Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Programmatic SEO Planner agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The programmatic-seo skill gives an AI agent the job of an SEO strategist for building many similar web pages from templates and data, such as location, comparison, integration or directory pages. This guide explains what the skill does, how to install it, how to ask for help in plain language, and what to check before you publish. It assumes you have never used an agent skill before.
Programmatic SEO Plannercoreyhaines31/marketingskills · MIT Download the skill Quick start
- 1Download the ZIP. Download the programmatic-seo skill ZIP from this page.
- 2Install it. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into .claude/skills/ in a project, or upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills in the Claude apps.
- 3Describe your pages. Ask in plain language, naming the kind of pages, the number and the terms, such as locations or comparisons.
- 4Answer the assessment questions. Give the agent your business context, audience, conversion goal and the data you have.
- 5Choose a playbook and platform. Review the recommended playbook, then check the build platform against page count, data refresh and indexation control.
- 6Review the plan before building. Check the template, linking and sitemap plan against the pre-launch checklist and remove any page without unique value.
What the skill makes the agent do
When the skill is loaded, the agent works as a planner for pages at scale. It helps you check whether people actually search for the terms you want to target, choose one of 12 page patterns (called playbooks), plan the data that fills each page, design the page template, set up internal links and sitemaps, and pick a platform to build on.
The skill also warns against thin or duplicate pages, meaning pages that only swap a city name or keyword into identical text. The source says search engines penalise this, so the agent steers you toward unique value on every page.
- Assesses search demand and the spread of search volume across terms
- Picks one of 12 playbooks: Templates, Curation, Conversions, Comparisons, Examples, Locations, Personas, Integrations, Glossary, Translations, Directory and Profiles
- Plans data sources and the page template, including title and meta patterns and schema markup
- Designs hub-and-spoke internal linking, sitemaps and indexation choices
- Compares build platforms against requirements such as page count, data refresh and server-rendered HTML
Install the skill from the ZIP or the Claude apps
You can install the skill in one of three places. Download the ZIP from this page, then either unzip it into your personal skills folder at ~/.claude/skills/, or unzip it into a project's .claude/skills/ folder if you want the skill only for that project.
If you use the Claude apps instead of files on disk, open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the ZIP there.
- Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: unzip into .claude/skills/ inside your project
- Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
Check the files the skill includes
The skill is made of a main instruction file and two reference documents, plus an evals file. The main file, SKILL.md, holds the core guidance. The reference files go deeper on the 12 playbooks and on platform options, and the agent loads them when they are relevant.
You do not need to edit any of these files to use the skill.
- SKILL.md: the core guidance and workflow
- references/playbooks.md: detailed implementation for each of the 12 playbooks
- references/implementation-platforms.md: build platform options and tradeoffs
- evals/evals.json: evaluation cases
SKILL.md
references/playbooks.md
references/implementation-platforms.md
evals/evals.jsonTrigger the skill with natural requests
You do not need a special command. Describe what you want in plain language, and mention the kind of pages or the number of pages involved. The skill's description lists trigger phrases such as 'programmatic SEO', 'template pages', 'directory pages', 'location pages', 'comparison pages', 'integration pages', 'pSEO', 'generate 100 pages' and 'which CMS for pSEO'.
If you have a product marketing context file at .agents/product-marketing.md (or .claude/product-marketing.md), the agent reads it first so it asks fewer questions. Requests that are about auditing an existing site or general content strategy will be sent to other skills, as described below.
- Good: 'Plan location pages for dentists in every city we serve, using our clinic data.'
- Good: 'Which CMS should we use for about 5,000 integration pages?'
- Good: 'I want comparison pages for our product against the top five competitors.'
- Better to use another skill: 'Audit my site for SEO problems' (use seo-audit)
- Better to use another skill: 'Write our content strategy for next year' (use content-strategy)
Work through a planning session
Expect the agent to ask about your business, the audience, the conversion goal for these pages, how many pages you are considering, what data you have, who already ranks for these terms, and what your technical stack is. Answering these questions well matters more than the wording of your first request.
The output is a strategy document covering the opportunity analysis, the implementation plan and content guidelines, plus a page template with URL structure, title and meta templates, content outline and schema markup. Treat it as a plan to review, not a finished set of pages.
- Give rough numbers for pages and search volume, even if they are estimates
- Name the data you own, since proprietary data is ranked as the most defensible
- Say which CMS or stack you already run, so platform advice fits your setup
Build pages that avoid penalties
The skill recommends subfolders over subdomains, for example yoursite.com/templates/resume/ rather than templates.yoursite.com/resume/. It also favours a smaller set of strong pages over thousands of thin ones, and it lists doorway pages, keyword stuffing and duplicate content as things to avoid.
Before launch, the skill's checklist asks you to confirm that each page has unique value, that titles and meta descriptions are unique, that every page is linked from the site and included in an XML sitemap, and that no page carries a conflicting noindex tag.
- Subfolders are preferred; the source notes Google does not rank one above the other
- Noindex very thin variations rather than publishing them
- Watch for thin content warnings, ranking drops, manual actions and crawl errors after launch
What people use it for
- Planning location pages for a service business across the cities it serves
- Designing comparison pages for a product against its main competitors
- Structuring integration pages for a software product that connects to other tools
- Turning proprietary data, such as a directory of providers, into search-friendly directory pages
- Deciding whether an existing CMS can hold and refresh a few thousand template pages
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the programmatic-seo skill?
Download the ZIP from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or into .claude/skills/ inside a project. In the Claude apps, you can instead upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
Is the programmatic-seo skill free to use?
The skill is listed under the MIT licence. This page does not state any price, so check the licence text in the repository for the terms of use.
What does the programmatic-seo skill require?
The listing shows no required dependencies. It does not run scripts and does not use the network, so it works as guidance inside your agent.
Does the skill publish pages for me?
No. The skill is mainly guidance and planning. It helps you design the strategy, template and platform choice, but it does not publish pages itself.
What is the difference between programmatic-seo and seo-audit?
programmatic-seo plans a new set of template pages that target different search terms. seo-audit is for auditing existing SEO problems, including programmatic pages after they launch. Use seo-audit for an existing site and programmatic-seo for building a new set.
Why isn't the skill triggering when I ask about SEO pages?
Use the kind of wording the skill looks for, such as 'programmatic SEO', 'template pages', 'location pages' or 'generate 100 pages', and state the number and type of pages. Broad requests about auditing or content strategy are handed to other skills.
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Our verdict
Use this skill if you are planning many template-driven pages and want a structured strategy for patterns, data, linking, indexation and platform choice. Skip it if you need an audit of an existing site, a broader content strategy, or if your plan is only to publish many near-identical pages with swapped keywords, which the skill itself warns against.
Download the skill