Artificial intelligence (AI) is already a huge part of our lives.
They recommend us shows on Netflix and line up our browser homepages with Web pages we might be interested in.
For digital marketers, AI is becoming an ever-present consideration for those serious about ranking on the first page of search engines.
Why’s that?
For one, AI is a huge part of how search engines rank websites.
As Google revealed, its algorithm AI, RankBrain, is the number three most important contributing factor for ranking websites after content and links.
AI has also been effective in maximizing search engine optimization (SEO) efforts for website owners.
According to a Gartner report, over 30% of digital content will be handed over to AI in 2022.
So, what is the relationship between AI and search engine optimization? How can you apply AI to improve your digital marketing and website’s SEO strategy?
I’ll discuss all that and more below.
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO is the application of techniques that involve AI technologies to improve content optimization on search engines.
On its own, artificial intelligence is a broad term covering machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and other technologies that attempt to make computers exhibit the same or higher level of cognitive ability as humans.
SEO methods continue to evolve, and AI plays an increasingly prominent role from all ends, whether it’s from the search engine, website, or user.
Google and other search engines now use AI to determine search results. It announced in 2015 that it would use RankBrain to process queries, so it helps users get what they want more easily.
That means Google engineers, while they still hand-code some of its algorithms, no longer have 100% control. Instead, RankBrain does some tweaking behind the scenes.
It checks users’ interaction with search results and adjusts the impact of backlinks, content, website authority, content length, etc. RankBrain keeps the new algorithm if users like it or returns the old one if not.
However, improved Google search results aren’t the only thing users enjoy from AI SEO. A lot of their tasks are also made easy through automation, personalization, and better user experience, thanks to machine learning and AI.
As for the websites in the middle, they need to get the right balance for keeping up with search engine changes while ensuring their visitors get what they want.
Trying to achieve this manually is time-wasting as well as less effective, but with AI, the effectiveness skyrockets. Complex SEO strategies are broken down in minutes, and AI supplies the resources to implement them in no time.
How can AI improve your SEO strategy?
Now that you know what AI SEO is and how it impacts each player within the digital marketing industry, it’s time to look more closely at the specific benefits websites get.
1. Better SEO strategies
There is so much you must consider when deciding the SEO strategies to employ. You can choose from or combine paid ads, social media marketing, and email marketing, among others.
Some AI SEO tools like Alli AI and HubSpot can help you develop a custom strategy, and others like Semrush will supply all the data you need. While AI may not always be completely flawless, its suggestions can clarify the steps you need to take and get you going.
2. Better user experience
The ultimate aim of a website is to keep visitors coming back. We know search engines like your website better if people stay on it, and that’s largely due not only to the content you create but also to the experience they have while on your website.
Aside from assisting with creating quality content and fixing errors on the site, AI will help to provide additional support for visitors when used correctly.
One of the methods you can use is content suggestion. With AI, you can suggest relevant posts depending on each visitor’s interest in your website. Another involves deploying the best AI chatbots to help them get answers or directions to the pages they’re interested in.
All these will help you improve the experience on your website and will keep website visitors coming back for more.
3. Improved text and voice search
There are billions of search engine queries every day, and each one is a user in need of answers. People have attempted to exploit the system by stuffing keywords into poor articles.
Thanks to AI, users can get quality results and answers to questions. Search engine AI is able to sieve through millions of results to present them in order of how much help each page offers.
While we do not know the specifics of how these pages are ranked, there’s no denying that it has encouraged websites to pay more attention to the quality of the content and helped websites create excellent content to get more traffic.
With better voice technology, we also see more preference for voice and image searches. These have been made possible by AI technologies, like natural language processing (NLP), which promises further improvements to search.
4. Better SEO keyword research
Keywords remain important. Targeting the right keywords and maintaining the right balance are still essential requirements to grow your website. Afterall, users use them to search on search engines.
On your own, you may end up wasting time, but with the best AI SEO tools like Semrush and SE Ranking, you can get a whole lot of data on the right keywords to use and how to use them.
These tools, powered by AI, can read the patterns and make sense of huge data sets to tell you the words your target audience is searching for and the answers they need.
5. Faster content creation and optimization
After you know the right strategies to use and the keywords to create content around, the next step may seem straightforward, but content creation is anything but. The good news, however, is that AI can also help with that.
Jasper AI, Copy AI, and other AI content writing tools are just what you need. These AI tools can create content for any topic. The best part is that they integrate SEO software to create optimized content.
AI tools will save you a lot of time that would have been spent on researching and writing articles. In case you’ve already written posts that aren’t doing well, you may even improve them by optimizing with Surfer SEO.
They often go under the radar, but images and video are important parts of content creation and another thing you can get AI to help for.
There are several AI image generators website owners use to create unique images, or you may check out these video generators for something even more unique.
6. More optimized local search
Local SEO is one of the results of SEO advancement. It lets you focus your services or website content on a specific location since it is where you offer your services.
It will suggest your business to those who need it, depending on their location. AI SEO can help you achieve this by carrying out real-time tracking and implementing localized updates.
7. Easier competition analysis
The digital world is quite large, but the reality is that you’re not in competition with everyone. Hence, your focus should be on doing better than competitors.
There are a number of methods people use to outrank competitors, but most of them rely on competitor analysis.
Again, AI can help you analyze competitors, especially when you use SERP tracking tools.
It will help you know what you’re up against, discover working strategies you can replicate, determine how much each item impacts their success, and identify gaps you can take advantage of.
8. Improved page rankings
The SEO strategies mentioned here and others are all aimed at improving your rankings. That means you’re putting yourself at an advantage to achieve higher SERP rankings by leveraging AI.
That’s because it can discover unique patterns and data to put all of the measures that matter in place.
9. Better automation
So many steps are involved in fixing SEO, but trying to do it all yourself may be challenging, especially when your website starts growing.
You can employ the services of professionals, but there’s only so much they can do. Instead, you can use AI to automate processes where possible.
Examples of automation include letting chatbots attend to visitors’ inquiries, scheduling social media posts, and getting automated website reports at certain intervals.
10. More in-depth reports and analytics
Speaking of reports, they are important because they reveal what’s working or not. In the past, digital marketers were left with guesses and challenging techniques that produced little to no results.
AI will help you get more in-depth reports and analytics around your website. It can dig out more information than you thought possible and point to actionable steps for using the data.
Conclusion
More than ever, artificial intelligence is offering immense benefits to SEO, just as it’s dictating a large part of it. The next step is for digital marketers and website owners to decide how to tap into it to accomplish their objectives.
All parts of SEO and digital content marketing, including research, content creation and optimization, analytics, etc., can be achieved faster and improved with the adoption of AI. SEO gaps can be detected early and fixed correctly.
If you want to grow your digital business quickly through SEO, applying AI is truly a no-brainer strategy. With it, you can boost your brand and reach more audiences and customers.
So, start researching, AI tools that you can leverage to improve your SEO today!
Good luck!
Jessica La
