Studies by the Digital Marketing Institute found that 65% of search marketers saw better SEO results when they used AI tools. But having access to AI tools isn’t enough. You also need to know where and how to use them in your SEO strategy to get the best results.
Keep reading to find out how to get the most out of AI SEO!
What Is AI SEO?
AI SEO is a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy that uses artificial intelligence to optimise web pages. With AI-powered SEO tools, you can analyse how your pages are performing and spot gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Beyond optimising pages, AI SEO is especially helpful for content creation, improving the user experience, and scaling your SEO.
How AI Is Changing Traditional SEO
SEO has come a long way. It used to be all about matching keywords, but now the focus is on understanding the intent behind what people search. That shift has also changed the content brands create.
Instead of stuffing content with the keywords they want to rank for, brands need to offer content that gives their audience real value. Start by finding out what questions your audience is asking, then create relevant content that answers them.
Content isn’t the only thing changing. AI-powered voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant are transforming how people search. Voice queries tend to be longer and more conversational, and brands need to adapt. Focusing your content on long-tail keywords and conversational phrasing will help you with voice queries.
Will AI replace SEO?
The rise of AI in SEO has led many people to ask whether it will replace SEO entirely. The good news is that it’s unlikely to. It will, however, make SEO more competitive.
Research by Statista in 2024 shows how quickly AI adoption is growing, with 42% of marketing and media leaders worldwide using AI tools in content creation.
That trend, along with the automation of SEO tasks such as keyword research and on-page SEO, will let brands produce high-quality content more often. But AI can’t do everything, and it can’t replace the human creativity and expertise that SEO depends on.
The output from AI tools such as ChatGPT is also only as good as what you put in. Writing good prompts takes an understanding of SEO, and so does judging the output before you put its suggestions into practice.
How Does AI SEO Work?
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s look at the technologies involved and how to get the most from AI-powered SEO.
Machine Learning in SEO and Its Impact
Google uses machine learning (and natural language processing) in its AI model, RankBrain. RankBrain helps Google understand user search intent so it can deliver more relevant results.
By learning what people usually click on for specific searches, RankBrain builds a better understanding of the topic and context, which helps it return relevant, valuable results.
RankBrain influences how webpages rank based on how well the content meets search intent and how users respond to it. It favours high-quality, helpful content, so put your effort into quality rather than the number of keywords you include.
Keywords still matter, but they shouldn’t be your main focus. Stuffing your content with them makes it sound unnatural and can put users off engaging with your brand. Natural language and a focus on answering your audience’s questions are more likely to improve your rankings.
AI and SEO Best Practices for Higher Rankings
The first step is to look at your current SEO strategy and work out which tasks could be streamlined, improved or automated with AI. Here are a couple of areas where you can bring AI in:
Streamline topic and keyword research
AI is especially helpful for topic and keyword research. It can automate tasks like finding topic gaps and generating keywords related to your seed keywords.
You can also use it to analyse search intent patterns across topics, so you create content that answers what your target audience wants to know.
Ongoing content optimisations
Target keywords and search rankings are always changing, so content optimisation should be a key part of your SEO strategy. AI can recommend ways to improve your current content, suggest semantic keywords and create relevant FAQ sections.
Avoid relying completely on AI
Don’t rely entirely on AI tools such as ChatGPT for content creation and SEO. It speeds things up, but it also makes mistakes. It can be tempting to post AI content as is, but it’s always best to have a human review and refine it before you hit ‘post’.
ChatGPT also doesn’t always have up-to-date data, which makes it an unreliable source for things like keyword search volume.
However you bring AI into your SEO strategy, review your performance regularly to see what’s working and what needs to change.
If you need a hand keeping up with the latest in SEO and AI, get in touch with us at hello@omdigigroup.com to find out how we can help.
