Is AI The End of SEO?

The AI eliminating another job? Again?

It's funny how every time we see the evolution of this technology, the first image that jumps to our heads is Terminator and the machine apocalypse, or to a lesser extent, robots taking jobs from all human beings.

When we talk about artificial intelligence, we always think it will make any strategy we currently use obsolete, and SEO is no exception.

With the arrival of ChatGPT4 and, subsequently, the creation of Bard by Google, all marketers, SEO experts and even copywriters get worried that the machines are already racing us to the side, but is this what the future holds for SEO?

SEO is a must for digital marketing, and for this reason, we need to know how AI may be affecting this discipline and, above all, what we can do so that, instead of being obsolete by this advance, we know how to take full advantage of these new advances.

How is AI Affecting SEO?

AI allows users to get more accurate answers to their searches.

For this, AI uses algorithms and machine learning to analyze the vast amount of content on the internet, which are those websites that can best respond to user queries.

In the same way, the prediction capabilities have increased to a higher level in which the AI can complement your search with topics derived from the subject.

For this action, artificial intelligence evaluates user behavior, search intent, interactions with pages, and, most importantly, content quality.

Nonetheless, software like Bard allows users to be even more specific with their queries and as many prompts as they want to get the most particular result to their question. Read this complete guide on digital marketing funnel and then choose the right digital marketing channel for your business.

With the advancement of social networks, it becomes necessary to dedicate more to the quality of your content since these search engine companies have implemented ranking algorithms that qualify the pages depending on their performance with the users.

Look at the new Google Bard ad to better illustrate how AI is making significant changes.

YouTube.

How can AI Help SEO?

Cutting through the intrigue as soon as possible, we better clarify that AI will not kill the SEO profession; it will only change it for the better.

You see, if we've been working with automation and data analytics technologies for a long time, we know that throughout all this evolution, our work has never been demeaned or dethroned by these technologies. Instead, it has made our job more manageable.

In the same way, AI can help search engine optimization experts and even content creators to speed up their keyword research, relevant topics and even audit our website. With all that information, it's safe to say that we're halfway there on SEO.

However, let's investigate how else Artificial Intelligence can help us.

Content Creation and Optimization.

Content creation is a lengthy task about more than just writing nonsense on a blank page and publishing it.

The search engines need the text to understand what your pages are about and, thus, to recommend them to their users when they search for similar topics. However, sometimes it can be difficult to cram all the content for every target query or search intent. This is especially true for e-commerce websites with millions of SKUs and product pages. Check these Amazon FBA tips to grow your business and see how optimising your Amazon listing could help you grow. 

But then, should you leave all the writing work to ChatGPT? No, NO AND ANOTHER BIG NO! And we explain the two top reasons why:

1. Content 100% written by AI may be coherent and well structured, but it may lack personality or that human touch that engages us with the content we consume.
2. We know that Google isn't naive and will not allow entrance to the SERP podium to those accounts that do not make an effort to create quality content with action, not only automated. Today, AI can detect plagiarism or content 100% written by AI, and if so, it will be penalized and thrown into the valley of oblivion. To learn more about this, 
   check out this article that AI could have written.

The issue of AIs writing content in less time than humans has reached such a level that part of the current writers' strike in Hollywood is because the studios want to take advantage of this technology to avoid paying the writers. As a result, we have seen how the quality of many films has dropped.

So, how can we take advantage of AI within the rules imposed by search engines? Well, AI can help you with things like:

• Look for content topic ideas
• Content structuring
• Keyword research and analysis
• Create content summaries

Upgrade User Experience.

In addition to quality content, your site must offer a seamless user experience so that visitors want to stay there much longer, increasing your chances of pleasing the search engines.

By analyzing your users' preferences, AI can improve your UX to deliver personalized experiences and recommendations that more directly have what they are looking for.

Predictive SEO.

As we said, AI can help you forecast future trends for your niche so you can be one step ahead of everybody. You can adapt your SEO strategies by analyzing future trends, user behavior and subsequent search engine algorithm update.

So, long before the trend begins, AI warns you of this so that you create content to satisfy this new demand. In the same way, if you have an idea of how the algorithms can change, you can take the necessary measures to stay intact within the rankings.

Voice Search Optimization

Voice assistants are everywhere; Apple has Siri, Amazon created Alexa, and Google has its assistant. With all these tools at hand, there's been a considerable increase in voice search queries, so it becomes necessary for SEO to adapt to these voice queries.

Now, different than standard written SEO, we have to focus on natural language processing and long-tail keywords, and this intelligence can contribute to analyzing these voice queries and providing insights according to their intent. Read this guide on E-commerce supply chain and voice search optimization.

Visual Search Optimization

Visual Search? Yes, visual.

This one is ahead of its time, but eventually, it will be a thing. Platforms like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens let users search for images instead of text, and so, as this technology becomes more mainstream, search engines will start using I-powered image recognition technology to understand and index visual content.

To take advantage of visual search, you must optimize your visual content with relevant metadata so search engines can better understand it. For this task, AI can contribute to analyzing and optimizing your images, improving your chances of ranking in visual search results.

The Future of SEO and How to Act on It?

Now that we know that AI won't be the end of SEO, it's a good idea to see what we should focus on in the future so we can create more thoughtful and more efficient strategies.

