What Is AI in SEO? Elevate Your Website with AI-Powered SEO

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If there’s one thing that’s changing the dynamic for pretty much every aspect of business, it’s artificial intelligence (AI). From AI website builders to content creations, the algorithm knows best now, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to SEO. What was once a tricky topic to cover if you weren’t an SEO pro has just become a whole lot easier thanks to AI.

But how can you leverage artificial intelligence to make sure your website stands out and rises above the rest? Here, we dive deeper into the world of AI and SEO to see how it can power your website.

10 Ways AI Improves Your Website

From keyword research to technical audits, here’s how AI is transforming the SEO industry and making it easier for smaller businesses to rank.

1) Keyword Research

Surfer's website header promoting their SEO tool with the tagline "Skyrocket your organic traffic with Surfer" and a call to action to "Start now".
Surfer SEO is one of the AI keyword tools available right now

Keyword research is super important for SEO success. However, manual processes may not uncover your site’s full potential. AI is changing that through natural language processing to understand search intent, while machine learning (a subset of AI) is helping predict future trends. Neural networks also drive more strategic recommendations.

Instead of just identifying popular keywords, AI tools can help you:

  • Uncover related long-tail keywords with higher conversion rates
  • Group keywords by topics and user intent for content optimization
  • Prioritize keyword opportunities based on seasonality, competition, and growth potential
  • Receive ongoing recommendations as algorithms continue optimizing
  • Stay ahead of trends with future keyword popularity forecasts

The end result is unlocking hidden keywords that align with your business goals.

Top tip: If you’re looking for AI tools to power your keyword research, give the likes of SurferSEO and SEMrush a try for advanced, data-driven analytics and competitive intelligence.

2) Content Creation

We all know that high-quality content is integral for driving website traffic and conversions, but few marketing teams have enough hours in the day to produce sufficient blog posts, product pages, and other copy. Although we’ve got tons of blog SEO tips to help you optimize your content, this is where AI comes in super handy.

The latest natural language generation tools can autonomously create complete pieces of content in your brand’s voice when you give them just a few talking points to work with. And we’re not talking generic “filler” content – the material produced hits the mark for readability, best SEO practices, and engaging your audience.

A placeholder image featuring ChatGPT's logo and the text "Summarize this article as a table of pros and cons" with a "Get started" button offering "Log in" and "Sign up" options.
ChatGPT is one of the fastest-growing platforms thanks to its ability to help with a range of topics, including content creation.

While AI won’t fully replace the human creative process, it can definitely help take you from content concept to publication-ready draft significantly faster. This enables you to maintain a steady drumbeat of fresh, optimized copy and imagery to keep visitors engaged without burning out your team. The AI gives you breathing room to then refine and customize the content to your brand’s unique vision and audience.

Top tip: Platforms like ChatGPT and Bard can help with content creation, as can the likes of Jasper, Quillbot, and Rytr.

More information:

Using your content to sell products? Check out our tips on the best ecommerce platforms to sell products and services. Or if you want an overarching look at the industry,  discover the impact AI is having on ecommerce.

3) On-Page SEO Optimization

When was the last time you audited your website‘s on-page SEO elements? We’re talking page titles, metadata, image alt text, and so on. It can be hard to keep up with these aspects when there are so many other priorities but fear not. Hand that task over to your new AI helper instead.

Sophisticated algorithms can crawl through all your pages and quickly identify on-page optimization opportunities personalized to your site. For example, AI tools suggest tweaks to page titles and descriptions so they better reflect relevant searcher intent using your high-value keywords.

MarketMuse platform interface displaying the 'Research' application with search results for 'marketmuse review' including keyword analysis, search volume, CPC, trend data, and suggested mentions for content optimization.
Platforms like Market Muse help analyze content.

They can catch thin content that needs beefing up or spot where videos could improve engagement. Some will even recommend ways to optimize navigation menus and site architecture for better crawlability. Lean into your AI assistant to keep your pages in tip-top, search-ready shape. The boost it gives your rankings will have real payoffs in terms of more qualified traffic.

Top tip: Clearscope offers AI-driven content analysis, while MarketMuse gives you AI-driven recommendations to enhance page ranking through better-quality content.

4) User Experience (UX) Enhancement

If your website traffic and conversions aren’t where you’d like them to be, a poorly optimized user experience may be the culprit. But how can you accurately identify frustrating navigation or complex site flows without intensive user testing?

AI comes to the rescue again with sophisticated algorithms that can observe how visitors navigate through your site by incorporating aggregated behavioral data. The AI will pinpoint exactly where they’re bouncing or abandoning intended actions.

