SEO Automation: A Guide To Boost Efficiency (Tools Included)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a versatile digital marketing strategy. It involves many different parts that need to be managed with a unified approach to improve performance.

In the old days of SEO, every page title and every report were created manually, one by one.

Today, though, thanks to multiple automation options available, things have changed.

Can SEO Be Automated?

Yes, SEO can be automated. Various SEO tasks can be either fully or partially automated. You can, for example, automate several aspects of content creation, like topic brainstorming and keyword research. However, it's not advisable to automate the entire process.

In short, depending on the project and its progress, month in, month out, you can choose what to automate and to what extent.

Is It Worth It?

Yes, automated SEO helps speed up standardized processes and do away with tedious tasks, freeing up time to concentrate on all the stuff software can’t do: evaluate results and make critical decisions for increased search engine visibility and enhanced ROI.

What Is SEO Automation?

SEO automation is the process of using online tools to perform repetitive and time-consuming Search Engine Optimization tasks, like performance reports, error tracking, and competitor monitoring. It helps SEOs work with more speed and efficiency.

In our SEO agency, our team runs certain automated SEO jobs but also checks all processes manually at set periods or when we need to dig deep into the details of a specific task.

This combined approach helps us offer our clients better and faster results.

Let’s dive into more detail.

How Can SEO Automation Boost Efficiency?

Automating your SEO strategy is a worthwhile investment for various reasons:

Saves Time

SEO-automated software gives you more free time in your workday so you can accomplish more essential business tasks.

Accelerates SEO Performance

It helps you streamline your efforts and improve the overall performance of your SEO clients. For example, automation software can identify issues and give you actionable insights for future optimizations based on data.

Improves Return On Investment (ROI)

Incorporating automated SEO functions in your daily workflows saves money and improves results, improving your bottom line.

Lets You Focus On Growth

Doing away with mundane upkeep allows you to focus your energy on strategy, up-skilling, and acquiring new clients.

Sounds great! Doesn’t it?

Sure, but keep in mind that you cannot automate everything! And also, that each project can hold a different level of automation.

What Parts Of SEO Can I Automate?

Here are a few things you can automate within your SEO campaign and still provide a high level of results:

Site Monitoring

Keeping track of the end-to-end website performance is essential for any SEO campaign.

Rank Tracking

You can take advantage of automated tracking reports for a quick and comprehensive view of both new and old pages to see how rankings evolve over time.

Backlink Analysis

Automating backlink analysis makes it easier to see who is linking to your pages, ensuring that only high-quality links are retained and maintaining a respectable backlink profile at all times.

Competitor Monitoring

Understanding your competition is a big part of the SEO game. Automation can help you spot competitors and set the right methods to surpass them.

Error Tracking

With so many different tasks you need to do, there’s a lot of room for errors. But now, your automated helpers can detect these errors and provide guidance on how to fix them.

Keyword Ranking Information

Instead of devoting time to gathering keyword ranking data, let your tools do this work for you. Then, you can analyze their findings for your best-targeting keywords.

Monitoring Traffic Changes

High rankings stay on top as long as they can capture and retain visitor interest. Outdated content may gradually lose user interest and, thus, its high position.

Keyword Clustering

To make the most out of your keyword optimization and enhance your semantic SEO, automated keyword clustering provides a roadmap for your future content and helps you expand your website’s topical authority.

SEO Prioritization

Because SEO is not a one-size-fits-all, and it also combines a wide range of strategies, AI tools can make recommendations and create an SEO roadmap tailored to every website.

Such solutions are especially helpful for beginners and DIY SEO projects.

Content Plan & Briefs

Automatic SEO tools offer ideas and create topics for new, keyword-based content.

This approach saves hours of work, but still, you’ll need to go over titles and topics to ensure they align with your clients’ business needs and marketing style and offer a competitive advantage in SERPs.

Having done that, your AI SEO helper can then create content briefs for your copywriters with subheadings, content structure, optimal word count, etc.

Content Optimization

Freshening up your content with the help of automated SEO software that indicates what needs updating for best results, breathes new life into your website with little effort.

Indeed, instead of publishing loads of new articles, taking it slow and capitalizing on what’s already there often brings better results.

Just a note here - despite the abundance of tools available, you can’t just leave it all up to automation. Critical planning and evaluation are among the core SEO qualities for success.

Using automated software is, however, fundamental. So, after years of dealing with successful SEO projects, here’s my top pick for this year:

Best SEO Automation Tools

Popular SEO audit and marketing toolkits (like Ahrefs & Semrush) include various automated functions and continuously upgrade with new AI-powered offerings.

So, let’s first see how your (most likely) existing tools can automate your work and then propose a couple of extra apps you can use.

Semrush Automates SEO Content Creation & Much More

Semrush allows you to set various standard procedures to automatic. One of its latest additions is automated content creation and optimization.

Its AI-powered writing assistant suggests topics, opportunity keywords, outlines, and on-page optimizations. It also provides content readability scores and integrates content optimization with all the functionalities of its SEO toolkit.

Other SEO automation tools in Semrush include: competitor analysis, brand monitoring, report creation, and more.

Ahrefs Identifies Linking Opportunities & Automates Alerts

Among its long list of capabilities, Ahrefs SEO automation functions include detailed backlink reporting that allows you to quickly reclaim lost links, see patterns in backlink acquisition, audit your backlink profile, and identify opportunities for new connections.

Moreover, its internal linking opportunities report includes new link suggestions by looking at the top 10 keywords each page ranks for. Plus, you can set alerts for traffic fluctuations and new keywords ranked for or lost.

Screaming Frog Automates Tech SEO & Integrates With Open AI

Screaming Frog is a dedicated crawler tool that digs deep into all technical and on-page aspects of your website. Here, you schedule crawls and stay on top of any issues that hinder performance. Plus, you can automate these reports in Google Looker Studio.

On top of that, Screaming Frog’s recent integration with Open AI automates common SEO tasks like:

• Content Analysis & Recommendations
• Meta Title & Description Optimization
• Alt Texts
• Category Page Text
• Structured Data

Surfer SEO Optimizes Your Content For You

Surfer SEO is an AI-powered content creation and optimization platform that serves as a ‘full-time’ assistant for your copywriters.

It can, for instance, generate initial drafts for review, which you can then edit online with the help of real-time keyword suggestions and optimization prompts. You can also use this feature in human-generated content and facilitate your work with their automated outline generator and plagiarism checker.

Surfer SEO also analyzes existing content, provides recommendations for improved rankings, and helps you apply them all at once via its “Auto-Optimize” feature.

AgencyAnalytics Unifies Digital Marketing Reports

AgencyAnalytics is a digital marketing analytics platform that offers unified views of how your SEO, PPC, social media, and other marketing efforts are doing.

You can thus automate scheduled reporting for any sources you need, including your SEO analytics, and gain a competitive advantage across all platforms.

Other tasks like scheduled website audits, rank tracking, and backlink monitoring are also part of their automated SEO optimization functions.

Using Automation To Excel In SEO

Discerning which parts of your SEO strategy can be automated and where you need a more detailed (human) approach comes with time and experience.

Here, at Atropos Digital SEO Agency, we combine automation, meticulous analysis, and expertise to offer you top SEO results that strategically bring your pages in front of future customers' eyes and solidify your presence in organic searches. Give us a call to find out more.