SEO automation is a process of automating the tasks involved in optimization of a website for search engines. There is a confusion around the term ‘seo automation’. Some people believe that it means automating the entire process of SEO, from research to execution. Others believe that it simply means automating the task of optimizing a website for search engines. The truth is that it can mean both things, and different people may interpret it differently.
There are two main stages of SEO automation: data research and insights, and automating SEO execution stage. SEO automation is a huge topic and scope of this post is just to focus on the first stage i.e. Data Research & Insights stage automation.
1. Data Research & Insights Stage SEO Automation
This stage involves automating the process of data research and insights gathering. This is a very important stage, as the data gathered in this stage will be used to make decisions about how to optimize a website for search engines. There are many tasks that can be automated in this stage, including gathering data from search engines, analyzing competitors, and identifying relevant keywords. SEO automation can save a lot of time and can be a real help in this stage. Automating the tasks involved in data research and insights gathering can help you gather data more quickly and efficiently. This can allow you to make decisions about how to optimize your website for search engines more quickly and accurately.
2. Automating SEO Execution
Once the data has been gathered and analyzed, the next stage is automating the process of SEO execution. This involves automating the task of optimizing a website for search engines. There are many tasks that can be automated in this stage, including optimizing titles and meta descriptions, creating sitemaps, and submitting websites to search engines, generating content, and building quality backlinks.
One thing that is clear is that SEO automation can be a great help in saving time and effort. It can make the process of optimizing a website faster and easier, and it can also help to ensure that the SEO tasks are done consistently and accurately. However, there are also some risks associated with SEO automation. If not done correctly, automated SEO can actually do more harm than good to a website. It is therefore important to use caution when using SEO automation tools, and to make sure that you understand how they work and what they can do for your website.
Data & Insights Generation Stage SEO Automation
Some of the most common application of SEO automation tools in this stage include:
Keywords ranking tracking: As a website owner you want to track how well your target keywords are doing. Doing this manually can be very time-consuming. Automating the process of tracking keyword rankings can help you track your progress over time and see how your keywords are performing.
Website technical SEO audit: Technical SEO covers a lot of different aspects of a website, including website page size, dead links, CSS/JS issues, code quality, site structure, and page speed. Automating the process of auditing your website’s technical SEO can help you identify any issues that may be holding back your website’s performance.
SEO opportunities discovery: Automating the process of discovering new opportunities can help you find new areas to focus on more quickly and efficiently. Discovering new opportunities for optimization can be a time-consuming task. Imagine you want to identify pages on your website missing meta tags or having images with empty ALT tags. How would you about this? Trying to find these pages manually would be very time-consuming. However, there are now tools that can compile the list of all such pages in a matter of minutes.
Citation and brand mentions tracking: Tracking citations and brand mentions can help you track your progress in building up your online reputation and strengthening your SEO. In todays time of social media, it’s more important than ever to track these mentions and take action to improve your SEO.
Backlinks audit: Automating the process of auditing your backlinks can help you identify any links that are not helping your website’s performance. You can also do link profiling which can help you understand the quality of your backlinks. Finding technical details such as individual link types, link anchors and anchor text frequency manually can be a very time-consuming task.
Backlinks tracking: Backlinks tracking is the process of monitoring both your own backlinks as well as your competitor’s backlinks. This can help you identify any new links that have been created, as well as any links that have been removed. Automating the process of tracking your own as well as your competitor’s backlinks can help you stay on top of the latest developments.
Keywords gap analysis: Sometimes you want to rank for a keyword and put in a lot of effort towards it but your competitors are ranking higher than you. In such cases, you need to do a keywords gap analysis which involves finding out the words your competitor are using in content and their link building strategy to outrank you. Automating this process can help you quickly find out what you’re missing and take corrective action.
SEO reporting: Reporting is an important part of any SEO campaign. Automating the process of generating reports can help you save a lot of time. Reports can be generated for various purposes such as keyword rankings, website traffic, backlink profiles, and so on. Whether you are doing SEO for yourself or for clients, reporting automation will always add value to your marketing.
