The world of content creation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is still shaky, and most SEO experts aren’t quite sure how AI-generated content will change the landscape over the next couple of years. In this blog, we will look at how AI and SEO can intercept in a way that won’t penalize your rankings, will get you incredible results, and streamline your process.
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The AI-SEO Merge
AI technology and tools have been around since the early 2000s. It began with search engines like Google, which made machine learning algorithms to improve their search results and better understand their browsers’. These algorithms had the power to gather data on user behavior and how they engaged online. The bigger and better the search engines became, the more sophisticated the AI. These days, AI can process massive amounts of data and is more accurate than ever.
In 2015, Google’s RankBrain algorithm came into the picture. Before RankBrain, human engineers implemented algorithm changes and tested if they worked manually. RankBrain now does this for them by using machine learning to understand how to help users who make ambiguous search queries. With this AI, Google could continuously improve relevance surrounding search results for users of Google.
The better that Google became at understanding its users, the more SEO content creation experts had to learn how to keep up. These algorithms were not just teaching Google how to deliver results but teaching marketers how to create the results that users needed.
Today AI continues to expand, delving into natural language processing, content generation, and user behavior analysis. AI-powered chatbots and now voice search optimization are the newest and most exciting developments to bring together AI and SEO strategies.
Unlocking AI for SEO Optimization
With new SEO optimization tools came automation and more accurate predictions of where marketers ought to spend their time. AI can be used to identify keywords, analyze competition, link build, and predict trends. Here, we highlight some of the best AI out there that SEO specialists use:
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: This tool is not AI alone but it is incredibly useful for technical SEO audits. It can look into website structure, identify broken links, and optimize on-page elements.
- Surfer SEO: This is a great tool to analyze top-ranking pages. It will even give recommendations for optimizing your content, headings, keywords, and more.
- Clearscope: Uses AI to understand top-performing content and then will suggest keywords and topics to enhance content.
- MarketMuse: Is another place to assess the quality of content and the relevancy of it too.
- SEMrush: This is not all AI, but it does have some AI features. It can analyze competition, conduct keyword research, and optimize content.
- BrightEdge: This uses AI to give SEO experts insight into search performance, their competition, and content.
- CognitiveSEO: If you need to analyze backlinks, this is the AI for you. It can also help find harmful links and assist in link building and risk management.
- WordLift: If you are trying to improve your content structure by adding schema markups, this AI might help.
- Botify: This can help you analyze technical SEO issues, such as site structure.
- InLinks: If you need help with content structuring that aligns with search trends, this AI can help.
How to Use AI for SEO Enhancement
Take a look at our step-by-step guide to how you can utilize AI in SEO to maximize your content creation process:
Step 1: Choose the Right AI Tools
Before you can begin using any tool, you must know if it is the correct tool for you. As you go through this list and pick your strategy, be sure to find the best tools out there to help you achieve the end result you’re looking for.
Step 2: Keyword Research and Analysis
All good SEO plans start with analyzing goals, audits, and keyword research. There are AI-driven keyword research tools out there, such as SEMrush or AnswerthePublic to help with this. Your tools will need to analyze search volume, competition, and user intent. You will also need tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to see your website internally at a glance.
Step 3: Content Creation and Optimization
There are some AI tools that can help you generate engaging content, such as Surfer or Jasper. However, you should not rely heavily on this alone; you should be inserting your own expertise or hiring someone to look through the content for you.
Step 4: On-Page Optimization
Some AI tools can analyze your existing content and tell you how to optimize different pieces of on-page SEO, such as headings, subheadings, and keywords. YoastSEO or SEMrush OnPage SEO Checker, are two places to start.
Step 5: Technical SEO Audits
There are many AI-driven crawlers who can help you run a technical audit for SEO on your website. These tools will find broken links, duplicate content, and speed problems, among other things. Botify and DeepCrawl are two tools to look into for this.
Step 6: Link Building
AI tools can analyze backlink profiles and give you some websites with good authority for link-building opportunities. Buzzsumo and Pitchbox are two of these.
Step 7: Monitoring and Reporting
Once your content is live, you must begin monitoring its performance. There are plenty of AI tools that can help you achieve this. You will need one that helps track keyword rankings, organic traffic, and user engagement metrics. SEMrush and Google Analytics are giants in this field and do a great job of highlighting all the key information.
Step 8: Adapt and Optimize
Once you can see what is working and what isn’t, it’s time to make changes (or not). Some tools to look into here are ContentKing, which can help you stay on top of any unexpected issues, and BrightEdge, which can offer some recommendations.
Go A Little Further with AI and SEO
The above is just the foundation of what you must be doing to stay on top of SEO. But there are more advanced techniques to employ, too. Here are some gems:
Branching Into Social Media: Once your website and content are up to scratch, consider other social media platforms. You can use AI to identify which platforms would work best for you.
Voice Search Optimization: Voice search is taking over, and adapting to this with AI tools (especially those versed in NLP) is incredibly important for SEO in the coming years.
Image and Video Optimization: Not all content is written; images and video can affect SEO too. There are some AI tools that can optimize images or make your videos load faster, etc.
Structured Data Markup: There is some debate on how useful Schema really is, but there are tools to help you implement it in your content if needed.
Algorithm Changes Monitoring: Some AI tools can track changes to the algorithms of search engines, etc., so you can stay on top of what might impact you.
Conclusion: Maximizing SEO and Content Enhancement with AI
When AI and SEO come together, it can create harmony between algorithms, websites, and the user experience. Those who embrace this have a competitive advantage and insight that can’t be gleaned at a glance. As AI continues to grow, SEO experts need to adopt a strategic approach that incorporates it while remaining human-focused to ensure there are no mishaps and mistakes. AI is helping SEO experts to shape how the online world will look moving forward.
If you need assistance with custom content that ranks and gets clicks, improves your brand’s exposure online, increases quality traffic to your site, and converts visitors into customers, contact ClickGiant today. We are a leading digital marketing agency serving clients nationwide.
