitors.
Limitations and risks to consider
SEO automation is not without risks, and it is important to be aware of them to avoid compromising the quality of your website.
Here are some limitations and risks to consider:
SEO automation cannot replace human work . It is essential to verify the results of automation tools and intervene manually when necessary. For example, the content generated by an artificial intelligence tool must be proofread, corrected, and adapted to your audience and your objectives.
SEO automation can lead to technical or ethical issues . For example, misuse or inappropriate use of automation tools can cause issues with duplicate content, over-optimization, or spam. Security, privacy, or compliance issues can also arise if the tools used do not comply with current standards and regulations.
SEO automation can be expensive . Not all automation tools are free, and some can be expensive, depending on their features and options, especially when it comes to accessing third-party APIs. It’s important to select the right tools for your budget and ROI.
Conclusion
SEO automation is a growing trend that promises to revolutionize the way websites are optimized for search engines. However, it is essential to understand that automation does not replace the essential: human work. It is imperative to add value to your content while scrupulously respecting the rules and best practices of SEO.
The goal of SEO automation is certainly not to circumvent the rules through dubious means, but rather to free up time on repetitive tasks to focus on the more creative and strategic aspects of SEO.
If you have any questions, suggestions, or would like to share your experience with SEO automation, please feel free to contact us .
