Power-up Your SEO Rankings With AI for Best Results

With the increasing democratization of artificial intelligence (AI), are SEO agency experts still the authorities on search engine optimization (SEO)? The short answer is: yes. While AI tools benefit all websites and content creators, search engines have also wised-up in response.

Google, for example, has adjusted its algorithms to ensure experience-based, human-made content wins.

This guide covers the evolution of SEO, including:

1. An overview of SEO best practices
2. The advent of AI and what it means for you
3. Implementing AI tools for SEO

There’s a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

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Using SEO Best Practices Up To Now

In a nutshell, SEO is a set of guidelines that lists what search engines qualify as valuable content for their users. That means rating systems such as experience, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) rely on analyzing online behavior as much as appraisals made by intelligent algorithms.

Until now, best practices have revolved around improving SEO rankings with high-quality content. Popular talking points for experts in recent years have the added nuance of being customer-centric. Here are a few examples of what that entails:

• Local SEO
• Backlinks
• Buyer’s Journey
• Search Intent
• Mobile-First Indexing

While the focus on users has stayed the same, SEO best practices have adapted in response to changes in the digital environment. Changes in available technology, such as generative AI, spark responses from search engines and SEO, though not necessarily in that order.

Sometimes, innovations are what cause these shifts in the first place. These new developments have ramped up this process, and keeping up has been hard for non-experts. However, the end result is always the same — everyone has to adapt to changes in algorithms and user demands.

That leads to the topic of AI tools. SEO agency experts believe that increasing access to software powered by machine learning (ML) likewise tightens the race for the best SEO. Investing in technology is potentially the new battleground where you need to excel to succeed online.

How AI Is Changing SEO

The democratization of AI evened the playing field for small businesses. Intelligent software unlocks previously exclusive advantages reserved for large companies with deep pockets. Though AI tools exist, information vital to effective SEO strategies is within reach.

While financial resources still decide who gets the best of the best, playing smart is now just as important in reaching the top. Why? Google, and soon other search engines, are arming themselves for the influx of AI-powered content with updated algorithms.

For instance, E-A-T now includes experience, making the latest iteration E-E-A-T. Its purpose is to remind content creators that users come first. The goal is not to undermine emerging technology but to encourage proper and intentional use of it.

     1. Writing With Generative AI

Generative AI has come a long way since the beginning of the internet, from chatbots that copied and pasted replies from text conversations to today’s fully independent writing tools. ML has paved the way for machines that can work for or alongside human writers.

These days, there is software for just about every need imaginable. Some names that have been making the rounds in SEO articles include:

• Grammarly, the AI writing assistant that helps guide your grammar, tone, and style
• INK, a generative AI tool that can produce article semi-supervised by a human writer
• ChatGPT, a state-of-the-art AI software that can write full content with minimal input

The above mentioned tools (and more) remove constraints on who can create and publish content at the capacity of an entire team. However, they are not perfect, at least not for E-E-A-T, because they lack the ability to replicate subjective human knowledge and experience.

E-E-A-T is important because it sets the boundary between what is helpful and potentially dangerous to users. After all, showing E-E-A-T is not exclusive to positive or beneficial content.

     2. Represent Your Brand With AI

AI-powered tools have gone beyond simple text production, as shown by the recent boom of AI art circulating on social media. Although the ethics of such applications are still under debate, there is no denying that they empower brands and small businesses to explore creativity.

OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 — a portmanteau of Spanish painter Salvador Dal and Pixar robot WALL-E — is an art-generation AI capable of creating compositions based on text prompts. It can produce works that perfectly replicate different art styles and appear seamless and natural.

The trouble with AI such as DALL-E 2 is the source of its training data. After all, ML does not happen in a vacuum; generative AI needs input from quality sources to produce quality output. Obtaining art data legally and ethically is an ongoing issue between artists and AI companies.

One piece of AI software that has worked through this issue is Synthesia, a video generation platform that works with human actors for their avatar models. Through these AI avatars, Synthesia can produce stunning, lifelike videos based on a script you provide to their service.

Synthesia also offers a custom avatar feature that allows businesses to create a digital twin of a consenting team member. The custom avatar can then shoulder the burden of appearing in business-related video content, significantly reducing the time and stress it takes to make one.

     3. Serve Your Customers 24/7

Chatbots are probably the most-used piece of AI that people know. Outside of smart device assistants such as Siri and Alexa, text chatbots are present on many corporate websites. These clever programs allow businesses to continue providing quality service even after office hours.

A chatbot contributes to a positive user experience (UX). It benefits everyone because people with simple questions can quickly get answers. It also functions as the first line of customer interaction, freeing up staff for more pressing troubleshooting concerns.

That said, chatbots are not the most beginner-friendly AI tool available, much less easy to use or optimize. It takes great patience to prepare one before it can face customers. You have to manually assign its responses to trigger words, which requires significant planning and testing.

However, the payoff is quite high because chatbots keep users engaged and customers happy. Excelling in customer service is an underrated SEO technique because most people fail to realize that SEO is more about the user than the search engine itself. Now, you know better.

Integrating AI Tools Into Your Business Processes

Implementing or scaling AI at the organizational level is an enormously daunting task. It requires significant training, trial and error, and monitoring throughout the entire process to get it right. Specialized workers are also vital to integrating AI tools, from data scientists to IT professionals to engineers.

Large and organized teams should be OK with this. However, small businesses and companies that do not have the luxury of hiring dedicated experts for AI might need help to keep up. However, that does not mean AI is indefinitely locked for them.

The process is long and challenging, but not impossible. It just means that adoption is slower. You also have the option of outsourcing all your AI needs to an SEO agency that already has the necessary know-how and experience to replicate AI success on your website.

Hiring an SEO agency has the added benefit of dependable, long-term support. The primary consideration on your part is finding the right agency to work with you.

Summing Up

The emergence of AI in the mainstream has shaken many industries. There is some skepticism about its place in the workforce and its implications for the working class. However, experts believe the key is to use AI to achieve bigger and better things rather than compete with it.

Need help with AI-powered SEO strategies? Contact us to learn how we can help.