Why SEO Automation is a Must for Small Businesses?

Nearly 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine. Yet, many small businesses still struggle to appear on Google’s first page.

This is a major problem.

Why? Because if your business isn’t visible in search results, you’re missing out on traffic, leads, and potential customers every single day.

SEO is the solution. But it’s not a one-time fix. It requires constant effort. You need to track keywords, optimize content, fix technical errors, monitor backlinks, publish regularly, and stay updated with algorithm changes.

That’s a lot for any small business to handle. Especially with limited time and resources.

This is where SEO automation becomes essential, making things much easier and faster. With automation, you can streamline complex tasks and focus on growing your business while your SEO runs in the background.

If you’re new to this and confused about where to begin, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. In this blog post, we’ll discuss all about SEO automation, why it’s a must for small businesses, the key benefits of using it, and the top SEO tasks you should automate.

Let’s get started!

Understanding SEO Automation

SEO automation involves utilizing software or tools to carry out tasks associated with search engine optimization. These tools are intended to automate activities that would otherwise be time-consuming and require significant manual effort.  

In recent years, the automation of specific SEO tasks has gained popularity as numerous marketing platforms have begun to offer increased automation features and AI integrations to address common SEO challenges. 

If you aren’t automating the more labor-intensive aspects of SEO, you could fall behind competitors who are already doing those tasks with automated systems.

What Are the Benefits of Adopting SEO Automation?

SEO automation tools can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of SEO strategies by eliminating repetitive tasks and allowing more time for strategic initiatives.  

Additionally, for those still configuring SEO fundamentals, the automation software can reduce some of the uncertainties in content and SEO strategy, helping users discover keywords, generate content ideas, or even suggest specific SEO tasks to help your business thrive.  

The advantages of SEO automation extend beyond simply creating smarter and more successful campaigns, including:

Saves Time: The process of creating SEO content requires considerable time for planning, writing, and execution. By automating certain aspects of that process, you can achieve faster turnaround times for your content.

Increases Efficiency: Automation enables you to finalize various tasks more swiftly, ranging from keyword research to website auditing and public relations outreach. This results in more keyword rankings, improved website performance, and additional backlinks to foster growth more rapidly.  

Optimizes Workflows: Substituting manual tasks with automation liberates the intellectual abilities of your marketing team members, permitting them to concentrate on higher-level strategic decisions and those marketing activities that still necessitate human involvement.  

Boosts SEO Performance: Automated software aids in streamlining your efforts and boosting your overall SEO performance. For instance, automation tools can assist you in identifying and rectifying SEO problems and provide actionable insights for future enhancements.

Improves Return on Investment (ROI): Automation not only saves time and money but also enhances your SEO results simultaneously. This translates to a higher ROI for your business and improves your financial outcome. 

[Also read: Measuring ROI from SEO: A Guide for SMBs]

Top SEO Tasks All Small Businesses Should Automate

By this time, you will be pretty excited to know which SEO tasks you can automate for your small business.

Let’s look into each of them without further ado.

Performing Keyword Research

Keyword research is a crucial yet often labor-intensive task in SEO. Identifying the right keywords to focus on for your business website can be challenging, especially when it comes to selecting those that offer the best chance for your business to rank while generating sufficient traffic.

Automation can assist in this area.  

Various tools and platforms like Semrush and Ahrefs are available to help you swiftly pinpoint keywords that your target audience is searching for online. These tools can also reveal the keywords for which your competitors currently rank. 

Executing an SEO Audit

One of the most beneficial tasks to start automating is SEO auditing for tracking all website issues.  

The technical health of our websites is vital for achieving favorable rankings in search engine results. However, most small business owners possess only a basic understanding of technical SEO and may not feel at ease working on their websites’ backend.  

Moreover, carrying out and interpreting SEO audits requires a higher level of technical SEO expertise. If you lack the necessary technical skills, the right automation tools can facilitate the auditing process, quickly identifying technical problems and offering a clear plan for resolving them.  

Platforms such as SEOptimer, Ahrefs Site Audit tool, and ContentKing provide round-the-clock website monitoring, ensuring no issues arise on your site that could affect your SEO performance.  

With comprehensive guides on fixing these problems, you can easily make your site more manageable and ideal in the eyes of users and search engines. Additionally, with automated tracking, you won’t need to worry about overlooking any critical issues that could harm your website’s organic rankings or traffic.

