Using Python for doing SEO, versus using Python to develop software/tools for SEO.
The first activity is called SEO.
The second one is called software development.
Important difference.
You can use Python for crawling (try one of the #advertools crawlers), analyzing log files (also advertools), XML sitemaps (yes, yes, advertools), running bulk robots.txt tests, weighted n-grams, and much more. These are SEO tasks. Running them in bulk, using a programming language and its powerful
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libraries can take your data work (analytics and productivity) to a new level. Building software tools is software development, even if you are building SEO tools, and it is completely out of scope of SEO. Just like a web developer can build an ecommerce website (software development), yet what they are doing is not called “ecommerce”. Sure, they need to have an understanding of ecommerce, the process, delivery, returns, invoicing, etc. But they still don’t “do” ecommerce. They don’t
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select products, prices, they don’t do advertising, and so on. I've written previously about the difference between programming and software development, and I think it is empowering and liberating for all digital marketing people. You can really boost your data work and productivity, and analyze data in ways you never thought possible. Yet, you don’t have to get into software development, and thereby provide high quality entertainment for your developer friends. Try googling data
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science. I have moved from the first to the second activity, which I now primarily focus on. This is a career shift and most people probably don’t want to do this. I’m writing the software so most of you can use it, and not worry about building it. You focus on gaining insights, and getting more productive, while I focus on building and improving. You're more than welcome to join in the development of course.
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Elias Dabbas 