Welcome to the most excellent programmatic SEO case study on the internet.
In it, I don’t just give you the numbers. I give you access to the (limited) Google Search Console via Google Data Studio. That’s why it’s the most excellent. Don’t think you’re going to get my keywords, though.
A little about my programmatic SEO path, I started my first pure pSEO project on October 12th, 2022. Before that, I experimented with reusing content in different places on sites using reusable blocks and creating product comparison posts. Shit worked.
The tools I use to create programmatic SEO websites
It can’t be a case study without a few affiliate links, right? I’ve decided to focus on WordPress since it seems like most people use it, and I’m not a developer. Wendy WordPress, you can do this too!
WP All Import
I use WP All Import to easily create posts from a spreadsheet to my website. One potential downside to using WP All Import is that it uses the classic editor. If you’re more comfortable working with Gutenberg, tough.
Custom Post Types
I’ve been using custom post types for the last few sites I created to separate the programmatically generated content from what I consider “normal posts.” That way, they’re not taking up space on the blog roll or anything like that – they exist in their own realm.
Any SEO plugin
I don’t have any affinity for any SEO plugin, but I’m leaning more towards All In One SEO to get my sitemaps nice and created.
GeneratePress
I only ever use GeneratePress. It’s easy to use, and I’m familiar with it, so I can use it for any website – a blog, business site, e-commerce site, anything. I got the premium subscription for that, which is like $59 a year.
GenerateBlocks
GenerateBlocks is an amazing addition to GeneratePress, allowing for more page and post customization.
Reusable Blocks Extended
Reusable Blocks Extended creates shortcodes for reusable blocks so they can be inserted into posts using WP All Import. This is especially useful if you want to create global content changes without individually making those changes in every post.
Total earnings
These earnings came from AdSense, Ezoic, Adsterra, ShareASale, FlexOffers, and Impact. So long as a site can cover its domain registration costs, I will keep them alive.
That’s the cool thing about programmatic SEO. I mean, besides time, the cost is relatively low. All you need is to pay for the domain registration fee. You’re not ordering hundreds of articles or writing them yourself.
| Month | Earnings |
|---|---|
| November 2022 | $26.79 |
Site 1: GPC
Site one was the first SEO project I worked on, where everything was automatic. After publishing the content, I figured it was time to sign up for some ad networks. Adsterra was the first to approve my request, so that’s the network I went with.
I only started using display ads on November 18, so earnings could have been much better.
Launched: October 12th, 2022
Monetized with: Display ads (Adsterra)
Pages: 47,000
Pages indexed: 16.7k, 38k not indexed (All in One SEO)
Visitors: 809 users
Pageviews: 1,083
Earnings: $26.79 | 2056 impressions, 12 clicks, $13.03 CPM
The point was to see if this could work, and it turns out it can. However, the site is ugly and not something I want to be associated with. Heinous.