Notes from building the SEO autopilot
Practical, current guides on automating SEO work, written by the team building SEOMake. Everything here is the thinking behind the product.
October 6, 2026 · 8 min read
SEO content optimization tools cost per page compared for batches of 10, 30 and 100 pages
Per document, Surfer is the cheapest content optimizer by a wide margin. Per finished page it often is not, because the writing is still yours. Here is the bill for three real batch sizes.
Read the guideAugust 9, 2026 · 9 min read
How accurate is Semrush? What its traffic data, search volume and Authority Score really tell you
Semrush is accurate at comparison and inaccurate at measurement. Two published studies show how far the traffic and volume estimates land from Search Console, and which numbers in the product are genuinely solid.
Read the guideAugust 3, 2026 · 8 min read
Bing SEO vs Google SEO in five differences that change what you do
Around 80 percent of the work is shared. Five things genuinely differ, and one of them explains why a page can sit at number four in Bing and page six in Google.
Read the guideAugust 3, 2026 · 8 min read
What happened to Searchmetrics? The Conductor acquisition, and what to move to
Searchmetrics is gone as a product you can buy. Conductor acquired it in 2023, the domain now redirects, and the SEO Visibility score went with it. Here is the timeline and the honest replacement list.
Read the guideJuly 31, 2026 · 8 min read
Are SEO tools worth it? The honest arithmetic behind a $139 a month subscription
One SEO tool is usually worth it, two rarely are. Here is the break-even math on a $139 a month suite, the honest case for and against paying, and where the budget quietly goes.
Read the guideJuly 26, 2026 · 8 min read
Does Shopify do SEO for you? What it handles, and what it never will
Shopify quietly handles more technical SEO than most platforms, which is exactly why store owners assume the rest is handled too. Here is the precise line between what the platform does and the four jobs it leaves sitting on every product you add.
Read the guideJuly 26, 2026 · 8 min read
Is Semrush worth it in 2026? What $139 a month actually buys
Semrush is worth it for maybe a third of the people who subscribe. Here is the cost math, an honest read on data accuracy, and the three situations where you are paying $139 a month for a report you will not act on.
Read the guideJuly 25, 2026 · 8 min read
AI visibility score and how it is measured and calculated
Two dashboards, two very different numbers for the same brand. Neither is broken. What actually goes into an AI visibility score, and why the trend is the only part worth trusting.
Read the guideJuly 25, 2026 · 9 min read
How to get cited by ChatGPT, and how to get your brand mentioned first
Citations follow mentions, not the other way around. Across 75,000 brands, unlinked mentions predicted AI visibility roughly three times better than backlinks. What that changes about the work.
Read the guideJuly 25, 2026 · 9 min read
GEO vs SEO differences and what still matters
SEO competes for a position. GEO competes for a passage inside an answer. Five things genuinely change once a model is the reader, and most of the checklist does not change at all.
Read the guideJuly 24, 2026 · 9 min read
How answer engines choose which sources to cite
Answer engines do not pick a source at random. They reward pages that already rank, answer the question in the first line, and can be extracted cleanly. Here is the order they actually weigh those signals in.
Read the guideJuly 14, 2026 · 8 min read
Does AI content rank on Google? Yes, and here is what actually decides it
Google rewards helpful content however it was produced. So why does most AI content still get no traffic? Not because it was detected. Because it was redundant.
Read the guideJuly 13, 2026 · 9 min read
Generative engine optimization and how AI answer engines choose what to cite
AI answer engines do not rank a URL, they lift a passage. Here is what generative engine optimization actually means, how it differs from classic SEO, and the checklist for writing pages a model can cite.
Read the guideJuly 6, 2026 · 9 min read
How to automate SEO in 2026 without losing control
Most of the SEO week is mechanical: audits, title rewrites, internal links, briefs. Here is what is safe to hand to AI in 2026, what is not, and the approval loop that keeps you in charge.
Read the guideJune 27, 2026 · 10 min read
The on page SEO checklist AI can now run for you
The classic on-page checklist has not changed much in a decade. What changed is how much of it no longer needs your hands. A walk through every check, marked human or machine.
Read the guideReading about automation is the slow way
Paste a URL into the audit and let the loop run the checklist for you in twenty seconds.
We do not train on your content and we do not sell your data. Read the security page.