What Exactly Is AI in SEO?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has permanently changed search. Users are getting custom search results based on their past behaviors, their devices, their locations, and hundreds of other factors.  Search engine AI applications- such as with Google’s SGE or Bing’s ChatGPT integration,  advance the practice of SEO. While traditional SEO remains essential, AI enhances it, offering automation and data mining to increase productivity and unlock new value in the organic channel. While the SEO techniques we’ve all learned still serve as an optimization baseline, the changing competitive landscape is prioritizing page one results.

When we use AI to look at the relationship between search intent and content, the data paints a picture that is customized to specific content landscapes. In other words, optimizations strategies that work for one family of keywords might not work as well for another group of keywords.

SEO artificial intelligence

Where Is AI Used?

Generative AI is revolutionizing the marketing landscape. According to Mckinsey, it is projected to deliver $460 billion in incremental productivity in marketing over the next decade.  This is already taking shape in SEO, with 58% of SEO’s planning to integrate generative AI functionality into their workflows in the next year.    Areas where AI deliver the most value are rooted in reducing manual work and eliminating repetitive tasks so teams can focus on more creative and strategic initiatives while retaining a strong base level of SEO for their organizations.  These areas include:

Keyword Research: Through advanced data analysis, AI is exceptionally adept at identifying emerging topics and uncovering gaps in the market. This intelligence allows for the creation of targeted and highly relevant content. Utilizing AI-powered analysis tools, such as Insights, streamlines the process of assessing SEO action items. Rather than navigating multiple reports, AI technologies can find patterns and discern the value of targeting one keyword over another.  This has multiple applications: 

  • Identifying which keywords to target for universal results
  • Discerning between what keywords best fit different pages
  • Pinpointing what actions need to be taken to rank for a given keyword

Topic Analysis: With the launch of technologies like Google's Search Generative Experiences, and the need to cater to its dominant 91% market share, it becomes paramount to go beyond simple keyword matching.  AI can assist in clustering keywords and identifying nuances within them to ensure content is tailored to captivate and engage the desired audience segment. Generative AI technologies like Copilot are able to look at large keyword data sets around a given topic and reduce the work needed to demonstrate experience, expertise authoritativeness and trustworthiness around a given product set.  For content creators that rely on SEO for their work, AI can assist in: 

  • Connect related concepts a user may be looking to a primary topic
  • Identifying sub-topics that have rising interests 
  • Generate first draft blog posts that adhere to SEO guidelines

Refreshing and Leveraging Content: In the ever-evolving digital world, keeping content current can be daunting. As a result, we already see that 40% of SEO professionals are turning to AI for support in updating their content. Technologies like Copilot help SEO teams refine page titles and descriptions in ways that are aligned to the latest search behaviors.  This not only reduces the manual work involved in developing these tags, but it ensures that they are optimized to the best keywords for the page to target. 

Embracing Automation for Efficiency: The integration of AI in SEO signals a broader move towards automation.  In the summer of 2023, a survey of SEO professionals showed that AI advancements around productivity are of the most interest right now.  Automating repetitive tasks not only frees up time to focus on more strategic work, it eliminates possibilities of human error in base level SEO.  For example, AI powered technologies like Autopilot work in the background to create clusters of content on your site that ensure you are demonstrating the necessary experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.  Not only does it do the work of finding the related content on your site, but it recalibrates how it clusters that content as search behaviors evolve maximizing its relevancy and viability for AI-powered search engines.   

How AI-Powered Search Optimization Is Revolutionizing Marketing Teams

The integration of AI, especially the power of generative AI, is redefining the role SEO plays in a marketing organization:

Leveling Up Content Creation: The role of content creators is undergoing a transformation. Generative AI equips them to craft content at scale, ensuring it's in line with AI-identified search trends. This means content remains relevant, fresh, and in sync with the rapidly changing digital landscape.  SEO teams play an integral role in this shift to AI-assisted content deployment by ensuring content reflects search behaviors and accurately reflects the intents and nuances AI powered search technologies like Google SGE are addressing. 

Elevated SEO Importance: The role of SEO managers is expanding.  Furthermore, 90% of surveyed organizations indicated they plan to prioritize SEO more.  And thanks to AI, they can streamline optimization processes, freeing up more time for in-depth data analysis and strategic thinking. Considering Google's steady 10% annual growth, SEO professionals are uniquely positioned to observe the balance between user intent and the content they see.   This position offers a valuable opportunity to extract insights and inform impactful strategies across an organization's disciplines.  For example, SEO’s can spend more time informing product marketing what specific pain points customers express in search, or what specific product color choices are most preferred, or what mindsets around a given topic are most prevalent.  These insights not only fuel better SEO, but they can help companies connect to customers better across all channels.   

Data Integrity: In many organizations, data from third-party sources is primarily an input; it's consumed but not actively contributed to. However, generative AI, especially large language models, can change this dynamic. These models might use data inputs to enhance their capabilities, adding layers of complexity to AI usage. As AI becomes more central to SEO, the focus on data integrity and compliance intensifies. It's essential for organizations to ensure the quality and proper management of the data fueling their AI tools. For SEO professionals, it's crucial to use AI tools rooted in specific datasets, like keyword data. Technologies like DataMind, which draws from DataCube which uses keyword data instead of user data to refine the model are critical for ensuring private data doesn’t make its way into a public data set. 

Efficiency at Scale: Generative AI is the key to doing more with less. It takes on the heavy lifting—automating routine tasks and drafting initial content. This gives marketing teams the latitude to refine their approaches, unleash their creative potential, and consistently deliver high-quality, relevant content.

Navigating the Future of AI-Driven SEO: Dual Forces at Play

The world of search optimization is being reshaped by two powerful forces. On one front, search engines are harnessing AI's prowess to refine and elevate their results, ensuring users get richer, more tailored responses. Concurrently, SEO teams are leveraging AI to amplify their strategies, gaining deeper insights and achieving more with fewer resources.

This confluence is transformative: As search engines strive for precision, SEO teams armed with AI are poised to meet the challenge, crafting content that not only ranks but deeply resonates.  As intelligent content and advanced search algorithms increasingly align, you should anticipate a digital landscape that prioritizes both user experience and sophisticated SEO strategy. The evolution in digital marketing is ongoing, and the potential for innovation remains vast.