SEO Automation: How I Built an AI-Powered Question Discovery System with Make.com
July 24th, 2025 by
I recently automated an SEO process that used to take our team hours of manual work.
It now runs in 5 minutes. This isn’t about replacing experts. It’s about getting them out of spreadsheets so they can actually solve strategic problems and get creative with content.
Here’s how I built it using Make.com, Google Search Console, Semrush, and People Also Ask data from AlsoAsked, and why every SEO team should be doing this.
The Manual Question Discovery Process We Had to Kill
Here’s what our question discovery automation process looked like before implementing SEO automation with Make.com:
- Google Search Console Export: Pull search queries for specific URLs and domains
- Semrush Research: Cross-reference GSC data with broader keyword opportunities
- People Also Ask Research: Manually collect AlsoAsked questions for FAQ optimization
- AI Search Analysis: Hunt through competitor frequently asked questions for AI Overviews
- Related Topic Research: Expand into connected topics for broader search visibility
- Relevance Assessment: Manually score questions for content fit and business value
This took 2-3 hours per analysis. Multiply across clients, pages, and team members, and you’re wasting 15-20 hours weekly on work that doesn’t require strategic thinking.
The turning point came when I realized our senior strategists were spending more time pulling data than actually optimizing for the things that matter – like getting featured in Google’s AI Overviews and other search features that are reshaping SEO.
How to Build Your Own SEO Automation with Make.com
I built the SEO automation in Make.com to actually analyze, not just move data around. The workflow connects Google Search Console, Semrush, and People Also Ask into one system. If a URL has enough data in GSC, it pulls questions from there. If not, it automatically looks at the whole domain for context. Then it grabs related questions from People Also Ask, pulls keyword data from Semrush, and uses AI to score every question based on what you’re actually trying to accomplish with that page.
High-Traffic Pages: Get laser-focused questions with direct GSC processing, plus related questions from People Also Ask for thorough FAQ development.
Newer Content: Enhanced with domain-wide context and AI question discovery to find content gaps and optimization opportunities.
Strategic Analysis: Semrush integration helps us spot competitive keyword opportunities and find gaps in the market.
AI Search Optimization Through Automated Question Discovery
Raw question data from Google Search Console and Semrush tells you what people search for. AI-powered analysis tells you what’s relevant for AI search optimization and FAQ schema implementation.
The automation looks at two things most tools completely ignore:
Page Context: What’s this page actually trying to accomplish? Is it a service page, blog post, product page? What’s already covered in FAQs? What could work better for AI search?
Business Context: What industry you’re in, who you’re targeting, and what actually matters for your goals.
Then it scores each question on several factors: how relevant it is to your page topic, whether the search intent matches what your page does, how likely it is to show up in AI Overviews, whether it’s good for FAQ sections, and how much business value it could drive.
This isn’t search volume analysis—it’s contextual intelligence that considers what you’re actually trying to accomplish with AI search optimization and semantic SEO.
Benefits of SEO Automation for AI Search Optimization
The real value of question discovery automation isn’t the 20 hours we save weekly. It’s consistency in AI search optimization. Automation doesn’t cut corners or make mistakes when deadlines are tight. It looks at opportunities with the same care every time, and it’s specifically built to work with AI Overviews, People Also Ask boxes, and FAQ schema markup.
More importantly, the Make.com automation handles all the grunt work so the team can focus on what actually requires human expertise: figuring out why competitors are winning, developing content strategies that align with business goals, and solving complex technical SEO problems.
As Google’s AI Overviews and other AI search features change how people find content, having good answers to specific questions matters more than ever. The teams that will win are those using automation for data collection while putting human expertise toward strategy and execution.
Here’s something important: Google’s AI search features literally pull answers from web content to populate results. If your content answers the questions people are actually searching for, you show up. If it doesn’t, you don’t. The automation helps identify exactly which questions your content should answer to get maximum visibility in these new search features.
Implementing SEO Automation: Make.com Blueprint for Question Discovery
I made the complete blueprint open source because everyone should be doing this instead of manual data collection. Everything you need—the Make.com workflow, Google Search Console setup, Semrush integration, and People Also Ask automation—is at https://github.com/willscott-v2/get-questions.
What took us months to build, you can set up in an afternoon. The blueprint has everything: smart routing logic, AI scoring for relevance, People Also Ask automation, Semrush workflows, plus optimization features for AI search.
The automation can also help with FAQ schema markup, How-To schema, and other structured data that search engines love.
Strategic Advantage: Human Creativity Unlocked Through SEO Automation
If your team is still spending time manually sourcing questions for FAQ optimization and AI search, you’re losing strategic ground in AI-driven SEO.
As AI search and Google’s AI Overviews continue to change search, the choice is simple: let your best people do work that Make.com automation can do better, or free them to do the strategic work that actually wins in AI search optimization.
SEO automation isn’t about doing less work—it’s about doing different work. The kind that requires creativity, strategic thinking, and industry knowledge that machines can help with but can’t replace.
Every hour spent manually pulling questions is an hour not spent on competitive analysis, content strategy, or optimizing for AI search features. The tools exist to fix this trade-off.
The complete SEO Automation blueprint is available on GitHub, including setup guides, People Also Ask integration, Semrush workflows, Google Search Console automation, and FAQ optimization features.
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