Content ideas generation: Content is King when it comes to SEO. Creating high quality, relevant content is one of the most important things you can do to improve your website’s performance. However, coming up with new ideas for content can be a challenge. Automating the process of generating content ideas can help you find new topics to write about more quickly and efficiently.
Identifying popular trends: Lastly, automating the process of identifying popular trends can help you stay on top of the latest developments in your industry. This can help you quickly adapt your SEO strategy to take advantage of new opportunities.
All of these activities are important for any SEO campaign. However, they can be very time-consuming if done manually. SEO Automation tools can help you automate all of these tasks, freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
Tools for Stage 1 SEO Automation
There are a number of different tools available that can help you automate data and Insights generation for SEO. While some of these are paid tools, there are also a number of free options available. There are single purpose tools which can be used for a specific activity like keyword position tracking. However, there are also complete SEO suites which offer a wide range of features and can be used to automate most aspects of your SEO campaign. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free tool that can be used to track your website’s traffic. It can also be used to generate reports on a variety of different metrics such as page views, unique visitors, bounce rate, and so on.
Semrush – This is a complete SEO suite that offers a wide range of features such as keyword research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and so on. It also has a feature that allows you to generate reports on a variety of different metrics. SEMrush is one of the most comprehensive and popular SEO suites available.
Moz – Moz is another popular SEO suite that offers a wide range of features. It also has a report generation feature that allows you to create reports on a variety of different metrics. Key features of Moz include keyword research, rank tracking, site crawl, content optimization, link research, and analytics & reporting.
BuzzSumo – BuzzSumo is a tool that allows you to quickly find the most popular content on a given topic. This can be used to generate ideas for new content, or to find popular content to share on social media. Not just that, with BuzzSumo you can also find out who is interested in your content and which influencers are sharing it. You can even export a list of all the people who have shared your content.
Ahrefs – Ahrefs is another complete SEO suite that offers a wide range of features. You can do a lot with Ahrefs such as site audits, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, backlink analysis, and so on. It also has a report generation feature that allows you to create reports on a variety of different metrics.
Scremingfrog – Screaming Frog is a web crawling tool that can be used to crawl websites and generate reports on a variety of different metrics such as broken links, duplicate content, redirects, and so on. Its available as free and paid versions. It can be used to crawl your own as well as your competitors website. Within a few minutes of using it, you can have valuable insights that can help improve your website’s SEO.
Answer the Public – Answer the Public is a tool that allows you to quickly find popular questions related to a given topic. This can be used to generate ideas for new content, or to find popular content to share on social media. If you are looking to optimize your website for voice search , this is a tool that can be very helpful.
Ubersuggest – Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool that allows you to quickly generate a large number of keywords for a given topic. It also provides information on the search volume, CPC, and competition for each keyword. Ubersuggest can be a great choice for keywords research, content research, and SEO and PPC competitive analysis.
Hootsuite Insights – Hootsuite’s social media management platform also offers an Insights module that allows you to track, measure, and analyze your social media activity. It also allows you to generate reports on a variety of different metrics. Hootsuite’s Insights module can be used to track your social media activity, measure your engagement, and generate reports.
Choosing the right tool for your needs will depend on a number of factors such as the size of your website, your budget, and the features you need. If you are just starting out, you might want to choose a free or low-cost option such as Screaming Frog or Ubersuggest. If you have a larger website, you might want to consider a more comprehensive option such as SEMrush, Moz or Ahrefs. And if you are looking for a tool to help you with social media management, BuzzSumo and Hootsuite’s Insights module can be a good choice.
The Future of SEO Automation
The future of SEO automation is looking bright. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, we can expect to see even more automation in the world of SEO. AI-powered tools such as those offered by SEMrush, Moz, and Ahrefs are already helping to automate many of the tasks that are traditionally done by humans. This includes things such as keyword research, content research, site audits, and competitor analysis.
As AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more automation in the world of SEO. This will include things such as automatic link building, automatic content generation, and automatic optimization for voice search. In addition, AI will also help to identify potential issues with a website that need to be fixed in order to improve its SEO rankings. Overall, the future of SEO automation looks very promising. With the help of AI-powered tools, we can expect to see even more SEO activities being automated in the future.
