Goal and Prerequisites
What This Workflow Achieves
If you are a freelancer or running a small team, you probably know how tedious weekly SEO reporting can be. Logging into Google Search Console, exporting CSVs, copying numbers into spreadsheets, and trying to spot trends — it eats up 2 to 3 hours every single week.
This SEO automation recipe eliminates that manual work entirely. By the end of this guide, you will have a fully automated workflow that runs every Monday morning and delivers a complete SEO performance report — with AI-powered insights — straight to your inbox or Slack channel.
Here is exactly what the workflow does:
- Pulls your latest keyword rankings and click data from Google Search Console
- Sends that data to ChatGPT for analysis — identifying declining keywords, rising opportunities, and actionable recommendations
- Logs everything into a structured Google Sheets dashboard
- Sends you a summary notification via Slack or email
No coding experience required. If you can drag and drop, you can build this.
What You Need Before Starting
Before diving in, make sure you have the following ready:
- Google Search Console account — Your website must be verified and collecting data. If you have not set this up yet, Google Search Console is free to use.
- Make account — Sign up at Make.com. The Free plan (1,000 operations per month) is enough to get started, though the Core plan ($29/month) gives you 10,000 credits and 1-minute scheduling intervals.
- OpenAI API key — You need a ChatGPT API key from OpenAI’s platform. API usage is pay-as-you-go — this workflow typically costs less than $0.50 per week.
- Google Sheets — A free Google account is all you need.
- Slack workspace (optional) — If you prefer Slack notifications over email.
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The Big Picture — End-to-End Flow Overview
Trigger → Data Pull → AI Analysis → Report → Notification
Before we set up each piece, let us visualize the entire pipeline. Understanding the big picture makes the step-by-step setup much easier to follow.
| Step | What Happens | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Trigger | Workflow runs automatically every Monday at 9:00 AM | Make (Scheduler) |
| 2. Data Pull | Fetches keyword rankings, clicks, impressions, and CTR for the past 7 days | Google Search Console API |
| 3. AI Analysis | Analyzes the data to find declining keywords, rising opportunities, and content recommendations | ChatGPT API (GPT-4o) |
| 4. Report | Writes the results into a structured spreadsheet with weekly tabs | Google Sheets |
| 5. Notification | Sends a concise summary with top 3 action items | Slack or Email |
The beauty of this setup is that each step feeds directly into the next. Once configured, the entire sequence runs hands-free — you just read the report and take action.
Tools Used and Their Roles
Make — The Orchestration Hub
Make (formerly Integromat) is the visual automation platform that connects everything together. Think of it as the conductor of an orchestra — it does not play any instrument itself, but it tells each tool when and how to perform. Make supports over 2,000 app integrations and has a built-in Google Search Console module, which makes this workflow straightforward to build.
Google Search Console API — Your Ranking Data Source
Google Search Console provides the raw SEO data: which keywords your site ranks for, how many clicks and impressions each keyword gets, your average position, and click-through rates. The API lets Make pull this data programmatically instead of you manually exporting CSVs.
ChatGPT API — The AI Analyst
The OpenAI API (GPT-4o) acts as your personal SEO analyst. Instead of staring at rows of numbers trying to spot patterns, ChatGPT reads the data and gives you plain-English insights: which keywords are dropping, which ones are rising, and what you should do about it.
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Google Sheets — The Report Dashboard
Google Sheets serves as your persistent report dashboard. Each week, the workflow adds a new tab with the latest data and AI analysis. Over time, this becomes a valuable historical record of your SEO performance trends.
Slack or Email — The Notification Channel
The final step sends a concise summary to wherever you prefer — a Slack channel for team visibility, or a simple email for solo operators. The notification includes the top 3 action items so you know exactly what to focus on.
Step-by-Step Setup Guide
STEP 1: Connect Google Search Console to Make
- Log into your Make account and click “Create a new scenario”.
- Click the “+” button to add your first module, then search for “Google Search Console”.
- Select the “Search Analytics: Query” action. This is the module that pulls your ranking data.
- Click “Add” next to Connection and follow the OAuth flow to authorize Make to access your Google Search Console account.
- Select your website property from the dropdown.
