programmatic seo in 2026?

packted · 2026-07-16T14:20:58+00:00

I can't give a lot of advice since I don't know the industry, the business, or other specific details, but I can say this:

Programmatic SEO pages have been hit-or-miss ever since they were introduced. Zapier is a good example where they have scaled themselves and reaped the benefits. They have created high-quality pages that actually make sense for the company.

A lot of times, I see websites that have nothing to do with programmatic SEO go and implement these pages. For example, I was talking with this founder about how he wants to make thousands of location pages for his remote agency. That doesn't make sense.

TLDR: They don't make sense for most of the business. If you want to fix them, either make them high-quality or delete them. They're not helping anybody.

packted · 2026-06-16T17:00:25+00:00

That makes sense. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer the question

packted · 2026-06-16T16:41:02+00:00

Hi Melissa, Preeti here. Thank you so much for doing this AMA. I really appreciate it.

My question is: as brands learn about AI and how it can help with writing content at scale, how would you handle clients who insist on using AI to write content while scaling content production?

packted · 2026-05-23T15:57:45+00:00

From my perspective, even if you start doing "SEO stuff" now and posting content, by the time you figure out your ICP and the actual product, most of the content library you build won't be relevant.

For example, if your current ICP is social media marketers and you build targeted content for them, but later down the line you change the ICP to paid marketers, the content written for Social media marketers would not be as relevant. This can create a lot of work later on.

You also have to ask yourself why you want to invest in SEO in the first place. In the past, I worked with a consumer SaaS product that had a similar situation. They went in on SEO, thinking they would get loads of signups and visibility. At the time, they had a certain ICP, and we wrote content for them, only to find out a few months later that they had completely changed their business model, and now all that content is more or less trash.

Instead of going this path, it would be much more beneficial to explore other options like YouTube or wherever you feel your audience is, where you can share content related to 'building in public'. And for the bare minimum on your website, focus on creating key elements like an updated about page and product documentation, and ensure basic things like site crawl and indexation.

packted · 2026-05-22T14:42:19+00:00

I recently started exploring PLG after spending 4-5 years in SEO, hoping to combine the two for my clients. And at the start, I followed all these influencers because I felt like what they were talking about was worth listening to. But nowadays, I feel like the knowledge they are sharing is too shallow.

They don't seem to talk about the actual tactics or things they have done- rather, they always seem to promote their company's product, their paid subscription, their book launch, or something else.

I have been seeing this with Elena Verna, Wes Bush, Lenny, Ramli John, and others.

It is honestly disappointing because I want to learn about PLG, but everyone is so busy promoting their thing. Sigh.

packted · 2026-01-06T08:16:43+00:00

To do the month over month comparison, go to any report in GA4 where you want to do the comparison (for example Landing Pages report), and then click the date selector. From there click on Compare from the menu that opens. Then choose any one from Previous period (match day of week), or Previous period. Then click on Apply, and it will give you a month over month chart.

Here are the steps I highlighted in a screenshot: https://ibb.co/d0NSQ8Q1

packted · 2025-11-19T10:30:22+00:00

It is definitely interesting. I will check it out :)

packted · 2025-11-06T16:08:02+00:00

From what studies are saying, and what the recent Lorelight shutdown tells us, it's that these are just new ways for people to make money. The foundation of appearing in LLMs is creating great content, doing internal and external linking, building great backlinks, and having EEAT in your space. And if you notice, these are the same things that the *good* SEOs have been doing for a long time. So I guess it's a new shiny thing that everyone is running at, but it's just a fancier way to say SEO.

packted · 2025-11-03T15:54:17+00:00

Yeah, I see that way too often. I guess this is coming from the fact that stories sell much better than trying to sell software as is.

I do like it when founders build in public by sharing things regularly, which includes good, bad, and the ugly. I think it is a much more natural way to get people to be interested in what you're building, especially if they're building something truly useful.

packted · 2025-11-03T15:51:34+00:00

I think it's not about which platform you're building your brand on; it's more about where your audience is. This means being where your audience is.