Armed with these insights, you can streamline pain points through:

  • Personalized recommendations
  • Simplified menus
  • Clarified calls-to-action
  • Conversational chatbots.

Optimized site architecture means happier customers who can easily find information and convert their interests into sales. Plus, all those extra page views help accumulate metrics that further fine-tune your AI assistant, creating a virtuous cycle elevating your UX game over time through machine learning. So put AI on your UX optimization squad for a seamless site experience.

Plerdy's website showcasing the AI UX Assistant tool, claiming revolutionary transformation of user experience and conversion rate optimization with high ratings from Capterra and AppSumo displayed.
Plerdy’s AI UX assistant helps businesses improve their website’s user experience.
Top tip: Improve UX personalization with Plerdy, which offers heatmaps, user behavior analysis, and more.

5) Link Building

We all know backlinks remain one of the prime ingredients for ranking success. Researching and reaching out to earn backlinks, however, can take ridiculous amounts of time. Now, AI lends a hand by proactively identifying untapped linking opportunities so you can focus on conversion rather than discovery.

Algorithmically savvy tools analyze discussions, trends, and influencer commentary across the web to pinpoint media sites, industry hubs, or topic experts relevant to your brand. Bring those AI-compiled leads into your outreach CRM to effortlessly manage the link recruiting cycle.

Postaga's website header promoting their link building tool to enhance SEO with high-quality backlinks, featuring a 'Start Free Trial' button.
Postaga uses AI to help you build a network of backlinks.

With constant AI assistance in finding fresh opportunities tailored to your brand, earning links becomes less taxing and unpredictable. You expand your site’s domain authority and leave competitors in the dust with a steady stream of AI-optimized backlink wins. Spend less time prospecting and more time executing strategies that move the needle.

Top tip: Postaga uses AI to identify outreach opportunities that’ll help you get more links. Likewise, LikeHunter automates the process of finding and securing top backlinks.

6) Rank Tracking and Monitoring

Remember the days when SEO success meant “set it and forget it” after publishing some optimized pages? Unfortunately, the fast pace of Google algorithm updates makes that a relic of the past. If you aren’t monitoring the daily fluctuations of your site’s search rankings and visibility, you’ll get caught flat-footed during updates.

Rather than obsessively checking rankings manually, delegate that task to an AI-powered platform. Sophisticated algorithms offer real-time tracking of your site’s ranking movements as well as those of competitors.

AccuRanker's website header, branding itself as "The World's Fastest & Most Accurate Rank Tracker" for SEO, with awards from Capterra and techradar featured, and a "Start Your 14-Days Free Trial" button.
AccuRanker checks ranking data.

Combining this with AI monitoring around Google updates means these tools provide early warning signs when pages may experience volatility. With AI rank and SERP analysis, you gain visibility to make quick optimizations, so changes enhance rather than tank your performance. Stay ahead of the volatile search landscape curve with AI.

Top tip: Give AccuRanker a try to check accurate ranking data and trend analysis, or Nightwatch.io, which uses AI for keyword segmentation and tracking.

7) Technical SEO Audits

When was the last time you thoroughly checked your site’s technical SEO fitness across parameters like page speed, structured data markup, broken links, and mobile responsiveness? For most busy marketers, in-depth technical audits fall by the wayside. But doing so potentially leaves the door open for tech issues to silently sabotage your performance.

Make use of AI to regularly scan your site architecture behind the scenes. AI-powered crawlers can accurately flag troublesome areas that require debugging – whether it’s multiple broken pages that hurt crawlability or thin content causing high bounce rates.

Lumar's website header emphasizing their focus on analyzing, monitoring, and protecting a website's technical health to improve traffic, conversions, and revenue, with an invitation to get started or book a demo.
Lumar lets you get your website in tip-top shape so it stands the best chance of ranking.

With these AI-generated technical audits summarizing your site’s health checks on key technical SEO factors, you preserve optimization without allocating excessive in-house resources. Consider embracing automated AI diagnostics as part of your prevention medicine to keep your site fast, visible, and robust for search engines.

Top tip: Lumar uses AI to analyze and report on your site’s structure and health. At the same time, Sitebulb provides AI-driven insights for technical SEO issues.

8) Voice Search Optimization

We all yell search requests to our smart speakers once in a while when our hands are full, right? But are your website pages ready to be discovered and consumed by the growing army of voice assistants?

Optimizing for spoken queries is very different from written keyword targeting. That’s where AI lending a hand can make a big difference. Tools leverage machine learning to analyze language patterns and intent from voice searches. This allows them to suggest natural-sounding keywords and content structures optimized for voice discoveries of your brand.

