Best programmatic SEO tools for content creation
I've been doing programmatic SEO since way before it was even called programmatic SEO. Back then there was no such thing as a programmatic SEO tool, unless you count PHP and a CSV!
(which by the way, I still use both of those every day!)
But in the age of AI content writers and automation agents and a billion other buzzwords, there are now a huge amount of programmatic SEO tools to choose from.
Which tools do you need to create high quality content at scale? What about scraping data? Images? Keyword research? Indexing?
The list goes on!
So in this post I'll cover the best tools for programmatic SEO. And by "best" I really mean the tools that I have used in my own pSEO to drive 1M pageviews a month to my products.
"Best pSEO tool" is subjective and depends what you need.
No-code programmatic SEO tools
Create Pages
Create Pages is a complete and easy-to-use automated content creation platform that lets you create engaging, conversion-focused pages using data and AI.
You can build advanced pSEO templates with flexible data handling, and creates high-quality pages faster than traditional methods.
It's also my product, and so I am a little bit biased here by including it right at the top. ;)
Prices start at $19/mo so it's very cheap to trial it.
Most of my programmatic SEO campaigns have been built by code and a database, but I have been using Create Pages myself a lot to speed up the time it takes to get quality content.
I particularly love the Google Sheets sync feature so that my content updates whenever the data in the sheet changes.
Here's why you would want to use Create Pages as your programmatic SEO tool of choice:
- I am one of the most well known programmatic SEO experts in the industry*
- I am building Create Pages based on what I know works
- The output from Create Pages is better than I have seen from other pSEO tools
(*I hated writing this humblebrag, but it is true and I do know what I'm talking about!)
I think it's is a strong choice for most businesses, but you should now have much more of an idea what you really need from a content tool and if another product works better for you, that's great!
If you do try Create Pages please let me know. We're very open to feedback and ship new features at lightning pace.
WP All Import
WP All Import is the most well-known pSEO tool for WordPress. Users can import data into WordPress from any XML, CSV, or Excel file, providing complete control with an easy-to-use drag & drop interface.
I've used this a lot, and it's the tool of choice for a lot of the tutorials inside Practical Programmatic (mostly because Create Pages didn't exist when I recorded them!).
It works very well for what it is, but it hasn't adapted or changed. The editor is still hard to use, imports take a long time, it's hard to use AI for content and images, there's no conditional logic to decide what to display, and when.
Typemat
Typemat is a quick and easy programmatic SEO tool that creates optimized pages in bulk quickly for better rankings, integrating easily with existing sites and requiring no plugins.
It's completely free to try, with no login, and lets you create pages that can be imported into WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.
Just paste public Google Sheets URL, map columns, and generate dynamic content.
Now, since writing this article, I actually acquired Typemat. What can I say? I love programmatic SEO tools and try to acquire the best ones.
Web scraping
If you have a product with a lot of data, using that is perfect for pSEO because it means your content and data together is a moat against the competition.
But scraping data can be a very helpful way of making sure your programmatic SEO is providing highly accurate and useful content to your users.
Web Scraper
Web Scraper is a free Chrome extension with a simple click and point interface that will help you to record and export thousands of records from a website in seconds after only a few minutes of setup.
Octoparse
Octoparse is the most popular no-code web scraping tool that turns web pages into structured data you can use.
If you're a Practical Programmatic member, you can learn how to use Octoparse here.
Keyword research
After years of doing programmatic SEO my keyword research is very much instinct based. If you have a head term like "best beaches", then you can assume that a lot of people are also searching for "best beaches in {country}".
We can also take it one step further and say that it's like people are searching for "best beaches in {city} with parking".
All of these longtail keywords are generally easier to rank for and perfect for programmatic SEO. Programmatic SEO also lets you cover topics more thoroughly to increase "topical authority" (basically how relevant Google thinks you are to the keyword topic).
The best programmatic SEO tools for keyword research that I have used:
Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a free Chrome extension that shows you search volumes and keyword ideas in Google search results. I use this most because I roughly know what will be popular based on experience and I can quickly verify for free with Surfer.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is (or was, depending who you ask) the gold standard for SEO keyword research. I do still use it every day for seeing what keyword competitors rank for and to follow that into related topics and keywords. I wouldn't say I enjoy spending the kind of money it costs, though.
