If you are just getting started in the field, you might be confused about what’s the real difference between programmatic SEO and SEO (the regular SEO). But I assure you that it’s not as complicated as you might think.
In this short blog post, I will explain the difference between the two. Let’s get to it, then…
What is the difference between programmatic SEO and SEO?
The main difference is, programmatic SEO is a type of SEO process where automation is used to publish bulk pages based on a template and a database. In other words, programmatic SEO is still SEO, and you need to understand the basics of SEO to be able to make and implement a good pSEO strategy.
You can generate 100s of pages on your website by using several methods available out there, but without a good working knowledge of SEO, you won’t be able to rank them higher in search engines.
Here’s a quick table highlighting the differences between programmatic SEO and traditional SEO:
| Programmatic SEO | Traditional SEO |
|---|---|
| An automated approach to bring more traffic to the website | A manual approach to bringing traffic |
| Can create 1000s of pages in minutes | Takes time to create those many pages |
| Pages are created based on a template | Pages are manually created and published |
| Takes less time and effort | Takes more time and effort |
| Requires more technical skills | Requires less technical skills |
| Requires a good understanding of SEO basics | Doesn’t require understanding programmatic SEO |
I hope this paints a clearer picture of the differences between the both. Now, let’s move further and understand this in even more detail.
Understanding programmatic SEO
As programmatic SEO is used to publish bulk pages, you need to create a page template, have all the required data inside a database, and then an automation system that can connect the database to the page template.
And if you’re in WordPress, this is easier but if you’re using any other CMS then it may get very complicated.
Here’s the programmatic SEO process looks like, briefly:
- Find the programmatic SEO-friendly keywords
- Prepare the dataset for your project
- Design the page template that generated pages will look like
- Create the automation to connect the database + page template
And to accomplish all this, you need to keep the basics of SEO in mind as well. Basically, you can say that…
Programmatic SEO isn’t possible without the knowledge of SEO.
Understanding SEO
SEO, or rather traditional SEO in this context, is the process of improving the quality and quantity of organic website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines. A typical SEO process for a website looks like this:
- Finding keywords that people search for
- Creating quality pages targeting those keywords
- Optimising meta tags, images, and entire code of webpages
- Improving user experience for website visitors
- Getting backlinks and improving internal links, etc.
It’s important to keep in mind that all of these requirements still apply even when doing programmatic SEO.
I hope that makes things easier for you to understand programmatic SEO vs SEO. But if you’re still stuck, kindly feel free to let me know in the comments below.
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