The image displays a variety of devices including wireless earbuds, a smartphone, a smartwatch, and a tablet, all designed to work with a digital assistant named Siri, indicated by the prominent logo in the center. The devices likely feature voice-activated assistance for various tasks and queries.
Siri is one of the many voice assistants people use to ask questions.

Instead of hoping you’ve covered relevant voice queries, let your AI assistant analyze voice search trends and craft conversational content accordingly. Getting page elements, FAQs, and multimedia ready for voice searches now will position you ahead of competitors still focused on old text-based tactics. Don’t leave website visibility to chance in the voice-driven future.

Good to know: Voice assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa are all powered by AI.

9) Predictive Analytics

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could see into the future and know which SEO strategies will hit home runs? Enter predictive artificial intelligence. Sophisticated machine learning algorithms can identify historical patterns in areas like search trends, website analytics, ranking fluctuations, and content performance.

The image shows a digital device displaying analytical data, with the heading "SEO at the Speed of Search". It suggests that the tool provides SEO solutions with real-time research, recommendations, and rankings. The setting includes a cup of coffee, indicating a work environment, possibly highlighting the ease and convenience of using the software for SEO tasks. The BrightEdge logo is prominent at the top, indicating the brand offering this service.
Brightedge offers AI-driven insights on market trends and content performance.

Leveraging these insights, AI makes data-backed calculations of probabilities for future outcomes. You spend less time guessing whether that new content theme or link-building tactic will pay dividends months down the road. AI doesn’t replace human strategic planning but rather supplements it with statistically-sound forecasts. Its ability to review thousands of data sets in seconds is impressive enough alone.

Having access to AI allows you to orient current efforts toward high-potential SEO opportunities months or even years in advance. Make your website future-proof by adding a dash of predictive magic courtesy of AI.  Target the search trends of tomorrow, today.

Top tip: Try out BrightEdge for insights and market trends, as well as content performance. SeoClarity also helps by using AI to predict outcomes.

10) Social Media Monitors

You know how they say word travels fast across social media? No doubt your brand comes up all over the place online, sparking chatter that moves like rapid fire. All those tweets, posts, and reviews contribute to how search engines value and categorize your site. But keeping up with your own feeds feels downright impossible some days.

Take a breath. AI-powered tools interpret wider social listening far better than we mere mortals can. Extend your ears across the entire Internet with analysis that aggregates sentiments, engagement levels, influencer actions, and competitor comparisons. Not just direct brand handles but all relevant public conversations are summarized easily on demand.

With more human-like language comprehension from machine learning, think of it as having a friendly social media manager listening 24/7. You can tap into all that richness to better engage, amplify, adapt, and satisfy customers in a transparent way across platforms.

The image is a screenshot from the BrightEdge website, detailing "5 tactics for digital success."
Brightedge also helps with SEO insights.

Understanding the social buzz offers insights that directly tune your ever-evolving SEO strategies from link building to targeted landing pages and beyond. Level up the opportunities by embracing AI as your personalized social media assistant.

Top tip: Master your social media monitoring with the likes of BrightEdge, which helps offer insights on market trends and content performance.

Summary: AI and SEO

Cutting-edge AI tools are like digital assistants that can majorly hack the whole SEO process for your site. They lend a helping hand with the time-intensive optimization you’d normally slog through solo. From digging into data for trends and crafting content that ranks to monitoring technical issues and even handling social media, AI lets you work smarter so your site stays ahead.

If you choose to use AI to help with any of the areas we’ve mentioned above, why not pop a comment underneath this article to let us know how you got on?

FAQs

No, AI is not taking over SEO completely. It’s enhancing and automating manual processes, allowing SEO professionals to focus on strategy and creativity. But human guidance, planning, and content creation are still essential.
There is no one best AI tool for SEO. It really demands on what particular elements of SEO you want help with. However, top options out there include SEMrush, Moz, Ahrefs, and Botify based on features for keyword research, link building, site audits, rank tracking, and predictive analytics.
It’s unlikely AI will completely replace Google search in the near future. While AI is enhancing aspects of search, human-curated results and quality content are still critical. AI lacks contextual understanding compared to humans at this point.
Written by:
simon banks headshot
I joined the Website Builder Expert writing team in 2023. With a decade of writing experience, I really love helping brands and small businesses, with a talent for making seemingly dull topics fun and engaging. My aim is to get you feeling confident about marketing your business so it can achieve success. Having a background in advertising has given me a unique lens through which to view topics. I love turning tricky subjects – like website security certificates and crafting a customer journey map – into easy-to-understand pieces of content that capture attention whether you're reading at home or browsing while out and about.

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