Even though over 13% of top-ranking Google content is AI-generated and for many queries, the search engine now shows AI Overviews, 72% of SEO professionals are still not using AI. Right off the bat, many of these professionals are simply unaware of AI's potential for search engine optimization.
Then, there's a lack of understanding and training that's hindering AI use for SEO. In addition, many non-adopters are worried about penalties resulting from low-quality, unsupervised AI content.
Either way, there are a lot of missed opportunities in not using AI for on-page SEO. From keyword research to content creation and internal linking, AI SEO can improve traditional optimization strategies in many ways. Let's explore a few of them.
Unlock powerful insights with SEMrush
- AI for Keyword Research and Optimization
- Content Creation and AI-Driven Optimization
- Automating Technical SEO with AI
- Internal Linking Strategy Powered by AI
- Predictive Analytics for SEO Success
- Local SEO and Personalization with AI
- Monitoring and Refining Your SEO Strategy with AI
- Ace On-Page SEO With AI Assistance
- Frequently Asked Questions
AI for Keyword Research and Optimization
First things first, AI keyword tools for SEO research assist in finding high-value keywords for your content. The search landscape has shifted a lot in recent years. As a result, the way you find and use keywords also has to change. The transition is driven by two main technologies:
- Voice Search: Now that most mobile devices have voice assistants, more and more people are relying on them to search for information rather than typing out their queries. The use of voice assistants is further forecasted to grow by 3% every year till 2027. Unlike typed queries, which are typically shorter, verbal queries tend to be more conversational and longer. So, keyword research has moved from short-tail keywords to a more long-tail and natural language focus.
- AI: People are increasingly using large language models (LLMs) like Perplexity rather than going through traditional SERPs to find their desired information. Google has also begun showing AI Overviews above organic SERPs, which means users aren't scrolling far down. So, you need to focus on intent-based keywords that can get your content featured by AI Overviews and LLM results.
AI keywords tools like the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool can help you identify these intent-centric keywords. Unlike conventional keyword tools, where you'd just go with high-volume keywords, Semrush's AI features provide personalized insights to help you select keywords that are likely to convert.
For example, the Personal Keyword Difficulty % (PKD%) is the measure of how difficult it will be for your particular site to rank for a keyword rather than a generic difficulty score for the term. So, you can select terms with a low PKD% for your domain to enjoy a higher exposure.
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
Another AI-driven feature is Potential Traffic, which tells you the amount of traffic you can expect your site to receive if you create high-quality content around the keyword. Again, select keywords with a higher Potential Traffic to maximize your content's visibility and SEO ROI.
Since the tool classifies keywords by intent, you can make your content more user-centric. To find keywords best suited for a certain topic or content idea, you can use the SEO Content Template tool.
Semrush SEO Content Template
It shows you tailored keyword suggestions based on the top SERPs and the terms they feature. Since these keywords are semantically related, the content around them also has a higher chance of getting featured in AI-generated results.
Content Creation and AI-Driven Optimization
In a LinkedIn post, Abhi A, an SEO expert at Stan Ventures, calls search intent the North Star for SEO, and rightfully so. Modern search engines don't rank your content based on how many keywords (and how many times) have been stuffed in it. Instead, they see how well it meets user intent.
Search engines want users to spend as little time as possible to find their answers. They accomplish this by matching user intent to the best-matching content. Again, AI can help you fulfill this criteria.
The Semrush SEO Writing Assistant is a good example of such a tool. It points out on-page SEO issues like title or content shortcomings in real time so that you can fix them as you write. Plus, it recommends keywords based on data from SERPs that you can use in your content to make it intent-rich.
Since Semrush uses AI for keyword suggestions, it can also spot long-tail keywords that you might have missed out on. The tool's machine learning algorithm also helps you maintain a consistent tone of voice throughout the article to engage your audience.
Keyword suggestions by CWA
Other AI features include the Composer and Rephraser. While the former helps you overcome writer's block to write better content, the latter paraphrases sentences to improve readability and rework content for different use cases.
SEO Content Writing Assistant
If you need extra assistance, you can use the Ask AI feature to find information within your content or get on-page SEO suggestions. As SEO improvements and issue recognition are dynamic, you can spot them while you're writing and fix everything before publishing your content.
Automating Technical SEO with AI
Just because content creation and keyword research has taken center stage doesn't mean that technical SEO no longer matters. It's just as important as it was before, if not more, especially if you're trying to rank your content in AI-generated search results with LLM SEO strategies.
AI can automate and streamline many aspects of technical SEO. A simple one is schema markup generation. You can simply use a ChatGPT SEO prompt to create schema markup for different types of content.
Similarly, if you're unsure about pages or content on your site that have a missing schema, you can use the Semrush Site Audit Tool. It shows you technical SEO issues on your website and provides fixes for them, too.