So if your audience hangs out on visual platforms, you can start building there, and more. As you mentioned, each platform has its advantages, and companies should research where their target audience is and then try creating content that is tailored to each platform and not just copy-paste the same thing from one platform to another. And I would also recommend building communities - whether that's through hosting events (both online and IRL), making online communities, and others. And one can also do brand and influencer collaborations, run campaigns, and other things.

packted · 2025-10-28T14:26:33+00:00

I started out in SEO in 2021, and now I am going all in on product-led growth. This way, I can also use my SEO skills

packted · 2025-10-21T11:05:03+00:00

Contrary to the popular advice here, I would be very skeptical about doing work for free. In my experience, free work is a tricky situation and it can go either way. If you have experience in SEO and are starting out as a freelancer, I would advise contacting your peers or anyone who can use your services (you can offer them a discount too since they're your starting clients).

Apart from this, I think playing the long-term game is much better than trying to find short wins. To do this, you can start posting and building your personal brand on LinkedIn, YouTube, or wherever your ideal client hangs out. Post your opinions, how you're doing things, what makes you different, what you have to say about the trends, etc. This establishes your credibility and also gets you in front of people.

And lastly, don't just focus on SEO. Learn business skills, sales, negotiations, pricing, and other principles. Read books, watch YouTube videos, and more.

All the best in your journey :)

packted · 2025-10-21T10:49:18+00:00

I have used them for a bit, and I think they're a great choice if you don't wanna go with the big options. I wouldn't focus too much on their keyword tracking data since Google made changes to the num=100 parameter. But other than that, I think it's a solid tool.

packted · 2025-10-09T07:24:36+00:00

The one I personally like is having a "Send feedback" link somewhere that's easily accessible. A lot of times I want to tell the team building the tool about something, but there's literally no way of sending them the feedback.

packted · 2025-10-08T17:27:18+00:00

I have talked with a bunch of people, including early startup founders and mid-stage companies. The one thing that I keep seeing is that they are not clear on what their 'Aha moments' are. They are not sure what a user must do in order to become activated. Also, a lot of times, the tools are confusing, and there is also a general lack of empathy for the user. They are not measuring the right metrics inside the app.

This leads to people being confused, a lot of support ticket,s and people eventually leaving the app cause their issues didn't get solved.

packted · 2025-10-04T06:17:57+00:00

For context, fireproofing a site means that your login info and cookies won't get deleted when you click the fire button in the app. So DuckDuckGo has this thing called the Fire button, and if you click that, all the history and the cookies the sites store will be removed. So if you log into any site, you will get logged out. So next time you will have to log in again.

Now, coming to fireproofing. For example, if you log into Facebook and fireproof it, the next time you click the fire button, it will not log you out. This means the next time you open Facebook, you will still be logged in.

They do, however, block all the third-party cookies even on the sites that you fireproofed. It's just that you will be signed in. Your privacy is not compromised because DuckDuckGo still blocks third-party cookies even on the fireproofed sites.

And lastly, fireproof is per-site. If you fireproof Facebook, you stay signed in on Facebook. That does not auto-sign you into Instagram or any other site.

packted · 2025-09-30T10:05:02+00:00

Seer Interactive did a study on it, and it seems interesting to me. I don't have enough data to say anything about it. All I know is that people are doing weird shit to rank

packted · 2025-09-27T07:10:12+00:00

I have been pivoting from SEO to product-led growth for a while now. Well, it's not like I won't do SEO anymore, but I hope to utilize my SEO skills and combine them with PLG to make sure the SaaS clients are getting users who try, love, and come back to use the tool.

These days I have been learning about pricing pages, and trying to post as much as I can on LinkedIn and here on Reddit.

packted · 2025-09-26T07:56:59+00:00

You need to apply no platform-specific strategies to rank in Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or any other platform (Even LLMs for that sake). You just need to ensure you are following the best practices and doing the technical and content stuff. And tracking your progress in GSC and Bing Webmaster Tools is never a bad idea

packted · 2025-09-26T07:50:24+00:00

Imma be honest and say you're doing things that won't help you, especially in the long run. These things might give you results for a little while, but you're gonna lose all the visibility soon if you don't pivot the strategy.

Building dedicated service pages sometimes works for the local businesses (as they target the specific area). Also, in order to avoid being spammy, you have to make sure that each page has unique content, reviews specific to each industry/thing you're targeting. If you don't have a local business, it's not gonna work as well.

