As revealed by our AI SEO Benchmark Report, over 44% of SEO tasks, such as content creation and keyword research, are now automated by AI. So, it's no surprise that more and more SEO professionals and marketers want to learn how to do SEO with AI.
AI's penetration into the SEO world has mandated that marketers enhance their skills and adapt to this new technology. The use of AI tools not only saves time and money but also helps you gain better insights and improve your overall SEO performance, which ultimately keeps you ahead of the competition.
In this guide, we explain how you can use AI tools to do SEO better. Take inspiration from our tips and recommendations below to get yourself real estate on Google SERPs.
- Understanding The Full Potential of AI for SEO
- Conduct Keyword Research Using AI Tools
- Automate SEO Processes with AI
- Enhance Content Creation and Ideation Using AI
- AI for Personalized User Experience
- AI and Voice Search Optimization
- Local SEO with AI Tools
- Improve SEO Performance Tracking with AI Analytics
- Risks and Challenges of Using AI for SEO
- Future-Proof Your SEO Strategy with AI in 2024
- Let AI Power Your SEO in the Future
- Frequently Asked Questions
Understanding The Full Potential of AI for SEO
To begin, AI SEO means using artificial intelligence tools and technologies to improve and streamline different aspects of SEO. AI optimization tools may be used to automate repetitive tasks, adapt to changes in search engine algorithms, analyze large datasets, or generate optimized content.
Unlike traditional SEO, which largely depends on human expertise and manual processes, AI SEO allows non-tech-savvy marketers to gain a competitive edge without the need for extensive technical knowledge. And those with existing SEO knowledge can further supplement their expertise with AI tools to achieve better results.
Some key concepts that make up AI SEO are machine learning algorithms, natural language processing (NLP), predictive analytics, automated SEO tools, and conversational search. These technologies are designed to mimic human cognitive functions and automate tasks that would otherwise require manual effort.
They also bring in additional benefits, such as improved accuracy and higher speed. For example, predictive analytics is a type of AI tech that uses historical data to make predictions about future trends. Its ability to go through hoards of data in practically a few seconds enables it to make these predictions based on actual data rather than surface-level approximations.
AI SEO tools come with a ton of benefits, such as:
- Automating Time-Consuming Tasks: SEO processes like keyword research, performance monitoring, technical audits, and competitor analysis, which previously had to be done manually, can now be automated using AI tools. SEO professionals can save a lot of time while getting deep insights through AI assistance.
- Providing User Intent Insights: AI tools analyze past searches and other metrics to determine user intent behind keywords. For example, Semrush's keyword tool shows you the user intent behind a query, be it informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial. Since intent drives user behavior, it's important to be aware of it. You can then curate your content accordingly.
Semrush user intent analysis
- Enhancing Content Optimization: With its data-backed mode of action, AI can evaluate your content to determine if it's at par with high-ranking articles. It can then provide recommendations to make your data more SEO-friendly for higher visibility. AI's constant monitoring also facilitates dynamic optimization through regular content updates.
- Personalizing Content: Since AI learns about your customers' behaviors and preferences, it can suggest the right way to approach them. You can use AI tools to show dynamic content to different users, depending on their interests. This helps boost engagement and conversions.
Together, these benefits result in higher SEO ROI than traditional practices. You also get more insightful reports through AI tools that you can further use to polish future campaigns and set them up for success.
Key Components of AI SEO
The following are some components that comprise AI SEO.
- Content Creation: Ever since ChatGPT graced us with its presence, AI-generated content has been on an upward trend. Then, other AI writing tools followed suit. These tools can be used to create content from scratch or merely develop SEO-friendly outlines that can be further polished by writers. AI also suggests improvements to existing content, such as using more keywords or adding external links.
- Keyword Research: Keywords are the crux of SEO. With AI tools, you can find keyword opportunities along with their intent, volume, and competition. These tools also help you figure out the relevance of certain keywords to your content or industry. They further create content strategies based on their results, such as the Semrush content strategy builder, which creates content pillars and sub-pages based on the keywords it has uncovered.
