Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing digital marketing. This constantly developing technology affects every marketing tactic, from content to search engine optimization (SEO). Since boosting search rankings is one of the most important marketing goals, let’s focus on how AI and SEO go together.
AI-powered SEO has the power to yield excellent results, working with precision and efficiency that no marketing team could achieve without a little technological help.
However, the benefits that AI brings to marketers go beyond analysis and metrics. According to a survey conducted by HubSpot, marketers say that AI offers at least three advantages:
- Faster content creation
- The ability to personalize content
- Tools to help generate new ideas
At the same time, AI also poses several challenges for marketers. The question is not simply how to use AI tools for digital marketing but also how to create and optimize marketing content for search engines that are now driven by AI.
AI-powered SEO is an optimization strategy driven by artificial intelligence. AI is used to optimize web pages to achieve higher rankings in search engine results. AI tools can analyze pages with considerable accuracy and precision, providing recommendations to improve rankings. Advanced algorithms, machine learning, and language processing can process large volumes of pages and the content they contain, generating accurate results in seconds. The speed and precision of these processes mean that you can optimize your pages much more quickly and effectively than you otherwise could. You can use AI tools to check your pages regularly and adjust as needed.
In this way, AI can consistently and repeatedly optimize your content and keep you ahead of the market and your competition. It can monitor search data, brainstorm content topics, find link-building opportunities, and detect and fix technical problems. It can also aggregate, summarize, and package content for fast results through tools such as AI Overviews and zero-click searches.
The Rise of AI Overviews and Zero-Click Searches
Leveraging the power of AI, Google has introduced two extremely useful tools that are game-changers for SEO specialists: AI Overviews and zero-click searches.
AI Overviews appear at the top of Google SERPs when the search engine’s system determines that generative responses are appropriate, such as when the searcher might benefit from summaries of information from multiple sources.
Zero-click searches are pretty similar to AI Overviews. Also known as Quick Answers, Knowledge Boxes, Featured Snippets, or Top Stories, zero-click searches are quick search queries where the user finds the answer to their query at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) without clicking through any websites.
Examples include answering queries such as "What is the time in Tokyo right now?” or “What will the weather be like tomorrow?” It can also answer queries about currency conversions or math problems or create content summaries, similar to AI Overviews.
These search engine functions are helpful for users, but how do they benefit marketers?
Google’s AI Overviews are both a problem and a blessing for marketers. On the one hand, it can help your audience find your content more quickly. Soon, AI Overviews may even include ads, meaning that if your pay-per-click ad comes up in the overview, it will be in an exceptionally competitive position. You can also use Overview to create detailed plans using AI-generated information, potentially improving user engagement.
However, there are also a few potential drawbacks. As things currently stand, ads are placed underneath Overviews, meaning they can quickly go unnoticed. Organic search traffic to your website may also drop as users find the information they need in the Overview and do not need to click through to your website. As users gather basic, easily accessible information from Overviews, they may stop engaging with the actual sources of this information—such as your website.
While the risks of diminished organic traffic are worrying, it is possible to work with them. Marketers will have to rethink their optimization strategies. You can take the following actions with your SEO and content strategies to help you keep ahead of these new developments:
- We have been saying this for years: Instead of thinking too hard about keywords, focus on creating quality content. Your content needs to provide a thought leadership perspective for it to start appearing in AI overviews.
- Concentrate on creating a really good user experience for your website. This will boost your engagement metrics, prompting Google’s AI to rank your site higher.
- Focusing on quality, authoritative content can help you leverage the rise of zero-click experiences and ensure that your content appears in the selected search results.
- When compiling content, cover topics comprehensively, work hard on engaging readers authentically, use visuals that grab attention, and effectively supplement the written content. Finally, revise and refresh your content regularly.
- Prioritize video content creation. Rather than starting with written content, capture key insights and expertise through video first, then repurpose that content into text formats. This approach ensures authenticity, builds trust, and positions your content for future search behaviors as search engines get better at indexing audio and video content. Video content is also more discoverable across multiple platforms like YouTube and TikTok, giving you a broader reach than text alone.
