3 Ways Digital Marketers Can Leverage AI for SEO Success

Artificial intelligence has been called the future of marketing, and it’s no wonder why. AI is helping marketers automate tasks, improve customer engagement, and personalize experiences at scale.

And while AI may still be in its early stages, the potential impact on SEO is already evident. It is already helping SEOs tackle some of the industry’s biggest challenges. Digital marketers who want to stay competitive in search need to understand how AI can help them accomplish high-volume and data-intensive tasks.

Let’s take a look at how AI is being used to optimize SEO workflows and how digital marketers can use AI to improve their search rankings.

What Does AI Entail?

AI is a broad term that encompasses a variety of technologies. Generally, AI can be broken down into two subcategories: machine learning and natural language processing. But when looked closer, it also encompasses other technologies like deep learning, predictive analytics, decision management, and robotic process automation.

• Machine Learning: It is a subset of AI that deals with algorithms that learn from data. Machine learning algorithms can automatically improve, given more data. The term “machine learning” is often used interchangeably with “predictive analytics.”
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): It is a subset of AI that deals with the ability of computers to understand human language. NLP algorithms are used for text analytics, sentiment analysis, and chatbots.
• Deep Learning: It is a subset of machine learning that uses algorithms called neural networks. Neural networks are modeled after the brain and can simulate the way humans learn. Deep learning is often used for image recognition and search.
• Predictive Analytics: It is a type of machine learning that is used to make predictions about future events. Predictive analytics algorithms are often used for fraud detection and marketing.
• Decision Management: It is a type of AI that helps automate decision-making. Decision management algorithms are used for fraud detection, risk management, and marketing.

Since all search engines focus on understanding the web content and promoting it to searchers, NLP and machine learning (ML) find the most application in the SEO industry. SEOs are utilizing similar algorithms and technologies to develop tools that would help users to comprehend what Google’s crawlers are really looking for when ranking and promoting web content.

3 Ways AI Can Help SEOs

SEO is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It is an ongoing process that requires a lot of time, effort, and resources. And as Google’s algorithms continue to update and evolve, SEO is never really finished.

But by leveraging AI, SEOs can automate high-volume and data-intensive tasks. This can free up time to focus on strategic tasks that require human expertise. AI can also help SEOs improve their search rankings and outrank their competitors.

Here are three primary use cases for AI SEO:

Providing SERP analytics

One of the biggest challenges in the SEO industry is understanding how Google promotes web pages on its search engine result pages (SERPs). While there are many theories and models proposed by experts, no one really knows for sure how Google’s algorithms work.

There are over 200 ranking factors that have been identified. But Google has never confirmed which of these factors are actually used to promote web pages on the SERPs. This lack of transparency makes it difficult for SEOs to know which optimization strategies will actually improve their search rankings.

SEOs have spent years trying to reverse-engineer Google’s algorithms. They do this by analyzing the SERPs and observing which factors are associated with higher rankings. But this process is time-consuming and often inaccurate.

Fortunately, AI and data science are now helping SEOs gain more insights into the SERPs. Traditionally, SEOs have relied on bots to scrape the SERPs to gather keyword and ranking positions. However, with the help of machine learning, SEO software can now analyze SERP features at scale and in real-time.

Making sense of big data is the key to making smarter optimization decisions. SEO software that leverages AI can provide SERP analytics that give SEOs a better understanding of how Google ranks and promotes web pages.

With open-source Google APIs, SEOs are continuing to develop better tools that leverage the most accurate, comprehensive SEO dataset available anywhere. This approach enables SEO professionals to see wins faster and understand performance with more granularity.

In addition, digital marketers can also use predictive analytics to identify which optimizations are most likely to produce results. This helps marketers iterate more quickly and improve their search rankings.

Keyword Research And Clustering

One pillar of a successful SEO strategy is solid keyword research. According to HubSpot, Google processes over 62,000 keyword searches every second. This means there are endless ways that potential customers may try to find products, services, and information.

