Modern Creator
Dan - Ship It · YouTube

How I Use Claude Code for SEO: Competitors, Keywords, Content, Backlinks and Forums

A 13-minute live walkthrough of the full SEO loop - keywords, competitors, forums, and backlinks - run entirely inside Claude Code via the RankSpot API skill.

Posted
yesterday
Duration
Format
Tutorial
educational
Views
145
5 likes
Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Connecting Claude Code to a live SEO data API turns a five-tab research workflow into a single conversational loop - one tool, one window, and no agency required.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…
  • An indie founder or solo builder running a content site or SaaS who handles SEO in-house without an agency.
  • A developer already comfortable with Claude Code who wants to plug live SEO data into their workflow rather than relying on training-data estimates.
  • Someone doing content marketing who wants keyword clustering, competitor gap analysis, and forum discovery without switching between multiple SaaS dashboards.
  • A builder interested in GEO (generative engine optimization) - ranking in Perplexity, Gemini, and ChatGPT via Reddit engagement.
SKIP IF…
  • You want technical SEO coverage - Core Web Vitals, structured data, crawl budget, log-file analysis. This video is content and links only.
  • You are new to Claude Code entirely; the demo assumes comfort with installing skills and reading Claude responses.
  • You need a tool that works without a third-party subscription - RankSpot is required and the free trial caps at 20 backlinks.
TL;DR

The full version, fast.

The video argues that plugging a specialized SEO API into Claude Code eliminates the need for multiple dedicated tools. Starting from an empty Claude Code chat, the presenter installs the RankSpot skill, generates an API key, and walks through five sequential SEO tasks: tiered keyword discovery, semantic keyword clustering to avoid content cannibalization, competitor gap tracking, Reddit forum opportunity surfacing for GEO signals, and backlink directory identification. Each task is driven by a natural-language prompt; Claude handles the API calls and reasoning. The main constraint is that RankSpot trial tier limits backlink data to 20 results, requiring a paid subscription for full coverage.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:0000:24

01 · Intro + scope

Overview of the four SEO pillars covered: keywords, competitors, forum opportunities, backlinks.

00:2500:59

02 · Install RankSpot skill

npx skills add RankSpotAI/rankspot-skill - global install, one-time setup.

01:0001:29

03 · Generate API key

RankSpot dashboard > Settings > API Keys. Key copied and passed inline into Claude Code chat.

01:3003:12

04 · Keyword research

Claude calls RankSpot with BlogBowl product context, returns tiered keyword list. Email marketing cluster excluded as irrelevant.

03:1305:37

05 · Keyword clustering + topic creation

Narrows to blog hosting, pulls semantic cluster, merges into one topic. Article generation triggered - publishes to webhook in 5-10 min.

05:3807:34

06 · Competitor tracking

Lists current six competitors, asks Claude to suggest missing ones. Super.so added. Keyword data refreshes within 1-2 weeks.

07:3509:41

07 · Forum opportunities / GEO

RankSpot surfaces Reddit threads mentioning competitors. Claude returns top 10 most relevant. Human replies without links positioned as GEO signal for Perplexity and Gemini.

09:4212:41

08 · Backlink gap analysis

Pulls competitor backlinks filtered for easy-submit targets. Trial caps at 20. ProductHunt, Crunchbase, SaaSHub, Toolify, DevHunt surfaced.

12:4213:01

09 · Close + next video teaser

Teaser for next video: automated backlink outreach.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

  • Keyword research inside Claude Code is only useful if you give it your product context first - without it, Claude surfaces broad categories that include irrelevant verticals.
  • Semantic keyword clustering before writing prevents three weak articles from cannibalizing the same search intent; one consolidated topic outranks the scattered approach.
  • Competitor tracking is most valuable as a gap-finder, not a monitor - the point is discovering backlinks and keywords competitors have that you do not, then acting on the lowest-friction ones.
  • Writing human Reddit replies without a link still moves GEO rankings on Perplexity, Gemini, and ChatGPT - the signal is brand mention in relevant threads, not the link itself.
  • Backlink acquisition splits cleanly into two modes: directory submissions requiring a profile fill-in, and outreach-based links requiring a pitch. Directories take 10-15 minutes and should come first.
  • Claude Code as an SEO interface works because SEO is largely a data-retrieval-and-reasoning problem - the same loop that writes code also filters keyword tables and ranks backlink opportunities.
  • Any SaaS with a public API can become a Claude Code skill, replacing its own UI with a chat window that reasons across your specific business context.
  • Passing an API key inline in a chat prompt is convenient for demos but insecure for real use - environment variables or a config file are the correct pattern.
Takeaway