Semrush Site Audit tool
The tool also pinpoints other technical improvements, such as those in Core Web Vitals and site performance. You can fix these problems to improve your site's speed, which will ultimately improve user experience and help with your overall ranking.
Semrush Core Web Vitals
For larger websites, it can be time-consuming to manually audit each page for technical SEO issues. On top of that, if you find a ton of problems, you're often confused as to where to start and which issues are more important. The Site Audit Tool prioritizes top issues by severity so you know which ones to fix first.
Internal Linking Strategy Powered by AI
AI Overviews and LLM-generated search results are typically based on the connectedness of your content. The more ground you've covered by including related topics and sub-topics, the more likely it is for your content to rank higher.
Internal linking helps bridge different pages and topics on your website to give your content a sense of cohesion and improve your topical authority. For websites with hundreds of thousands of pages, it can be hard to optimize internal links manually. AI can assist. Even for smaller websites, AI tools can specify the most relevant pages to link to within your content.
For example, you can use the Semrush Keyword Strategy Builder to identify the sub-topics related to your seed keyword/s. The tool's AI-assisted topical overview creates a content map with pillars and sub-pages. You can then interlink them to improve the topical relevance and authority of your content.
To get more details about a topic, click on the relevant keyword. It will then open in Keyword Overview, where you can see other AI-powered metrics like the term's PKD% and your domain's topical authority for it. Here, you'll also see AI-estimated potential topic traffic that the keyword can bring.
Keyword Overview AI-powered metrics
Interlink pages that use keywords with high potential topic traffic. This way, you're distributing link equity to pages that can bring you more organic traffic. Also, interlinking topic clusters makes your content more comprehensive for search engines and helps boost rankings.
Predictive Analytics for SEO Success
AI SEO optimization isn't just reactive but also proactive. With AI tools, you can get a hint of what's to come in the search engine world. AI can predict traffic and consumer preference trends based on past data and current market conditions.
The sooner you get this information, the better equipped you are to capitalize on it. Predictive analytics can help you identify topics, trends, platforms, and traffic sources that are likely to drive more traffic in the future.
Semrush Traffic Analytics has incorporated certain AI features that let you forecast what traffic trends will look like in the future. The graph can be filtered by visits, purchase conversions, pages, and unique visitors. For each of these metrics, Semrush's AI shows you the forecasted trend for the next month.
Semrush Traffic Analytics
You can use this information to determine if your site is poised for growth or if it needs some optimization work. If the forecasted trend is low, then you'll have to come up with new strategies to improve your traffic numbers.
In the Top Pages section, you can also see specific pages that have seen a recent spike in traffic. These pages are a good indicator of what topics and keywords have gained popularity.
Top Pages in Traffic Analytics
In addition, you can also get predictive insights from what your competitors are focusing on and which of their pages may be gaining traction. Semrush Domain Overview tool provides you with AI-driven insights about a competitor's traffic, organic keywords, backlinks, SERP feature visibility, and more.
Semrush Domain Overview
Their growth trajectory gives you a peek into what's working for them. You can then follow suit or take inspiration for your own content and SEO campaigns.
Local SEO and Personalization with AI
AI tools can also help optimize your SEO strategy for local search. For example, in the Semrush Keyword Research Tool, you can filter results by your country or city. This way, the tool shows you keywords that people in your target location are actually searching for.
To complement your on-page SEO efforts, you can also list your business on Google and other directories. Again, AI can automate this process. The Semrush Listings Management Tool allows you to update your business information on hundreds of directories from the same platform.
Semrush Listings Management
Semrush's local suite also includes AI-powered review management. Consumers want businesses to respond to reviews, whether positive or negative. However, doing this manually, especially for a big business, can be tough. Semrush integrates ChatGPT, letting you generate custom responses to reviews.
Semrush ChatGPT integration
Besides personalizing reviews, you can also use AI to customize other user experiences. For example, AI tools can give you a peek into audience preferences. For example, Semrush Traffic Analytics shows you audience behavior, including their interests, device usage, and social media preferences. Based on this data, you can fine-tune your content and marketing efforts to reach your audience where they are.
Semrush Audience Behavior
Monitoring and Refining Your SEO Strategy with AI
Creating an AI-driven on-page SEO strategy is just the first step. Next comes refining it over time. To start, it's important to monitor your keywords' performance. The Semrush Position Tracking tool is helpful here, giving you a summary of keyword visibility, estimated traffic, and average position.
Semrush Position Tracking
Since the data updates regularly, you can quickly identify changes in your keyword rankings. The tool also shows you Potential Growth, which is an AI-powered metric showing you how much website traffic growth you can see by optimizing for the selected keywords.
