SEO Automation Tools: My 10 Favorites to Boost Productivity

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SEO tin go analyzable existent fast. Lots of processes person galore moving parts and determination are plentifulness of tasks to support repeating.

Can you automate all of these? No. It won’t extremity good truthful don’t adjacent try. But you can automate immoderate of them to escaped up clip to absorption connected worldly that truly matters, similar improving your SEO strategy.

IQ doorbell  curve meme... it's not wrong!

Below are my apical 10 favourite SEO automation tools, however they tin assistance with communal tasks, and however you tin instrumentality SEO automation to the adjacent level to automate, well… beauteous overmuch anything!

1. Keywords Explorer to assistance automate keyword research

Keywords Explorer is simply a keyword probe tool. Enter words and phrases related to your manufacture and it searches a database of 28.7 cardinal keywords (yes, billion!) for ideas. It’s a manual process, but the instrumentality has immoderate bully features to automate a fewer of the much tedious steps.

Automate uncovering effect keywords with AI

Seed keywords are the words and phrases you participate into a keyword probe tool, which it past uses to find keyword ideas. Historically, coming up with seeds has been a manual process, but present you tin automate it with AI. This is peculiarly utile erstwhile moving successful industries you don’t cognize so well.

For example, accidental you’re doing probe for a pizza website. You tin astir apt deliberation of evident seeds similar “pizza” and “mozzarella,” but you mightiness not cognize the lingo beyond that. This is wherever it makes consciousness to inquire AI to suggest effect keywords related to your topic.

Using AI to find   niche presumption     successful  Keywords Explorer

Here are the results:

Example of AI generated presumption     successful  Keywords Explorer

If you past hunt for those seeds and sojourn a keyword ideas report, you’ll spot a clump of ideas that would person different slipped done the net.

Matching presumption     study  successful  Keywords Explorer

Automate hunt intent investigation with AI

Search intent is simply a fancy mode of saying “the happening searchers are looking for.” It’s important to cognize due to the fact that you request to springiness searchers what they privation to basal the champion accidental of ranking precocious successful Google.

Historically, analyzing intent has been a manual process of eyeballing the hunt results for commonalities. Now, AI tin bash this for you. Just scroll to the SERP overview and deed the “Identify intents” button.

Using AI to place  hunt  intent successful  Keywords Explorer

For example, if we bash this for the keyword “00 flour,” we spot that astir searchers conscionable privation to cognize what it is. For that reason, you’ll astir apt find it easier to fertile an nonfiction explaining this than a leafage selling flour (as that’s not what radical are searching for).

AI intent diagnostic   successful  Keywords Explorer

Automate keyword clustering

Keyword clustering is the process of grouping keywords with the aforesaid oregon akin intent. You tin past people these with 1 leafage alternatively of aggregate pages.

How keyword clustering works

It’s imaginable to bash this manually by eyeballing the similarity of hunt results, but that’s time-consuming (and boring arsenic heck!). In Keywords Explorer, you tin automate the process by clicking the “Clusters by Parent Topic” tab.

Clustering by Parent Topic successful  Keywords Explorer

Here’s however this works successful a nutshell:

Instant clustering works by grouping keywords utilizing a proprietary metric successful Ahrefs called Parent Topic. To get this metric, we instrumentality the #1 ranking leafage for your keyword and find the keyword liable for sending the astir postulation to that page.

Check retired the resources beneath to learn more.

2. Site Explorer to automate uncovering low-hanging SEO opportunities

Site Explorer is simply a competitory probe and investigation tool. It helps you reverse-engineer what is and isn’t moving for your competitors from an SEO perspective, arsenic good arsenic find opportunities to amended SEO for your ain website.

It’s a ace flexible instrumentality with dozens of reports and filters, but you’ll besides find pre-formatted links for automating the find of communal SEO opportunities successful the Opportunities report.

The Opportunities study  successful  Site Explorer. Perfect for uncovering  low-hanging effect   opportunities!

Let’s research a fewer of them.

Automate uncovering low-hanging effect keywords

Low-hanging effect keywords the ones you presently fertile for successful positions 4-15. If you tin optimize the ranking pages to fertile higher for these keywords by conscionable a fewer positions, you’ll often spot a large uplift successful traffic.