One chat window replaces five SEO dashboards.

WHAT TO LEARN

Connecting Claude Code to a live SEO data API turns scattered research into a single conversational loop that reasons about your specific product rather than generic best practices.

  • Keyword research gets more actionable when you give Claude product context first - it can filter irrelevant verticals in the same conversation, without re-running a separate query in a different tool.
  • Semantic keyword clustering before writing prevents cannibalization: grouping similar-intent terms into one topic produces one strong article instead of three weak ones competing against each other for the same query.
  • Competitor tracking is most valuable as a gap-finder rather than a monitor - the payoff is discovering which backlinks and keywords competitors have that you do not, then acting on the lowest-friction targets immediately.
  • Writing human Reddit replies without a link still moves GEO rankings on Perplexity, Gemini, and ChatGPT - the signal is a relevant brand mention in an active thread, not the link itself.
  • Backlink acquisition splits into two modes: easy-submit directories requiring only a profile fill-in, and outreach-based links requiring a personalized pitch. Directories take 10-15 minutes and should come first.
  • Any SaaS with a public API can be turned into a Claude Code skill, replacing its own UI with a chat interface that reasons across your specific business context rather than presenting raw data tables.
Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

RankSpot
An SEO SaaS providing keyword tracking, competitor monitoring, forum opportunity discovery, and backlink data via API, used here as a Claude Code skill that Claude calls on demand.
Keyword cluster
A group of semantically related search queries sharing the same underlying intent, consolidated into a single article to avoid competing against yourself in search rankings.
GEO (generative engine optimization)
The practice of optimizing content to appear in AI search engine answers (Perplexity, Gemini, ChatGPT), often through brand mentions in high-traffic communities like Reddit.
Backlink gap
The difference between your backlink profile and a competitor - links they have that you do not, representing acquisition opportunities.
Forum opportunity
An existing Reddit thread or community post where your product is a natural fit for a helpful reply, surfaced by monitoring competitor mentions and relevant keywords.
Claude Code skill
A composable tool package installed via npx that extends Claude Code capabilities by connecting it to an external API, letting Claude call live data sources during a session.
Resources

Things they pointed at.

01:00productRankSpot
02:25productBlogBowl
Quotables

Lines you could clip.

07:38
The more you speak about your business on Reddit, the higher you rank in Perplexity, Gemini, and so on.
Reframes Reddit engagement as an AI search signal - counterintuitive to traditional SEO audienceTikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
09:27
I am gonna write a human reply. I am not gonna add a link here. Just a human reply saying that I am doing that and that. And it will skyrocket my SEO and my GEO.
Concrete tactic with a memorable payoff phraseIG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
06:07
All the keywords we take are either our keywords or our competitors. So competitors are super important here.
Clean summary of the keyword sourcing philosophynewsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
The Script

