Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to be a vital part of increasing brand awareness and lead generation. Not only does it help improve a website’s online visibility, but it can drive more traffic to it, thereby increasing the likelihood of selling a product or service. SEO is a cost-effective strategy that may be more inexpensive than traditional forms of advertising such as print or television ads. 

The practice of search engine optimization can provide a competitive advantage for businesses that are vying for customers in competitive markets and results are typically long-term since SEO can consistently drive traffic and sales to a business website over a period of time. 

With that said, SEO has come a long way from the simple keyword-stuffing strategy that it was once synonymous with. Advances in search engine technology and changes in consumer behavior have led to increasingly more sophisticated SEO practices. Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) now promise to change the field all over again, and in ways that we’re only beginning to comprehend. 

What does AI mean for SEO? 

The primary challenge for search engines is understanding search intent - the specific goal a user has when typing in a query. It’s pretty obvious when someone types in “capital of Kazakhstan”, the answer is Astana. The game changes drastically, however, when someone looks up “Oscar nominations”, for instance. 

Is the user looking for nominations at the last Oscars, the history of Oscar nominations in general, or nominations for the next Oscars? It’s search intent challenges like this that Google tried to address with RankBrain, a machine learning (ML) algorithm that it started using in 2015 to provide more relevant search results. ML is a subset of AI that involves machines (or algorithms) learning from past activity.  

Google’s next foray into AI SEO came about with BERT, a deep-learning, language-processing technology that provided a subtler understanding of search intention and context than RankBrain. But even these considerable advances pale in comparison to the new breed of AI tools most famously represented by ChatGPT. This hyper-competent AI chatbot introduced in November 2022 has taken the world by storm and the SEO game to a whole new level.  

From keyword and anchor management to content creation and analysis, AI will continue to play an important role in SEO. Additional aspects such as creating automated workflows, analyzing traffic and ranking growth, and assessing competition will also be performed with ease with AI’s help. 

Employing AI to boost SEO

Unlike traditional search engines, ChatGPT is a dialogue-based AI tool that doesn’t generate an endless list of results. Instead, it zeroes down on specific answers and outcomes. For instance, if you type “how to make apple pie” on Google, it’ll come back with a list of websites with the relevant recipe. The same query on ChatGPT will get you a specific recipe suggestion culled from the millions of apple pie recipes out there. Not just that: AI can also customize the recipe to your specific taste or food habits. 

From an SEO perspective, these are game-changing capabilities. AI enables the automation of almost all processes involved in optimizing content for search engines. Let’s delve into how you can use the latest generation of AI to improve your SEO campaign. 

1. Keyword research: This used to be fairly simple until recently. Use a free tool like  Google Keyword Planner to discover new keywords, keyword ideas, and search phrases. Design your content around the most relevant keywords, and you’re there. The issue here is that this kind of keyword research may be ideal to drive up your SERPs ranking, but not enough to achieve end goals like conversions or sales. 

AI-based keyword research is much more nuanced. It draws on larger sets of data to find patterns, detect intent, suggest keywords for specific intentions and demographics, and evaluate competitor keyword usage. The results are simply no match for manual research. Website owners can perform keyword research using tools such as ChatGPT by asking “what are strong intent keywords for (insert business type) in (location)”.

2. Content creation: It can take a writer anywhere between 4 and 8 hours to craft a high-quality 1,000-word article. An AI content creator like GPT-3 or Article Forge can easily return a 5,000-word piece in a matter of seconds. There are practically no limits on the kind, size, and topic of content you can have them create. With the right instructions, AI tools will also give you quality backlinks through appropriate anchor text. Compared to manual writing, that is just unbeatable in terms of the time saved, productivity, and cost-effectiveness. 

Specialized AI tools like Grammarly, for instance, can help you further refine the initial output for readability and grammatical accuracy. However, we have to keep in mind that google typically looks down upon  AI generated content.

3. Local search: A great attraction for AI in SEO is driven by its ability to help marketers reach specific target audiences. A case in point is local search. For businesses with multiple locations across diverse geographical areas, local search is key in keeping ahead of the competition. Search engines do a pretty good job of showing appropriate results for queries like “best hairdressers on Fifth Avenue”, or “vegan restaurants near me”. Only, AI still does it better.

Local search with AI-based SEO is a whole new ballgame. It takes into account factors like social signals, user routines, past activity, and even time of day to accurately analyze intent and come back with the most appropriate results. As a local business owner, it’s imperative to ensure that your social media, business profiles and website are optimized to land relevant traffic. 

4. User experience: The proverbial cherry on top of AI SEO comes in the form of personalized user experiences. Designers can use AI to analyze unique behaviors and consumer preferences to better effect than with standard tools. The information can be used to tailor experiences down to the finer details of each user’s expectations. For businesses, this means increased engagement and dwell time - the duration a user spends analyzing a web page before going back to search results. 

Predictive analysis is another area where AI ups the SEO game significantly. AI tools are uniquely capable of anticipating future user behavior based on past activity, routines, and preferences. That enables marketers to provide users with relevant information or benefits with uncanny foresight. One can use AI to see how user experience can be improved on their website. The response will contain vital factors such as improving website speed, simplifying navigation, enhancing content and adding social proof, to name a few. 

The future of AI-based SEO 

Tesla founder Elon Musk characterized the advent of ChatGPT as a “scary good” development. That’s because we’re still scratching the surface of its full and somewhat unpredictable potential. It’s this uncertainty that makes the latest generation of AI appear ‘scary’ to some. Not so when it comes to AI in SEO! 

AI has always been viewed primarily as a tool for automation - something that frees humans from mundane or repetitive tasks. AI-based SEO, however, is so much more than mere convenience.

AI-generated insights and analyses can make SEO campaigns work exponentially better in terms of accuracy, user experience, and business outcomes. AI SEO is not only faster but also significantly smarter and most certainly ‘good’. 

All we can say for now is that it’s got a long way to go, but you can still use AI to set yourself up for SEO success.