Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most reliable customer acquisition channels. To use it, you must conduct keyword research, do on-page and off-page optimization, implement technical SEO, and create content.
Our organic traffic at CoSchedule shows we are successful at this, but these results come with immense effort.
Thankfully, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help us reduce our workload and streamline our SEO processes. In this article, we’ll guide you to do the same. You’ll learn how to use AI for SEO so you can get your time back and drive results.
Introduction To SEO & AI
SEO involves optimizing a website to improve its search engine visibility. The goal is to increase organic traffic, drive brand awareness, and get customers.
Conversely, AI is a machine’s ability to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence. Voice-activated systems like Siri or Alexa, including text-based systems like ChatGPT, are AI.
The synergy between AI and SEO isn’t new. Since 2016, Google has integrated AI into its search engines with algorithm updates and technologies like RankBrain, BERT, and MUM. The goal of these AI technologies is to improve the relevance of search results. Clearly, Google, the most used search engine, considers AI useful. That means you should as well.
Understanding The Role Of AI In SEO
Many SEO tasks take time to execute. But you can easily streamline them with AI.
For instance, Julian Goldie (an SEO Expert), uses ChatGPT to find relevant keywords and ranks them using a priority score to know which to target first.
This lets Julian know the keywords that will provide the best results and where to put most of his efforts. While the search volume from ChatGPT may be inaccurate, the AI output is super-fast.
Beyond being fast, AI software like ChatGPT helps with data analysis. However, it’s vital you exercise caution with the data you share. As David Sweenor notes, “Unless you have an enterprise license, data input into ChatGPT is not protected, so you should not put any sensitive, protected, or proprietary data into ChatGPT.”
How AI Can Improve SEO
If you’re not using AI to complement your SEO processes, you’ll use more time to execute several tasks. Findings in the HubSpot State of AI report show marketers save 2.5 hours daily by using AI. That’s 26 working days saved in a year. We can infer similar time savings for SEO. Here’s how AI can improve your SEO efforts and save time for other campaigns:
1. AI Tools For Keyword Research
Besides ChatGPT, there are other AI-powered keyword research tools. A tool like Twinword can help you find relevant keywords and understand the search intent of users.
Other AI tools like Cluster AI and Keyword Cupid help you cluster keywords you can target on a single page.
Figuring out keywords to put in a cluster is incredibly difficult, time-consuming, and is often guesswork. So having AI shoulder the task is a move that saves time and guarantees better results.
2. AI In Content Optimization
Before the emergence of AI, optimizing content required thorough SERP analysis. SEOs had to know what competitors were doing. Doing this helps to reverse-engineer a competitor’s content approach. The problem? This process is time-consuming.
AI tools like SurferSEO, and NeuronWriter solve this challenge. Once you enter your target term, they not only help with SERP analysis, but show you optimization opportunities you’re missing.
3. AI In Link Building
An SEO strategy that always works is link building. More (quality) links = higher ranking. The challenge? Link building is hard, especially when you need to contact others to link to your content.
But with AI, you can reduce the stress by creating backlink request emails or even an email sequence.
ChatGPT can accelerate the email process
4. AI In Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the optimizing of a website to boost SEO rankings and improve user experience. This process involves creating an SEO-friendly website architecture, doing page speed optimization, and more.
Currently, there is no brilliant AI tool or AI use case for technical SEO. That means you would have to use traditional SEO software to find and fix technical SEO issues, like:
- Broken links
- Site health
- Crawlability
- Canonicalization
A Practical Example Of AI In SEO
Bankrate is a popular finance website that attracts over 200 million monthly visitors.
To respond to frequently asked finance questions like what is arbitrage, and what is a hedge fund, Bankrate uses AI. According to Google, they have articles on at least 106 of such questions.
Bankrate uses AI to write articles
But how do we know Bankrate uses AI? They inform readers at the end of such posts.
What’s even better is their use of subject matter experts to edit and fact-check every AI output. This adds credibility to every response, making it more interesting from a user experience and search engine standpoint.
Disclaimer that the article was written by AI and reviewed by editorial staff
How Successful Marketers & Influencers Use AI In SEO
To get the best results from AI, you need to consider the authority of your website and your goals. For instance, Bankrate is a very successful website with 79 as its domain authority.
Bankrate’s SEO stats
On Google, their AI-assisted post titled, What is Financial Liquidity? ranks in position one for ‘financial liquidity.’ The interesting part? 480 people enter this keyword on Google every month.
Bankrate’s financial liquidity article ranks #1 with 480 people searching that keyword
One reason they succeed with AI-assisted content is the authority of their domain, which has risen over the years through several backlinks. Backlinks is a vote of confidence on your website and Google uses it as a ranking factor.
If you don’t have a strong backlink profile, your best bet is to opt for long-tail keywords with low search volume. Over time, such content will accumulate backlinks, enabling you to compete for short-tail keywords with high search volume.
How to Implement AI in Your SEO Strategy
Below is how to use AI in your SEO efforts:
1. Choose The Right AI Tools
There have been a myriad of AI tools since the inception of ChatGPT. To know the ones you need:
- Determine specific areas of your SEO strategy that can benefit from AI.
- Explore available AI tools. Look for features that address your identified needs.
- Ensure your preferred tools integrate well with your existing SEO tools and systems.
Pro Tip: Many AI marketing tools offer trial periods. Take advantage of these trial periods to assess how well the tools align with and enhance your operations before making a commitment.
2. Integrate AI Into Existing SEO Practices
The goal is for AI to become an assistant to your strategy. For instance, if you need lots of backlinks at once, pitching websites will consume your time.
A better alternative is to use an AI tool like Pitchbox to automate the sending of emails. Follow the same approach for other SEO processes and you’ll have massive savings in time.
Recommended Reading: AI Marketing Automation
3. Monitoring & Adjusting AI Implementation
We all want results. To know you’re getting them, you need to monitor and analyze your outcomes with AI.
A good starting point is to evaluate the time savings and increased efficiency of your processes. This lets you decide whether to adjust your approach or move forward based on positive impacts.
Remember, the core purpose of SEO is to provide factual information. Do this and search engines like Google will rank your content. However, if you integrate AI into your SEO content process without fact-checking, you’ll hurt your rankings and reputation with time. To get the best of using AI and high search engine rankings, we advise you to play by Google’s rules.
Further reading:
200 ChatGPT Prompts for Marketers (By Marketing Speciality)
How Marketers Can Leverage AI Content Marketing To Ensure More Successful Campaigns
How AI Editing Can Transform Your Marketing Content & Save Time