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00:00Hi there. This is Dan. And in this video, we are gonna speak with you how we can automate your whole SEO workflow using Cloud Code.
00:06We are gonna speak with you about how we can find the keywords, how we can track your competitors, how we can find relevant forum opportunities such as with Reddit and Warrior where you can post a link or where you can tell people about your business and what you're doing. And in the end, we're gonna speak about the backlinks and how we can find the good websites to submit the backlink for you.
00:23Yep. Let's jump straight into it. So first of all, what we need to do, we need to download ranks bot SEO skill.
00:28You You need to click it here. You need to click the and copy the command. Then you need to open the terminal window and either in a folder or you can do it globally.
00:35I'm gonna go to folder now, and I'm gonna put the skill there. Then you can select either you want to install it in the project, and it's gonna be scoped to that specific folder, or you want to install it globally.
00:45In my case, I'm gonna install it globally. I'm gonna use that SIM link, and I'm gonna click here yes. Right now it says failed to install because I already have it, but in your case, it will work.
00:54So now I can close it. Now the next thing which we need to do is we need to register in the Rankspot. And Rankspot is a a tool that helps you with your SEO.
01:02They do a backlink research. We also find relevant form opportunities and so on and so on. So once you pass the onboarding, and you will be able to generate an API key.
01:11We need that API key. To do that, you need to go to the settings. You need to click API keys, and you need to generate a new API key.
01:16Let me call it the next part. I'm gonna create a key.
01:20I'm gonna copy an API key. No worries. I'm gonna delete the API key later.
01:23So even if you see it now, it's not a problem for me. And now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna speak with a cloud code and ask about the keywords, about the competitors, and so on. And first of all, let me write something like, hi there.
01:39I want to do a search. For now, let's think about best keywords to focus on now.
01:50User and spot skill for that Skill for that. Here is my API key.
01:58There are many different ways to submit your API key, but I know it's sometimes not super safe, but I'm just I'm gonna go that way. What I'm also gonna do, I'm gonna say to him what I'm gonna promote. I am promoted.
02:09And to show you around, I'm gonna show you one example of one of my other products, which is called BlogBall. I'm promoting BlogBall.
02:20And, yeah, I'm just clicking under. And Cloud Code will now use the skill.
02:26As you can see, it it uses skill and spot, and it says, let me pull the keywords. I'm gonna here, I'm gonna always allow.
02:40Allow.
02:48And by the way, Rankspot also has an ability to set the competitors, and we are gonna speak about that as well.
02:55So for now, it outputted me a lot of the keywords we can focus on now. High volume, high search keywords, lower volume as you can see here.
03:03While email marketing is an additional scope of the blog. Well, it's not the primary one, but the blog templates, learn how to block SEO blog post SEO blog post best practices. This is these are, like, super relevant keywords for us.
03:13So let's say let's write to him. Okay. Email marketing is not our primary field.
03:21Let's focus on block keywords. I'm gonna write it that way.
03:38Now okay. So let me think. For example, let's say, I really love and this is, like, a super relevant keyword for me.
03:48It's a it's a blog hosting. So what I will do is or let me see even. Best open source blogging platforms.
03:52This is even way more better keyword for me. But for now, let's let's focus on blog hosting. And I'm gonna say to to him, can we focus on blog hosting and create topic for that keyword?
04:05But before we're doing that, let's find cluster keywords. Those are the keywords that that are similar to the blog hosting keyword words so we avoid repeating ourselves.
04:18So I wrote it to him. Now what's gonna happen is it will find the cluster keywords. As you can see, it uses some other comments.
04:27Now let me pull blah blah blah.
04:38And now we can see it found some relevant keywords, three blog hosting, blog hosting platforms. Let me look at them.
04:43And as you can see, we don't want to create a separate broad a separate article for each of the keyword because they are similar. So we want to include them into one article. And now as you can see, it already creates me topic.
04:54Topic is not the final article. So let me see. It creates right now a topic.
05:04Oh, a topic with the title already exist, but yeah.
05:13So we found because we already had the the similar topic, so we found the the topic, and it will update it with the new keywords we just found now.
05:24Great. So allow once. Perfect.
05:27So the topic is already updated, and we can see best blog hosting platforms planned and keywords attached. And now it's asks me ready to generate. What I can do, and I can say, yes, please.
05:36Let's generate. And it will call rank spot, and it will start the generation of the article, and you would be able to see it you would be able to see that you started the generation of the article right there. As soon as the generation completes, it usually takes around five to ten minutes, you your article will be published directly to your website, to your webhook, and you can set up different integrations here.
05:55For example, I'm using personally blog, but you can set up it for WordPress. Right? And it's gonna be and it's gonna be automatically published there.
06:01So now let's continue to another thing. So right now, all of the keywords you can also check them here.
06:08All of the keywords we take are either our keywords or our competitors. So competitors are super important here. And we already have a lot of the competitors in the settings over here, but now I want to do one interesting thing.
06:18Again, you check our current competitors. And think maybe there are additional similar competitors we are not monitoring.
06:30So it will it will say to us maybe we need to add some some additional some additional competitors.
06:39Right now, it's gonna run these current competitors, and it said that, okay. Right now, we have those six competitors, and let's let's see about what it proposes. Well, I don't like those first three competitor competitors.
06:50They're not as good, but Wix also not as good. Blogify. This is the first time you see that.