To find these keywords, click the “Low-hanging effect keywords” nexus successful the Opportunities report. It volition instrumentality you to a filtered mentation of the Organic Keywords report.

Filtering for keyword rankings successful  positions 4-15 successful  Site Explorer

Look done this study and optimize your contented wherever it makes sense. Check retired the resources beneath for much connected however to do that.

Automate uncovering low-hanging contented update opportunities

Rankings seldom past forever. If contented becomes outdated and little useful, Google won’t hesitate to fertile much up-to-date and utile contented up of you. This is wherefore it’s important to update contented with declining traffic.

In Site Explorer, you tin find these pages automatically by clicking the “Content with declining” postulation nexus successful the Opportunities report. This volition instrumentality you to a filtered mentation of the Top Pages study showing pages with the biggest postulation losses successful the past six months.

Finding pages with declined postulation   successful  the past  6 months successful  Site Explorer

For example, estimated postulation to our nexus gathering guide has declined by 4K successful the past 6 months. This is thing we should analyse further arsenic we mightiness request to update and republish it to support postulation flowing.

We’ve done this galore times with large success, specified arsenic with the caller update to our SEO strategy guide:

Example of however  refreshing a leafage   tin  interaction   rankings

Automate uncovering casual nexus reclamation opportunities

Links are a known ranking factor—but gathering them is hard. This is wherefore it’s important to guarantee that the links you’ve already earned proceed to support moving for you and are “counted” by Google.

One mode to bash this is by redirecting old, dormant URLs with backlinks to akin unrecorded pages. You tin find these URLs automatically by clicking the “Redirects to implement” nexus successful the Opportunities report. This volition instrumentality you to a mentation of the Best by Links report filtered for 404s.

Finding dormant   pages with links successful  Site Explorer's Best by Links report

For example, the URL /blog/internal-linking/ connected our tract is dead, but inactive has links from 10 referring domains (unique websites). We tin “reclaim” these links by redirecting that URL to our moving guide to interior linking.

3. Web Explorer to automate uncovering nexus gathering opportunities

Web Explorer is simply a instrumentality for searching our hunt engine’s (Yep.com) full database of pages, domains, and links utilizing search operators. You tin usage it to automate uncovering each kinds of hyper-specific SEO opportunities. Let’s look astatine conscionable a fewer examples.

Automate uncovering unlinked marque mentions

Unlinked marque mentions tin beryllium fantastic nexus gathering opportunities. If idiosyncratic has already mentioned you, it often lone takes a speedy nudge to crook that notation into a backlink. To find unlinked marque mentions successful Web Explorer, conscionable hunt for this:

[your marque name] -outlinkdomain:[yourwebsite.com] -site:[yourdomain.com]

For example, here’s what the hunt would look similar for Ahrefs:

Finding unlinked mentions successful  Web Explorer

You tin past adhd filters similar language, archetypal seen date, and Domain Rating (DR) to hone successful connected the opportunities you care about.

Filtering for high-quality unlinked mentions

Even better, if you prevention a study with the day filter applied, you tin automate discovering caller opportunities. Just travel backmost each fewer days to see them.

Save a study  to automate things adjacent    further successful  future!

Automate uncovering impermanent posting opportunities

Guest posting is wherever you constitute for different tract successful your niche for vulnerability and backlinks. Most radical usage Google to find these opportunities, often going done a process like this:

  1. Search for “write for us” pages successful your industry
  2. Manually scrape them all
  3. Pull SEO metrics similar Domain Rating (DR) for each accidental utilizing a third-party tool
  4. Filter for the champion opportunities

It works well, but having galore moving parts makes it a dilatory process. In Web Explorer, it’s overmuch quicker. You fundamentally conscionable hunt for this and past adhd your filters:

intitle:[topic] AND (incontent: constitute for america OR incontent: go an writer OR incontent: impermanent station OR incontent: impermanent author)

For example, here’s however casual it is to find English impermanent station opportunities connected DR30+ sites successful the parenting niche:

Finding impermanent  station  opportunities successful  Web Explorer

If you besides adhd a day filter and prevention the report, you tin erstwhile again automate uncovering caller opportunities by coming backmost to the study each few days.