- Technical SEO: AI tools take mere minutes to crawl a website and find all sorts of technical issues like broken links, duplicate content, redirects, and more. They also then suggest improvements for these issues.
- User Experience: Many AI tools also enhance the user experience for your website to minimize bounce rate and improve user satisfaction. This ultimately results in a higher ranking potential. For example, AI tools may suggest changes to your website's design or navigation to make it more user-friendly. You can also use them for A/B testing to determine the effectiveness of different versions of various website elements and landing pages.
Conduct Keyword Research Using AI Tools
AI tools have gotten quite advanced in the past few years. They can analyze large datasets to uncover long-tail keywords along with their search volume and user intent. Then, they suggest ranking opportunities for these keywords, such as the question-based queries you can use to appear in featured snippets or the commercial keywords for increasing sales.
Some common tools that you can use for keyword research are RankIQ, Surfer, and Semrush. Of these, Semrush is the most popular tool as it provides a comprehensive analysis of your competitor's organic and paid traffic, backlinks, content quality, and more.
Here's how to use it for keyword research.
Find Long-Tail Keywords
The most common use case for any AI keyword research tool is to find long-tail keywords. Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool allows you to enter a seed keyword, and then it suggests related long-tail keywords with their respective search volume. You can further filter these results by keyword difficulty, volume, intent, and cost-per-click (CPC).
For example, we searched for the keyword ''influencer marketing,'' and the tool showed us the following results.
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
As you can see, every keyword is followed by its intent, volume, keyword difficulty, and CPC.
Get Keyword Overview
Semrush's Keyword Overview tool further provides you with additional details about the keyword, such as its overall intent, global volume, trend, and difficulty.
Keyword Overview data
Its AI-powered feature includes domain-related data. When we add our domain name, the tool shows us Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD), which is the difficulty level of the keyword for our specific website. This feature allows us to focus on keywords that are easier for our website to rank.
Semrush’s AI features
Speaking of ranking, the tool also shows how likely we are to rank in the SERPs and where. Based on this AI-driven insight, we can create content around keywords that have a higher chance of ranking for our website.
At the bottom, there's a list of question-related keywords that can be used to appear higher in the People Also Ask (PAA) section, AI Overview section, and featured snippets.
Create a Keyword Strategy
It's up to you to create a content strategy based on the keywords Semrush has found. Or you can let the tool do this, too. Its Keyword Strategy Builder provides you with options for pillar pages and subpages. Since these content clusters are linked, you also get ideas for interlinking to create a content hierarchy on your website.
Semrush Keyword strategy builder
Find Keyword Gaps
If you want to identify the keywords your competitors rank for, Semrush's Keyword Gap tool lets you compare your website with three others to find keywords that you aren't currently ranking for. For example, we compared our site with SproutSocial for the seed keyword ''influencer marketing'' to find the keywords we were missing out on.
Keyword Gap analysis
Based on this data, we can now create targeted content around these keywords to improve our website's competitiveness.
Automate SEO Processes with AI
Both on-page and technical SEO can be automated with AI. You'll not only save time but will also see better results when you automate these tasks.
On-Page SEO
Most AI tools have on-page SEO features that help optimize your content for search engines. You can optimize on-page SEO for existing content or for new content. Some on-page SEO elements that you can automate include meta tags, meta descriptions, alt text, and schema markup.
It’s also important to check these elements during site audits to eliminate duplications or missing information. Semrush’s Site Audit tool comes in handy here. Run an audit for your website and check the Issues tab to see problems with the meta titles and descriptions on your site.
Semrush site audit
Semrush shows you which pages don’t have meta descriptions or have duplicate ones. Click on ‘’Why and how to fix it’’ to see how you can fix these issues.
Meta Tags
Meta tags are snippets of text that describe the content on a webpage. They are an important factor in search engine rankings because they provide a summary of what your webpage is about. Google says that it uses
''this information to create rich snippets or enable sorting of search results.''
