How to integrate generative AI into SEO

The initial buzz around AI has died down, and the world of content creation has established the practical application of generative AI.

In theory, this creates a huge opportunity for content marketing. However, as we've seen, there are plenty of pitfalls from an SEO perspective.

In this article, we'll discuss how we are prone to making such mistakes, how Google has historically approached this problem, and how to safely integrate generative AI into SEO and content marketing. Outline.

pitfalls and problems

Humans are instinctively hard-wired to seek the path of least resistance.

Generative AI tools seem to make it easy to create expert-level articles on any topic. This allows websites and authors to unfairly assume expert status and churn out articles about almost anything.

This is the path of least resistance for content creation, and on the surface, it looks like an attractive proposition with great SEO opportunities.

I attended a marketing conference with an AI consultant advising on this very strategy. One consultant called this approach “automate and dominate.” I was there to temper that blind enthusiasm and make sure you don't make any mistakes with SEO.

This creates problems for consumers who are looking for the best information, and search engines who need to ensure that the best information is promoted accordingly.

SEO history lesson

To think about SEO's future, we need to look at SEO's well-documented past.

In the early days, around 1999-2000, it was easy to manipulate Google with links and content.

However, Google quickly caught up and solved the main problem of low-quality links and mass-produced low-quality content with updates to the Panda and Penguin algorithms.

Today, it's easy to look at generative AI and think that these tools offer the opportunity to quickly create large amounts of content and capture a larger portion of organic search traffic.

But the battle-hardened Google of 2023 isn't the Google of yesteryear.

High-quality, human-first content is already baked into our search algorithms, and recent updates only confirm that.

Google is ahead of the curve in this regard, and we've already reviewed several sites that recently experienced a drop in performance after updating useful content. Some sites have seen up to a 70% drop in organic traffic.

There was nothing wrong with this site. It wasn't spam, but it wasn't doing anything special either. It was the same content available from several sources.

Looking at the losses, it seems like they are losing rankings to more specialized or topic-related sites.

This poses an existential threat to sites like this, which rely on organic traffic but pump out only the relatively generic content found on many other sites.

If SEO is at the heart of your marketing strategy, smart integration of generative AI, rather than full automation, is the only sustainable strategy.

What does Google want?

To understand what your content strategy should be, you need to consider what Google is trying to achieve and what it aims to achieve.

Fortunately, Google is pretty clear about what it wants in its documentation when it comes to creating useful, trustworthy, and human-first content.

If you really want to know more, check out our Search Quality Rating Guidelines (although they are 176 pages long and can take some time to read).

Fortunately, EEAT summarizes the philosophy more succinctly for the rest of us.

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here, but the key takeaways are:

• experience: Personal experience must be clearly shown in the content.
• Expertise: Content should be based on the individual's proven expertise.
• authority: The author and website must be an authority on the topic.
• trust: Authors and websites must be trustworthy.

The key here is to factor this into your SEO goals.

• Make sure your content is based on real human expertise and experience.
• Make sure you have the technical aspects of UX, website design, and SEO in place.

AI similarities

The issue of SEO and generative AI reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting.

The main character Will, like ChatGPT, is a genius who can consume, memorize, and spit out raw knowledge and data unlike any other living human being.

Will knows everything there is to know, but it's all book smarts. He has no real world experience. He has never lived, never loved, never lost anyone close to him. He has never actually experienced any of the things he knows about.

AI content tools are much like this. They know everything about everything and are very bookish, but they have no real experience and never will.

It's an opportunity where you can come in and create something unique by integrating these two elements: your experience and expertise with the rapid output and breadth of knowledge provided by AI.

Let's dig deeper: AI Can’t Write This: 10 Ways to Prove Your Content with AI for Years to Come

Strategies for safely using AI in content creation

The key here is to think of AI as an intelligent assistant, rather than a complete means to an end.

