SEO Benelux Conf - Automating Technical SEO on a low budget

Many of the paid tools (usually enterprise) tools offer valuable automation capabilities for technical SEO, but they can cost a fortune. Furthermore, many of them employ a pricing strategy where 1 subscription covers just 1 site. Which means if you want to track multiple clients and a couple competitors, it becomes unaffordable entirely. But... you could make your own automations, with existing tools like Screaming Frog or with a little vibe coding. Anyone can do it, even non-coders.

Transcript

2. Automation in SEO = time saving + added value
3. 💲💲 💲
4. Many of us don’t have 10-100K budget for tools
5. 1 subscription = 1 site 10 clients x (1 site + 3 comp.) = 40x the base cost
6. I’m super cheap
7. 💙 vibe coding + So I started building my own tools
8. It all starts with a problem / frustration cases
9. Why is our visibility% down in NL? Did we change anything? Competitor? Or Core update? PROBLEM
10. 💲💲 💲 ⚠1 site
11. Screaming frog scheduled crawls + compare mode REDACTED REDACTED
12. REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED
13. REDACTED REDACTED
14. Tools used - Cost? 0 € (only a 🐸 license) unlimited sites! Enterprise tools: €€.€€€ / site
15. This is reactive. What if we got proactive alerts?
16. What if something critical happens on the site? Where my <title> tags gone? PROBLEM
17. 💲💲 💲 ⚠1 site
19. Tools used - - Google Sheets - App Script - ChatGPT (free) Cost? 0 €- unlimited sites!
20. add your sitemap add your config
21. export to: check this
22. select what you want to track
23. enable Looker Studio export
27. The 🐸 can’t do everything (yet). (enter: vibe coding)
28. This is down What if devs change robots.txt and don’t tell you? PROBLEM
29. Been monitoring robots.txt’s for 3 years. Trust me, mistakes happen. A lot.
30. The stack? - existing webserver - - (free) Cost? 0 € -
31. 400+ files tracked daily
32. Alerts via the Slack app
33. Alerts via MS Teams app Or e-mail
34. It’s free! jancaerels.com/robotstxt/
35. Disadvantage? 6 months building via many long prompts Copy paste, copy paste, …
36. There is a faster way There must be a faster way
37. Codex
39. What if it takes 4 weeks for you to notice client.com has a problem? “Why is our traffic down?”
40. Y’know, there is a tool for that 120 $ / year per site
41. So I built something. With an AI coding tool this time.
42. Slack alert Cost? 0 € -
43. What is the best Coding platform?
44. No one told me it was CSR Javascript. Suboptimal SEO by design. Tip: NextJS SSR My requirements 👇
45. Bolt
46. Lovable
47. What is the cheapest* coding platform?
48. Windsurf & Cursor very generous free plan
49. Quick tips for vibe coders
50. 1. Make a PRD / detailed plan
51. Tip: Tell it to create subtasks
52. Credits to:
53. Create a PRD with ChatGPT.
54. 2. Be very specific eg. documentation, code examples
55. Credits to:
57. 4000+ GSC API calls instead of 10 󰤇
58. 3. Global rules & task management
59. Global rules eg. - frameworks - packages - progr. language - plugins “Use this. Don’t use that.”
60. Task management system
61. Task management system MCP Credits to:
62. • Start small: 1 frustration → 1 mini-tool. • Use existing tools if possible (Screaming Frog, ChatGPT, Slack) • Free tools go a long way (App Script, ChatGPT, Google Sheets) • Start vibe coding your own tools. It’s fun! Wrapping things up
63. Thanks!