Programmatic SEO planning and analysis for pages generated at scale from data sources. Covers template engines, URL patterns, internal linking automation, thin content safeguards, and index bloat prevention. Use when user says "programmatic SEO", "pages at scale", "dynamic pages", "template pages", "generated pages", or "data-driven SEO".
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SKILL.md
seo-programmatic
Programmatic SEO planning and analysis for pages generated at scale from data sources. Covers template engines, URL patterns, internal linking automation, thin content safeguards, and index bloat prevention. Use when user says "programmatic SEO", "pages at scale", "dynamic pages", "template pages", "generated pages", or "data-driven SEO".
user-invocable
true
argument-hint
[url or plan]
license
MIT
metadata.author
AgriciDaniel
metadata.version
2.2.4
metadata.category
seo
Programmatic SEO Analysis & Planning
Build and audit SEO pages generated at scale from structured data sources.
Enforces quality gates to prevent thin content penalties and index bloat.
Google's Scaled Content Abuse policy (introduced March 2024) saw major enforcement escalation in 2025:
June 2025: Wave of manual actions targeting websites with AI-generated content at scale
August 2025: Third-party/SEO-community reporting described stronger SpamBrain detection for AI-generated link schemes and content farms
Result: Google reported 45% reduction in low-quality, unoriginal content in search results post-March 2024 enforcement
Enhanced quality gates for programmatic pages:
Content differentiation: ≥30-40% of content must be genuinely unique between any two programmatic pages (not just city/keyword string replacement)
Human review: Minimum 5-10% sample review of generated pages before publishing
Progressive rollout: Publish in batches of 50-100 pages. Monitor indexing and rankings for 2-4 weeks before expanding. Never publish 500+ programmatic pages simultaneously without explicit quality review.
Standalone value test: Each page should pass: "Would this page be worth publishing even if no other similar pages existed?"
Site reputation abuse: Google clarified site reputation abuse language on 2024-11-19; treat third-party/hosted programmatic content as a policy risk.
Recommendation: The WARNING gate at <40% unique content remains appropriate. Consider a HARD STOP at <30% unique content to prevent scaled content abuse risk.
Safe Programmatic Pages (OK at scale)
✅ Integration pages (with real setup docs, API details, screenshots)
✅ Template/tool pages (with downloadable content, usage instructions)
✅ Glossary pages (200+ word definitions with examples, related terms)
✅ Product pages (unique specs, reviews, comparison data)
✅ Data-driven pages (unique statistics, charts, analysis per record)
Penalty Risk (avoid at scale)
❌ Location pages with only city name swapped in identical text
❌ "Best [tool] for [industry]" without industry-specific value
❌ "[Competitor] alternative" without real comparison data
❌ AI-generated pages without human review and unique value-add
❌ Pages where >60% of content is shared template boilerplate
Uniqueness Calculation
Unique content % = (words unique to this page) / (total words on page) × 100
Measure against all other pages in the programmatic set. Shared headers, footers, and navigation are excluded from the calculation. Template boilerplate text IS included.
Canonical Strategy
Every programmatic page must have a self-referencing canonical tag
Parameter variations (sort, filter) canonical to the base URL when duplicate or low-value
Paginated series: use self-canonical paginated pages when content differs; keep crawlable links
If programmatic pages overlap with manual pages, the manual page is canonical
No canonical to a different domain unless intentional cross-domain setup
Sitemap Integration
Auto-generate sitemap entries for all programmatic pages
Split at 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed per sitemap file, whichever comes first (protocol limit)
Use sitemap index if multiple sitemap files needed
<lastmod> reflects actual data update timestamp (not generation time)
Exclude noindexed programmatic pages from sitemap
Register sitemap in robots.txt
Update sitemap dynamically as new records are added to data source
Index Bloat Prevention
Noindex low-value pages: Pages that don't meet quality gates
Pagination: Reserve noindex/canonical consolidation for true duplicates or low-value filtered views
Faceted navigation: Reserve noindex/canonical to base category for true duplicates or low-value filtered views
Crawl budget: For sites with >10k programmatic pages, monitor crawl stats in Search Console
Thin page consolidation: Merge records with insufficient data into aggregated pages
Regular audits: Monthly review of indexed page count vs intended count
Output
Programmatic SEO Score: XX/100
Assessment Summary
Category
Status
Score
Data Quality
✅/⚠️/❌
XX/100
Template Uniqueness
✅/⚠️/❌
XX/100
URL Structure
✅/⚠️/❌
XX/100
Internal Linking
✅/⚠️/❌
XX/100
Thin Content Risk
✅/⚠️/❌
XX/100
Index Management
✅/⚠️/❌
XX/100
Critical Issues (fix immediately)
High Priority (fix within 1 week)
Medium Priority (fix within 1 month)
Low Priority (backlog)
Recommendations
Data source improvements
Template modifications
URL pattern adjustments
Quality gate compliance actions
Error Handling
Scenario
Action
URL unreachable
Report connection error with status code. Suggest verifying URL accessibility and checking for authentication requirements.
No programmatic pages detected
Inform user that no template-generated or data-driven page patterns were found. Suggest checking if pages use client-side rendering or if the URL points to the correct section.
Thin content threshold exceeded
Trigger quality gate warning. Report the unique content percentage and flag pages below 40% uniqueness. Require user acknowledgment before proceeding.
Quality gate violation
Halt analysis at the HARD STOP threshold (500+ pages without justification or <30% unique content). Present findings and require explicit user approval to continue.
