#18 — A primer on Programmatic SEO (pSEO)

Marketers: In a digital landscape where organic traffic acquisition costs continue to rise, programmatic SEO offers founders a scalable way to capture thousands of long-tail search queries with minimal ongoing resources. Programmatic SEO (pSEO) is also evolving from simple template-based approaches to AI-enhanced content engines that can handle unstructured data, creating more natural, valuable content while maintaining scalability.§

The big picture

Programmatic SEO (pSEO) automates the creation of search-optimized landing pages at scale by using templates and databases to target specific keyword variations that match user search intent.§

• Major platforms like TripAdvisor (71 million pages), Zapier (508,000 pages), and Canva (2.2 million pages) have leveraged this approach to dominate their market segments.
• Unlike traditional SEO that focuses on high-competition keywords, pSEO targets low-competition, long-tail keywords with specific search intent.
• Traditional pSEO relied on structured databases and rigid templates to generate landing pages
• AI now enables the processing of unstructured data—like customer feedback, research reports, and images—that previously couldn't be effectively incorporated
• This evolution represents a fundamental shift in how businesses can approach content creation at scale

By the numbers

• TripAdvisor ranks for 5.6 million keywords using programmatic SEO
• Zapier ranks for over 350,000 keywords
• Canva ranks for over 500,000 keywords with 80,000 in the top three results

How it works

1. Identify low-competition keywords: Find specific long-tail variations that align with user search intent
2. Create page templates: Design flexible templates that can be automatically populated with data
3. Build a database: Collect and organize the data that will populate your templates using your unique content (e.g. marketplace data) along with AI generated enhancements (e.g. summaries or templates)
4. Generate optimized pages: Automatically create pages that target each specific keyword variation
5. Monitor and optimize: Analyze performance metrics to identify areas for improvement and adjust your strategy accordingly

How AI is changing pSEO

From templates to AI-enhanced content engines

Programmatic SEO has evolved through three distinct phases:§

• Template-based: Early pSEO used simple templates with data insertion (like Groupon and Zillow)
• Database-driven: Companies combined templates with unique databases to scale content
• AI-enhanced: Today's pSEO leverages AI to understand context and personalize content while maintaining scale

Unstructured content processing

AI excels at processing vast amounts of unstructured data through:§

• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Breaking down text meaning, identifying themes, and extracting relevant information
• Categorization and clustering: Automatically grouping content into categories like sentiment or topic
• Enhanced data retrieval: Understanding context and semantics of queries to deliver more relevant results

The opportunity

For startups, pSEO offers several strategic advantages:§

• Scalability: Create hundreds or thousands of pages targeting specific search queries
• Cost-effectiveness: Automate repetitive tasks to focus resources elsewhere
• Data-driven insights: Identify valuable keywords through analytics

The evolution of AI creates several new strategic advantages:§

1. Content that addresses intent: AI can analyze unstructured data to better understand and address user search intent, moving beyond keyword matching to concept understanding
2. Improved personalization: AI can tailor programmatically generated content to specific brands, segments, or individuals
3. Higher quality at scale: Modern language models score high enough in context understanding to produce quality content without sacrificing production speed

The risks

• Crawl budget limitations: Too many pages can exceed Google's crawl capacity
• Poor user experience: Irrelevant or outdated content can frustrate users
• Google penalties: Low-quality or duplicate content can trigger search ranking penalties

Between the lines

John Mueller, Google's search relations lead, warns: "Unfortunately there's more to online success than just adding more pages to a site... it's important that things which you add actually bring new & unique value to the web."§

The AI-enhanced approach to pSEO directly addresses this concern by enabling more valuable, contextually relevant content at scale.§

What to watch

Programmatic SEO works best for businesses with:§

• Large product catalogs
• Location-based services
• Data-rich offerings
• Transactional or commercial search intent

AI in particular is transforming pSEO through three key areas:§

• Structured + unstructured data balance: Structured data helps AI identify and categorize information, while unstructured data helps AI determine why it matters – you need both to show up in AI-driven search
• Entity SEO: The rise of AI is transforming SEO from a keyword-focused approach to an entity-first approach, focusing on understanding concepts rather than just matching keywords
• Voice search optimization: With voice search gaining traction, programmatic SEO strategies must adapt to cater to conversational and long-tail queries

Bottom line

For startup founders, programmatic SEO represents a powerful growth lever when implemented thoughtfully with high-quality data and templates. The key is ensuring each generated page provides genuine value to users rather than simply manipulating search algorithms. With generative AI, new opportunities are opening up for startups to provide unique value that wasn't possible before.§