Topic Generation and Content Briefs

Transforming a keyword into a content concept is among the most effective tasks to streamline using AI content generation tools.  

Creating a unique blog post idea or article title demands creativity and mental effort. For those producing content in large quantities, this particular SEO activity is a routine aspect of their content-planning workflow.  

Blog topic generator tools can deliver various templates or suggestions for your SEO content. You can then modify the titles and ideas to align better with your brand voice, specific products, services, and intended audiences.  

Moreover, creating content briefs can take a considerable amount of time. These briefs are typically compiled after thorough research and cover:  

• Target keywords  
• Suggested word counts  
• Readability levels   
• Recommended internal links  
• Key focus terms or suggested phrases  
• Recommended FAQs  
• Proposed headings and sub-headings
• Other elements crucial for on-page SEO  

The content brief creation process can be simplified with just one click. These tools prompt users to input an article title and summary, after which the software produces a high-quality content brief that can be effortlessly edited and customized to better fit the content’s objectives and target audience.  

In terms of volume, this automation can facilitate the generation of more content briefs in a shorter time frame. With hundreds of briefs available, you’ll always have the next content outline necessary to continue enhancing your organic presence. 

Addressing SEO Issues

SEO challenges are common, and it’s crucial to resolve them promptly to maintain your rankings and overall SEO performance. Thankfully, many SEO automation tools, such as the Screaming Frog, exist to help you automatically crawl your site and generate issue reports.  

The Screaming Frog SEO Spider lets you schedule website crawls on a recurring basis. Additionally, you can configure the tool to automatically export any reports to your designated folder right after the crawl completes. For instance, you can export a comprehensive SEO issues report, a document detailing any broken links, pages with canonical tags, and much more.  

Tracking Keywords

You can utilize SEO automation tools to keep an eye on your keyword rankings and receive regular updates on their positions using rank tracking tools.

Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker serves as an excellent option for this purpose. Upon launching the tool, simply enter the keywords you wish to track. You’ll then be able to monitor their rankings on the dashboard or sign up for regular email notifications regarding your keyword ranking updates.

Creating SEO Reports

Creating comprehensive SEO reports is another very important task that can be automated using the right SEO tools.

Remember, it’s essential to analyze reports to assess your SEO performance and gain actionable insights into which optimizations are effective and which ones are not, enabling you to achieve optimal results.

Additionally, creating SEO reports is likely necessary to demonstrate your site’s current SEO status and return on investment (ROI). However, manually creating reports can be complex and consume a significant amount of time from your to-do list.

Google Search Console is among the most widely used platforms for automatically generating custom SEO reports. It enables you to extract data from any specific time frame and merge data from various other sources, such as Google Analytics.

Best Tools for SEO Automation

To efficiently adopt SEO automation, having the appropriate SEO toolkit is crucial. Here are some of the most powerful and useful tools for SEO automation:

• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs
• Semrush
• Screaming Frog
• SEOptimer
• ChatGPT
• Moz
• SE Ranking
• Alli AI
• SurferSEO

Key Features to Look for While Selecting the Tools

Numerous SEO marketing tools are now accessible for users to automate different SEO tasks or elements of the content creation process. When selecting the right platform, here are some factors you might want to think about:

• Which SEO tasks are the most time-consuming or resource-heavy for my business or marketing team at the moment?  
• Does this SEO tool or software address the difficulties associated with those particular tasks?  
• Are there other tools and features available within the software platform? Will I find those tools useful?  
• How many members of my team will require access to the software?  
• Is there a free version of this tool available, or does it come with a monthly fee or subscription?  
• What subscription price point would be financially beneficial for my team?  

Your answers to these questions will help determine which software tools are the best fit for your business needs.

Some SEO platforms are so complex and all-encompassing that they can feel intimidating for new users. The truth is, you might not need every tool offered in specific software platforms or may only utilize a few of their features.

That’s why it’s advisable to begin with the precise task you wish to automate. Then, let that lead you to the platform or tool that can facilitate that process.

[Also read: Top Free SEO Tools Every SMB Should Know] 

The Bottom Line

No doubt, SEO automation is the present and future trend.

To thrive in organic search, it’s crucial to start learning about the various ways automation can be incorporated into your existing marketing strategy.

Becoming comfortable with these tools might involve a slight learning curve, but the advantages they offer to your organic performance and overall results will make the effort worthwhile.