How AI can help us focus on the core principles of SEO
Since the release of Chat GPT in November 2022 the marketing world has been talking to Google to get answers on how to integrate AI into their workflows. Data from SEMRush shows that the term ‘AI SEO’ has seen a 190% increase YoY with data from Google Trends showing a big spike for the term ‘AI marketing’.
This increase in activity on Google may be peaking as shown in the data from Trends, but the use of AI and the other relevant software advancements in marketing and the wider world is here to stay.
At Varn, we have been integrating AI into our work flows in a way which benefits out clients and is in line with Google’s guidelines, but despite the seeming change we believe (and the results from our clients show) that the core principles of good SEO will remain the same, even if the tools we use to deliver them evolve.
Here we look at these fundamental principles of SEO and how you can leverage AI to build them for your website and wider business.
Comment from Tom Vaughton:
“AI will be disruptive but not fatal. It’s about strategy, and how to use it. A bit like when steam engines were invented, and everyone panicked about their impact. The ones that succeeded were the ones that learnt how to use the steam engine to their benefit rather than ignore it or try and stop them. Therefore, it will not change the core pillars of SEO, it’s a tool that can be used to assist us in doing our jobs”.
3 Vs of Content | How AI can help
In Marie Gulin-Merle recent article on the use of Google AI tools and automation, there is an explanation of the 3 Vs of content, velocity volume and variations. Given the nature of content marketing keeping up with the latest trends and creating your content in suitable volume and with suitable enough variations to reach different audiences is time consuming. The use of AI means that many are now able to scale their efforts, reduce the time spent on the doing and getting back to the marketing.
In terms of the idea generation and early stages of content creation, we have started to leverage Bard and Chat GPT to develop ideas for content themes, clusters, optimal variations and strategies for outreach. We always pass this through a human sensor check and ensure that the output is useful to take forward, but it massively speeds up the process, giving us more time to work on the higher value adding activities for us and our clients.
Visual ideation tools like Imagen and Phenaki have also helped us to better visualise ideas to show concepts that can then act as springboards for further ideas.
Driving links (and awareness for your brand)
In a similar fashion to the content creation use cases, the links that we work on driving back through this content has also benefited from AI integration.
Using tools like Chat GPT we are able to create better outreach lists, develop a wider range of outreach pitches and analyse websites, all of this helps us to build stronger links for clients over the long term.
Technical SEO: Leveraging AI solutions
Using elements of Chat GPT and other AI software solutions in technical SEO can help in a variety of ways. When it comes to translating content for different campaigns, AI can massively speed up the process, producing bulk meta descriptions that have been proofed by a professional also helps reduce the workload.
Don’t forget the core principles of SEO
Despite the widespread adoption of AI, the core principles of good SEO have remained the same since the early days. Creating good quality content, getting increased coverage of it through links and ensuring everything you put out there is well optimised from a technical SEO perspective will help you get the top positions in Google and drive results over the long term. Just remember that with algorithm influences like E.E.A.T, it is important to ensure you have a human element to everything you put out, this is good for the end user, which means it is good for Google (and as a result, your bottom line).