SEOptimizer has a free AI meta tag generator that you can use to create SEO-friendly meta tags based on your site title, description, and keywords. Again, we used ''influencer marketing'' as a keyword to generate a meta tag.
SEOoptimizer generated meta tags
Meta Descriptions
The meta description is a summary of what your webpage is about. It's usually displayed below the title tag on search engine results pages (SERPs). A good meta description should be concise and include keywords that describe the content of your page.
You can use GrowthBar's free AI meta description generator to create compelling meta descriptions for your content. Simply type in your keyword and it will generate a meta description. If you’re not satisfied with the first result, you can generate more options.
Growth Bar meta description generator
Schema Markup
The schema markup is a type of code that you can add to your website to help search engines get additional context and information about your webpage, making it more likely to appear in relevant searches. It uses a specific vocabulary of tags or microdata that you can add to your HTML code.
Since it's a code, most people without coding knowledge have trouble writing it. An AI tool like a Schema Markup Generator GPT can automatically generate schema markup for your webpage based on the information you provide.
Schema markup generator
After generating a schema markup using this tool, we further tested it using Google's Rich Results Test. Google detected the markup as a valid item.
Google Rich Results Test
Check out our guide on ChatGPT SEO to find other use cases of the tool for SEO.
Alt Text
The alt text is a brief description of an image on a webpage. It shows your visitors what the image is about in case the page load speed is slow. Google also uses alt text
''along with computer vision algorithms and the contents of the page to understand the subject matter of the image.''
AltText.ai has a free AI image alt text generator that lets you upload an image and automatically generate alternative text for it.
Here’s the image we used:
Image used for alt text generation
The tool’s results were pretty accurate, indicating that it does a stellar job of reading images and providing appropriate alt texts for them.
AI alt text generator
Internal Linking
If all the pages on your website are connected by relevant internal links, you help search engines crawl or index your page. It's also advisable to have a consistent internal link structure.
Internal linking also helps drive traffic to other pages on your website, improving the overall user experience. If you're unsure where to place internal links and which anchor text to use, you can use SEO.ai.
The AI tool automates internal linking by providing smart AI-based internal linking recommendations. Its AI system crawls your whole website to find the best anchor text and linking opportunities to boost your SEO.
SEO.ai internal linking
Technical SEO
Content isn't enough to rank higher on Google; your site's technical SEO also needs to be on point. That means little to no broken links, crawl errors, or duplicate content. Site speed is another technical factor that directly impacts your search engine ranking.
More importantly, your website should be optimized for mobile use. Since mobile site performance is still mediocre on average, it's an easy way to outrank your competitors.
An AI tool such as Screaming Frog SEO Spider can detect technical issues and provide recommendations to fix them. It crawls your website with Open AI and Gemini to flag:
- Structured data errors
- Broken links, errors, and redirects
- Page titles and metadata issues
- Meta robots and directives issues
- Hreflang attributes and international SEO considerations
- Duplicate pages
AI can also supplement your existing technical SEO efforts by improving crawl efficiency and providing insights into your website's performance. As we've mentioned above, you can use AI tools to generate schema markups.
Similarly, Semrush's Keyword Strategy Builder helps you structure data for your website in a way that is on par with your competitors and will be picked up by search engines. You can further use Semrush's Site Audit feature to conduct a thorough technical analysis of your website.
SEO Audit overview
It shows you the issues on your website along with how to fix them. The best part is that it highlights the top issues so that you can prioritize them. You can then resolve these technical problems to improve the web and mobile responsiveness of your website.
SEO Audit top issues
Its Compare Crawls tab lets you see the progress you've made over time, so it's a great way to track and monitor improvements.
Enhance Content Creation and Ideation Using AI
AI content generators can help writers and content creators in many ways, including improving the process of creating and ideating content. From brainstorming content ideas to actually creating that content and then optimizing it, these tools do it all. You can also use these tools to improve existing content by getting recommendations on content length, readability, keyword addition, and internal linking.
