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As modern technology progresses, we’re quickly moving away from imagining artificial intelligence (AI) as robots we read about in books or see in films. Today, AI is much more common than people think, becoming widely available to help individuals, especially businesses, with various processes.
With brands moving more towards an online presence, it’s no surprise that AI has a hand in different digital marketing practices. For instance, many AI tools are now available to help brands with their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
SEO is one of the oldest marketing models available today. It remains an effective solution for brands worldwide because of its adaptability to modern trends. Its flexibility has allowed experts to integrate AI into various SEO practices, allowing marketers to create campaigns faster and more efficiently.
In this guide, we’ll answer the question, “Does artificial intelligence affect SEO?” The short answer is yes, both good and bad. Read below for more.
Empowering Your SEO Strategies With AI
As mentioned above, AI provides different solutions for aiding many SEO services, from planning to execution. Below are some of the key benefits of using AI for SEO.
Keyword research
Keywords are among the most crucial ranking elements brands utilize today. They play a vital role in helping marketers understand their target audience better through their online searches. Plus, they allow brands to connect with them more organically by complying with search engine guidelines and using the right key phrases in their content.
Through thorough keyword research, brands can identify and integrate relevant keywords into their content and website. However, keyword research can be tedious, particularly in determining the correct search terms.
Today, various AI programs complement marketers in their keyword research efforts. For instance, many keyword research tools use machine learning to determine the search terms people use when looking for information online, allowing marketers to find the most competitive ones they can leverage in their campaigns.
Aside from identifying specific keywords, these tools help marketers determine keyword variations. Plus, they help provide keyword clusters or search terms related to search intent.
Content creation and optimization
Quality content remain at the core of every successful SEO campaign. Without them, there’s nothing to attract and engage potential customers, making the whole campaign useless.
Creating excellent content helps brands connect with their target audience by establishing them as a trusted source of information online. It also helps them increase their organic visibility, ranking, and traffic because search engine platforms respond well to quality content.
Today, multiple AI tools can assist experts during the content creation process. For instance, ChatGPT can generate blog outlines and first drafts to help writers start their tasks. After writing, there’s Grammarly to boost their content further by reducing errors and refining readability.
Meanwhile, some tools, like Jasper.ai, help marketers optimize their content with various SEO elements.
Some of these AI tools also feature plagiarism detection, allowing content creators to verify if they’re not inadvertently copying other content, which has become a prominent issue in today’s digital landscape.
Personalization and user experience
In digital marketing, user experience (UX) refers to an online user’s overall experience while interacting with websites or mobile apps. It’s a fundamental factor that enhances visitor satisfaction, leading to better engagement and potential conversions.
Brands can deliver UX in different ways. For instance, they can offer mobile optimization, responsive functions, and faster loading times.
Meanwhile, AI has also opened up multiple opportunities to improve a visitor’s user experience while improving SEO. Some tools can deliver content recommendations by understanding user behavior. These recommendations are designed to make visitors stay longer, which is crucial because Google sees high bounce rates as a negative signal that affects a site’s SEO.
Meanwhile, many AI tools have also revolutionized site auditing, a crucial practice for achieving excellent technical SEO. A site audit helps marketers identify areas of improvement and issues to ensure that brands maintain search engine compliance in different technical areas. Many programs can now do this task. Some of them even fix certain issues, like duplicate content.
Scaling campaigns
Creating an SEO campaign involves various tedious tasks to ensure success. Unfortunately, many of these procedures are repetitive and time-consuming, hindering a team’s efficiency in executing their campaigns.
AI can now help with multiple SEO tasks, from keyword research to data analysis to technical optimization. Assisting with all the legwork allows marketers and content creators to improve their productivity. Because of that, they can craft more meaningful campaigns that connect better with the target audience and comply with different search engine optimization guidelines.
Drawbacks of Using AI for SEO
The presence of AI has benefited a company’s digital marketing efforts. However, many don’t understand that AI tools are only meant to complement different processes. Depending too much on them could have multiple drawbacks, affecting a campaign and the brand itself.
The following are some of those known issues.
Risks of using outdated information
Using relevant research is vital to establishing brand credibility online. Instead of using templated content, many marketers utilize studies to educate their target audience in hopes of connecting with them better. By adopting this approach, brands can position themselves as reliable authorities on information and earn the confidence of prospective customers.
Brands can leverage quality research in many ways. Some brands conduct their own research. Others boost their content by integrating relevant and new studies into their topic. Either way, both can help brands grow and establish their online credibility.
AI tools like ChatGPT and Jasper.ai can help summarize information from various online sources. However, they’re not programmed to cite the sources they use. Plus, they may use research published a long time ago, meaning content creators might end up with information that’s irrelevant today or has been debunked by other, newer studies. When that happens, brands risk affecting their credibility because their content is backed by outdated research.
Unnatural or robotic content tone
Tone is a crucial part of content because it represents the attitude and emotion of a brand, enabling them to build trust by communicating with the target audience in a human way. For instance, using the right tone makes the target audience feel valued, telling them that the brand understands their struggles. Because of that, they tend to respond well to the brand, leading to better engagement and higher conversion rates.
Although many would agree that AI’s speech patterns have improved recently, there’s still something unnatural about the content they create. While it’s not as bad as using a negative tone, a robotic one may not resonate well with the target audience. For instance, ChatGPT’s writing would feel machine-like because it tends to be excessively wordy and overuse specific phrases, especially if it doesn’t understand the prompt or command.
Meanwhile, AI-generated content can still rank on Google if it meets the platform’s many guidelines and optimization practices. However, they must also pass Google’s E-A-T or Expertise, Authority, and Trust standards, which can only be achieved by an industry expert in a particular area.
Too much dependency on AI tools
Relying too much on AI for different tasks may affect collaboration and creativity. Marketing teams will have fewer brainstorming sessions.
Content creators will spend less time crafting meaningful and original materials. Instead, they will ask AI tools to do these steps for them.
The convenience of AI has prompted some businesses to use it to produce as many campaigns as possible in hopes of faster returns. Unfortunately, choosing quantity over quality will affect a campaign’s effectiveness, making it more generic or identical to other brands.
There’s also a recurring ethical concern surrounding AI tools like ChatGPT. Many users don’t understand that such programs don’t produce original content but rephrase existing ones online. Most of the time, the tool doesn’t do the task flawlessly. That means if brands use content directly from such platforms, they risk copying content from other sites, severely harming their authority.
Moreover, the prominence of AI in numerous business processes has created widespread fear among workers. Many professionals worry that relying too much on AI will create redundancies, resulting in more people losing their jobs, which also applies to marketers and content creators.
Maximize AI With Caution
Embracing AI as a tool to boost SEO strategies while being mindful of its limitations and potential pitfalls is the key to sustainable growth and success in the digital era.
AI significantly impacts SEO, but results will depend on how the marketing team uses these programs. Using AI is not a crime in digital marketing. It’s even beneficial to many professionals. However, brands must remember to use these tools only to complement their processes. Relying on them for everything, especially in marketing, might affect their credibility and their overall branding.
