---
title: "Build a programmatic SEO business from keyword patterns | Ian Nuttall"
description: "Programmatic SEO strategy"
canonical: "https://ian.is/post/repeatable-keyword-patterns"
language: "en"
---

# Build a programmatic SEO business from keyword patterns

Apr 2023 / 542,738 views / [via X](https://x.com/iannuttall/status/1650533527769976833)

I run a $20,000/mo programmatic SEO business.

With 0 employees.

Here's how to do it:

1/ Get very good at finding repeatable head terms and modifiers

Keyword research is similar to fundamental SEO, except we're looking for repeatable patterns.

Start with your head terms and look for modifiers that can create a lot of very specific, long-tail keywords.

So if "best beach" is our head term, there are many modifiers we could use to create a pSEO site around it:

best beach 𝗶𝗻 {𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆}
best beach 𝗶𝗻 {𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆}
etc

You can also get fancy and combine modifiers:

best 𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘆 beach 𝗶𝗻 {𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆}
best beach 𝗶𝗻 {𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆} with 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴

Bonus: each programmatic SEO section of your site is a ready-made topical cluster. This is how I'm able to rank brand-new domains very quickly.

2/ Get smart with your internal linking

Every page on your site should be reachable from the homepage with 2-3 clicks.

So with the beach example, you could have a list of beaches in the same city, interlinking them in your template.

![Image from the original X post](https://ian.is/media/tweets/1650533527769976833/1650533527769976833/7b3597f7bd9144c7313174d954cbb0bdc1050d65ef165f4985093dd2fe968b4c.jpg)

One advanced tactic I use with location-based pSEO is to get your trigonometry on. Using a formula, I can find locations near a given latitude and longitude, within a certain number of miles.

This can find locations outside of the current city to surface more internal links.

![Image from the original X post](https://ian.is/media/tweets/1650533527769976833/1650533527769976833/6cd8d51d76df87e3b722ab835ee5fc454942aaa64e3132a04a2f2e130903ba17.jpg)

To make your pages reachable within 3 clicks, here's an outline of what I would do for a beach site:

1\. Home page links to every country
2\. Every country page links to every city
3\. Every city page links to every beach

Every beach is within 3 clicks of the home page!

Another slightly advanced internal linking tactic is dynamic sidebars.

This can be done easily with code, and WordPress has plugins to help with this too.

Sidebars can link to random countries, cities, or beaches, or you can track popular locations and list those - or both!

3/ Leverage aged sites whenever possible

If you're just starting out, free-to-reg domains are fine to test the theories. The most explosive pSEO growth I've had, though, is when combined with an aged domain 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲!

Not to toot my own horn, but I built [http://AgedAssets.com](http://agedassets.com/) to help you do this very thing.

This has been my go-to strategy for years and my most recent ~$500k exit came from a $2k domain acquired just like this!

What you're looking for here is a site that is:

\- No longer updated
\- Has solid SEO metrics (backlinks, some traffic + rankings)
\- Is in a niche that has repeatable keywords (see point 1)

This trifecta can help you to hit the ground very, very quickly. Here's my $2k site:

![Image from the original X post](https://ian.is/media/tweets/1650533527769976833/1650533527769976833/0f6e375a6573d11b0c290c84db0d5d864796ca9fd417b2b6b89fb26746481a9f.jpg)

I prefer aged sites to aged domains for a few reasons:

\- Aged domains fall out of the index and it's not always possible to get old rankings back
\- You can leverage the existing content without having to rewrite it
\- You already have data about what topics + keywords are ranking

4/ Spend as much time on templating as you do on data

One mistake I see a lot is getting amazing data then adding it to a very simplistic template.

Your templates should include conditional content, comparisons to other data where possible, and charts + tables!

![Image from the original X post](https://ian.is/media/tweets/1650533527769976833/1650533527769976833/e04c7e079a0610c8cb860e5d5ebc43f541bd6aed90ad689db1c9239a37a2a189.jpg)

![Image from the original X post](https://ian.is/media/tweets/1650533527769976833/1650533527769976833/781e1612be41b10f37e2cf267b88784dca019c9fc83ba6d41a9d50d9ceb2ddab.jpg)

I've spoken to people building pSEO sites in the same niches as me, often much more talented developers too, and yet my sites outperformed them...

Mostly because I took the extra effort to build a template that I thought was truly helpful to end users!

Even in tricky niches like unit conversions, where there isn't a lot to say beyond "hey, here's the answer", you can provide some context to try and grab clicks from people who need an explanation as well.

Not the prettiest example here, but it works.

![Image from the original X post](https://ian.is/media/tweets/1650533527769976833/1650533527769976833/d418fa5c3b2bd14e8d7752dbe29ad0322a5fad5a548aaf73754039933ac2ad14.jpg)

5/ Get as many pages indexed as possible

I've been guilty in the past of going COMPLETELY OVERBOARD on page volume, but I've calmed down in my old age.

My indexing strategy now is:

![Image from the original X post](https://ian.is/media/tweets/1650533527769976833/1650533527769976833/da3e156fcc813e85d906937989cd28927430109739ebfb21186974b881967170.png)

\- Focus on topical clusters of no more than ~2,000 pages at a time
\- REALLY nail internal linking
\- Target clusters that have useful (and enough) data to share
\- Don't create pages purely based on keyword volume if the data doesn't work

I used to rely too heavily on massive, massive, volumes of XML sitemaps. My rule of thumb now:

𝗜𝗳 𝗜 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗽 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀!

For the actual indexing part, a few more useful tips:

\- Try and keep all sitemaps below 10,000 pages
\- Create an XML sitemap
\- Submit it to GSC
\- Add it to robots.txt

And the final indexing tip: take your archive pages, so in the beach example this would be the country pages and maybe the city pages.

Submit those to an indexing tool like [http://indexmenow.com](http://indexmenow.com/) and let Google index those pages, following your well-executed internal links!

6/ When you get traction, add blog posts + newsletter

pSEO is just one strategy for traffic acquisition. I use it because you can scale new or abandoned sites VERY QUICKLY.

This lets you know what works and what doesn't. With data, you can make decisions.

When you see what topics are ranking, you can plan out laser-focused blog posts to drill down further, hitting the high RPM keywords.

On top of that, you can add email newsletter forms to convert traffic to readers that you build a relationship with over time.

With AI on the rise, this is more important than ever!

In fact, I'm considering an exit on my pSEO sites that don't fit the long-term brand model that I'm looking to build.

If I can't see a path to move beyond display ads and SEO traffic, it's not viable long-term.

For me, that is going to look like this:

pSEO traffic -> email list -> digital products -> stable profits

And that's it!

If you want to learn the practical basics of programmatic SEO using WordPress, my video series is available again (with more videos coming soon!)

👇

[http://practicalprogrammatic.com](http://practicalprogrammatic.com/)

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