AI Isn’t Killing SEO – It’s Redefining It
When it comes to AI in marketing, many of the headlines are negative. All too often, we read about how AI is taking jobs from creatives, being used to produce poor quality content and removing personalisation from the business world. But instead, it’s important to recognise the opportunities that AI is generating.
SEO is one area of marketing where AI gets a bad wrap, with many who work in SEO claiming that artificial intelligence is responsible for the influx of diluted articles that crop up daily. But what many people aren’t talking about is the ways in which AI can be used in SEO to gain a competitive advantage. Here are 3 ways you can utilise AI in SEO to make your websites more visible.
AI Summaries
For years, businesses have raced to reach the top of Google’s results pages. After all, data shows that the top result is 10 times more likely to win a user’s click than the 10th result. Now, this prime position is often occupied by an AI-generated summary. So while your competitors are still competing to reach the number one spot, it might be worth investing your time into appearing above the top spot, in Google’s AI summaries.
These summaries are put together by AI, using the web’s most relevant and authoritative sources, which are then referenced on the right-hand side. These references provide a great opportunity to gain clicks from users. To give yourself the best chance of appearing in these summaries:
- Focus on unbranded mentions as well as links
- Answer high-volume queries
- Create high-quality content
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Instead of just optimising content for search engines, it may be time to start considering how you can optimise content for AI platforms. With more and more people trusting AI tools like ChatGPT to answer queries, appearing in AI-generated answers are becoming more valuable by the day.
In terms of SEO and GEO strategies, there are many similarities. Here are some ways you can optimise content when trying to appear in AI results:
- Focusing on current topics that are trending and showing high user intent
- Ensuring content is laid out in a way that AI can easily understand
- Use FAQ sections to answer popular queries
AI-Assisted Articles
As more and more businesses outsource content writing to AI tools, individuals who are capable have creating high-quality, highly informative pieces of content have become even more valuable. That’s because AI relies on content that is supplied or that already exists, meaning AI will struggle to write high-quality pieces on new topics. As a result, we’d never encourage you to fully rely on AI to create articles, blog posts or any other form of content.
That’s not to say AI can’t assist with your content marketing efforts. Using platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini has proven to be extremely helpful when it comes to things like generating titles, suggesting keywords, and even proofreading. Using AI for tasks like this, but also having a human content writer or working with a content marketing agency, means you get the best of both worlds.
In summary, it’s important we focus on the benefits that AI brings and the opportunities it is creating, as opposed to honing in on the negative headlines. In the world of marketing, particularly SEO, these opportunities are expanding daily. The next time you sit down to revise your SEO strategy, make sure you are giving thought to appearing in AI summaries, ChatGPT results, and also considering how AI can speed up and enhance your content writing efforts.