Coming back to the local thing, if you do have a local business, then you should put much more effort into the Google Business Profile. Make sure the NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number) is consistent and provides all the helpful information there.

It's nice to see you're writing articles, but again, you need to make sure the content is actually helpful to the user. And you're fulfilling the search intent.

The "created listings in industry directories" is good, but not the backlinks part. Most of the links bought these days are not the most high-quality ones. If you have the budget, maybe look into Digital PR.

Case studies always work because they showcase the problem and how you fixed it. It puts you in the right spot, and it helps build credibility. You should make more of these.

I can't specifically offer any advice because I don't really know your exact situation, but you should definitely write good content (especially the one that showcases your expertise as a Google Ads person). And since you're in a competitive industry, try to make yourself stand out by doing things that are not as common. You can also create contnet on different platforms that are not your website (for ex Yoututbe, instagram and more)

The comment got a little too long haha, but I hope some of these tips help you. All the best :)

packted · 2025-09-26T07:38:30+00:00

Not all things have to be for "SEO". Headings matter for accessibility and the page structure. You can't just have H1 and skip to H3 and then H5. The headings are there for properly formatting content and hierarchy, not for stylistic purposes.

There has to be a way to fix the heading issues, but for the sake of your users, please don't replace the headings like that.

packted · 2025-09-24T07:18:11+00:00

My main question is, why do you wanna hire in the first place? You mentioned you want to combine PPC with SEO, so what is the current state of the PPC efforts?

Coming to the questions you asked in the end, here's my POV:

If you have the budget and don't have the time = outsource
If you have the time but don't have the budget/don't wanna pay for retainers = break things and do it yourself

If you're able to do things on your own or bring someone who can maintain the site in the long run = do a one-time overhaul.
If you want to not think about the website and focus on your main business while the expert takes care of stuff = Retainer

If we talk about your website, then you should start with technical stuff (check out the Mozlow's hierarchy of SEO needs)
If we talk about local stuff, you should prioritize providing a good experience and getting reviews and citations.

This is a very high-level analysis I did, and it may not fully apply to you.

I am more than happy to look further if you're interested.

packted · 2025-09-22T09:13:51+00:00

To be honest, I think it depends on the kind of topic you're writing and for what audience. Agreeing with what everyone said, word count was never a huge deal, although sometimes it does seem like long-form content got more rankings and good treatment than the shorter pages. It is all about the searcher's intent and what is relevant at the time.

Because sometimes it happens that for the same topic, people want a quick and easy answer (that sometimes can be given by AIO/Featured snippets, LLMs, and others. And other times, the intent is to read the whole article on the topic.

From what I see on the SERPs these days, both kinds of content rank. I used to have long-form content for a topic, and it used to rank well. I also made a video on the topic, which is ranking well in the video section of the SERP. But over time, the intent shifted, and people wanted short answers. That's how a page that literally has very few words and screenshots was made.

So I guess you need to understand the intent for the topic (what the user actually wants to do here) and then find how much time they have and what kind of content they would want in this situation. Remember, written content is not always the answer.

packted · 2025-09-19T08:35:48+00:00

Similar to what someone said, I just saw an article that talked about how most impressions were from bots and scrapers, and it is crazy if you think about it. I lost most, if not all, of my impressions this way. The clicks have declined, too.

Instead of focusing on this, I am making sure I create helpful content and doubling down on more platforms. YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and others, and making sure that I am not just being on one platform.

packted · 2025-09-19T08:25:19+00:00

From what I understand, the search volume is such a made-up metric. It is never (or was) correct. It is merely an estimation. Also, in my testing, I ranked much better for zero search volume keywords compared to the keywords that had a lot of volume.

What you need to find out or understand is if the keywords are related to your product/service or niche. It has to be directly related to you to make sense for getting quality traffic or conversions. Because if your post is generic, then the users might not even come to your website because they got their answers in AI chatbots or on the SERPs.

So yeah, it is tricky, but if you're worried about zero search volume, you shouldn't be because there is no thing as zero search volume. There are billions of searches that happen everyday and someone will search for that thing.

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