There are two ways to build an SEO agent with ChatGPT. You can set up a custom GPT inside ChatGPT with instructions, example files, and actions (connections to outside tools), or you can use the OpenAI API to build your own agent with function calling. The first is quick and needs no code. The second gives you full control.
Plenty of marketers already paste a keyword into ChatGPT and ask for an outline. The upgrade is giving it real data and a consistent process, so you're not getting a fresh, slightly different answer every time someone on the team asks.
Is this for you?
- Your team already uses ChatGPT every day.
- You want one shared assistant everyone uses the same way, like a “brief builder.”
- Or you're a developer who wants to build on the OpenAI API.
What you need before you start
- A ChatGPT plan that lets you create custom GPTs, or OpenAI API access.
- Your house rules written down: audience, tone, and what a good brief includes.
- Optionally, an action that connects to your data, like a small service that returns Search Console numbers.
Your first build: a team brief builder
Strictly speaking this starts as a well-trained assistant rather than an agent. That's fine.
- Create a custom GPT and write instructions covering your audience, brief format, and claims it must never make.
- Upload a few of your best past briefs as examples.
- Tell it to always ask for the target keyword and the reader's goal before it writes anything.
- Have it list the questions searchers seem to ask, suggest sections, and flag anything it's unsure about.
- Share it with the team and collect feedback on the first ten briefs.
It can't check live data yet. Add an action that fetches current search results and it starts to behave like a real agent.
Mistakes to avoid
- It sounds sure even when it's guessing. Ask it to separate facts from suggestions.
- Don't upload sensitive data you wouldn't want stored outside your company.
- Results can drift when the underlying model is updated. Re-test with your examples now and then.
- Browsing isn't research. Check anything it finds online before it goes into a brief.
Where to go next
- Content briefs: what to automate and what to keep human
- Build SEO agents: the principles behind any agent
- SEO agent with Python: if you outgrow custom GPTs
- The SEO automation loop: the observe, decide, act, measure cycle every build fits into.
- The SEO autonomy dial: how much control to hand over, and when.
- Examples: what other people have built.