If you don't want to invest in a paid option, you can simply use ChatGPT. For example, we asked ChatGPT to brainstorm content ideas for ''influencer marketing,'' and it provided us with an extensive list of options.
ChatGPT topic suggestions
Semrush’s Free AI Text Generator is actually one of the best tools for this purpose, helping you create everything from blog posts and emails to social media content. To start, select the content type. For this example, we’ll go with a blog introduction.
Semrush AI writer
Then, simply enter your topic or keyword, and let Semrush do the rest. If you want to make any changes to the generated text, use the existing AI prompts or use your own to do so.
Semrush AI text generator
Improve Existing Content
AI tools also help you improve existing content by showing you tips on how and where to add keywords. They also offer readability and content structuring suggestions. Since their recommendations are based on the top search engine results, incorporating them into your content can help improve rankings.
For example, Semrush's SEO Writing Assistant highlights readability and SEO issues with your content. It also shows you suggestions on how you can resolve these issues to improve your content. Even better, the tool takes terms from the Keyword Magic Tool and provides suggestions on using them in your content.
Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
Let’s take a step back. What if you’re just getting started with a topic and want to conduct some research to get a know-how of what it entails? Semrush’s Topic Research tool can help. You can select the country and domain you want to get ideas from, which helps target your content to a specific audience rather than a global reader base.
Semrush shows you the top topics you can target for this keyword along with suitable headlines. For a more comprehensive view, go to the Overview tab. Here, you can see the top 10 topics by questions and headlines.
Semrush topic research
Meanwhile, the Mindmap tab shows you all topics Semrush has found to be potentially high-ranking based on its SERP analysis. It’s easier to pick a topic when you have all of them right there in front of you.
Semrush topic mind map
Once you’ve selected a topic, go to the SEO Content Template and paste it in the search box. Semrush will then create a content template for you. Since this template is inspired by the top 10 ranking pages on SERPs, you can expect it to be comprehensive. Semrush also shows you the semantically related keywords for your main term along with the domains you can acquire backlinks from for the said topic.
Semrush content template
You also get some basic recommendations about page title, meta description, H1, readability and text length. If you want some idea of the content angle to take, go through the pages Semrush has taken this data from.
Semrush content template
AI for Personalized User Experience
With 88% of marketers reporting personalization to be important for improved customer experience, it's quite helpful to use AI's potential for personalizing user experiences. Website personalization tools can show visitors content based on their preferences and behaviors to ensure they engage with it and stay on your website longer. These behaviors ultimately lead to higher rankings.
For example, Optimizely lets you personalize experiences for website visitors. You can create events that trigger personalized experiences, such as showing a different hero image to new visitors vs. returning ones. Such a targeted approach tailored to visitors' behavior can lead to increased conversions and improved SEO rankings.
Optimizely personalization
AI and Voice Search Optimization
The availability of smart speakers, virtual assistants, and voice-enabled devices such as smartphones has made voice search more popular over the years. In just the US alone, 34% of the population over the age of 12 own a smart speaker.
The use of voice search has also transformed SEO. Since people can now ask Google for information rather than having to type it, the keywords are longer than before. More and more keywords are also question-based these days. So, marketers have to account for these changes in their SEO strategies.
The good news is that AI can help. As mentioned above, Semrush shows question-based and long-tail keywords that you can use in your content to improve visibility for voice searches.
Similarly, it also helps to include FAQ sections in your content. Again, AI writing tools like ChatGPT and Jasper can assist in generating relevant and natural-sounding FAQs for your content. When creating answers tailored for mobile search, you want to use shorter sentences since users who are using voice capabilities usually want quick answers.
If you already have a longer content piece, you can simply ask ChatGPT to optimize it for voice search. As you can see below, ChatGPT has broken the content into shorter sentences.
ChatGPT output
Further, you can use the Schema Markup Generator GPT or a similar AI tool to help search engines understand and display your content in a more user-friendly manner for voice searches.