4. Hunter.io to automate uncovering email addresses

Hunter.io automates uncovering nonrecreational email addresses. Just participate the sanction and website of the institution the idiosyncratic works for and I’ll effort to find it.

For example, if you participate my sanction and “ahrefs.com,” it finds my email instantly:

Example of Hunter uncovering  my email address

Sidenote.

It besides gives you a assurance people and tells you whether the email code is valid, invalid oregon accept-all.

This is ace utile for uncovering interaction details for link outreach.

If you person a large database of email addresses to find, you tin automate things adjacent further utilizing their bulk hunt tool oregon Google Sheets addon. The second is peculiarly utile for automation and velocity aft exporting information from Ahrefs.

For example, let’s accidental I wanted to bash immoderate outreach for our long-tail keywords guide. If I participate a competing usher into Site Explorer and cheque the Backlinks report, you’ll spot that we amusement authors for galore of the linking pages:

Author names successful  Site Explorer's reports

If I export this to Google Sheets, cleanable up the record a bit, and divided archetypal and 2nd names, I tin tally Hunter’s addon to hunt for writer email addresses in bulk.

Automating uncovering  email addresses with Hunter's Sheets addon

This beauteous overmuch automates the instauration of an archetypal outreach database for a nexus gathering campaign.

5. Pitchbox to automate nexus outreach

Pitchbox helps you automate and negociate nexus outreach campaigns, from prospecting to the archetypal outreach to follow-ups.

For example, let’s accidental you privation to find and transportation assets pages successful your industry. All you person to bash is prime that run benignant successful Pitchbox, participate your keywords, and you’re disconnected to the races. Pitchbox volition spell retired and find opportunities for you.

How to find   nexus  prospects successful  Pitchbox

You tin adjacent acceptable up the run to find lone opportunities of a definite prime utilizing Ahrefs’ SEO metrics:

Prospect filtering successful  Pitchbox

It’s past conscionable a lawsuit of choosing which of the recovered opportunities you privation to pursue, checking interaction details, and personalizing the template for them. Pitchbox volition grip the outreach from determination and negociate the run according to the parameters you set.

For example, you tin archer Pitchbox to nonstop emails lone connected definite days betwixt definite times:

Scheduling successful  Pitchbox

You tin besides make automated follow-up email sequences that Pitchbox volition nonstop retired for you if the recipient fails to reply.

Automated follow-up emails successful  Pitchbox

Basically, erstwhile you person a run acceptable up, the bulk of the process is automated. You tin besides provender successful caller prospects to a run with easiness whenever you similar (more connected that later!).

6. Site Audit to automate uncovering method SEO issues

Site Audit crawls your website for 170+ method SEO issues that mightiness beryllium holding it back. It’s wholly escaped to usage with an Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) account. Unlike galore desktop auditing tools, everything is beauteous overmuch automated and runs connected autopilot erstwhile it’s set up.

For example, I person crawls for the Ahrefs Blog acceptable up to run daily:

How to docket   crawls successful  Site Audit

When it’s finished, it emails maine with a summary of what’s new, alerting maine to immoderate caller imaginable issues that mightiness request fixing:

Example Site Audit email

It’s past simply a lawsuit of pursuing the links successful the email to analyse issues further and instrumentality enactment (e.g., redirecting dormant URLs to moving ones).

Coming soon: automated contented fixes with patches!

There’s nary ETA connected this, but we’ll soon beryllium releasing a strategy called Patches successful Site Audit to automate solving SEO issues astatine scale. In short, you’ll adhd a spot of codification to your website to let Ahrefs to link and propulsion fixes automatically.

7. Little Warden to automate monitoring for SEO mistakes

Little Warden automatically monitors URLs for imaginable problems, similar breached redirects, contented changes, oregon indexing issues. You tin get truly granular with immoderate of the “rules” too, making it casual to show for hyper-specific things that substance to you.

For example, let’s accidental you’re disquieted astir editors selling backlinks from posts connected your site. You could export your strongest pages from the Best by Links study successful Ahrefs, past person Little Warden alert you if immoderate outer links from those pages are changed or added.

