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It's true: If your business doesn't have an online presence and a digital marketing strategy, it might as well be invisible. But digital marketing largely depends on search engine optimization (SEO) for success.
Being involved in SEO for nearly a decade, I can comfortably say that SEO isn't easy. It requires continuous adaptation and learning because it comes with challenges. I've discovered though, that using artificial intelligence (AI) to address these demands is a big time and money saver in SEO.
Below, I highlight a few ways in which you can leverage AI for greater SEO efficiency and success. Let me begin by focusing on link building.
Related: Want to Elevate Your SEO Strategy? Here Are 4 Emerging Link-Building Trends You Need to Know About.
Leveraging AI for efficient link building
Although Google may shroud the inner workings of its algorithm in secrecy, one thing we can all agree on is that building effective links into your content is a ranking factor for the search engine.
The "link juice" that passes between authority websites and yours is a clear signal that your content is authoritative and trustworthy enough to link to. But everyone involved in link building knows that this is a goal that's achieved through a lot of hard work. This is where AI steps in and what it can help you with:
Prospecting for link opportunities: Finding prospects is no longer a long and arduous task that takes hours of research. You can simply use AI tools to help you find suitable candidates, such as web owners, organizations and bloggers, in a fraction of the time.
Automating outreach and follow-ups: I know from experience that outreach and the follow-ups involved can be mind-boggling and oh-so-time-consuming. You need to be highly organized, but this is often hard. With AI, your outreach and follow-up efforts are automated, meaning you can focus on core tasks.
Analyzing link profiles and identifying gaps: Analysis of link profiles can also be highly time-consuming, as is identifying potential gaps for link inclusions. Tools such as Harpa AI help you analyze broken links, enabling you to make the necessary fixes before they affect your rankings.
Monitoring backlink performance: Wondering how well your backlinks are performing? AI tools can help with this, too. Whether it's checking the quality of your backlinks or monitoring for unnatural link patterns, AI tools are capable of highly intelligent analysis that helps you identify patterns and areas for improvement.
Automating content creation and optimization
With generative AI tools to maximize creativity and productivity, your content ideation and generation process becomes infinitely more streamlined and efficient. Here are just a few ways I use such aids to help me:
Research topics, keywords and content ideas: Looking for gaps in content where your blog can improve? What about high-traffic, low-competition keywords? Platforms like SE Ranking not only offer you a massive portfolio of SEO tools but can also help you with its AI-powered writing assistant.
Generate draft content with AI writing assistants: A tool like Agility Writer can be instructed to craft your content for you. You feed it a primary keyword and it generates a draft title. You can also give it up to three external sources to study, provide it with a list of keywords, and it will generate three possible outlines that you can choose from first before proceeding to generate your article.
Optimize content for SEO through AI-powered analysis: Using the power of natural language processing, AI can help ensure that your content is fully optimized for search engines by suggesting relevant keywords and phrases to include in your text while exploring what your competitors have ranked for. A tool such as NeuronWriter also gives you an overall content optimization score to let you know what potential your content has for ranking above the competition.
Naturally, I need to emphasize the importance of human oversight in maintaining your brand voice and content quality. After all, the last thing you want is to risk penalties from Google for AI content that does not meet its E-E-A-T guidelines for being of too low quality or "thin" and not meeting user intent.
Related: 4 Ways This SEO Expert Uses AI to Create Content — and How You Can, Too
Improving workflows and decision-making
Another area where AI tools can shine is by enhancing your SEO workflows and decision-making processes. I use various tools to help me do the following:
Automate repetitive tasks such as keyword research and technical audits
Provide data-driven insights to inform strategic decisions
Enable real-time monitoring and optimization of campaigns
It's essential to strike a balance between AI and human expertise, though. It's about using AI as an enabler and not a final decision-maker. Its main purpose is to help you improve your productivity, but the real decision-making should be left to people.
Ensuring quality and avoiding pitfalls
While Google doesn't necessarily penalize AI-generated content, and while AI content can rank, it's essential to use AI responsibly to maintain content quality. A few guidelines I always stick by include:
Establishing content guidelines and review processes
Always looking at user intent first to answer search queries
Leveraging AI as a tool, not a replacement for human expertise
Adding value and original angles to content whenever possible
Continuously monitoring the performance of AI-assisted content
Related: 3 Principles for Scaling Content With AI Without Sacrificing Quality
If you're still doing SEO the traditional way, you're in for a treat — because with the right AI tools, you can immensely and immediately improve your efforts and efficiency. It's about taking the time to explore which tools work together with and not against your workflows.
In the beginning, you might find yourself a bit overwhelmed by all its capabilities. Just remember it's there to help and not hinder. But ultimately, you need to strike the right balance between automation and human oversight for best results.
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