30-Second Summary:
Love it or hate it generative AI is here to stay. So, instead of trying to ignore it, why not start embracing it? Generative AI initially came about in the 1960s in the form of chatbots, but it wasn’t until 2014 when it could create authentic-looking images and videos.
Fast-forward to 2024 and the buzz around generative AI is bigger than ever, with its reinvention projected to grow by almost half by 2030. But does the hype around generative AI really live up to expectation? We explain how to utilise generative AI for your SEO campaigns below.
As marketers, we’re always quick to jump on the latest trend bandwagon and generative AI was no exception to that. The industries interest peaked on the arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022/start of 2023, where the chatbot took social media by storm. Just over a year later, Google announced Gemini AI which they called their “largest and most capable AI model” which launched to “make AI helpful for everyone, everywhere in the world.” Fair play, Google.
But, despite Google announcing its ChatGPT rival, a lot of speculation remained on how receptive the search engine would be to generative AI. In February 2023, Google published a blog post containing guidance about the creation, use, and distribution of AI-generated content. Within said article, Google re-iterated its focus on the “quality of content, rather than how content is produced” but warned:
“When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.”
With Google’s somewhat blessing that the use of generative AI in SEO was permitted, marketers began to take a more serious approach to understand how SEO and generative AI could be combined to accelerate the progression of SEO campaigns. Aside from content creation, generative AI for SEO can be used in several creative ways, which we’ve explained more about below:
One of the most popular areas for AI generated SEO is within content creation. While it’s not recommended to produce content at scale using AI, it can be a useful when evaluating and enhancing existing content or generating ideas.
For example, generative AI tools can be used to determine the readability, grammar, and overall quality of a piece of content, or to create a blog or article outline to ensure key points of interest to target audiences are covered.
Generative AI in SEO doesn’t stop at enhancing content creation. It can also improve keyword research and optimisation through its ability to quickly identify trending topics, keywords, or phrases to ensure the content in questions remains both relevant and competitive in search rankings.
Generative AI can be used to analyse user behaviour, providing a personalised user experience for SEO. From browsing patterns and search queries, to understanding individual preferences, said data can be utilised to identify personalised recommendations that align with your target audience, improving the overall experience, enhancing engagement, and increasing the likelihood of a conversion.
Analysing large data sets often takes a lot of time and effort, particularly when it comes to curating an SEO strategy off the back of data analysis. However, generative AI can reduce the time required for these tasks through identifying patterns, trends, and anomalies, providing valuable insights for decision-making. It can also help predict future trends, helping businesses prepare for market shirts and more.
One of the major benefits of generation AI is the automation abilities it provides. From content generation and keyword research, to monitoring search engine rankings for target terms, there’s almost nothing generative can’t do when it comes to streamlining repetitive tasks and providing data-driven insights.
SEO professional or just dipping your toes into search engine optimisation, you won’t want to miss out.
Whilst much of the future of SEO and generative AI is still unknown, we have no doubt that it will continue to change the way we marketers curate our SEO strategies, helping us make even more informed decisions on behalf of our clients and their businesses. With the ability to analyse large volumes of data, identify patterns and trends, and reduce the manual effort required for several campaign aspects, agencies will continue to utilise generative AI as a time-saving resource that aids their competitiveness.
We’re currently living in a generative AI world and, with further developments to generative AI and Google’s algorithm expected to take place throughout the year, it’s going to remain a hot topic for some time. If you are yet to test the use of generative AI within your SEO campaigns, now is the perfect time to do so. Of course, many limitations remain, but knowing how it can be best used in your agency or campaign will undoubtably save time and relieve resource.
Do you want to achieve award-winning SEO campaign results for your business? Get in touch with a member of our expert team on 0800 088 6000 to discuss your requirements, today!
