How To Drive Organic Ecommerce Growth With Programmatic SEO Strategies

In this episode of Seven Figures and Beyond Marketing Growth Podcast, Greg Shuey sits down with Colin Gardner, co-founder of Long Tail, to unpack the world of programmatic SEO and its transformative potential for scaling brand visibility across digital marketplaces. Colin, an economist by background with a career shaped in tech hubs like San Francisco, shares his journey through analytics roles in companies like Ancestry.com and Outdoorsy, where he developed an innovative approach to SEO. Programmatic SEO, Colin explains, is the art of deploying extensive, template-driven content that targets niche, long-tail keywords at scale—reaching audiences in specific geographies, with highly varied product or service categories. This technique contrasts traditional SEO by prioritizing broad reach over high-frequency search terms, providing brands with a cost-effective, sustainable path to boost online traffic and conversions.

Colin emphasizes the importance of using the right tools and platforms to streamline programmatic SEO, which often requires specialized technical setups. Platforms like Shopify and Webflow can support programmatic SEO when enhanced by certain plugins and automation tools. Colin’s own company, Long Tail, even developed a custom plugin for Shopify to facilitate content automation, reducing the operational challenges traditionally associated with creating thousands of keyword-targeted pages. Tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush aid in keyword research, while Airtable and WhaleSync help brands organize and sync data for content at scale. This technical ecosystem is integral to programmatic SEO, allowing brands to maximize search visibility without an extensive manual workload.

The conversation highlights how programmatic SEO can be especially impactful for industries with location-based services, such as home services or vacation rentals, where demand for hyper-local search terms is high. Colin’s advice for brands considering this strategy includes leveraging AI for content creation, implementing extensive cross-linking to boost site authority, and aligning SEO efforts with PR and branding to create a unified marketing impact. By layering programmatic SEO with other channels—like social media and paid ads—brands can achieve a compounded effect, attracting a high-intent audience while lowering customer acquisition costs.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Colin Gardiner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colingardiner/

Longtail: https://longtailgrowth.com/

Yonder Ventures: https://www.yonder.vc/

Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/

SEMRush: https://www.semrush.com/

Webflow: https://webflow.com/

Airtable: https://www.airtable.com/

Whalesync: https://www.whalesync.com/

 https://www.stryde.com/ecommerce-growth-with-programmatic-seo/