Who hasn’t dreamed of seeing their SEO results take off in record time? Climbing Mt Google, sitting on top of the SERP, looking down on your competitors all the way down at the bottom of the page.
Then the alarm goes off.
We all know SEO is a long-term investment. We all know it takes quality content, great strategy, correct formatting, backlinks, etc, etc, to be successful.
That hasn’t changed.
What has changed with the emergence of AI, is the ability to create all of the elements needed for a successful strategy in a fraction of the time.
From Natural Language Programs (NLP) creating human-like content in no time, to analyzing huge amounts of search intent data for keyword analysis in the blink of an eye; AI has completely changed the SEO game.
That’s why we wanted to write an actionable guide to AI SEO – to help you turn that dream into reality sooner rather than later.
Hold on to your hats.
What is AI in marketing?
But before we get too far down the path (I’ll give up on this climbing analogy soon I promise), let’s make sure we cover the basics.
AI and GPT-3
GPT-3 is an artificial intelligence NLP developed by OpenAI. GPT-3 – and all other NLP’s – are trained on huge data sets, and designed to recreate the way that humans use language. This allows them to build sentences that are semantically correct and stylistically similar to what us, the people, write.
But it’s important to note that these programs don’t take from one source, but an aggregate of all of the sources it was trained upon, to build a broad picture of that topic.
Many tools have been developed based on GPT-3 technology:
- MarkCopy– an AI content creation tool built for marketeers – by marketeers. With built in SERP analysis, SEO-optimization scores, competitor analysis, etc; every piece of content created by Mark is created with SEO in mind. Perfect for claiming that number 1 spot on Google.
- ChatGPT – Ai powered chatbot developed by OpenAI. ChatGPT uses AI to understand and answer questions on nearly any topic. It has been trained up to 2021, so anything up until then it should be able to give you an answer.
To learn how ChatGPT is different from other writing tools, check out the guide in the link just back there.
AI in marketing, how does it work?
Using GPT-3 to create content is a gamechanger. With tools specially trained on marketing use cases, AI allows writers to write blog articles, product descriptions, social media posts, advertisements, you name it – faster than ever before.
Having said this, it’s not the magic bullet some are prophesying.
The future of AI will be (and should always be) AI automating some of the more mundane and time-consuming tasks, and empowering SEO specialists and marketing teams to focus on strategy, and make data driven decisions faster than ever before.
AI and SEO, how does it work?
SEO is the process of improving a website’s visibility to rank on search engine result pages (SERP). The bones of good SEO are using relevant keywords to your topic, creating quality content that adds value to the reader, and be easy and intuitive to navigate.
AI in SEO means automating parts of this process. Automation of largely repetitive tasks that were usually tackled by excel jockeys that once upon a time would download and correlate data from various sources and stages of the SEO lifecycle, all by hand.
So how does it work?
5 steps to automate your SEO with AI
We definitely get high off our own supply – there’s a reason we are known for being the AI-powered writing built by marketeers for marketeers – everything we do we do with an SEO first mindset.
This not only allows us to continuously improve our product to make it even more intuitive and powerful, but also allows us to show that SEO and AI are a match made in marketing heaven.
Here’s how our clients are leveraging AI SEO to get found online, and achieve their business goals.
Step 1: Choose the right keywords with an AI + SEO tool
Keyword research is an essential part of SEO, and AI can do a lot of heavy lifting here because of the amount of data that needs to be processed. This is a fairly large step, so let’s look at a few of the ways that AI can help out with this process:
Define your target audience
Before you begin your keyword research, it’s essential to understand your target audience and their search behaviors. By using AI-powered tools like Google Analytics and social media monitoring tools, you gain insights into your target audience and personas.
Choose an AI-powered keyword research tool
There are several keyword research tools that use AI to analyze large amounts of data and provide insights on search terms, search volume, and competition. Google Keyword Planner is a great free tool that you can use for this.
Mark has partnered with SEMrush to bring this functionality inside our platform – helping with keyword research and content creation at the same time. This also helps analyze the search volume, competition, and relevance of your keywords.
Analyze your competitors
AI can help here too by analyzing SERP data and providing useful insights into the types of keywords your competitors are using, their content strategies, and other SEO tactics.
AI can also be used to track changes in your competitors’ SEO strategies over time and help you stay ahead of the competition. Mark brings competitor analysis inside content creation – to help you find the best way to outrank them.
AI-powered keyword research tools help simplify and streamline the keyword research process. Saving you a bunch or time and effort – and maximizing the potential impact of your SEO strategy.
