Fully automated SEO, while it would be amazing, is ultimately too good to be true. This is because the future of SEO will necessitate building relationships with other websites and online communities. This genuine human interaction cannot be automated and is already playing a big part today.
Having said that, there are a wide range of tools and techniques involved in getting websites higher in search engines, and we are always looking for ways to optimise our SEO processes. More efficient processes means we can get results faster for our clients without affecting the quality of our work.
Having found several processes worth automating, we wanted to share these here.
Automating SEO Processes
1. Technical SEO / Site Audits
This is the most common SEO automation, I do not think anyone would 100% manually review a website’s code for SEO, at least not quickly.
Having tested (and continuing to use) multiple platforms for technical audits, we would recommend SISTRIX Onpage.
SISTRIX offers many tools, however it’s their Onpage analysis tool that is most worthwhile, and in my opinion currently better than any other site audit tools out there (Moz included).
Screaming Frog is a close second, and Ahrefs is not far behind both with their new Site Audit tool.
2. Keyword Positions in Custom Reports
Again most SEOs will automate tracking keyword positions, however the tools that do this have various limitations in providing reports to clients.
For example, white label report software is generally very inflexible, only providing summaries in pdfs.
The most flexible, and customisable solution we have found is using Serpbook – who have the cheapest, and most user-friendly API for keyword position tracking.
We combine this with a script that pulls in the data automatically into Google Sheets. This allows us to create daily keyword position tracking graphs, in a completely customisable way.
3. Domain Authority Score Checking
When link building we regularly check the DA scores of websites to ensure we are only building high quality links. Instead of doing this manually we built a script in Google Sheets to take care of it for us.
It does not take long to manually check however it is faster automated, saving a lot of time in the long run.
4. Link Building – Email Follow Ups
Link building requires reaching out to other websites, and usually providing them some sort of value (maybe a guest blog post) in return for a link. This part of SEO requires building relationships with others, and because of that it can never fully be automated.
I have seen attempts to fully automate initial email outreach to other websites, and simply put, they are never as successful as tailoring your outreach to each link opportunity. We’re all pretty good at spotting those template emails and then subsequently ignoring them.
Despite that, what can be automated is the follow up. Even interesting, tailored initial emails get ignored regularly, but it is the follow ups that should be automated to save time.
Interested in a helping hand with SEO?
Get in contact with the team at Digital Uncut today.