To be successful, SEOs need to identify the right keywords to target. This requires vast amounts of keyword data and informed strategic analysis. The most skilled SEO professionals now form keyword clusters from lists of hundreds of relevant keyword searches instead of relying on choosing a single keyword to optimize.

But manually sifting through all this data is time-consuming and often inaccurate. That’s where AI SEO tools come in. AI-powered software can quickly gather data from a variety of sources, including search engines, social media, and ecommerce platforms.

This data is then analyzed and clustered into meaningful categories. This helps SEO professionals quickly identify the most relevant keywords to target. AI software can also automatically update keyword clusters as new data becomes available.

This helps SEOs stay ahead of the curve and continue to generate traffic from the most relevant keywords.

Here are some of the common features that AI SEO tools offer:

• Real-Time Keyword Metrics: Metrics like search volume, cost-per-click, and keyword difficulty help determine which keywords are most likely to generate traffic.
• Related Keywords: Search queries that have a semantic relationship to the primary keyword, which helps with keyword clustering.
• Autocomplete: Feature suggesting related keywords as you type, helping SEOs find relevant subtopics.
• Common Question: Answers to common questions related to the primary keyword, which can be used to generate featured snippets.

The best AI SEO tools are the ones that make it easy to segment keywords into lists or clusters, saving time and helping SEOs choose industry-specific keywords that bring qualified traffic to their sites.

Content Creation and Optimization 

Another pillar of SEO is content creation and optimization. In fact, according to Moz, on-page content is a top 5 ranking factor. With Google getting better at understanding language, creating high-quality content that actually ranks requires more time and resources from content marketing teams.

However, content creation can be difficult and time-consuming. This is where AI SEO tools come in. Natural language processing (NLP) models like GPT-3 can help content teams scale their output and produce more accurate optimized content.

GPT-3 is the largest language model ever created. It is also constantly learning, which means it gets better at understanding a language over time. This equips writers to produce content that is more likely to rank well in search engines.

AI-powered content creation tools are also able to generate meta tags, sentences, full paragraphs, and even entire articles with just a few inputs. This helps save time on the content creation process and allows content teams to draft content in a fraction of the time.

Some common ways in which AI-powered content creation tools can help SEOs include:

Topic Generation: Speed up the ideation process by quickly generating hundreds of topics or articles for content calendars.

Content Optimization: Optimize existing content by suggesting new topics, keywords, and sentence structures.

Content Formatting: These tools can help format content for different platforms like AMP or Facebook Instant Articles.

First Paragraph and Drafts: Generate an entire first paragraph or draft of an article, which can then be edited by a human. In order to get the most out of AI-powered content creation tools, it’s important to pair them with a human editor. This way, you can ensure that the content produced is high-quality and relevant to your audience.

Meta Tag Generation: Automatically generate unique and relevant meta tags for each page on your website. This comes in really handy for enterprise websites that have hundreds or thousands of pages.

The best AI-powered content creation tools make it easy to generate high-quality content that is optimized for SEO. This helps content teams save time and produce better content that ranks well in search engines.

Are AI SEO Tools Really Required for Success?

Successful SEOs are applying AI to various aspects of their campaigns, from content creation to keyword research. However, AI is not a replacement for human expertise.

AI can help SEOs save time, do more with less, and scale their campaigns. However, it’s important to remember that AI is a tool and not a solution. If you want to be successful with AI, you need to have a solid understanding of SEO best practices.

In conclusion, AI SEO tools are becoming increasingly important for success in the field. However, they are not a silver bullet and should be used in conjunction with other SEO strategies. The best SEOs are using AI as a supplement to their existing skills and knowledge.

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, it’s important to start incorporating AI into your SEO campaigns. This will help you save time, scale your campaigns, and ultimately produce better results.

Do you want to learn more about AI and SEO? Contact our team of experts today!