Artificial intelligence is transforming digital marketing in exciting new ways. One area where AI is making a huge impact is in search engine optimization (SEO). Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard allow marketers to create large-scale, optimized content.
In this article, we’ll explore how you can incorporate generative AI into your SEO strategy to get the most out of these powerful tools.
Leveraging Generative AI for Keyword Research
One of the foundations of a strong SEO strategy is comprehensive keyword research. Traditionally, this involved a lot of manual work – brainstorming relevant keywords, analyzing search volume data, looking for low-competition long-tail keywords, etc.
With generative AI, you can automate much of this process. Tools like ChatGPT can take your seed keywords and rapidly generate extensive lists of semantically related keywords and long-tail variants. This gives you a huge headstart on your research process.
You can go even further by having ChatGPT analyze your list of keywords and identify the ones with high search volume but low competition. This lets you quickly pinpoint the keywords that will give you the most bang for your buck when optimizing content.
Spending time upfront using generative AI for keyword research will pay dividends when creating content that ranks for your most valuable search terms.
Writing Optimized, High-Quality Content
Creating on-page content is one of the most direct applications of generative AI for SEO. ChatGPT can generate original articles and blog posts optimized for specific keywords or topics.
There are a few best practices to follow when using AI to generate SEO content:
- Give the AI detailed prompts – Be specific about keywords, desired word count, tone/style, and other requirements to get quality results back.
- Include your focus keywords – Make sure to explicitly include anchor text so it gets worked naturally into the content.
- Generate multiple variations – Create a few different versions of the content and choose the best one.
- Lightly edit the AI’s output – Do some light editing for flow, grammar, etc., to add a human touch.
- Check for plagiarism – Use a tool like Copyscape before publishing to catch duplicated text.
The great thing about leveraging generative AI for content writing is that it removes the drudgery of writing while still allowing you to produce high-quality, SEO-optimized articles at scale. The AI can churn out draft content faster than any human writer, which you then polish into a final draft.
Conducting Competitor Analysis
Doing thorough competitor research is crucial for an effective SEO strategy. When you know what your competitors are doing, you can identify areas where you can outrank them.
Analyzing competitors manually is tedious and time-consuming. But generative AI makes it fast and easy.
Here are some ways you can use AI tools to research competitors:
- Site audits – Have ChatGPT analyze a competitor’s website and highlight areas for improvement like page speed, technical SEO issues, etc.
- Content gap analysis – Identify topics and keywords where a competitor ranks well but you don’t have content yet.
- Backlink analysis – Analyze a competitor’s most valuable backlinks to create a backlink acquisition strategy.
- Ranking analysis – See where you currently outrank a competitor for target keywords and where opportunities exist to move up.
Conducting this level of competitor analysis using traditional methods would take hours or days. With AI-like Content Marketing Tools, you get detailed reports within minutes. This enables you to constantly keep up with what competitors are doing and stay one step ahead.
Optimizing Website Architecture
Your website information architecture – how pages are organized and linked together – greatly influences SEO. An optimized IA makes it easier for search engines to crawl and categorize your content.
Planning your website’s IA is challenging. There are countless ways to structure it. Generative AI can instantly produce optimized website architectures personalized to your content and business.
To leverage AI for planning your website IA:
- Provide the AI with your existing content topics and structure – This gives it context to work from.
- Specify your key pages and priority content – The AI will highlight these in the architecture.
- Set SEO goals like keyword targeting – The AI will optimize the IA for discoverability and ranking potential.
- Generate multiple variations – Get a few options to choose the best structure.
- Iterate based on feedback – Refine the IA further by giving the AI additional direction.
With an AI-optimized website architecture, you can be confident that your content will be easy for users and search engines to navigate and find – the foundation of good on-page SEO.
Automating Link Building
Generating backlinks is one of the most tedious but high-impact SEO activities. Outreach for guest posts, contributor articles, and other earned links can be draining.
Once again, AI comes to the rescue by automating much of the link-building process. AI tools can:
- Identify relevant high-authority websites that are likely to accept guest posts.
- Generate personalized outreach emails to publishers.
- Provide troves of relevant topics you can offer to contribute content on.
- Audit existing links for quality and opportunity.
While the outreach process still requires a human touch, AI makes it far more efficient. It would be best to have less prospecting, writing, and follow-up since the AI handles the heavy lifting.
When leveraged properly, AI-powered link building can help you land placements and earn links at scale. Over time, this can greatly improve your site’s domain authority and keyword rankings.
Tracking SEO Performance
The final piece of executing a results-driven SEO strategy is tracking. Generative AI provides new ways to monitor the performance of your optimization efforts.
AI tools can automatically:
- Pull ranking data for target keywords from Google and other search engines regularly.
- Highlight rankings gains and losses compared to historical performance.
- Aggregate site analytics like organic traffic and lead generation from SEO.
- Monitor link-building KPIs like new backlinks generated.
- Output easy-to-digest performance reports for your entire SEO strategy.
Setting up this level of automated SEO reporting manually would require a Frankenstein combination of spreadsheets, scripts, analytics, rank trackers, and more. AI makes robust tracking simple.
AI is a Game Changer for Modern SEO
Generative AI represents an enormous opportunity for search marketers. Incorporating tools like ChatGPT into your workflow allows you to work smarter – not harder.
From conducting research to creating content to building links, AI handles many of the most labor-intensive aspects of SEO. This allows you to focus your energy on high-value strategy and execution.
To get the most out of generative AI, be specific with the input you provide it. Set clear goals and constraints for the AI to work within to produce quality results. Some light editing and refinement of the AI’s output is still required.
Used properly, there’s no question generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the SEO landscape. Now is the time to start experimenting and finding ways to incorporate it into your process. Combine the strengths of AI automation with human intelligence, and your SEO results will improve dramatically.
Final Thoughts
Generative AI tools give search marketers unprecedented ability to scale their efforts and achieve better results. By automating repetitive tasks and generating optimized content, AI allows you to boost the impact of your SEO strategy.
With the right approach of using AI as an aid rather than a complete replacement for human intelligence, you can maximize the value of these transformative technologies. The future of SEO will be driven by those who learn to leverage the power of artificial intelligence effectively.
