Looking to boost search growth and reach your goals sooner? AI’s capabilities have expanded rapidly over the last few years, and the tools at your disposal can do much more than churn out a few blog posts. Here are nine ways you can leverage AI for search engine optimization (SEO) to get the most out of your time.
1. Uncover Audience Pain Points
Content targeted around pain points performs well because it addresses your audience’s needs and concerns. However, you can’t solve problems until you know what they are, and AI truly shines for this.
If you already have abundant customer data, such as emails, chat transcripts, and reviews, run it through tools like Brandwatch to sort everything efficiently. These tools perform sentiment analysis using AI to determine the tone within communications and separate the most important issues customers face from irrelevant information. You can also ask ChatGPT to do something similar.
Even if you don’t have enough data, you can still ask your customers for feedback directly. Don’t analyze the responses manually, though. Use AI-powered tools like Qualtrics or MonkeyLearn to organize the responses into themes, then highlight the most common and important pain points with sentiment analysis.
2. Brainstorm Content
Another area where AI shines is helping you brainstorm content. Some of the best tools for this include:
- Ideamap: Type in a problem, and Ideamap presents you with a mind map of interrelated working steps and solutions. When looking for new content ideas, any one of these points can form the basis of an article or video.
- HyperWrite: HyperWrite focuses more on end solutions than Ideamap. However, customers often want this clarity, and it can help you find innovative ways to structure guide-based content around solutions to their pain points.
- ChatGPT: While the previous tools ask you for problems, you’ll need to provide more instruction to ChatGPT for content creation so it knows you want to brainstorm ideas. However, this is worth it for its versatility since you can hone in on specific ideas or ask for clarification. Plugins and document upload capabilities also enable you to feed ChatGPT audience personas — something sorely missing from most purpose-built brainstorming tools.
3. Outline Content
Valuable, helpful content takes production time, but just like SEO automation accelerates keyword research and link building, AI enables you to structure detailed content outlines quickly, speeding up the entire process.
Tools like Frase and Jasper generate content outlines after just a few steps on your end:
- Choose the type of content.
- Enter a target keyword.
- Select the option to create a content brief or outline.
- Review and customize all the headings and subheadings.
However, you can also use ChatGPT for this. Work from scratch or start with a content outline generated through another tool and ask ChatGPT for ways to differentiate your content from competitors. Check out our list of the best ChatGPT writing prompts to make things easier.
4. Improve Existing Content
Like marketers, Google is embracing AI, bringing about changes in search that may impact how users interact with your content. However, valuable content is still king, and improving your existing content should be part of your AI content strategy.
Of course, value is relative to the competition, so use these AI tools to win through information gain:
- SurferSEO: SurferSEO analyzes your content against competitors, recommending improvements based on pages that outrank you. It also offers detailed on-page SEO recommendations.
- ClearScope: ClearScope focuses on related information, helping you expand topical authority. While its on-page SEO capabilities aren’t as advanced as SurferSEO, ClearScope’s user-friendly interface and streamlined collaboration utilities help larger teams collaborate on projects.
- Frase: Frase takes comparative optimization a step further with content gap analysis. While it doesn’t offer detailed on-page SEO capabilities, it features built-in performance tracking to gauge the effect of content improvements.
5. Turn Blog Posts Into Videos
Speed up content production and get more out of your blog posts by converting them into videos with AI. You can do this in two ways:
- Transform blogs into videos with tools like Lumen5 or Pictory.
- Use a writing tool like ChatGPT, WriteSonic, or Jasper to generate scripts from blogs.
For the first option, upload your text first. The tool will generate segments for the video, and then you can adjust the timing and add visuals from the tool’s media library. Lumen5 and certain other platforms also feature AI voice-over options.
If you already have the resources to create incredible videos, generate a script using a writing tool instead. This option gives you more granular control over your content.
6. Kick Off Keyword Research
While there are many ways to use AI in SEO, streamlining keyword research is one of the best, and it helps you move through ideation much quicker. Kickstart your keyword research by:
- Asking ChatGPT for a list of keywords relating to a specific topic.
- Analyzing competitors’ content to find keywords using tools like Frase.
- Clustering related keywords with tools like Keyword Insights.
- Finding content gaps with MarketMuse to discover new related keywords.
From there, you can insert terms into other tools like Semrush to find additional keywords, check user intent, or filter unsuitable terms. You can also use BrightEdge‘s AI data analysis to identify hidden gem keywords likely to gain future popularity.
7. Write Titles and Meta Descriptions
Many AI writing tools, such as Jasper, can generate SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions for blogs, even if you’re not using these tools for your content outline or to write the blog itself. However, you’ll typically need to provide some extra information if that’s the case.
Likewise, ChatGPT also excels at creating simple content. The most straightforward way is to use a prompt like “Generate an engaging, SEO-optimized [title/meta description] for a blog post about [topic].”
However, you’ll often get better results if you provide more context. Do this by giving ChatGPT your content outline or the completed blog, along with a prompt like “Based on this [blog/outline], generate an engaging, SEO-optimized [title/meta description] for the content.”
Ask for five or 10 alternatives, then choose the one that reads the best and requires the least amount of editing.
8. Suggest and Create Schema Markup
Schema markup helps search engines understand and rank your content, but implementing it can be challenging if you’re unfamiliar with the necessary coding vocabulary. AI tools can not only suggest and create schema markup but also validate it to ensure it works.
As usual, one of the simplest ways to do this is to ask ChatGPT to recommend appropriate schema markup based on your content. However, targeted tools, such as the Schema Generator within Rank Math’s Content AI module, offer greater power, precision, and ease of use.
Even if you’re familiar with schema, Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper can streamline implementation. Choose the content type, enter a URL, and tag elements to easily generate the appropriate markup.
9. Create Social Media Posts
AI writing aids like ChatGPT help you ramp up your social media output, but the true power of AI lies in personalization at scale. No matter what action you’d like potential customers to perform, it’s easier when they feel like you’re speaking to them directly.
Using tools like Persado or Phrasee to analyze, create, and adjust your social media posts based on a specific audience makes them more relevant. However, if you want the most impact, don’t stop there. You can also use an AI analysis tool like Brandwatch to spot social media trends early. This combination makes your posts both more timely and more relevant, helping you gain ground against competitors on rapid-fire platforms like Instagram.
Back Your AI Tactics With a Thoughtful Strategy
With all the fear about AI being the future of search, it’s comforting to know it can actually help you gain SEO visibility. However, you still need a purposeful strategy to drive the most impact from AI tools. Schedule a free SEO consultation with our agency, and we’ll take care of the specifics so you can move forward with confidence.