Emphasize E-E-A-T in your SEO Strategy.

E-E-A-T stands for "Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness," which are the four aspects to focus on if you want to rank higher for search engines.

Since the internet is full of "mid answers" or straight-up lies, Google must rely on 100% accurate sources that give information based on factual evidence. Because of this, it becomes crucial that people behind your content creation know what they're talking about so they deliver trustworthy content for all your users. Here is a complete guide on how you could use the digital marketing funnels to expand your customer base and how sell directly on Amazon with a detailed plan on Amazon listing optimization.

The Changing Landscape of Link Building

In this section, we will repeat this aspect of quality over quantity since it is a mistake many of us tend to fall into.

Every time we get a backlink, it's like an award for our content. However, if all those awards are bronze medals, this won't take our rank higher, and we'll stay in that third place.

Therefore, to search for backlinks within your PR, make sure that they come from recognized sources, and offer them content that can add to their content gallery while you add more prestige to your website.

Focus on Quality Content, not Quantity.

As we said, we would return to the debate between quality vs. quantity, but its meaning changes in the case of content.

When we enter any social network, or even a streaming or music platform, we see how saturated we are with content.

Social networks have spoiled us that it is always best to stay in the feeds, but the truth is that if your publication in the feed does not have anything valuable to offer, you will look more and more like a spammy account.

Quality content takes time to make, so delivering fewer pieces is better than a bunch of mediocre articles.

Although pleasing the algorithm goes hand in hand with the constancy with which you publish, you need to give yourself a more leisurely pace of publication to deliver things that people want to interact with so that the algorithms reward your account for its high engagement.

Remember, sometimes people must miss you so that they will be more excited when you return!

Create a better User Experience.

As we said in previous sections, the user experience is vital for people to want to spend more time on your page. Therefore, you must look at your website to see what things you could improve on. Fortunately, AI can help you with this.

Outdated SEO Strategies to Avoid.

Okay, SEO is and will continue to be alive; however, there are techniques that, despite being quite popular, you need to stop using right now.

So take note so that you update your strategy to today's standards.

Keyword Stuffing.

Remember what we learned in the previous point, quality will always exceed quantity.

And although it seems intuitive that placing a keyword more times in a post will increase our chances with the search engines, in reality, we are achieving the opposite since keyword stuffing is considered a black hat practice, which is a strategy that will make you rank lower.

So, the idea with your keywords is to place them with "class and style" so that they are not seen as a desperate attempt to get the attention of Google and its algorithms.

Outdated SEO Strategies to Avoid.

Okay, SEO is and will continue to be alive; however, there are techniques that, despite being quite popular, you need to stop using right now.

So take note so that you update your strategy to today's standards.

Keyword Stuffing.

Remember what we learned in the previous point, quality will always exceed quantity.

And although it seems intuitive that placing a keyword more times in a post will increase our chances with the search engines, in reality, we are achieving the opposite since keyword stuffing is considered a black hat practice, which is a strategy that will make you rank lower.

So, the idea with your keywords is to place them with "class and style" so that they are not seen as a desperate attempt to get the attention of Google and its algorithms.

Copying Content.

For Google and other search engines, originality is key.

That's why we recommend you avoid copying content at all costs, one because it's plagiarism and two because Google doesn't like it. Even copying the structure or changing specific sentences to make the content "your own" will not yield good results in your practice.

Although a 100% original idea does not exist, you can always give your twist to the content you create and thus differentiate your brand from others.

Thousands of pages on the internet will talk about SEO, but you are a unique person, and therefore, you have a unique vision among all the others. Look for what makes you different when communicating.

Aim for the Perfect Match in Keyword Search.

We are sure that while you are doing keyword research, it is pretty tempting to aim for the exact keyword, word by word, point by point. Logically, you may think this is the most obvious decision, and you will have guaranteed all that direct traffic to your website.

However, surprise, this is not so.

You see, sometimes we make the mistake of targeting the keyword with the most volume and still, what we write doesn't directly answer that query. For example, "AI Tools for SEO" may have a higher search than our article topic, but instead, the purpose of this post is to talk about something else.

After all, aiming for the highest keyword is usually not the best option since the more significant the competition, the fewer chances of shining. On the other hand, if you are looking for an opportunity that is just as interesting, you can be sure that you will drive a good amount of traffic, not so much because you have chosen that "winning keyword," but because what you have to say about it is even more interesting.

Creating a Page for Each Keyword Variation.

As for keywords, we must understand that it is necessary not to address each of its variations but to focus on the central term.

It used to be okay for you to cover every little sub-definition of the term to achieve greater reach, but with updates like Rankbrain, Google can now capture all these variations within the original word.

Even trying to target all of them can represent a cannibalization between all those pages that try to address the same topic, so we recommend you choose one that is as general as possible.

Final Thoughts.

Once again, we have concluded that, in reality, AI isn't coming here to dispose of us as a workforce but rather to be tools that make our work experience much more bearable.

In the case of SEO, we can see how these artificial tools can advance us through a long stretch of work so that, from this point on, we can use our intellect and creative abilities to address our following strategies better.

To culminate, as digital marketing experts, we invite you to advise our team of professionals in digital marketing so that you can take your business to the next professional level. Contact us by clicking here!

---