Content structuring also helps in this regard since it increases the chances of your content ranking in featured snippets. For example, you should use lists and concise paragraphs to answer question-based search queries to increase the chance of voice assistants like Siri and Google reading them aloud to search engine users. AI content generator tools not only assist in writing this content but also in optimizing it for higher rankings.
Since most voice searches take place on mobile phones, mobile optimization is a must. AI technical SEO audit tools can identify and provide solutions to fix any technical issues on your website that may hinder mobile performance. As a result, you can improve overall mobile rankings for voice searches.
Local SEO with AI Tools
Local SEO is quite important for brick-and-mortar stores or regional businesses that want to target local populations. It allows you to personalize and optimize your content for users in a specific geographical location, making it more relevant for local searches.
AI can help improve local SEO by managing local listings, analyzing local keyword trends, optimizing your Google Business profiles, and creating localized content.
You can also use AI trend analysis tools to determine which local search terms and phrases are trending in your area, helping you create tailored content. Since you want to target local audiences, you can also use AI keyword tools to search for location-specific keywords to increase relevance for local search engines.
Semrush has a number of features for local SEO. For example, it helps you optimize your Google Business profile by identifying what's missing in it.
Semrush GBP analysis
It also has a Listings Management feature that allows you to manage your local citations, ensuring accuracy and consistency across all online directories. This is important as search engines use these listings to determine the legitimacy and relevance of a local business. The tool supports 150+ global directories, including Foursquare, Apple, Tripadvisor, Instagram, Google Maps, Waze, etc.
Semrush Listing Management
The best part is that it also supports voice search sources, such as Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri. So, your local business also pops up in voice searches.
Improve SEO Performance Tracking with AI Analytics
AI tools not only help improve SEO but also provide deeper insights into how well your SEO efforts are performing. Here's how.
AI for Competitor Analysis
AI tools further assist with competitor analysis to help you see where your website stands in comparison to others in your industry. You can use this data to improve your own SEO strategy and fill the content gaps your competitors may have.
Semrush's Domain Overview tool shows you an overall performance overview of a competitor's website. From their organic traffic to rankings and featured snippets positions, you can analyze where they are excelling and where you can make improvements.
Semrush Domain Overview
Predictive SEO Insights
Predictive AI analytics can be useful when planning your SEO strategy for the long term. AI SEO agencies use these tools to predict future keyword shifts and SEO trends for better optimization planning.
For example, Semrush's potential SERP position feature gives you an indication of where you might rank for a particular keyword in the future based on your current SEO efforts. This allows you to focus on keywords with the most potential and prioritize your optimization efforts accordingly.
Similarly, Exploding Topics can forecast trends up to a year in advance. You can use this tool to determine topics that will be popular in the future and create content around them, giving you a head start on the competition.
Exploding Topics AI trend analysis
Risks and Challenges of Using AI for SEO
Although tools for AI SEO keywords, technical audits, or other SEO-related aspects can be handy, they come with some challenges. Here are some of them.
- Avoiding Over-Reliance on AI: There's always a risk of SEO pros going overboard and over-automating SEO efforts. However, you don't want your SEO strategies to be fully AI-created. Human oversight is a must since it adds that natural touch, which is important for creating high-quality content and understanding nuances in search intent.
- AI-Generated Content and Google's Guidelines: As we've covered in our article on Google core updates, the search engine doesn't explicitly penalize AI-generated content. However, it's going after spam and scaled content. So, you must ensure human inclusion in SEO to avoid getting your site penalized. Also, keep up with future updates and policies around AI-generated content to ensure compliance.
- Best Practices for Ethical AI Use: The bottom line is that AI is supposed to be an assistant. It shouldn't replace human SEO experts altogether. For the ethical use of AI, make sure you're transparent about its usage on your website. Also, provide ample disclosures and give users the option to opt-out if they're uncomfortable with AI-driven personalization. Plus, avoid spammy tactics and instead use AI to enhance the user experience.
Future-Proof Your SEO Strategy with AI in 2024
It won't be wrong to say that we're living in the AI-driven future of SEO. From ChatGPT sorting keywords to SEO tools writing whole articles, AI has created quite a big role in the SEO space. Moving forward, you'll have to keep up with these AI tools to avoid falling behind your competitors.
