SEO Generator: the basics – NEW

This manual explains how SEO Generator works and how you set up a set of pages yourself. Want AI to do most of the work? Use the Set up with AI wizard. This manual is still useful afterwards: it explains what the wizard created and where you change it.

How it works

You write one text, and SEO Generator turns it into a page for every combination of a search term and a location. In the text you write [search_term] where the search term goes, and [location] where the place goes.

For example, the sentence “Emergency plumber in Austin? We answer the phone 24/7.” becomes “[Search_term] in [location]? We answer the phone 24/7.”. With 2 search terms and 3 locations, you get 2 × 3 = 6 pages:

• Search terms: emergency plumber, 24 hour plumber
• Locations: Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park
• Pages: emergency plumber in Austin, emergency plumber in Round Rock, emergency plumber in Cedar Park, 24 hour plumber in Austin, 24 hour plumber in Round Rock, 24 hour plumber in Cedar Park

A set of pages always has two parts:

• The content page decides what every page looks like: the title, the text, the images and the layout. You edit it like any page, with the block editor or a page builder.
• The settings page decides which pages there are: the search terms, the locations, the web addresses and the SEO settings.

Every settings page has its own content page. Want a second set of pages, for example for another service? Create a new settings page with a new content page.

1. Create the content page

Go to SEO Generator › All Content pages and click Add new.

• Title: the main heading (H1) of every page. Use both placeholders, for example “[Search_term] in [location]”, which becomes “Emergency plumber in Round Rock”. With case sensitive placeholders, [Search_term] starts with a capital and [search_term] does not.
• Text: write it as you would write a normal landing page, with [search_term] and [location] where they read naturally: in headings, in the opening sentences and in calls to action. For the plural, use [search_terms].
• Images: you can use the placeholders in the alt text too. Set a featured image as you would on any page.
• Layout: use the block editor or your page builder. See the manuals for Elementor, Divi and Bricks.

Make every page different with spintax: options between { }, for example {fast|quick} service. With AI, the Spintax Studio on the settings page writes the spintax for you.

The content page is a template: it has no web address of its own, and it is kept out of the sitemap of your SEO plugin. Visitors only see the generated pages.

2. Create the settings page

Go to SEO Generator › Add New. This opens an empty settings page. With AI switched on, you first choose how you want to start: choose Set up yourself. Give the settings page a name, for example “Emergency plumber – 20 miles around Austin, Texas”, so you recognise it in the list.

3. The Settings tab

• Content Page: choose the content page of step 1. Every content page can be linked to one settings page only.
• SEO Page base: the part of the web address that all these pages share, for example “plumbing”. It is also the address of the archive page.
• Slug: the last part of the web address, with both placeholders. The default is [search_term]-in-[location].
• Archive page title: the heading of the archive page, the overview page with links to all your pages.
• Overview label: the text of the link to the archive page, shown below every page between the links to the previous and the next page.
• URL Structure: shows how your web addresses look, for example example.com/plumbing/[search_term]-in-[location].

• Search terms: one per line, up to 20. Add the plural after a | character, for example “emergency plumber | emergency plumbers”.
• Locations: one per line, up to 300: cities, towns, villages or neighbourhoods.
• Overview generated URLs: a part of the web addresses that will be created.

Search terms of the same kind work best together, for example all kinds of plumber on one settings page, and repairs like “burst pipe repair” on another. Then every sentence fits every page.

With AI switched on, every field has buttons for suggestions. See Using AI in SEO Generator.

4. The SEO tab

The SEO title and meta description that search engines show. They work like the title: use the placeholders, so every page gets its own.

• With an SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math: set them in your SEO plugin on the content page, and leave the fields on this tab empty.
• Without an SEO plugin: fill in the fields on this tab.

With AI switched on, this tab also shows which SEO plugin you use, what your SEO title and meta description are now and how long they get, with a button for suggestions.

5. The other tabs

• Archive Page: switch the archive page on or off, or use your own page. See Archive Page Settings.
• Table of Contents: an automatic table of contents of the H2 headings (and H3 if you want) at the top of every page, or where you put the [nsg-toc] shortcode.
• AI (only with AI switched on): the language AI writes in for these pages, and extra context for AI about these pages.
• Spintax Studio (only with AI switched on): turns the text of your content page into spintax variants with AI.

6. Publish

Publish both the content page and the settings page: the pages only work when both are published. With gradual publishing switched on, about 10% of your pages go live at once, and the rest follows at the pace you set under SEO Generator › Settings › Publishing.

7. Check your pages

The Status tab shows one of your pages: its web address, page title, SEO title and meta description, with the template each comes from. Click Show another page for another combination. Below it you see when your pages go live, and a list of checks, for example whether WordPress uses the “Post name” permalink setting. A red cross tells you what to fix.

The Improve tab checks your SEO plugin, spintax, placeholders and the length of your texts every time you open it. With AI switched on, Review my pages with AI reads 8 of your pages like a visitor and finds language mistakes that filling in the search terms and locations can cause, for example a wrong article or preposition.

Finally, open a few of your pages. Below every page, SEO Generator links to the previous page, the archive page and the next page, so search engines find all your pages.