If you take the path of least resistance, as most people do, your content will never meet Google's standards. Even worse, Google won't be able to create anything it can't directly answer with its own search generation experience (lose-lose).

By combining your expertise and experience with generative AI, you can create content that is greater than the sum of its parts and almost certainly more important than what generative AI could automate and create on its own.

Most sites still don't do this well, so a simple SEO SWOT analysis that looks at your competitors can help you identify SEO opportunities.

The benefits here extend beyond content creation. Whether you rely on SEO, PPC, or other traffic generation, your engagement and conversion rates will skyrocket.

Tasks where generative AI can help

This doesn't mean that generative AI isn't really useful.

There are several tasks in the content ideation and creation process where generative AI tools like ChatGPT can fundamentally help speed up and improve output.

1. Idea generation

ChatGPT simplifies idea generation, with a simple prompt for topic ideas generating several results.

For example: “Can you suggest some article topics about generative AI and SEO?”

This created about 20 articles in 10 categories in about 30 seconds. You can then explore each of these further (using your own expertise and experience).

2.Investigation/information gathering

AI can be used to quickly sift through vast amounts of data and provide detailed summaries of papers and scientific studies. This helps you create deeply researched articles in a short amount of time.

You can also use ChatGPT to fact-check and provide sources to ensure that the information shared is trustworthy.

It's always worth double-checking before publishing, but this step alone will speed up your workflow and help you cover more ground.

3. Create content

Once you have a topic and a rough outline, our generative AI can quickly create a draft that you can polish and improve. You can also create variants with different tones, styles, or different perspectives to choose the approach that works best for you.

4. Editing and proofreading

AI checks grammar, reviews content for readability, and suggests improvements to flow and structure.

5.SEO

AI can simplify article optimization by suggesting keywords and optimizing articles and metadata.

6. Eat

AI tools like ChatGPT can also review your content in terms of EEAT standards and suggest improvements to ensure it meets all the key points for up-to-date SEO content.

Tip: Trying to get feedback here can yield strange results, so it's generally best to approach each element of the EEAT standard individually.

7. A/B testing

With AI, you can easily create multiple versions of content headlines, calls to action, and even entire content and use these to segment tests for engagement.

How to check the content

Google explains what they're looking for in EEAT and also provides a set of questions you can use to review your content in Google Search Central.

Google certainly offers a comprehensive set of questions to review your content. Still, for the average content writer or marketing team, this is an almost insane level of overkill that puts them in a tight spot.

To make this more practical, we've created a set of 10 quick questions covering author, content, website, and EEA. This helps Google see if your content is what Google wants to show in search results.

author

• Is the author of the content clear?
• Is there detailed author information?

content

• Is the content original, useful, and substantive?
• Is the content different or significantly better than other works?
• Does your content offer a new perspective or perspective on the topic?

Website

• Is the publisher's website reputable and trustworthy?

experience

• Does the author have first-hand experience with this topic?

Expertise

• Does the author have demonstrable expertise in the subject matter?

authority

• Is the author (or website) a known expert and source on this subject?

trust

• Are the pages accurate and the facts reliable?

Tools like ChatGPT can help you answer these questions, learn more about the author, review content, and review competing content.

Just be creative with your approach, ask these tools questions, and see what they answer.

AI in SEO: Intelligent assistance

The obvious pitfall with generative AI and SEO is falling into the trap of least resistance.

The history of SEO has shown that these low-value approaches may yield small temporary victories, but they won't win the more important long-term battle.

Rather than trying to automate and dominate, use AI tools as intelligent assistants rather than complete means to an end.

Automated content is not subject to Google's ever-more stringent standards. Worse, anything that Google can't directly answer with its own search generation experience will never be created, making your content irrelevant.

By combining your expertise and experience with generative AI, you can create content that is greater than the sum of its parts, and almost certainly better than what generative AI could create on its own.

The benefits here extend beyond content creation, and whether you rely on SEO, PPC, or other traffic generation, your engagement and conversion rates will skyrocket.