Step 2: Build your SEO strategy with AI
So know we have our target audience, our competitor analysis, and the keyword strategy to take top spot on our digital marketing overlord – Google.
But to rank well, having the right keywords is just the beginning. We also need to consider semantic cocoons, search intent, and content type.
To break these down:
Semantic Cocoon
A semantic cocoon is a concept in SEO that refers to a group of semantically related keywords and phrases that are used to create a comprehensive and relevant content piece around a specific topic. It involves using a range of keywords and phrases that are related to the main topic to create a web of interrelated terms and concepts. The goal of a semantic cocoon is to create a comprehensive piece of content that covers all aspects of a topic and provides a better user experience.
For example, let’s say you’re writing an article about “coffee.” To create a semantic cocoon around this topic, you might use related keywords and phrases such as “types of coffee beans,” “coffee brewing methods,” “coffee shop culture,” “why am I addicted to coffee,” and so on.
By using a range of semantically related terms, you can create a more comprehensive and relevant piece of content that covers all aspects of the topic.
AI sort through your keyword list, and automatically group them into semantic cocoons for you.
Search Intent
Search intent refers to the underlying motivation or purpose behind a user’s search query. In other words, it is the reason why a user is searching for a specific keyword or phrase. There are several types of search intent, including informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial investigation.
Understanding the search intent of your target audience is crucial for creating relevant and engaging content that meets their needs and provides value.
For example:
- Informational: “How to make coffee at home,” “How much coffee is too much coffee?”
- Navigational: “Starbucks near me,” “Nespresso login page”
- Transactional: “Buy coffee beans online,” “Order coffee maker from Amazon”
- Commercial Investigation: “Best coffee brands for home brewing,” “Coffee maker reviews”
AI can help analyze user search queries and identify the intent behind them, much faster than manual methods.
Content Type
Content type refers to the format or structure of the content created. The choice of content type will depend on the goals of your content marketing strategy, the preferences of your target audience, and the type of message you want to convey.
Each content type has its own strengths and weaknesses, and choosing the right type can help you reach your audience more effectively and achieve your marketing objectives.
Examples:
- Blog posts: A written article on a particular topic, such as “10 Best Coffee Shops in Paris.”
- Videos: A visual and auditory presentation, such as a “How to Make Espresso At Home” tutorial video.
- Infographics: A visual representation of data or information, such as a chart or diagram about the different types of coffee beans, or the difference between a latte and a flat white.
- Podcasts: An audio-only program, such as a coffee-themed podcast discussing the latest coffee grinder I’ll probably buy.
- Social media posts: Short-form content posted on social media platforms, such as a photo’s of the latest minimalist, expensive third-wave coffee shop in my area that I’ll probably overpay for appearing in my Instagram feed,
AI can help identify the most suitable content type for a particular topic. For example, if the topic is best explained through a video, AI can help identify this and recommend video content creation. Similarly, if the topic requires a more detailed explanation, AI can recommend long-form content such as blog posts or articles.
AI can be used to automate the process of creating digital marketing campaigns, by helping to identify the right keywords and phrases, creating semantic cocoons, understanding user search intent, and recommending the most suitable content types. Automating these processes with AI can save a huge amount of time and effort.
Step 3: Write SEO-optimized content with AI
Now that AI has identified the semantic keywords, the intent behind the keywords, and the best content type to present this content, we’re on to content creation.
Remember when we spoke about GPT-3? This is where this AI technology really starts to help out.
Text generation
AI-powered tools can generate written content on anything – and I mean anything. These tools use NLP techniques to create unique, high-quality content that rivals content written by humans. Though we always recommend employing a human touch to add your own unique flavor, point of view, etc.
AI is not intended to be a replacement for a subject matter expert.
Mark utilizes GPT-3 technology to create SEO-optimized content, utilizing your keywords at incredible fast speeds – no matter the text content type.
- Blog articles
- Social media posts
- Newsletters
- Product descriptions
- Video scripts
- Landing pages and website copy
- Advertisements and promotional content
- News articles and press releases
- Briefs
Rocket Mode aims to do this all at once. Utilizing keyword research at the start of the process, to optimize your blog articles or social media posts as they’re created.
Content optimization
AI can help optimize content to make it more appealing to readers and search engines – analyzing the content readability, structure, tone, and style to ensure that it meets the audience’s needs and preferences. This can improve engagement and increase the content’s ranking in search engine results.
