This document discusses Trainline's use of content automation to scale unique content creation. Trainline created over 4 million pages of unique content through a process of gathering keyword clusters, writing perfect content using those clusters, and then generating 7 different versions of each paragraph while ensuring high quality human-written content. They measured success through tracking rankings, clicks, and revenue over 12 weeks. The results showed improvements in average ranking positions and number of keywords ranked for across several markets. Key learnings included that it is a long-term process, strong research is needed, and cross-departmental collaboration is important for success at this scale.

1. The redemption of
content automation:
how to scale unique
content to 4M+ pages
Greta Munari
SEO Manager

2. Greta Munari
SEO Manager @ Trainline
4 years at Trainline, 5+ years in SEO
Avid Reader
Boulderer
Cat Lover
Advocate against pineapple pizza
https://www.linkedin.com/in/greta-munari

3. About Trainline
Trainline is the leading
independent rail and coach travel
platform selling rail and coach
tickets to millions of travellers
worldwide. Via our highly rated
website and mobile app, people
can seamlessly search, book
and manage their journeys all in
one place. We bring together
millions of routes, fares and
journey times from more than
270 rail and coach carriers
across 45 countries. We help our
customers find the best value
fares for their journey and smart,
real time travel information on
the go. Our aim is to make rail
and coach travel easier and
more accessible, encouraging
people to make more
environmentally sustainable
travel choices.
i. Based on transactions from
weeks commencing 06/10/2019
to 23/11/2019
ii. iOS rating from UK AppStore as
of 29 November 2019
iii. Trainline data for November
2019 (incl. UK consumer
number Web/App and EU
Web/App)
iv. Average monthly visits for year
ended 29 February 2020
v. UK consumer mobile app
transactions for the year ended
29 February 2020
Trainline is the world’s leading
independent rail and coach travel
platform
We sell tickets on behalf of
more than 270 rail and coach
companies and are adding
more all the time
We sell train and coach tickets
worldwide, helping our
customers travel in and across
45 countries in Europe and the
rest of the world
We sell tickets to people
living in more than 175
countriesi in 14 languages
Our customers can book in
10 currencies and payment
methods include
Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Pay,
SOFORT & iDEAL
We have built Europe’s
leading train and coach
app – with a 4.9/5* ratingii
There are more than
39.4m cumulative
downloads of our appiii
Our platforms host more
than 78m visits per monthiv
88% of our transactions
are mobilev
Our team numbers
more than 700 people and
more than 50 nationalities,
including 400+ travel tech
specialists and engineers
>160
Train
companies
>110
Coach
companies

4. Did you just say
content
automation?
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Actual footage of all
SEOs

6. What is content
automation?
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Content automation
Content Automation relates to the process of content creation through AI algorithms that interpret human interactions,
search behavior, and other aspects. AI can also be a powerful tool for setting up an agile content review process that
is efficient and ensures high quality standards.
https://blog.scoop.it/2022/03/10/content-automation-how-is-it-changing-content-marketing/
Content automation is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on removing the need for human
intervention in the content lifecycle. The goal of content automation is to program, or automate, any
process involved with Content marketing that may be redundant, time-consuming or costly.
https://www.techtarget.com/searchcontentmanagement/definition/content-automation
Content marketing automation is the approach of identifying repetitive content marketing tasks and then out-sourcing
or automating those tasks through tools and applications.
https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/automate-content-marketing/

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Spun Version N.1
Original article
Spun version N.2
Spun version N.3
Spun version N.4
Spun version N.5

9. Why does content
automation have such
a bad reputation?
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https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/auto-gen-content

11. Why do we still need it?
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12. 1.
Add valuable
information that
helps our
customers find
the best
solution for
their needs at
scale.
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13. 2.
Ensure Google
finds high
quality content
on pages even
when scaled
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14. 3.
Scale content
creation to
millions of
pages without
spending
millions of ££.
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How much it would cost to hire freelancers:
4.3 million pages
£60 per page
30 minutes per page
=
£258,000,000
2,150,000 hours = 89,584 days

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Another actual footage of all SEOs

16. What is content
automation for us?
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Content automation = scaling content
(written by humans!)

18. 1.
Gather the
keyword
clusters
that you want to
improve
rankings for
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19. 2.
Create the
“perfect piece
of content”
using one
keyword cluster
per paragraph
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Now this is when it gets interesting…

21. 3.
For each cluster
paragraph create
a list of 7
completely
different ways of
writing it.
We don't use AI: it's all
high-quality human
written content!
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We used Data Science to
create conditions within
each paragraph. This
enabled us to dynamically in
tegrate valuable info making
the content more unique.

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Aka “ask the devs to do their magic”

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Paragraph 1, version 1
Paragraph 3, version 3
Paragraph 5, version 5
Paragraph 7, version 7
Paragraph 2, version 2
Paragraph 4, version 4
Paragraph 6, version 6
…then pick different ones!

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How many unique content
pieces did we generate?
823,000
in 15 languages
12,000,000

26. How did we
measure success?
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Step 1.
Created a baseline view of rankings for all keyword buckets using
Botify.
Step 2.
Extended the baseline looking for untapped keywords at scale using
Google Ads API.
Step 3.
Per keyword bucket:
To understand impact on rankings per keyword type at scale at a more
granular level:
• Trend of average rank
• Trend of CTR
• Clicks
Per page level:
To understand impact rankings have on business metrics (£££):
• Average rank
• Number of keywords the page ranks for
• Trended GrSales
Note:
Launch > Page change picked up and indexed (6-8 weeks) > Minimum 4 weeks to measure to
get a clear view and stabilization = 12 weeks total until we get a clearer read
Page
Cluster 1
Cluster 3
Cluster 2
Cluster 4 Cluster 5
Cluster 6

28. The results
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Market Starting
position
Dec '22 Jan '22 Feb '22 Mar '22 Apr '22 May '22 Jun '22 Jul '22 AVG position Δ
IT 6 -1 No change +0.5 -1 -0.5 No change -0.5 3.5 -2.5
FR 6 -0.5 No change -0.5 -1 No change -0.5 +0.5 4 -2
ES 6 +1 -0.5 -1 -0.5 -0.5 No change -0.5 4 -2
DE 9 +1 -2 -1 -1 No change -0.5 -0.5 5 -4
EN 6 +1 -0.5 -2 -0.5 -0.5 No change No change 3.5 -2.5
We launched content automation in November '21, and this is what happen to
rankings...
Market Increased no. of keywords
IT +20%
FR +25%
ES +16%
DE +16%
EN +17%

30. And this is what scaling content looks like!
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31. Learnings
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32. It's a marathon,
not a sprint
Rankings were
impacted over
time, and we are
still seeing
improvements
month-after-
month
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It starts with
research
Putting time aside to
do some in-depth
research is never
wasted time. A solid
keyword research,
clustering, and on-
going analysis from
the early stages is
the key to a
successful result!

34. Collaboration is
key
Involving the right
experts from different
departments was a
crucial point to succeed:
make sure you talk to
data science,
developers, designers
and put together a
common objective to
commit to together.
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Don't think small
Research, collaboration
and analysis can help
you take calculated
risks that end up paying
off and leading to great
results!
One of our company
values is "Think
Big" and it inspired us
go the extra mile for this
project!

36. Thank you
Greta Munari