We've shared some strategic recommendations for marketers to follow in our AI SEO report regarding this. However, you should also conduct your own research to understand the pace at which AI is evolving.
Recommendations for marketers
The future will bring about more AI integration with voice search and even better NLP to accommodate voice search. You'll have to optimize your content with long-tail keywords and natural language processing to stay relevant in the digital landscape. Plus, intent-based algorithms will become more advanced, making it important to use AI keyword tools that can identify the user's intent and optimize accordingly.
Emerging AI Trends to Watch
Keep an eye on the following trends of AI in SEO to keep up with the dynamic shifts in this space:
- Predictive SEO: AI-based predictive tools will also get better in the future. They'll be able to predict consumer trends, identify upcoming changes in search engine algorithms, and even find new SEO opportunities. You must master their use to be more proactive in your SEO planning and be prepared for any new changes.
- Hyper-Personalization: AI tools will drive personalized search experiences, showing people dynamic content based on their real-time user intent. SEO professionals and marketers must start using these tools to jump on the personalization bandwagon before it's too late.
- Visual Search: Google Lens and other visual search tools are already becoming popular, and AI technology will make them even more advanced by providing suggestions based on what the user is looking at. You must optimize your visuals with appropriate meta tags and descriptions to take advantage of visual search in the future.
Let AI Power Your SEO in the Future
Thanks to AI, SEO has become more accessible even for small businesses and individuals. In the future, AI SEO tools will become non-negotiables for marketers who really want to stay ahead of the game.
Our guide has covered multiple ways in which you can use AI in SEO. The key is to familiarize yourself with some major tools that can streamline your SEO efforts. You should also be aware of new advancements or algorithm updates and learn how these tools can assist you in optimizing your website in the wake of these changes.
Want to know what AI is doing for your SEO results? Our enterprise SEO ROI calculator can give you a glimpse into it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can AI help improve SEO strategies?
AI can boost SEO strategies by automating time-consuming tasks and offering deeper insights. It can help with keyword research by identifying trends and search intent more effectively. AI-powered tools can also optimize content by suggesting improvements in readability, structure, and keyword placement. On the technical side, AI can crawl websites to detect issues like broken links, slow-loading pages, or crawl errors.
What are the best AI tools for SEO?
Some of the best AI tools for SEO are Semrush, Jasper, ChatGPT, and Moz. These tools offer a variety of features, such as keyword research, technical SEO audit, content writing, local SEO, and backlink analysis.
What are the risks of using AI for SEO?
A common risk of using AI for SEO is over-relying on automation, resulting in generic content that lacks a human touch. There's also the risk of unintentional keyword stuffing or over-optimization if AI isn't carefully monitored. Also, using AI without understanding the data behind it can result in misguided decisions that hurt your SEO efforts.
Can AI-generated content rank on Google?
Google does not have a specific policy against AI-generated content. However, its algorithms prioritize high-quality and relevant content created by humans. Therefore, AI-generated content may not rank as well as human-written content or AI content that has been edited and improved by a human.
What AI tools are recommended for e-commerce SEO optimization?
The following tools are excellent for eCommerce SEO optimization:
- Semrush
- Frase
- ChatGPT
- SEO.ai
How do AI tools compare with traditional SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs?
AI tools bring automation and predictive insights that traditional SEO tools typically lack. While traditional tools focus on gathering and analyzing data, AI-powered tools use machine learning techniques to provide actionable recommendations and make predictions about future search behavior. AI tools also excel at identifying user intent and trends by analyzing large datasets faster than manual methods. However, tools like Ahrefs and Semrush now use AI algorithms to enhance their capabilities.
Can AI tools assist with local SEO for businesses?
AI tools can identify the best local keywords by analyzing regional search trends and user behavior. They also automate listing updates across directories and help personalize content recommendations based on local search data. Local businesses can also use AI tools to generate content that appears in ''near me'' searches.
