Put artificial intelligence to work in your search engine optimisation (SEO) with our overview of AI, covering its main benefits, use cases and examples.
What is artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that uses automated processing to simulate human intelligence through a computer system.
Businesses use AI in many areas, from chatbots to data processing and planning.
How does artificial intelligence affect SEO?
You can't talk about artificial intelligence without talking about search engine optimisation (SEO). The arrival of AI raises questions such as:
- How does AI affect SEO and optimisation strategies?
- Does AI content work for SEO?
- Will AI replace SEO?
Here are some of the areas where AI will affect SEO:
1. Content creation
The area of SEO most affected by AI is content creation. Content is what lets you rank across search results and bring qualified traffic to your website. So how does AI change content creation?
AI software such as ChatGPT can write content for you. You give it a prompt and get an article back in seconds. As a result, you can produce more content quickly and create more chances to earn traffic from search engines.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? It is, but AI-generated content shouldn't be used lightly.
When AI tools generate content for you, they draw on pages that already exist online. In other words, they don't produce original content: they combine information from different sources to build your text.
The result can sometimes be easy for AI detectors to spot. That isn't a direct Google ranking factor, but it can point to a lack of originality and human oversight.
You can use AI as a supporting tool, but you need to make sure your content stays high-quality, accurate and useful.
Bear in mind that AI tools don't always have up-to-date data. In early 2023, for example, ChatGPT was working with data from 2021.
If you rely on ChatGPT alone, your content may not include recent enough information. That can count against it, because Google aims to give its users the most accurate and current information.
Finally, AI can model human reasoning, but it can't feel human emotions. When you create content, you write for people, not robots. Your own perspective and feelings are a large part of what makes content work.
So what does all this mean for SEO?
It means high-quality content and SEO services will matter more. As more people use AI to speed up content production, overall quality may drop, which makes it more valuable to keep producing high-quality content.
You can use AI as a supporting tool, as long as you keep the quality and authenticity of your content high.
Read more: does AI content work for SEO?
2. User experience
Another area where AI will affect SEO is user experience. Google wants to promote websites that offer a good user experience: pages that load quickly, good customer service and informative content.
AI can help you improve this side of SEO.
First, AI can help you improve your site's load times. For example, you can use an AI tool to compress images on your site automatically (a common cause of slow-loading websites).
AI also lets you offer better customer service. With AI-powered chatbots, you can answer users' questions 24/7. Users get the information they need faster, which increases time on site and helps SEO.
3. Keyword research
The definition of AI is about understanding human thinking to produce useful information. That is why AI is useful for keyword research.
When people want to find something on a search engine, they use specific keywords and phrases. Your business optimises its site for those keywords so it ranks in the results and brings users to your website.
With AI, you can use machine learning to better understand what people search for on a given topic. You can then use that information to optimise your site for those keywords and attract more qualified traffic. Knowing how to optimise AI content for SEO is what lets you get the most out of it.
Read more:
The future of SEO with AI
With AI now at the centre of search, it makes sense to get familiar with how it is used, how to optimise AI content for SEO and how to use it in your own SEO strategy.
Want to appear in AI-generated answers? Ranking there can work very differently from a typical SEO campaign. Have a look at our AI SEO services to get started.