Common stumbling block: If your website does not appear in the dropdown, make sure you have verified ownership in Google Search Console first. Also, check that you are logging in with the same Google account that owns the property.
STEP 2: Configure the Data Query
In the Google Search Console module settings, configure the query parameters:
- Start Date: Use Make’s
addDays(now; -7)function to always pull the last 7 days. - End Date: Use
addDays(now; -1)(Search Console data has a 1-2 day delay). - Dimensions: Select “Query” (keyword) and “Page”.
- Row Limit: Set to 50 to capture your top-performing keywords without overwhelming the AI analysis.
- Data Type: Leave as “Web” unless you specifically want to track image or video rankings.
This returns an array of your top 50 keywords with their clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position for the past week.
Tip: If you want to track specific keywords only, add a filter after this module. Use Make’s text operators to match keywords containing certain terms (e.g., your brand name or target topics).
STEP 3: Set Up the ChatGPT API Module
- Add a new module after Google Search Console. Search for “OpenAI (ChatGPT, DALL-E, Whisper)”.
- Select “Create a Chat Completion”.
- Connect your OpenAI API key. Go to OpenAI API Keys if you need to generate one.
- Set the Model to
gpt-4ofor the best balance of quality and cost. - In the System Message, paste the following prompt:
“You are an SEO analyst. Analyze the following Google Search Console data and provide: 1) Top 3 declining keywords (position dropped or clicks decreased) with specific recommendations; 2) Top 3 rising opportunities (improving position or increasing impressions); 3) A one-paragraph executive summary. Format your response with clear headings.”
- In the User Message, map the output from the Google Search Console module. Use Make’s
toString()function to convert the array into readable text. - Set Max Tokens to
1000— this is plenty for a concise analysis.
Common stumbling block: The most frequent error here is formatting the data incorrectly for ChatGPT. Make sure you convert the Search Console array into a readable string. A simple approach is to use Make’s Text Aggregator module between Steps 2 and 3 to format each row as: Keyword: [query], Clicks: [clicks], Impressions: [impressions], CTR: [ctr], Position: [position].
STEP 4: Map AI Output to Google Sheets
- Add a “Google Sheets: Add a Row” module.
- Connect your Google account and select your target spreadsheet.
- Create a sheet with these columns: Date | Executive Summary | Declining Keywords | Rising Opportunities | Raw Data.
- Map the fields:
- Date: Use
formatDate(now; "YYYY-MM-DD") - Executive Summary: Map from ChatGPT’s response (parse the relevant section)
- Declining Keywords: Map from ChatGPT’s response
- Rising Opportunities: Map from ChatGPT’s response
- Raw Data: Map the full Search Console output for reference
- Date: Use
Pro tip: For cleaner data organization, use a “Google Sheets: Add a Sheet” module first to create a new tab named with the current date (e.g., “Report-2026-03-01”). Then add rows to that new tab. This way, each week gets its own dedicated tab.
STEP 5: Add Slack or Email Notification
For Slack:
- Add a “Slack: Create a Message” module.
- Connect your Slack workspace.
- Select the target channel (e.g., #seo-reports).
- In the message body, include the executive summary from ChatGPT and a link to the Google Sheets report.
For Email:
- Add an “Email: Send an Email” module (or use Gmail).
- Set the recipient, subject line (e.g., “Weekly SEO Report — [date]”), and paste the AI summary in the body.
Tip: Keep the notification concise — just the executive summary and top 3 action items. The full data lives in Google Sheets for anyone who wants to dig deeper.
STEP 6: Schedule the Workflow
- Click the clock icon on your trigger module (the first module in the scenario).
- Change from “Immediately” to “At regular intervals”.
- Set the schedule: Every week, Monday, 9:00 AM (your timezone).
- Click “OK” and then toggle the scenario to “ON”.
Important note: On the Make Free plan, the minimum scheduling interval is 15 minutes. Weekly scheduling works fine on any plan. However, if you want to run multiple scenarios or need faster intervals for other workflows, the Core plan ($29/month with 10,000 credits) is a worthwhile upgrade.
Before turning on the schedule, run the scenario once manually using the “Run once” button. Check that data flows through each module correctly, and verify the Google Sheets output and Slack/email notification look right.
