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Can SEO Really Be Automated? The Evidence Says…

Automation is on the rise in just about every industry, and SEO is no exception. There’s an increasing number of SEO tools out there that are designed to make the lives of digital marketing professionals easier than ever before. Often, SEO automation revolves around using these tools and software to carry out repetitive and time-consuming…
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Automation is on the rise in just about every industry, and SEO is no exception. There’s an increasing number of SEO tools out there that are designed to make the lives of digital marketing professionals easier than ever before. Often, SEO automation revolves around using these tools and software to carry out repetitive and time-consuming SEO tasks; think keyword research, tracking rankings, and even some content creation.

Automated SEO may be the way forward for streamlining tasks and saving time, but it has limitations. The use of AI in SEO and search automation tools can never replace strategic human insight from an expert. Similarly, it’s not a good idea to automate the entire SEO process, even though it can be helpful in some areas. This blog will tell you everything you need to know about automating your SEO strategy. Let’s get stuck in!

The Rise of Automation in SEO

Search has become more complex in recent years, and with that, there is greater pressure on teams to do much more, much faster. As a result, automation has become a major focus in SEO, and more agencies than ever are asking how many of their SEO tasks can be automated to improve workflow efficiency.

When it comes to SEO automation trends, AI SEO tools have become hugely popular. They can analyse large amounts of data, find technical problems, track rankings, and aid in content planning in a fraction of the time it takes to do it manually. Automation adoption can help teams become more efficient and scale to more clients and websites.

More agencies and SEO professionals might be making the switch towards automation, but human insight is so important for being able to understand the meaning behind the figures, with things like intent and user behaviour. With this in mind, automation tools should work with your strategy, not replace it.

What Parts of SEO Can Be Automated?

So, what areas of digital marketing can be turned into automated SEO tasks? While it can’t replace a human expert’s strategic or creative thinking, it can help to speed up time-consuming tasks that follow a set process. Things like:

  • Reporting – SEO automation tools make reporting easy. They can pull data from different sources and update metrics in real time to present insights in a clear and easy-to-understand format. This makes it easier to see which of your SEO efforts are working and which aren’t to help inform the next steps of your strategy.
  • Rank Tracking – When you have potentially hundreds of keywords to monitor across different devices, locations, and competitors, it’s just not feasible to do this manually. Specialist tools can keep track of changes automatically and highlight any changes for you, making data-driven decisions easy and saving you a whole load of time.
  • Technical SEO Audits – Technical SEO automation tools streamline SEO audits. They can quickly scan websites for a whole host of technical problems like crawl errors, missing tags, broken links, and page speed issues that would otherwise take up a lot of time to do manually. Technical site auditing is an important part of SEO that you can’t afford to get wrong.
  • Data Collection and Analysis – Data processing is something that automation does very well. Automated tools can gather and organise huge amounts of data a lot more efficiently than people can to give search performance insights. This then makes it easier for teams to analyse and optimise their strategies.

Where Automation Falls Short

What about the limitations of SEO automation? Automation can handle the repetitive, data-related tasks mentioned above, but human-led SEO wins every time in the following areas:

  • Strategy – Automation tools can give insights, but they can’t replace strategic thinking that comes from lived experience, which makes managed search services so effective. Only humans can effectively match SEO to business goals and make decisions based on short-term and long-term targets.
  • Creative Content – AI can be an excellent tool to give you ideas for content. However, for writing, it lacks originality, brand voice, and the creative flair that a human writer has to keep audiences engaged.
  • Digital PR – The type of outreach that’s involved in digital PR campaigns relies on building real, human relationships with publications. To do this, you need to build up trust and maybe even negotiate, which is not something automation can replicate.
  • Understanding Search Intent – Automated tools can gather data and track trends, but real search intent analysis requires a human touch. Only SEO professionals can interpret and understand search intent and its context to make sure their content and strategy match up.

AI Tools, Automation, and Smarter SEO Workflows

SEO automation software and AI SEO tools have changed how digital marketing tasks are done. They’ve helped to make SEO workflows more efficient and allow teams to focus their efforts on other areas. However, automation can’t just replace these human experts. Instead, it should be used carefully alongside professional expert insights to get the best results.

Click Insights provides automated data-led SEO insights so that teams can monitor performance across hundreds of pages and clients without getting bogged down in the details. It offers scalable reporting and AI-powered visibility tracking so SEO teams can concentrate on analysing trends, nailing their strategies, and creating campaigns that bring excellent results, which is what it’s all about after all. Click Insights offers process optimisation at its best.

 

What The Evidence Shows So Far

Automation delivers the best results when it supports an SEO strategy instead of replacing it entirely. Agencies that use automation tools for reporting, tracking keywords, and technical auditing can access SEO performance data and spot problems a lot quicker than if they were to do those tasks manually.

What’s more, campaign efficiency is boosted when automation with expert oversight is combined. By getting rid of repetitive tasks, agencies can concentrate on other areas of SEO that create impact. When used responsibly as a tool instead of a replacement, automation can help produce measurable outcomes that help teams scale up.

Preparing Your SEO Strategy for the Automation Era

There’s no denying that the future of SEO will mean that automation is here to stay. However, it’s important that your automated SEO strategy does not involve all aspects of your digital marketing efforts. The best and most effective strategies are the ones that balance automation and human insights, leaving the important decisions about campaign control and direction up to the experts.

The right tools used correctly can help you build scalable SEO strategies that deliver meaningful results. Click Insights’ automated reporting tools and Click Intelligence’s SEO services can help you take your SEO to the next level, thanks to a combination of select automation and dependable human insight. Want to learn more? Book a call today!

James Owen, Co-Founder & Head Of Search

James has been involved in SEO and digital marketing projects since 2007. James has led many SEO projects for well-known brands in Travel, Gaming and Retail such as Jackpotjoy, Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels, Hotels.com, Expedia, Betway, Gumtree, 888, Ax Paris, Ebyuer, Ebay, Hotels combined, Smyths toys, love honey and Pearson to name a few. James has also been a speaker at SEO and digital marketing conferences and events such as Brighton SEO.

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