The way people search and even craft content has changed drastically in the last several years thanks to AI. Whether for better or worse, content optimization in this AI era means rethinking your strategy to create content both search engines and readers will love.
How AI Has Changed the Search Landscape
Before the rise of AI, search was more straightforward. Users entered a search term into their search engine of choice, and if your content is focused on the keyword, you had a chance of being one of the top results. Naturally, search algorithms took more than just keywords into account. Content length, relevancy, and how long users interacted with your content are all factors.
But, content optimization with AI means thinking more organically. People are now searching with their voice, using popular AI assistants to ask about weather, daily events, trivia, and much more. Instead of someone searching for “best gaming PCs,” they’re more likely to ask a question, such as “what are the best gaming PCs on a budget?”.
AI also helps search engines better analyze all aspects of a piece of content and the site it’s on. Machine learning takes into account how people interact with sites, the type of tone they prefer when performing certain queries, and what is most helpful and relevant based on real-time analysis of billions of searches. This all leads to more personalized search results and sites having to adjust their content optimization strategy accordingly.
How AI Is Changing Content Creation
While the fear exists that AI may take over content creation, readers have already made it clear that they prefer content written by humans. However, that doesn’t mean AI isn’t still a valuable tool to use in the content creation process. Yes, content optimization with AI has its perks, which I’ll mention next, but there are some things to watch out for.
- AI content isn’t always correct. Using it to draft a blog post sounds like a nice shortcut. But, you must verify every fact or it could ruin your site’s reputation.
- It doesn’t read as smoothly as human-written content. Take a moment to imagine a robot trying to tell a child a bedtime story. AI content often sounds fake, overly formal, and monotone. It also tends to be repetitive.
- AI may be biased. No, it’s not biased in the way a human would be, but AI only knows what it was trained on. For instance, if you write content with recommendations, AI may only recommend sites/apps/products/etc. from sources it was trained on versus actually researching the best overall options.
- Keep the ethical implications in mind. The content machine learning models are using isn’t always free-use or copyright free. It’s an incredibly murky area. Not only that, but if you don’t let your readers know the content is predominately AI-written, they may not trust you anymore once they find out. With AI detection tools becoming more effective, it doesn’t take long for readers to discover the truth.
Overall, just remember AI isn’t perfect. It’s a tool, but shouldn’t be used to completely replace human written content.
How to Improve Content Optimization With AI
Just because you shouldn’t use AI to write everything for you, it doesn’t mean your content won’t benefit with a little AI optimization. To stay competitive, it’s time to adjust your content optimization strategy. There are two areas to consider – new content and existing content.
For new content, use AI to:
- Perform keyword research. AI analyzes vast amounts of data to give you more detailed keyword analysis than you could manage on your own. Uncover long-tail keywords, real questions, related questions and keywords, and even what your competition is using. You may even discover new areas to write about based on what your audience is searching for.
- Craft optimized headlines. Often, writing the headline is more difficult than the actual content. After all, the headline is what helps a reader decide if your content is right for them before clicking on it. AI helps fit in natural language that’s also search optimized to give you a winning headline.
- Create content briefs. Usually, creating a brief involves detailed research, checking out the competition, and trying to figure out what hasn’t already been covered. Speed up this process by letting AI create briefs for you. AI gives you some main talking points, identifies what the most important questions/problems readers might have, and showcases what’s popular with the competition. Naturally, you’ll still want to do some further research, but this gives you a great starting point.
- Generate relevant images. AI images are still rough in many cases, but sometimes, they’re perfect and unique. Images help your content stand out in search and on social media. Just make sure you let readers know the image was AI-generated.
- Optimize meta description and internal links. When you publish new content, it needs an optimized meta description to help readers know what benefit your content provides. AI helps summarize your content to help it rank better. Plus, it can even recommend internal links to keep readers on your site.
For existing content optimization with AI, it can help you add more or better images and craft better headlines and meta descriptions. But, it also helps in two other areas:
- Perform a full SEO audit. Not sure why some content ranks better, while other content is rarely seen? AI tools analyze your entire site to show you what is and isn’t optimized. Instead of just guessing, let AI help you optimize areas of your site that aren’t performing well and adjust your future strategy accordingly.
- Help you find what you’re missing. Think your site is an authority in a niche? An AI content gap analysis compares your site with the competition and what readers are searching for. Uncover new topics and areas that’ll help boost your traffic and rank.
AI isn’t a replacement for human content, but it’s a powerful tool that advances your content optimization strategy. In many ways, it’s easier than ever to optimize content and help readers find you.
Image credit: Unsplash
