How to Get Customers with Programmatic SEO
You don't need an established audience or a hefty marketing budget to attract visitors. In this guide, I'll show you how to grow a customer base for free using programmatic SEO. This strategy helped me create a powerful structure that ranks well on Google—even when targeting niche, long-tail keywords.
Imagine generating traffic on autopilot while you focus on your core business. Here’s a breakdown of how programmatic SEO can work for you, using a practical example: I built a dedicated /cities page featuring all French cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. This approach ensures that Google sees a rich reference of pages rather than a site with sparse content.
What Is Programmatic SEO?
Programmatic SEO (pSEO) is a strategy where you use code to create a large number of pages targeting long-tail keywords related to a main topic. By automating the creation of these pages, you build an extensive website skeleton that can rank for hundreds—even thousands—of keywords without manual intervention.
For example, I targeted all French cities with over 100,000 people. The structure included a main /cities page for Google bots, ensuring every city had a dedicated reference and eliminating the risk of empty pages. This systematic approach allows your website to attract organic traffic continuously.
1. Choose Your Primary Keyword
Start by selecting one main keyword that has low competition and a decent search volume. Use free tools to check:
- Keyword Difficulty (KD): Ideally, lower than 20 (requiring around 10 backlinks or fewer).
- Search Volume: At least 500 searches per month in your target country.
Even if the numbers aren’t perfect initially, you can target variations. In my example, the main keyword might be something like “French cities” or “cities in France,” which can then be expanded into long-tail queries such as “things to do in [city name]” or “best restaurants in [city name].”
2. Build a Webpage Empire
Your goal is to create a dedicated webpage for each long-tail keyword. For instance, I built a /cities page that lists all cities in France with over 100,000 inhabitants. This page serves as a gateway, making sure that every city is represented and indexed by Google.
a. Create a Skeleton Template
A skeleton is an HTML template that can be populated with dynamic data. For example, the template for a city page might look like this:
- H1: "Discover the Best of [City Name]"
- Description: "Explore [City Name]—from its vibrant districts to its hidden gems. Find out what makes this city unique with our comprehensive guide."
This template is used to generate each city’s page, ensuring consistency and rich content across your site.
b. Gather and Integrate Data
The next step is to collect the necessary data. For my project, this meant:
- City Information: Name, photo, popular districts.
- Additional Data: Local attractions, reviews, and essential statistics.
Many of these details can be fetched via APIs (like the Google Maps API) or sourced through data outsourcing. The richer the data, the more valuable your pages become for search engines.
c. Optimize Your SEO Structure
Ensure that every page is optimized:
- Title Tags & H1s: Include the long-tail keyword (e.g., “Things to Do in [City Name]”).
- Images: Use descriptive alt texts, appropriate sizes, and lazy loading.
- Internal Links: Connect your pages with strategic links and proper anchor texts.
Tools like Lighthouse in Google Chrome can help you audit and refine your SEO performance.
3. Rank on Google
Once you have your pages built, the final step is to get them noticed by Google:
a. Backlinks
Backlinks are crucial. A few quality backlinks can help your pages start ranking. Consider:
- Organic Outreach: Launch on platforms like Product Hunt, Reddit, or Hacker News.
- Paid Backlinks: If you’re serious, invest in purchasing listings on popular directories.
b. Google Search Console
Verify your domain in Google Search Console and manually request indexing for your new pages. This accelerates the process and ensures your content is crawled faster by Google.
Conclusion
Programmatic SEO is an effective way to build a robust online presence without a massive budget. By creating a structured approach—like my /cities page for French cities with over 100,000 inhabitants—you set up a system that continuously attracts organic traffic.
This guide is designed for non-tech founders: you don’t need to dive too deep into technicalities. Just focus on setting up a reliable template, integrating quality data, and optimizing your pages for SEO. With a little effort upfront, you can enjoy a steady stream of free visitors and new customers.