Using AI for SEO optimisation

AI seems to be the marketing phrase of the year. It’s often presented in quite an extreme way; as a magic wand that will instantly solve all your problems, or something that really belongs in sci-fi films. 

The reality is far less dramatic. And far more useful!

AI can actually be a really effective tool for SEO, if you know how best to use it, and what options are out there. It’s quickly being picked up by marketers around the world and being implemented along with manual SEO strategies.

If you want to keep up, read on to find out what you’re missing out on, and how it can help your future-proof your SEO, today. 

• What is AI - in terms of SEO?
• Keyword research 
• Content creation 
• Competitor research and analysis 
• AI tools for SEO

What is AI - in terms of SEO?

ChatGPT describes artificial intelligence (AI) as “the development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, encompassing problem-solving, learning, and decision-making across various domains and applications.” In short, it’s a few emerging technologies including things like machine learning and natural language processing that can be used as a marketing tool. 

By now, AI is being used by major search engines who carry a lot of weight in the online marketing space, so it’s already closely linked to the world of digital marketing. But how does this all apply to SEO?

SEO is all about matching relevant keywords, content and technical elements of your site to what your customers are searching for and the online experience they are chasing. AI is geared towards data analysis en masse, at speed. So, AI for SEO seems like a pretty perfect match.

There are several ways you can use AI to enhance your SEO strategies, here are a few to consider:

Keyword research 

AI can be used to uncover keywords that are performing well within your industry or target audience demographic. You can find unique keyword opportunities to tap into in the highly competitive keyword market. 

AI can also analyse your existing keywords and site copy, to provide suggestions on updates and new keywords to target.

Speed is a real benefit here. Manual analysis is vital to any campaign, but AI can put this time-consuming process in fast-forward. It’s especially useful for seasonal offers and launching new products. Time to cut your keyword planning hours in half!

Content creation 

In the dark ages of the internet, content used to be about quantity over quality. Now, that’s all changed. People want quality, and any search engine algorithm loves relevancy. It’s a little harder than basic keyword stuffing, but the reward for creating content that is actually useful to your customer-base can be the deciding factor in the success of a campaign.

You want to create content that features trending topics, includes keywords that are relevant to your audience and fits neatly in a content gap that your competition hasn’t touched upon yet.

AI can offer all of this, in seconds. Pretty awesome, right?

Remember to take the time to separate content that is specific to each stage of your funnel, and highly relevant to specific audience demographics. AI can help with all of this, and is as thorough and detailed as you ask it to be, so be strict when writing prompts and workshopping your ideas.

Finally, AI can also analyse your existing content and suggest ways to optimise what you already have. Chances are, you’ve already got some great optimisation opportunities at your fingertips.

Competitor research and analysis 

This is where AI has really got an advantage over exclusively manual SEO strategy. There are lots of tools available to help you check out your competitors' content, keywords, backlinks and more.

From the data that AI finds on your competitors, you can then analyse and find content gaps that you can fill! Let AI do some of the hard work and time consuming elements of competitor analysis for you. Leaving you with more time to do the actual thinking and strategising for your next campaign.

See what backlinks are bringing in the most clicks for your competitors. Analyse and optimise based on what you find, then reap the rewards. 

There are brilliant, specific AI tools available that monitor changes on your competitors' sites and notify you immediately. It’s also a great opportunity to gain audience insights and discover where your competitor’s primary traffic originates from.

AI tools for SEO

With so many SEO-specific AI options available, it can be tricky to understand which one is best for you. We recommend figuring out your SEO goals, so you can shortlist any tools that cater to your requirements. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

FAQ Fox

• Price: Free
• What It Does: This tool scrapes content from your website, and others, then shows you the content that matches keywords that you’re looking to include. You do only get 50 results per website, but it’s ideal for checking in on your keyword optimisation, and checking out your competitors.

ClickUp

• Price: Free, with paid options from $7/month per user.
• What It Does: This tool does all sorts. Keyword research, content analysis and optimisation, competitor analysis and brief creation tools. Everything is covered in one very useful tool.

Pro Rank Tracker

• Price: Free, with paid options from $13.90/month per user.
• What It Does: This tool tracks site rankings, analyses your SEO efforts and creates reports for you based on its findings. Ideal for tracking those vital ranking statistics over time.

Taskade

• Price: Free, with paid options from £3/month per user.
• What It Does: Taskade has a lot of AI tools available, but the competitor analysis report is especially useful. Expect detailed data, comparison statistics and actionable recommendations for your next steps.

ChatGPT

• Price: Free, with paid options from $20/month per user.
• What It Does: Don’t overlook the most famous AI tool around! With simple prompts, you can discover keyword recommendations, create content ideas based on a specific search query, and generate meta titles and descriptions. 

Ahrefs

• Price: Free, with paid options from £79/month.
• What It Does: Create content outlines and generate concepts for future content. Optimises your existing articles and posts with its rewriting tools, helps generate tags and meta descriptions, and helps with competitor analysis.

In summary

The competitive landscape of SEO is fully embracing AI, so now’s the time to get to grips with its many options and elevate your SEO. With you in the driving seat, you’re still in control of your campaigns, only this time, you’ve got the added support of AI to do some of the leg work.

Bring your expertise together with the power of AI, and find the most effective, future-proof strategy for your next campaign. The future of SEO is here, and AI is here to stay. 

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