Visual content creation
AI can also help with visual content creation, such as images and videos – generating images or videos based on just about any subject or style. They can also optimize visual content to ensure that it is suitable for different platforms and devices.
AI can help with content creation, optimization, and visual content creation – adding fuel to your content creation fire.
Step 4: Optimize on-page SEO with AI
On-page SEO is kinda the ugly duckling of the SEO puzzle, but it’s one of the easiest ways to improve the user experience of your website. By optimizing your content and other elements, you are making your site easier to read.
This may not sound like much, but this leads to longer site visits, lower bounce rates, and higher engagement. All great things in the SEO battle.
So. On-page SEO. How can AI help?
Headings and subheadings
Google crawls websites for H2 and H3 subheadings as they are an indicator of readability to their algorithms – AI can help suggest the number of H2 and H3 subheadings, based on the SERP for your chosen keywords.
AI can also analyze your content and suggest appropriate headings and subheadings that are optimized for SEO. By using headings and subheadings that include relevant keywords, you can help search engines understand the structure and content of your page.
Title and meta description optimization
AI can also help optimize your title and meta description tags, which are critical for on-page SEO. By analyzing your content and user behavior, AI-powered tools can suggest the most effective titles and descriptions that can improve your click-through rate (CTR).
Image optimization
Images play a vital role in on-page SEO, and AI can help optimize them too. AI-powered tools can analyze your images and suggest ways to optimize their file size, alt text, and other attributes that can improve their SEO.
Internal linking
AI can help you optimize your internal linking structure by analyzing your content and identifying pages that should be linked together. By doing so, you can create a more coherent site structure – boosting your SEO.
Based on the competitor analysis, Mark will make suggestions around all kinds of things that help with on-page SEO:
- Number of words
- Number of H2 tags
- Number of H3 tags
- Number of images
- Article contains an H1 title
- H1 title is close to the recommended length
- Main keywords are included
- Semantic keywords are included
AI can help with every step of the on-page SEO – suggesting headings, meta descriptions, image optimization, and internal linking structure.
Just because it’s the ugly duckling, doesn’t mean we can ignore it. But at least we don’t have to look at it for too long.
Step 5: Backlink strategy using AI
Ah backlinks. No SEO strategy is complete without one.
Think of backlinks like social proof. They are links from other websites back to yours that consider your content to be valuable and relevant. This helps Google rank the content you are creating higher – improving visibility.
A backlinking strategy is a plan to get these backlinks.
AI to the rescue.
Analyze your existing backlink profile
The first step in building a backlinking strategy using AI is to analyze your existing backlink profile, by identifying opportunities to improve your site’s authority score. By analyzing data on the quality, relevance, and authority of your backlinks, you can identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Outreach to relevant websites
Once you have identified relevant websites and created valuable content, the next step is to reach out to those websites and request that they link to your content. This can involve sending personalized outreach messages to website owners or editors, or using other tactics to build relationships with relevant websites.
AI created email outreach campaigns can help out here as well.
Monitor your backlink profile
Once you have started your backlinking strategy, it’s important to monitor your backlink profile and track the effectiveness of your efforts. There are AI-powered tools out there that can help you track changes in your backlink profile and identify new opportunities for improvement.
A word to the wise….
By following the steps above, you can build and automate your SEO strategy with AI. When done well, you can dramatically reduce the time to value for your SEO strategy.
Whichever AI tools you decide to work with, make sure that they are designed for marketing purposes – and built for SEO-optimization. If you aren’t creating content with an SEO first mindset, results can be difficult to come by.
Remember, AI is a powerful tool, but it’s not intended to replace that human magic.
BONUS: Your AI checklist
If you’re ticking the boxes below, you’re well on the way to climbing to the top of Google rankings!
✅ Have you defined your target audience?
✅ Have you done your keyword research with an AI-powered keyword research tool?
✅ Have you analyzed your competitors in the SERP rankings?
✅ Have you created your semantic cocoon?
✅ Have you identified your audience search intent?
✅ Have you identified the content type your content works best as?
✅ Have you created this content?
✅ Have you used AI tools to check your contents readability?
✅ Have you created visuals to go with your content? (If applicable)
✅ Have you optimized your title?
✅ Have you optimized your H2 and H3 subheadings?
✅ Have you optimized your meta descriptions?
✅ Have you optimized your images? (If applicable)
✅ Have you inserted internal links?
✅ Have you analyzed your backlink profile?
✅ Have you done outreach asking for quality backlinks to your site?
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