Programmatic images
I've often been guilty of not creating images for my programmatic SEO pages. With AI and new tools now available it's very simple to add these now.
Tailgraph
Tailgraph is so good I can't believe it's free! What I love about this tool for programmatic SEO is that you can create dynamic featured images for every post you create.
Inside your Google Sheets template, use the `CONCATENATE` function to embed variables into the URL.
Here's a super simple URL example where all of these variables could be powered by your sheet data:
https://og.tailgraph.com/og
?fontFamily=Roboto
&title=This%20is%20your%20title
&titleTailwind=font-bold%20text-6xl
&titleFontFamily=Inter
&text=And%20this%20is%20your%20secondary%20text
&textTailwind=text-gray-700%20text-2xl%20mt-4
&textFontFamily=Dancing%2BScript
&logoTailwind=h-8
&bgTailwind=bg-blueGray-200
&footer=tailgraph.com
&footerTailwind=text-teal-600Create Pages
Create Pages also lets you create images using AI by adding your Replicate API key. The Flux models in particular are incredible and can create images that will fit your brand and match the variables you pass into your prompt.
Database software
The entire benefit of programmatic SEO is that you use data to scale your content creation. So we need somewhere to store the data!
CSV is fine if your data doesn't change, but if it does then there is a manual process to keep it updated.
Google Sheets
Everyone knows Google Sheets. It's free, easy to use, and it has a lot of powerful features to create dynamic content.
You can also use extensions to create content using AI models if you're not using a programmatic SEO tool that has that option.
Airtable
I've used Airtable a few times and it's a good Sheets alternative, but I find it harder to work with and it's not free with larger datasets, so I tend to stick with Google Sheets unless I have a good reason not to.
Publishing your content
Once you've built a dataset and your template inside your chosen programmatic SEO tool, you need to publish it somewhere.
Usually this will be a CMS if you're keeping it low/no-code. Some tools also offer a webhook or API if you want to hook into that and build something a little more custom.
WordPress
By far the dominant CMS, WordPress is likely where most people will end up publishing their programmatic SEO content.
I've built some very large and performant pSEO sites in WordPress and with new AI content models and pSEO software, it's easier than ever to publish and keep your programmatic content synced.
Webflow
The learning curve is higher, as is the price, but with Webflow you can hook into the collections and templates to quickly build very stunning looking programmatic pages.
My personal preference is still WordPress because I have spent many years using it, but Webflow is a great alternative with a great design out of the box. Designing a beautiful site in WordPress is MUCH harder to do.
We have a full course on how to build a programmatic site with Webflow here.
Indexing tools
Some of the programmatic SEO sites I've built are truly enormous. I'm talking billions of pages (billions with a B!).
I had a hard time getting them indexed, and had to figure out smart ways to do that.
URL Monitor
If you know my work, you'll know I also founded (and later exited) URL Monitor. It uses the Google Indexing API and worked incredibly well.
Since then, Google claim to have limited the API's ability to get pages indexed, but I am hearing that it can still work (although I no longer use the indexing API).
IndexMeNow
IndexMeNow is the tool I used before I built URL Monitor and spent over $6,000 on. I still have a lot of credits and use it from time to time.
The beauty of this tool is that it doesn't need a complicated setup and doesn't rely on the Google API. It also means you can use this to make sure pages that link to you also get indexed to help gain domain authority and trust.
The best of the rest
I've covered the big three programmatic SEO tools that I have used the most in Create Pages, WP All Import and Typemat (which I acquired recently).
But there are lots of other programmatic SEO tools you can consider. I actually used programmatic SEO and real data to build a list of "alternatives" pages for each of them.
If you want to get really into the weeds of pSEO then you can check out those pages in the list below:
- Byword alternatives
- Docswrite alternatives
- Typemat alternatives
- Bulk Ranker alternatives
- WP All Import alternatives
- SEOBrrr alternatives
- Whalesync alternatives
- Opendraft alternatives
- Drafthorse AI alternatives
- LPagery alternatives
- SEOmatic alternatives
- Page Generator Pro alternatives
- Multiple Pages Generator alternatives