Understanding Search Intent in the Age of AI
The key to making the most out of AI-driven SEO is to master user intent and anticipate the relevant search needs with content that fulfills the criteria of Helpfulness, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (H.E.E.A.T). Before creating helpful content, you need to know what your readers will be searching for. For this purpose, you can use Google Analytics, Search Console, and keyword research tools to discover your audience’s preferences. Search Intent Optimization (SIO) is thus every bit as important as SEO. As you create your website content, your aim should be to create an overwhelmingly positive user experience. Your audience should feel your content was designed precisely with them in mind.
There are four general types of search intent:
- Informational: knowledge and insights on specific topics
- Navigational: searches for numbers, addresses, emails, etc.
- Commercial: shopping or business inquiries, but not quite with the final intent to make a purchase
- Transactional: significant step beyond commercial intent; when a user has decided to buy a product and is looking for the best place to do so or the best deal.
Depending on your business, you should be able to tell which of these categories suits you best. You might target each of them at different times and with different pieces of content. More importantly, you will know which categories most apply to your audience.
Each category can be narrowed down to the specifics of ideal customers and top-ranking keywords. On one side of the SEO value chain, AI makes it easier to monitor and understand user intent, and you can then use the metrics you gather to inform your content creation and SEO strategies. Conversely, internet users are growing weary of generic, AI-generated content, so you can make fresh, unique content that stands out.
Creating "Pull-Through" Content That Google Can't Summarize
Optimizing content for AI Overviews and zero-click searches is one aspect of future-proofing your SEO. However, there are other approaches than this, especially when your main goal is to draw traffic to your website. You would then need to develop content that fulfills all the H.E.E.A.T criteria. If your content has plenty of depth and authority and engages the target market but is too broad and deep for Google AI to summarize, it will still rank highly on the SERPs without ending up in the Overviews. This will ensure that internet searchers are directed to your site, where you need them to be.
This kind of high-quality content is called “pull-through” content and needs to become a central part of your marketing strategy if it isn’t already.
AI Overviews usually use concise content that answers common search queries directly. To preserve your organic click-through rate, you must create content optimized for keywords that are unlikely to trigger an overview and are too information-dense to appear in zero-click search results. To create pull-through content, you must thoroughly understand your customers’ needs. You may want to consider writing fewer blogs and opt for alternative formats such as data visualizations, infographics, diagrams, and video content.
Interactive Tools for Better Engagement
AI has revolutionized how we can create interactive content. Using AI tools, you can quickly build calculators, configurators, and decision-making tools that help potential customers evaluate their options. These interactive elements improve engagement metrics, are highly shareable on social media, and can significantly boost conversion rates. Best of all, they can be created using simple AI prompts without requiring extensive development resources.
Measuring the Uniqueness of Your Content With AI
The secret to mastering AI-powered SEO is using AI tools to help you understand and leverage the AIs that drive the search engines. Google AI uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze your content and rank it accordingly, so it makes sense to use AI to help you design content that will pass all the search engine’s tests. We all know that AI is not particularly good at generating unique content. Still, it is surprisingly good at identifying it, which helps you improve the value and impact of your content marketing strategies.
You should have tools like Google Analytics at your fingertips to help you test the uniqueness of your content. The characteristics of unique content are:
- A fresh viewpoint
- In-depth analysis that shows real insight
- No copying or repurposing
- Audience-specific content
- Includes a unique style and expertise, presented in a distinctive voice with personal touches
Monitoring Search Behavior Changes
To stay ahead of evolving search patterns, regularly monitor how your customers find your business. Instead of asking, "How did you find us?" dig deeper with questions about their search process. Track changes in search query length in Google Search Console, as longer, more conversational queries may indicate shifting search behaviors.
Additionally, test your brand's visibility in chat-based search tools like ChatGPT to understand where to improve your presence.
How WSI Can Help You Get Ahead of the Curve
AI tools can help you improve and future-proof your SEO strategies by processing data you could never work through. With AI-driven data analysis, you can refine your understanding of your target audience and develop optimization tactics based on hard facts. As mentioned, AI tools will help you get past the AI gatekeepers driving search engines.
You will need an expert on your side to realize all the benefits of AI. WSI's AI Consultants can help your business adopt and adapt to this new technology. Reach out to us if you would like to know more.
