Lately, artificial intelligence (AIWhat is AI? Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by computers in an aim to mimic or exceed human cognitive abilities across a range of domains....) has been in the spotlight in the news, both within tech circles and in general discourse. While AI has been around for quite a while now in some forms, recent strides in technologies such as language learning models (LLMs) for the use of AI chatbots and other transformative services have brought the topic to the forefront of the public consciousness. Services like ChatGPT and DALL-E being available for general use means that they tend to get most of the attention, but AI works behind the scenes in a wide range of contexts. One of the areas in which AI can help to supplement human skill and ability is in streamlining and maximizing search engine optimization (SEO).
Importance of SEO
Those who work in marketing, or any business that is adjacent to or involves marketing, will undoubtedly already be aware that the importance of SEO cannot be overstated. It is vital for a company to use its resources and available labor to make sure that SEO is maximized to the best of its ability. Knowing what the goals and objectives of your SEO are is an important part of the process, as it helps to narrow down the potential courses of action and determine what tactics will work best for a specific company’s needs and the resources available to them.
The goals of making use of SEO can be “tied to conversions, traffic, exposure, or aligned with thought leadership and a customer journey,” or several other intentions, depending on your organization’s priorities and areas of concern. Regardless of your aim, it is vital to know what you hope to achieve by putting resources into maximizing SEO. This way, you can increase the efficacy of your efforts and decrease the chances of working toward better SEO, only to see very little change, if any, in the success of those efforts.
Key Challenges
While SEO is an absolute must for organizations with any sort of online presence, it can be difficult to implement it correctly and effectively. SEO takes time to work, and the results are not always immediately apparent, even when the SEO is working. It requires specialized skills both to maximize SEO in the first place and to assess the efficacy of SEO work and make adjustments based on the results. Organizations and the particular people who handle SEO must be patient, diligent, and on top of recent trends in technology and online culture.
The world of SEO is always changing, which can also make experts struggle to keep up with the best and most effective practices and technologies. With the increasing addition of machine learningWhat is Machine Learning?Machine learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that involves the development of algorithms and models that enable computers to make predictions or decisions based on... and AI in SEO technology, updates to ranking factors and search algorithms, and the ever-changing online landscape, it can be difficult—if not outright impossible—for human workers to adapt to new developments. Making SEO work for your organization is an ongoing process rather than a one-and-done solution, meaning that businesses on the smaller end or with fewer resources at their disposal may have difficulties maintaining and updating their SEO tactics over time.
How AI Can Help
The use of AI behind the scenes of search engines is not a new thing—Google, the most popular and easily recognizable search engine worldwide, uses AI to inform and optimize search engine results pages to offer users the most relevant and helpful results possible. Since AI helps search engines decide which results to show first, why should it not also be able to help organizations optimize their content to appear at the top of those lists? While AI-generated content comes with a great number of potential drawbacks, AI-enabled SEO can be a great way for an organization to maximize efficiency.
There are a number of ways that AI can help with SEO. These include assisting with keyword research and content optimization, enhancing the user experience on a company website, forecasting upcoming trends in popular keywords and algorithm updates, and improving voice search technology and visual search results. It can also help with analyzing the activity and results of search engines to determine possible improvements, monitoring the activities of competitors and how they make use of SEO, and more precise control over how to appear higher on search engine results pages.
Conclusion
AI is currently a hot topic in the tech industry, and companies should strive to be aware of the latest trends and how to make use of technological innovations for the benefit of the organization. Using AI to increase SEO is one way to achieve higher visibility through search engines without placing too much strain on human labor. Many organizations lack the in-house staff to effectively keep up with SEO and adapt to new changes, and AI is a tool that can be of great assistance in that area.
Enjoy this blog? For more AI blog content check out our blog looking at the AI revolution in cybersecurity here.
