Pipulate Free and Open Source SEO Software

Fight the FUD

Let me help guide you through the rise of AI. All old products are becoming rapidly broken and irrelevant. You need to be able to conduct ad hoc investigations from scratch, using any API, any datasource, any product or service — often while avoiding the paid ones that position themselves as “necessary” and prey on your fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD).

You’ll Lika the FOSSome Sauce

I ask for little at Pipulate and give the world. It’s FOSS, people! Sharing this with you, and the deeper spiritual experience it leads to, is my Ikigai. And it’s all the right bandwagons: Linux, Python, Data Engineering & AI. One leads to the next to the next to the next. Stuff that appears too daunting or aspirational on the surface rapidly melt away into stuff you do daily while hardly thinking, the way I journal daily in vim.

Your SEO Super-Powers Start Now

This is the site that SEOs should have been introduced to on Day 1. It focuses on universal truths that were true in the days of AltaVista, they are true in these days of Google, and I believe they’re still true in what comes next. The URL is still all-powerful. But you don’t need more. You need fewer and better. If a Microsoft AI steals from you, you can assert your rights if you licensed the content found on your URLs properly. Those citations back to you will include what? A URL! So it’s still about the URL, the relationships between them and the content found there.

Yes, Yes, AI. But Linux + Python First

Things are different. And it’s not because AI. Sure that’s huge and will change everything. But what’s the killer feature? No, not cheating on your exams! It’s writing code — Python code in particular; sometimes AI-assisted, but always actually understood by you. The “understood by you” part is what we focus on here at Pipulate.

Beware the Bad Examples

ChatGPT is going to give you bad examples, bad templates and bad patterns just like StackOverflow and many Github projects will. You’ve got to be in the know and on your guard and the best copy/paster in the business. That’s how you grow strong in the age of AI — that’s how you win in the age of AI. Python literacy. And of course writing your own unique (well licensed) content. I figure I’ll do both here at this site. For example, ChatGPT isn’t going to tell you about the importance of persistent dicts as a critical first step. I will.

But Will Python Win?

Yes, Python will win. Nothing will promote Python like copy/paste code samples you’re expected to get to run. You’re either in the world of NodeJS and Web Frameworks, or you’re in the world of Python through Jupyter Notebooks. There’s not even a contest. Python is so much better for the newb and all things not WebDev. But so much is WebDev! Blah, blah. Python is rapidly on its way to becoming the new lingua franca of tech, second only to Linux.

AI Can Write It But Will It Run?

Are you finding good sample Python code for SEO or asking ChatGPT to write some for you, but you need a place to run it? First you need to polish the code to suit your needs, best accomplished in Jupyter Notebooks. Then you have to put it somewhere to run 24x7. You probably also want to avoid paying for yet another X$/mo cloud service.

Pipulate Is a Full Linux Server

If you’re running Windows 10 or 11, Microsoft has made it easy for you to run a Linux server in the background. If you’ve ever felt imposter syndrome, now is the time to fix it. Make your New Years resolution doing SEO in Python, the advanced way.

Don’t Get Stuck in “Lost Mode”

The ultimate tool for SEO is Python, and the easiest way to get started with Python is Jupyter Notebooks. The problem becomes going from Jupyter to 24x7 automation. You too easily get locked into “Lost Mode” where you have to sit there and press a button. Pipulate gets you over that hurdle.

Installing Pipulate

Pipulate is a Linux server that runs in the background under Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) through JupyterLab and Linux systemd services. Once Pipulate is installed, you will have access to JupyterLab on your local machine at localhost:8080 with a number of pre-installed Python packages for such tasks as:

Each of these Notebooks can be run on-demand and interactively through JupyterLab, but also can be turned into a scheduled automated task running in the background of your computer exactly as it would on a server. Before long you’ll be able to deploy Pipulate servers at home, on cloud, or just keep it on your laptop. The point is you’ll know how this stuff works without becoming beholden to yet another $30 to $300 per month proprietary product.

To install Pipulate, Drink Me.

Local Jupyter vs. Google Colab, Azure Notebooks, Binder, etc.

Many people start Python SEO explorations in Jupyter Notebooks, which simply means through a Web browser. This is where most people fall into the trap of using Notebooks cloud providers like Google Colab, Azure Notebooks, Binder or one of the other cloud providers, resulting in the inability to do Browser automation, control your IP, install certain packages, and a general loss of control over your own destiny. Avoid this trap.

Logging Into Services Like Google

As easy as these systems are to get a positive initial experience, much work in the field of SEO and Data Science requires logging into sites and services. This includes managing login credentials. Try accessing your Google Analytics or updating a Google Spreadsheet from one of these platforms. Getting through the login procedure along will be enough to send you running for the hills. And just wait until you try to automate a web browser!

Local Linux Installs Under Windows Is a Sweet Spot

Local installations of software still plays a very important role. If you want to change where you’re surfing from, you can just use common Windows desktop VPN software and you will be changing where your “Linux machine” is surfing out from, just that easy. IP banned? No problem, cycle IP! Yes, while these things are technically doable in some cloud environments, nothing makes the obstacles just melt away like a local Linux install of JupyterLab on a Windows laptop.

Using Jupyter Vs. Automation

Anything you “mock up” in a Jupyter Notebook can be cleaned up and moved over to a Linux service for running 24x7. Because Jupyter installs directly onto your local Windows 10 or 11 laptop using the Windows Subsystem for Linux, the code is generally copy/paste-able directly into a Linux Service. Better still, with the use of tools like nbdev, you don’t even need to copy/paste. Your Notebook is capable of outputting (and updating) a Linux service file in location. Run it in the Notebook until you’re satisfied, nbdev_export, and your Linux services are updated.