Before and After Comparison
Here is what changes once this automated SEO workflow is in place:
| Aspect | Before (Manual) | After (Automated) |
|---|---|---|
| Time spent | 2-3 hours per week exporting, formatting, and analyzing | 0 minutes — report arrives automatically |
| Consistency | Skipped weeks when busy; inconsistent date ranges | Same day, same time, same format every week |
| Insight quality | Manual pattern spotting — easy to miss trends | AI identifies declining and rising keywords instantly |
| Team sharing | Copy-paste into emails; attachments get lost | Shared Google Sheet + Slack notification for the whole team |
| Historical tracking | Scattered CSVs across folders | Organized weekly tabs in one spreadsheet |
| Cost | Your time (most expensive resource) | ~$0.50/week in API costs + Make plan |
The biggest win is not just the time saved — it is the consistency. Automated reports never skip a week, which means you always have fresh data to act on.
Extensions and Advanced Ideas
Add Competitor Rank Tracking
Want to know how your competitors are performing? Add a second data source to the workflow. Services like SerpAPI or ValueSERP provide rank tracking APIs that integrate with Make. You can pull competitor rankings for your target keywords and have ChatGPT compare your performance against theirs.
Auto-Generate Content Briefs from Declining Keywords
When the AI detects a keyword losing rankings, add a branch in your Make scenario that automatically generates a content optimization brief. Include the current URL, target keyword, competing pages, and ChatGPT-generated suggestions for improving the content. Send these briefs to your content team via Slack or Notion as actionable tasks.
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Connect to Looker Studio for Visual Dashboards
Google Sheets is great for raw data, but if you want polished visual reports for clients, connect your spreadsheet to Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio). Build a dashboard template once, and it updates automatically as new data flows into the spreadsheet each week. This is especially useful if you manage SEO for multiple clients.
FAQ and Common Pitfalls
Q1. Why is my Google Search Console data delayed?
Google Search Console data typically has a 2-3 day delay. This is normal — Google needs time to process and aggregate the data. That is why we use addDays(now; -1) as the end date rather than today’s date. If you see empty results, try extending the date range further back.
Q2. How do I handle ChatGPT API rate limits?
For a weekly workflow running once per week, you are unlikely to hit rate limits. However, if you run multiple scenarios simultaneously, you might see 429 errors. The fix is simple: add a “Sleep” module (set to 5-10 seconds) before the ChatGPT module. This spaces out your API calls. Also make sure your OpenAI account has a sufficient usage limit set in the billing settings.
Q3. Can I use n8n or Zapier instead of Make?
Absolutely. n8n is an excellent open-source alternative if you prefer self-hosting and want unlimited executions. The setup is very similar — n8n has both Google Search Console and OpenAI nodes. Zapier also works, though its Google Search Console integration has fewer configuration options compared to Make. The core logic (pull data → AI analysis → report → notify) stays the same regardless of which platform you choose.
Q4. How much does this workflow cost per month?
Here is a rough breakdown:
- Make: Free plan works for this single workflow. Core plan ($29/month) if you want faster intervals or run multiple scenarios.
- OpenAI API: Approximately $0.50-$2.00 per month for weekly analysis of 50 keywords using GPT-4o.
- Google Search Console: Free.
- Google Sheets: Free.
- Slack: Free plan is sufficient.
Total: Free to ~$31/month depending on your Make plan. Compare that to premium SEO tools that charge $100-300/month for automated reporting features.
Conclusion — Start with Just the Report
You do not need to build the perfect SEO automation system on day one. Start small — just get the Google Search Console data flowing into a Google Sheet automatically. Once that works, add the ChatGPT analysis layer. Then layer on notifications. Then experiment with the advanced extensions.
The workflow described in this guide takes about 30-45 minutes to set up from scratch. That investment pays for itself in the very first week when your report arrives without you lifting a finger.
The key takeaway: automate the reporting, keep the strategy human. AI is excellent at spotting patterns in data and summarizing findings. But deciding which keywords to target, what content to create, and how to position your brand — that is still your job. This workflow just makes sure you always have the data you need to make those decisions confidently.
Ready to take it further? Start by connecting your Google Search Console to Make and running your first automated data pull. You will be surprised how quickly 30 minutes of setup transforms your weekly SEO workflow.