SEO Content Machine has been around for a while (10 years).
Since 2022 a lot has changed in the SEO world, Googles HCU and then the emergence of AI.
SCM was built in a different era.
An era of scraped content, spinning, mass page creation, and keyword driven publishing.
So whats wrong with SCM?
SCM is a very keyword centric workflow.
You either had a keyword list pre-prepared or you used the keyword question tool to generate a list to start with.
The thinking is very much 1 keyword = 1 page.
The old content generator used scraped data, or was sending 1 keyword to the AI writer without thinking about intent or organizing similar keywords into one page. So it was easy to create over lapping content that had risk of cannibalizing itself in Google.
SCM evolved as a toolkit and not 1 workflow, so it meant lots of manually assigning AI templates, assign those to a WordPress blog and switching to different tools. Manual decision fatigue.
Also with advent of AI, it made the cost advantage of scraping and spinning basically non existent over night.
Although I tried to keep up by introducing AI features to SCM, it unfortunately meant it ended being seen as just another AI writing tool. Which is bad because AI writers have become a commodity.
Lots of legacy workflow.
So what is better for SEO?
Taking a cue from Google HCU, we should think about intent first.
Best practice now:
- Group semantically similar queries
- Map them to one authoritative page
- Build topical authority per cluster
- Define page type before generating content
We want one cluster of topics to cover as much as we can to reduce duplication and also position the page as with topical authority.
Instead of a 1 size fits all AI template, we think of them as different types as well. Ie comparison page? Buyer guide? etc
Each cluster ideally maps to one type of AI template page type.
So now we are using strategy to carefully create content.
Instead of just giving AI a keyword and say = ‘write this'
We can give it a specific template, the main topic, its supporting sub topics and even the intent of the page.
Its no more just blind unlimited page creation.
How the new SCM update will change things
I will be reworking the entire App.
Thinking it terms of workflows not just tools.
Its no longer just and AI writing tool, its a proper programmatic SEO workflow.
The first step is to fix the entry point to SCM.
Currently there isn't any. It assumes you have a keyword list to go with.
If you don't have a current strategy, it means you don't know where to start with in SCM to get started in 60 seconds.
So the first tool will be the Topic Cluster builder.
It starts with
- Seed topic
- Expands to find related topics
- Groups topics by semantic similarity
We group and sort topics by intent
- Prevent duplicate pages
- Encourage one page per cluster
- Each cluster has clear boundaries
Assign clusters to AI templates
- We assign a specific template before content generation (you don't need to choose, we do it for you, you just review and override)
- AI generates now with strategic structure, not just 1 keyword
- No random page creation
Old
Keyword → Generate → Fix later
New
Discover → Cluster → Assign → Generate
The end game?
System over content
SCM is not just a content generator, its a content system builder.
Here are some working prototypes of the new Topic Cluster tool.
Topic clustering
Topics assigned to an intent
Your entry to SCM starts with Topic Clusters
Default empty state
Discuss this update and get daily progress updates on the forum: