What You Will Build

By the end of this guide, you will have a six-stage automated content pipeline that runs on a weekly schedule:

Stage 1: Keyword Research. OpenClaw scrapes Google autocomplete and related searches, clusters keywords by topic, and estimates volume ranges.

Stage 2: Gap Analysis. The agent compares your existing content against competitor coverage and identifies missing topics ranked by opportunity.

Stage 3: Content Briefs. For each prioritized topic, the agent analyzes the top 10 SERP results and generates a structured brief with outline, target keywords, word count, and suggested internal links.

Stage 4: AI Drafting. Using Claude or GPT-4, the agent produces a full draft following the brief specifications. Drafts queue for human review.

Stage 5: SEO Optimization. The agent runs optimization checks: meta tags, schema markup, internal linking, readability scoring, and keyword density.

Stage 6: CMS Publishing. After human approval, the agent publishes to your CMS with all metadata, schema, and categories applied automatically.

The entire pipeline runs autonomously with two human touchpoints: reviewing the brief queue and approving final drafts before publishing. Everything else is automated. For background on OpenClaw setup, see the complete OpenClaw SEO guide.

Prerequisites

If you do not have a content strategy yet, start there. Automating content production without strategic direction produces volume without value. Our content strategy services can help you define your topic clusters, audience segments, and content priorities before you build the pipeline.

Step 1: Automated Keyword Research

Install and configure the keyword-research skill:

openclaw skills install keyword-research

# Configure in skills/keyword-research/config.yaml
seed_keywords:
  - "ai seo tools"
  - "content optimization"
  - "technical seo audit"
sources:
  - google_autocomplete
  - people_also_ask
  - related_searches
clustering:
  method: semantic
  min_cluster_size: 3
output_format: csv
schedule: weekly_monday_8am

The skill takes your seed keywords, expands them through autocomplete scraping, clusters the results by semantic similarity, and outputs a prioritized CSV. Each keyword gets an estimated volume range and a suggested content type (guide, comparison, tool page, etc.).

One important note: the volume estimates are approximations based on public data. They are directionally accurate but not as precise as what you would get from Ahrefs or SEMrush databases. For critical business decisions, validate with the AIO Copilot Keyword Research Tool or a paid tool. For content pipeline prioritization, the estimates are sufficient.

Step 2: Competitor Gap Analysis

This step compares your existing content coverage against competitors to find missing topics with the highest opportunity.

openclaw skills install competitor-gap-analyzer

# Configure competitors and your sitemap
competitors:
  - "https://competitor-one.com/sitemap.xml"
  - "https://competitor-two.com/sitemap.xml"
  - "https://competitor-three.com/sitemap.xml"
your_sitemap: "https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml"
analysis:
  compare_by: topic_coverage
  prioritize_by: estimated_volume
  exclude_topics: ["news", "events", "press releases"]
output: gap_report.csv

The agent crawls competitor sitemaps, extracts topics from their content, maps those topics against your existing coverage, and produces a gap report sorted by estimated opportunity. Topics your competitors cover that you do not appear at the top.

Feed the gap report into the next stage alongside the keyword research output. The combined data gives you a prioritized list of content topics backed by both search demand and competitive opportunity.

Step 3: Generating Content Briefs

This is where the pipeline gets interesting. The brief generator analyzes actual SERP results for each target keyword and builds a comprehensive outline.

openclaw skills install content-brief-generator

# Brief generation config
brief_settings:
  serp_analysis_depth: 10   # Analyze top 10 results
  include_headings: true
  include_questions: true    # People Also Ask
  include_word_count: true
  target_word_count_multiplier: 1.2  # 20% more than avg
  include_internal_link_suggestions: true
  include_schema_recommendation: true
queue_for_review: true       # Holds briefs until approved
max_briefs_per_week: 5

For each priority keyword, the agent scrapes the top 10 SERP results, extracts common headings and subtopics, identifies content gaps among current top rankers, maps People Also Ask questions, calculates average word count and recommends a target, and suggests internal links from your existing content.

The briefs queue for human review. This is the first critical quality gate. Approve briefs that match your content strategy, refine ones that need adjustment, and reject any that target topics outside your expertise. Attempting to publish content in areas where you have no genuine authority is a waste of resources.

Step 4: AI Content Drafting

Once a brief is approved, the agent uses your configured LLM to produce a full draft.

# Drafting configuration
drafting:
  llm_provider: anthropic
  llm_model: claude-sonnet-4-6
  tone: professional_conversational
  perspective: first_person_plural  # "we" not "I"
  instructions: |
    Write as an experienced SEO practitioner.
    Use specific numbers and examples.
    Avoid generic advice. Be actionable.
    Do not use em dashes.
    No emojis.
    Include data points where possible.
  quality_checks:
    min_word_count: 1500
    max_word_count: 4000
    readability_target: grade_8_to_10
    factual_claims_flagged: true

The tone and instruction configuration matters significantly. Spend time refining these parameters for your brand voice. Run 5 to 10 test drafts and compare output before committing to production. Claude tends to produce more natural-sounding content. GPT-4 is stronger with structured, technical content.

Drafts go into a review queue. This is the second and most important quality gate. Every draft needs human review for factual accuracy, brand voice alignment, genuine expertise signals, and overall quality before moving to the optimization stage. Skipping this review is the fastest way to produce content that hurts rather than helps your SEO.

Step 5: SEO Optimization Pass

After human review and approval, the agent runs an automated optimization pass covering technical SEO elements.

# Optimization checks
optimization:
  meta_title:
    max_length: 60
    include_primary_keyword: true
  meta_description:
    max_length: 155
    include_cta: true
  schema_markup:
    auto_generate: true
    types: [Article, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList]
  internal_links:
    min_count: 3
    max_count: 8
    source: sitemap_analysis
  readability:
    check: true
    target_score: 60_to_70  # Flesch-Kincaid
  keyword_density:
    primary: 1_to_2_percent
    flag_over_stuffing: true

The optimization pass generates meta titles and descriptions with proper length and keyword inclusion, creates schema markup (Article, FAQ, BreadcrumbList), inserts internal links based on your sitemap analysis, checks readability scores, and flags keyword stuffing. You can validate the schema output using the AIO Copilot Schema Generator and check readability with the Content Readability Checker.

Step 6: CMS Publishing with Schema

The final automated step pushes approved, optimized content to your CMS.

openclaw skills install cms-publisher

# WordPress REST API configuration
cms:
  platform: wordpress
  api_url: "https://yoursite.com/wp-json/wp/v2"
  auth_method: application_password
  username: "pipeline-bot"
  # Store password in .env, not in config
publishing:
  status: draft          # Publish as draft for final check
  auto_categories: true
  auto_tags: true
  inject_schema: true
  inject_og_tags: true
  ping_sitemap: true     # Notify Google after publish
  ping_indexnow: true    # Notify Bing via IndexNow

We recommend publishing as drafts initially. This gives you a final visual check in your CMS before going live. Once you trust the pipeline output, you can switch to auto-publish for routine content types and keep draft mode for higher-stakes pages.

The sitemap ping and IndexNow integration automatically notify search engines when new content goes live, accelerating indexing. For more on speeding up indexing, see our SEO automation workflows guide.

Monitoring Your Pipeline

A content pipeline without monitoring is a liability. Set up tracking for these metrics:

OpenClaw can send daily pipeline status reports to your messaging platform: articles in each stage, errors encountered, API spend to date, and content performance metrics from Search Console.

Cost Breakdown

Here is what the pipeline actually costs at different production volumes. All figures include VPS hosting and LLM API usage.

For comparison: hiring a freelance SEO content writer costs $50 to $200 per article. A content agency charges $200 to $500 per article. Even at the 20 articles/month tier, OpenClaw produces content at 1% to 4% of the cost of human writers. The trade-off is that AI content requires human review and lacks the depth of genuine subject matter expertise.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

No Quality Gates

The number one mistake is removing human review from the pipeline. AI content has gotten remarkably good, but it still produces factual errors, generic advice, and content that lacks genuine expertise. Every article needs a human reviewer who understands the topic. Publishing AI content without review damages your E-E-A-T signals and can tank your rankings.

Runaway API Costs

Without budget caps, a conversation loop can burn through $200+ in API credits overnight. Always set MONTHLY_BUDGET_CAP in your configuration. Set alerts at 50% and 80% of your cap. Monitor your API provider dashboard weekly for the first month until you understand your usage patterns.

Duplicate Content

If your keyword research produces overlapping topics, the pipeline can generate articles that cannibalize each other. Review the brief queue for overlap before approving. Merge similar topics into single comprehensive articles rather than publishing thin, overlapping pieces.

Ignoring Internal Linking

Automated internal linking based on sitemap analysis works well, but it needs periodic human review. New content should link to your most important pages, not just the most semantically similar ones. Review internal link suggestions and adjust based on your conversion goals.

Publishing Without Strategy

A pipeline that produces 50 articles per month on random topics is worse than 10 articles per month within a focused topic cluster. Define your topic clusters before automating. The pipeline executes your strategy. It does not create one.

Frequently Asked Questions