Hey Reader,

"Programmatic SEO is just AI spam."

I hear this all the time.

And honestly? Most of the time, they're right.

But when done correctly, programmatic SEO is one of the most powerful growth strategies available in 2025.

Let me prove it: We just took a client from 0 to 30,000 clicks per month in 6 months using this exact approach.

And today, I'm going to show you exactly how we did it.

Why Most Programmatic SEO Fails (And Yours Probably Will Too)

Before we dive in, let's address the elephant in the room.

Most people approach programmatic SEO like this:

1. Find a bunch of keywords
2. Pump them into ChatGPT
3. Generate thousands of thin articles
4. Upload everything at once
5. Wonder why Google penalizes them

This is exactly why programmatic SEO has a bad reputation.

But here's what we did differently:

Instead of creating garbage content at scale, we created a system to produce genuinely helpful content at scale.

The key difference? Strategy, not just volume.

The "Scalable Keyword Pattern" Strategy

Here's the foundation of our entire approach:

Not every niche can use programmatic SEO effectively. It only works in niches with scalable keyword patterns - keywords that follow predictable patterns you can repeat endlessly.

Here's what I mean:

• [Horoscope] x [Horoscope] friendship compatibility
• [Horoscope] x [Horoscope] love compatibility
• [Horoscope] x [Horoscope] work compatibility

Each pattern creates hundreds of keyword opportunities.

Our Exact 5-Step Programmatic SEO Process

Here's the step-by-step system we used to generate 30,000 monthly clicks:

Step 1: Define Your Scalable Keyword Types

Start by identifying 4-5 keyword patterns that fit your niche.

For our client (B2B horoscope space), we used:

• [Sign] x [Sign] friendship compatibility
• [Sign] x [Sign] love compatibility
• [Sign] x [Sign] work compatibility
• [Sign] daily horoscope
• [Sign] weekly horoscope

Each pattern had the potential for hundreds of variations.

Step 2: Generate Your Complete Keyword List

Now expand each pattern into every possible combination:

• Leo x Gemini friendship compatibility
• Leo x Gemini love compatibility
• Leo x Gemini work compatibility
• Leo x Virgo friendship compatibility
• Leo x Virgo love compatibility
• And so on...

Pro tip: Don't worry about search volume at this stage. Many zero-volume keywords in programmatic niches still drive significant traffic.

Step 3: Build Plug-and-Play Templates

This is where most people mess up. They try to scale without proper templates.

For each keyword type, create:

• Dedicated page structure
• Standard content sections (intro, main content, FAQ, conclusion)
• Repeatable elements (headings, internal links, CTAs)
• Consistent internal linking patterns

Templates are your scaling foundation. Without them, you'll create inconsistent, low-quality content.

Step 4: Create Manual Examples First

Before you touch AI, write 1-2 articles manually for each template.

This serves multiple purposes:

• Ensures your templates actually match search intent
• Creates training examples for AI
• Helps you spot potential issues before scaling
• Establishes your content quality baseline

Critical insight: These manual examples become your AI training data. The better your examples, the better your scaled content.

Step 5: Scale with AI + Human Oversight

Now comes the fun part - scaling with Claude AI.

Here's our exact process:

1. Create a Claude project with all your manual examples
2. Feed it your templates and content patterns
3. Train it on your brand voice and style guidelines
4. Generate content in batches (we did 20-30 articles per batch)
5. Have a VA review and upload 4-5 articles per day

The key is gradual rollout. Don't dump 5,000 articles overnight.

The Content Quality Secret That Changes Everything

Here's what separates winning programmatic content from spam:

Every piece of content must provide genuine value.

Even if you're scaling content generation, each article should:

• Answer the specific query completely
• Include unique insights or data points
• Provide actionable advice
• Match the search intent precisely

We achieved this by:

• Creating detailed content briefs for each template
• Including data from astrological databases
• Adding personalized insights for each sign combination
• Ensuring every article was genuinely helpful

The Link Building Strategy That Actually Works

Content alone won't get you ranking - you need backlinks.

But here's where most people fail: they beg for links.

Instead, we used the ABC link swap strategy:

• Site A (a blog we write for) links to Site B (target prospect)
• Site B links to Site C (our client)
• Site C links back to Site A

This creates a win-win-win situation where everyone gets value.

Pitch example: "Hey [Name], I'm writing a guest post for [high-authority site] and would love to include a reference to your guide. In exchange, would you mind linking to my client's [relevant resource] from your [relevant page]?"

The Programmatic SEO Mistakes That Kill Results

Based on our experience (and seeing others fail), here are the fatal mistakes to avoid:

1. Publishing everything at once - Google will flag mass content as spam
2. Using generic templates - Your content needs to be genuinely helpful
3. Ignoring search intent - Each variation must satisfy user needs
4. Skipping the manual examples - AI needs proper training data
5. Focusing only on volume - Quality still matters at scale
6. Neglecting internal linking - Connect your content strategically
7. Ignoring user experience - Make pages genuinely useful

Is Programmatic SEO Right for Your Business?

Programmatic SEO works incredibly well for certain niches, but it's not universal.

If you're in a space w/ 200-300 total target keywords, then you're better of going with quality over quantity...

But if you're in a niche with 1,000+ keywords like I mentioned in this email, then programmatic is the way to go.

Bottom Line

Programmatic SEO isn't AI spam when done right.

It's a systematic approach to capturing long-tail traffic that your competitors are ignoring.

The key is combining scalable systems with genuine value creation.

Stop chasing the same 50 keywords everyone else is targeting. Instead, find the patterns in your niche and systematically dominate thousands of search queries.

- Nick