Another AI-powered metric you'll see here is Potential Visibility, which is a measure of your site's visibility increase in the SERPs if you focus on creating content around the analyzed keywords. These insights help you determine which keywords are worth spending time on and which ones may need replacing.
Apart from keyword monitoring, you must also continuously refine other on-page SEO aspects. Use the Semrush On-Page SEO Checker to get ideas for improvement for strategy, backlinks, user experience, technical SEO, content, and more. The tool also shows you which pages you should prioritize to see the highest traffic volume increase. So you won't end up wasting time on pages that are less important.
Semrush On-page SEO checker
Ace On-Page SEO With AI Assistance
Thanks to the recent AI craze, there's no shortage of AI SEO optimization tools. You just need to know how to use them properly. We've shared quite a few AI tools above that you can use to get more out of your SEO efforts.
When using these tools, it's imperative to keep monitoring your website's performance so that you can make changes as needed. Don't just rely on AI's suggestions blindly. Instead, combine them with your human understanding of consumer preferences and SEO trends to create a winning strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can AI help with keyword research for niche markets?
AI tools can analyze massive data sets and identify long-tail keywords or less competitive terms that you might not find otherwise. They dig into search trends and related queries people ask online. For niche markets, this means finding hyper-specific phrases your audience is searching for, making your content more targeted. Plus, AI saves you time by automating keyword clustering and relevance analysis.
How to use AI to optimize content for voice search?
AI can help you optimize for voice search by identifying conversational keywords and question-based queries. For example, the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool can suggest natural-sounding phrases people might say aloud. AI also analyzes user intent, helping you create content that aligns with how people speak, not just type.
How to ensure AI-generated content is not penalized by Google?
After you generate content using an AI writing tool, review and edit it to add a human touch. To comply with EEAT guidelines, add quotes, statistics, figures, and intent-driven subheadings. While AI can produce a structure and base copy, it's up to you to add depth and value, which is what Google looks for in ranking content.
What is the best way to create schema markup using AI?
ChatGPT or specific AI-based schema generators can create schema markups. You simply input details about your content (like product info, event details, or FAQ data), and the tool generates the JSON-LD code for you. Always validate your markup using Google's Rich Results Test to make sure it's accurate.
How does AI help understand user intent in SEO?
AI tools can analyze search patterns and context to decode user intent. For example, the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool shows you intent for the keywords it suggests. Similarly, you can use the Keyword Overview Tool to find related topics and question-based keywords, which further provide information about user intent.
How can AI automate metadata creation effectively?
AI tools can generate metadata like titles and descriptions by analyzing your content and identifying its main keywords and themes. Some tools even tailor metadata to match character limits and readability standards. For example, Jasper and Surfer SEO create optimized metadata for your articles.
What are the top trends in AI-driven SEO for 2025?
Some of the top trends in AI-driven SEO for 2025 are:
- Predictive analytics for SEO
- Personalized search results
- Voice-activated search
- Image and video recognition for improved SEO
- Natural language processing for better content optimization
- AI-powered content creation and curation
How can businesses use AI to personalize website content?
AI SEO tools can analyze user data, such as browsing history and behavior, to tailor website content in real time. For example, they can display product recommendations, dynamic headlines, and customized offers based on what a visitor is interested in. You can also use AI chatbots to provide personalized customer support and engage with users.
How do you integrate AI tools with existing SEO strategies?
To integrate AI tools into your SEO strategy, identify areas where AI can add value, like keyword research, technical SEO, content optimization, or performance tracking. You can use tools like Semrush alongside your current workflows to automate repetitive tasks and refine strategies. AI can also complement your efforts by analyzing data faster, uncovering trends, and suggesting improvements.
Can AI predict SEO performance for new content?
AI can give you somewhat of a prediction on how your new content will perform in terms of SEO. For example, Semrush SEO Writing Assistant and MarketMuse assess how well your content aligns with search trends and provide a content score or ranking prediction. Some platforms even simulate how your page might perform based on similar content. While it's not 100% accurate, these predictions can guide your strategy by highlighting areas to improve for better rankings and traffic.
How can small businesses leverage AI for local SEO?
Small businesses can use AI to boost local SEO by optimizing Google Business Profile listings, analyzing local keywords, and managing online reviews. Semrush Local has a number of tools that can help in this regard. For example, the Listings Management tool lets you update business information to multiple directories at once, while the Keyword Magic Tool helps you find "near me" keywords by location.
How can AI enhance internal linking strategies?
You can use an AI tool to analyze your content and identify relevant pages to link within your website. Some tools can also help you discover opportunities for cross-linking based on keyword relevance and page authority. Plus, AI tools like the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant also identify broken links in your content so that you can replace them in real time.
