Working Concept

If you look at the technical side, there are several elements involved in the programmatic SEO process that you’d want to understand properly before diving right in. Take a look at the below image and then the main element's description after the image.

1. Head terms and modifiers

Combining the head term with modifiers makes the complete keyword. Head term is the fixed part of the keyword that doesn’t change and modifier is the variable part that does change. Here are a few examples to understand this better:

Example #1: Can goldfish live with {another fish}?

In the above keyword, can goldfish live with is the head term and {another fish} is the modifier variable which can be replaced with guppies, angelfish, bettas, etc.

Example #2: How to delete {platform} account?

In this example, how to delete * account is the head term and platform is the modifier variable that can be replaced with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Gmail, etc.

2. Page templates

For a single head term, pages generated by programmatic SEO techniques follow the same pattern. To keep the pattern the same, you need to decide the content and design of the generated pages beforehand by creating a template.

And the template can be called the page template, and it’s critical for the process.

3. Databases

Databases contain modifiers and other associated data points that are used to create pages in bulk by following the page templates’ design. The database can be in a Google Sheets file format, a simple CSV file, or a DB or an API format.

The number of pages generated by the programmatic SEO process will be equal to the number of rows in the dataset.

Working of programmatic SEO

Similar to Mail Merge, programmatic SEO is a technique for publishing multiple web pages that follow a similar pattern and design — all from fixed page templates and their respective connected data sources. In fact, the technique becomes necessary in cases where several pages with the same design are to be published.

While pSEO accelerates your publishing process, it also helps you update 1000s of posts with the latest information in no time. And this is one of the best advantages of using the technique. And for programmatic SEO, there are specialised tools out there that can help you publish 1000s of pages in no time; I have written a post listing some interesting pSEO tools.