06:54I'm gonna go Blogify. No. It's not actually our.
06:59So what but what I see for example, SuperSaw is my competitor. Let me check it double check it. Okay.
07:07So what I'm gonna say, okay. Please add super assault to our competitors.
07:12And once it's gonna do that, the block the sorry. The rank spot will refresh the keywords. It doesn't refresh right away.
07:18It usually refreshes within a week or two, and it will put all of those keywords into one table so we can the next time we're gonna ask about the topic article, we are gonna find the best the best fit for us. Supervisor already in the workspace, so it's already there. I didn't notice it.
07:31Okay. So next thing is every time writes an article, it also saves form opportunities.
07:38And the form opportunities are super relevant for Jio because the more the more you speak about your business on Reddit, the higher you you are basically ranking. You charge b t's perplexity, Gemini, and so on and so on.
07:48So this is super important. And now Rankspot, every time it finds a relevant Reddit, it inserts inserts it in the table over here. And what we also do, we also check your competitors and see whether there are some relevant there are some real and foreign opportunities as well from the competitors.
08:03Because if the competitors are if the competitors wrote a reply in a Reddit thread, we need to go there and we need add our reply as well. And by the way, the article was generated so we can see quickly how it looks like.
08:13Best blog hosting platforms. And, yeah, I just created a comparison article, but we are not gonna go into depth right now. So now let's say, as you can see, the best platform for blog, it found already a blog because it just right now generated a a blog post, so it found a new form opportunity for us.
08:26And now what you are gonna do, you're gonna say, okay. Now please help me to focus on form opportunities. List top 10 best form forms I need to react now where my product is a great fit.
08:44So I'm gonna write it like that. Cloud Code will will go and will check all of our form opportunities. Let me see.
09:05And it started out with me in some form opportunities which are super relevant to my business, and, actually, it does a great job with it. Which platform is the best for getting started? And it's in the blogging.
09:13So I want to start blogging, but I'm not sure which hosting platform is the best. This is also super for us. For free blogging platforms.
09:19Well, we are open source, also interesting. Can optimize blog content for so long. And those are, like, a great opportunities for me to promote my business.
09:29So I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna open. I'm gonna write a human reply. I'm not gonna add a link here.
09:32I'm just gonna write a human reply saying that I'm doing that and that. And it will skyrocket my SEO, and it will skyrocket my geo as well. So this is how we can work with the forum opportunities.
09:41For now, just going to thread. I I just showed you how we can work with the forum opportunities, and now let's speak about the backlinks because it's also super important to rank higher in Google and to have as much keywords as possible in Google.
09:52The more backlinks you have, the higher you rank. And it's important it was important five years ago, and it will be more important now even though a lot of people are saying that SEO is dead and so on. So what does, it takes the backlinks of all your competitors and insert them here.
10:06Why we need that? So we can check the backlinks, and we can replicate some of the backlinks from our competitors. And let's say we have five competitors, but we are monitoring all of them.
10:15And we are for example, one competitor left or got a new backlink, and we know about that. And we can do some something about that. For example, we can try to reduce that backlink gap that we have with them by submitting the backlink on that website.
10:24And some of the websites are really easy to get on. What you can do I'm not gonna show right now outreach and how we can automate the backlink outreach. It's gonna be in the next videos, but are we gonna speak about how we can find really easy ideas for backlinks basically now.
10:37So I'm gonna write now. I have 10. Can you check some of the competitor backlinks?
10:45I can easily submit now. I'm gonna press enter, and it's gonna do the heavy job for me, and it's gonna it it it should pick an easy opportunities that I basically can do in fifteen or maybe ten to fifteen minutes today.
10:57So actionable backlinks. How to start a blog guide? Now this is this is not actually super great because it's gonna be hard.
11:04This is actually the backlink we need outreach for. Let's say I don't want to do outreach now.
11:12Just easier submit backlinks. I can create profile or submit my web.
11:19And I press enter. It's gonna probably do another try.
11:25Hopefully, better now.
11:35Royal hunt. Yes. Kind of.
11:37Slightly more. This is now twenty five minutes each, Spotify for creators. This is not five minute for sure, but links from those are not super relevant.
11:51But for example, product hunt. Right now, it doesn't work because you need to be in top positions to gain the backlink. But, basically, it's a website where you can just submit your your product and basically get the backlink.
12:03But, yeah, let me try to oh, yeah. We've got the trial caps.
12:08Okay. The problem is yeah. Now it's better.
12:11So it found the product, hand the Crunchbase, the SaaS hub, the Toolify, the DevTool. And those are potentially the backings where we can submit our product to. So, for example, branch basis, you just register and you just fill the profile and you get the backlink.
12:25Yes. It's a no follow backlink, but still you get the backlink. And the problem here why the results were not so great is because Rankspot limits the trial version to have only 20 backlinks.
12:34If So you want to see all of them, the subscription is required. And this is this account I have right now has currently a trial. So that's the reason it didn't work.
12:42But I hope you liked it. Let me know in the comments below what you think. If you have any questions, it's my first video.
12:46But later I'm gonna record many, many more videos. And, for example, one of the next videos I'm planning to record is how you can automate your backlink outreach to gain more, like, better backlinks and more quality backlinks. Thank you, guys.
12:58Have a great one. Bye bye.
The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