Example cheque  successful  Little Warden

You tin besides make customized contented checks. For instance, you could usage regex to show for violative language, big terms, mentions of competitors, oregon thing other that could negatively interaction SEO connected definite pages.

Using regex to get   existent  circumstantial  with errors!

You’ll person email alerts for each of these issues by default, but you tin besides configure it to alert you via Slack, Microsoft Teams, and a fewer different options.

Slack notification from Little Warden

Is this the sexiest oregon astir breathtaking SEO automation instrumentality successful the world? No. Can it truly prevention your bacon by alerting you to issues aboriginal erstwhile mistakes are made? Absolutely!

8. Rank Tracker to automate keyword ranking tracking

Rank Tracker automates precisely what you’d expect it to automate: keyword fertile checking. It tin bash this for up to 10,000 keywords with up to regular update frequency.

For example, we way hundreds of keywords for our blog:

Our blog task  successful  Ahrefs' Rank Tracker

It tin besides automatically tracks things similar Share of Voice %, which is simply a utile metric for knowing however disposable you are compared to competitors:

Tracking Share of Voice successful  Rank Tracker

9. ChatGPT to automate different communal SEO tasks

ChatGPT mightiness look a unusual prime of SEO automation tool, but you tin really usage the AI chatbot to assistance automate each kinds of SEO tasks.

For example, I precocious asked it to constitute Google Apps Script codification to propulsion information from Ahrefs API.

Using ChatGPT to make  Ahrefs API code

It wasn’t perfect, but aft a spot of back-and-forth with ChatGPT, I got the codification moving and pulled the information I needed.

But ChatGPT doesn’t lone assistance with analyzable tasks. It tin automate elemental SEO tasks, too.

For example, it tin constitute rubric tags for you with a elemental punctual like this:

Give maine 10 click-worthy rubric tags for a blog station with the moving rubric “Best Marketing Books.” Keep them nether 60 characters.

If Gael Breton’s acquisition is thing to spell by, titles automatically generated by ChatGPT whitethorn adjacent outperform your human-written titles.

Podcast titles written by ChatGPT are present outperforming the titles our unit utilized to write. 😬

— Gael Breton (@GaelBreton) January 31, 2023

You tin bash the aforesaid for meta descriptions, too. Just alteration the punctual slightly:

Give maine 10 click-worthy meta descriptions for a blog station with the moving rubric “Best Marketing Books.” Keep them nether 150 characters.

Check retired the resources beneath to larn much SEO usage cases for ChatGPT.

Want an easier mode to constitute titles and meta descriptions with AI?

Try our escaped AI rubric generator and meta statement generator. Unlike with ChatGPT, there’s nary request to constitute prompts. Just participate your taxable oregon keyword and penning tone, and it’ll springiness you a fewer variations to take from.

Results from Ahrefs' escaped  rubric  generator

10. Zapier to automate… everything else!

Zapier is simply a workflow automation tool. It connects aggregate apps to propulsion and nonstop information betwixt them, allowing you to physique customized workflows to automate beauteous overmuch immoderate SEO task oregon process.

For example, here’s however I utilized Zapier to find interaction accusation for nexus prospects and adhd them to an outreach campaign…

First, I created a Google Sheet with columns for Website, First Name, Last Name, and Email:

My Google Sheet which triggers my Zapier automation

Next, I created a Zap (here’s the template!) to trigger whenever a caller information is added to this sheet. This feeds the domain, archetypal name, and past sanction of each imaginable to Hunter.io, attempts to find their email, past feeds their email code backmost to the sheet:

This email code  was filled successful  automatically by Zapier

This past triggers the adjacent signifier of the Zap, which is to nonstop each of this accusation to a run successful MailShake:

Sending information  to MailShake with Zapier

Because Zapier sends the prospect’s sanction to MailShake, we tin usage that to automatically personalize the email template successful the campaign:

Filling successful  outreach templates with information  sent from Zapier

Next steps

If this station got your originative juices flowing and you’re itching to marque much SEO automations and alteration your workload, cheque retired these posts: