# programmatic-seo

> A Claude Code skill that designs SEO-driven pages at scale using templates and data — directory pages, location pages, comparisons, integrations — that rank without triggering thin-content penalties.

**Use case**: Build pSEO pages at scale that don't get penalized

**Canonical URL**: https://agentcookbooks.com/skills/programmatic-seo/

**Topics**: claude-code, skills, marketing, seo

**Trigger phrases**: "programmatic SEO", "pSEO", "template pages", "pages at scale", "data-driven pages"

**Source**: [Corey Haines](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/tree/main/skills/programmatic-seo)

**License**: MIT

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## What it does

`programmatic-seo` is a Claude Code skill from Corey Haines's [marketing-skills repo](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills). It turns Claude into a pSEO architect who designs templated page programs — directory pages, location pages, "[X] for [Y]" pages, integration pages — with enough unique data per page to avoid thin-content penalties and thoughtful internal-linking. The skill activates when you mention "programmatic SEO", "pSEO", "template pages", or "generate 100 pages".

The output of a session is a pSEO plan: data source identification, page-template structure (which sections are static vs data-driven vs uniquely written), URL pattern, internal-linking strategy, indexation control plan, and a quality-bar definition that prevents the spam-trap version of pSEO.

## When to use it

Reach for it when:

- You have data (a directory, integrations, locations) that maps to long-tail search demand
- A competitor is winning a category with templated pages and you can do better with sharper data
- You want a content moat that doesn't require writing 500 individual posts

When *not* to reach for it:

- You don't actually have unique data per page — that's just thin content
- Your domain authority is too low to support 1000 new URLs without crawl-budget issues

## Install

The skill is distributed via Corey Haines's [marketing-skills repo](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills). Install via the repo's recommended path — copy the [`programmatic-seo` SKILL.md](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/tree/main/skills/programmatic-seo) into your project's `.claude/skills/programmatic-seo/` directory, or use the repo's plugin install if you've set it up.

Once installed, the skill activates on the trigger phrases above. The first time it runs, it will check for `.agents/product-marketing-context.md` (or `.claude/product-marketing-context.md`) — populating that file with your product context first dramatically improves output quality across all of Haines's marketing skills.

## What a session looks like

A typical session has three phases:

1. **Data + intent fit.** What data do you have, what queries does it map to, what's the searcher's intent? The skill rejects ideas where the data is too generic to differentiate.
2. **Template design.** Section structure, ratio of templated vs unique content (the unique percentage is the make-or-break), URL pattern, schema markup per page type.
3. **Quality + indexation.** A quality bar each page must meet before it's indexed (content depth, data uniqueness), staged rollout, and indexation controls (`noindex` for thin pages, sitemap chunking).

The discipline that makes it work: enough unique data per page that each one would justify being indexed individually. The skill's pSEO is library-quality, not spam-quality.

## Receipts

Honest reporting on what `programmatic-seo` produces and where it has limits:

**Where it works well:**
- The unique-content-percentage discipline is what separates real pSEO from doorway pages
- Staged-rollout with indexation controls catches thin pages before they hurt the domain
- Template structure with internal linking compounds — pages bring each other up

**Where it backfires:**
- pSEO is engineering-heavy; the skill scopes the plan but you still need to ship the build
- Without data verification the program can publish errors at scale; QA matters more than for one-off content

**Pattern that works:** ship 50 pages first, watch indexation and rankings for a month, then scale. Launching 5,000 pages on day one is how programs get the manual-action email.

## Source and attribution

Originally written by [Corey Haines](https://corey.co). The canonical SKILL.md and any supporting files live in the [`programmatic-seo` folder](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/tree/main/skills/programmatic-seo) of his [marketing-skills repository](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills).

License: MIT. You can install, adapt, and redistribute the skill, with attribution preserved.

This page documents the skill from a practitioner's perspective. For the formal spec and any updates, defer to the source repo.