The promise is audacious for a 13-minute video: automate the entire SEO workflow - competitors, keywords, content, forums, and backlinks - without leaving Claude Code. Dan delivers by treating the RankSpot API as a skill layer that hands Claude live data, then letting the chat interface handle the reasoning that would otherwise require five separate tools.

Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

00:00list

Five-layer SEO loop

  1. Keyword research
  2. Keyword clustering + content generation
  3. Competitor monitoring
  4. Forum opportunity (GEO)
  5. Backlink gap + submission

The five sequential SEO tasks covered, all driven from a single Claude Code chat window via the RankSpot skill.

Steal forAny content-driven product that wants a systematic SEO program without an agency
10:20model

Two-mode backlink acquisition

  1. Easy-submit directories (ProductHunt, Crunchbase, SaaSHub, Toolify, DevHunt) - fill a profile, get a link
  2. Outreach-based links - require a personalized pitch

Splits backlink work into no-pitch (immediate) and pitch-required (scheduled) categories.

Steal forPrioritizing your backlink pipeline as a solo founder without an outreach team
CTA Breakdown

How they asked for the click.

VERBAL ASK
12:42next-video
One of the next videos I am planning to record is how you can automate your backlink outreach to gain more quality backlinks.

Soft close - positions the next video as natural continuation. No subscribe ask, no link drop. Low-friction for a first video.

MENTIONED ON CAMERA
01:00productRankSpot
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Storyboard

Visual structure at a glance.

open - Claude Code dashboard
hookopen - Claude Code dashboard00:00
terminal - skill install
setupterminal - skill install00:25
RankSpot - API key creation
setupRankSpot - API key creation01:00
Claude Code - keyword results table
valueClaude Code - keyword results table01:30
Claude Code - cluster analysis and topic creation
valueClaude Code - cluster analysis and topic creation03:13
RankSpot - competitors settings
valueRankSpot - competitors settings05:38
RankSpot - forum opportunities list
valueRankSpot - forum opportunities list07:35
RankSpot - backlinks table
valueRankSpot - backlinks table09:42
Claude Code - easy backlink targets output
ctaClaude Code - easy backlink targets output12:00
Frame Gallery

Visual moments.