gettyArtificial intelligence has dominated industry headlines, and with good reason: It can help businesses improve a variety of essential business functions, from project tracking to logistics to customer service. With digital outreach and online sales being major initiatives for almost every company, it definitely makes sense to ask, “Can AI help us with search engine optimization?”
According to tech industry leaders, the answer is “yes”—to a certain extent. While the wise use of AI can help teams pin down informative data that can guide SEO initiatives, relying on AI too heavily risks missing out on insights and understanding only humans possess. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share their expert advice to help businesses balance the data-crunching strengths of AI with the instinct and understanding of humans.
1. Frame Content To Answer Specific Questions
The rise of AI search is changing the SEO landscape and requires a shift in approach. One effective strategy is to frame website content around answering specific questions. Additionally, earning citations from credible sources and building trust on user-generated content platforms can significantly improve the chances of a business’ products or services appearing directly in the responses of AI language models. – Pawel Rzeszucinski, Webpros
2. Analyze Aggregated Search Trends And Patterns
Businesses can leverage AI to optimize content for search intent by analyzing aggregated search trends and patterns. AI tools refine keyword strategies and suggest relevant, high-quality content aligned with evolving algorithms. This approach is effective because it enhances organic search rankings by matching content to what users and search engines prioritize, which is relevance and quality. – Jennifer Gold, Risk Aperture
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3. Identify Relevant Keywords And Patterns In User Behavior
Businesses can use AI to analyze search intent and optimize content by identifying relevant keywords and patterns in user behavior. This helps create more targeted, high-quality content that aligns with what audiences are searching for, improving rankings. AI-driven SEO tools also adapt to algorithm changes, making them effective tools for staying competitive in a dynamic digital landscape. – Mark Vena, SmartTech Research
4. Build Your SEO Initiative Around Emerging Generative Search Engines
Companies might gain an advantage by building their SEO initiatives around emerging generative search engines. How to optimize content for ranking among the sources for generative search answers is still an open question. Still, AI can help streamline experimentation, data collection and results analysis, which will allow companies to find a winning strategy faster. – Julius Černiauskas, Oxylabs
5. Use AI To Analyze Human-Written Content
Do not use AI to generate content. Instead, use it to analyze and research topics, trends and takeaways from human-written content in order to improve it. AI-generated SEO will soon become as notorious as backlink spam and link wheels, making original content the key to standing out. – Mark Mahle, NetActuate, Inc.
6. Keep Up With Vital Data In Real Time
Businesses can improve their SEO initiatives by leveraging AI for content optimization and keyword research. AI can analyze large volumes of data, such as user behavior or competitors’ activities, to identify high-value keywords and recommend how content should be structured for better ranking. AI tools can continuously adapt to algorithm changes, ensuring content remains optimized in real time. – Ziva Hallaji, Wipro
7. Optimize Content For Voice Search
AI-powered voice search optimization is crucial in today’s mobile-first world. With the rise of virtual assistants, businesses need to adapt their SEO for conversational queries. AI can analyze speech patterns and natural language processing to optimize content for voice searches. This approach ensures your business stays visible in voice search results, capturing a growing segment of users. – Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
8. Fill In Gaps That Humans Miss
Companies can enhance their SEO by using AI to optimize keyword research, generate content ideas and meta descriptions, analyze search trends in different locations, and conduct automated site audits. This helps a business fill in any gaps and improve its ranking on search engines. AI helps provide data-driven insights, optimize content, understand user intent and spot many small details that can be missed by humans. – Namrata Sengupta, Stellar Data Recovery Inc. dba BitRaser
9. Use AI To Help You Draft Targeted, High-Quality Content
AI-driven content optimization is a powerful way to improve SEO. By analyzing search trends, user intent and competitor content, AI can generate relevant keywords, optimize existing content and suggest improvements. This helps create targeted, high-quality content that aligns with what users are searching for, making it more likely to rank higher and effectively driving organic traffic. – Ayush Gupta, LayerEdge
10. Leverage AI To Find Areas For Improvement
AI will change what SEO means and how it operates. Until then, AI is best used to interweave keywords aligned with intent into headings—in effect, to optimize content. Additionally, agentic workflows can evaluate existing sites and suggest improvements for content organization, identify broken links and optimize backlinks. Finally, AI can analyze a competitor’s website to help you make yours more competitive. – Joseph Ours, Centric Consulting
11. Automate Content Personalization
Businesses can leverage AI to enhance SEO by automating content personalization based on user behavior. AI tools can dynamically adjust website elements—such as titles, meta descriptions and suggested content—tailoring these elements to individual visitors. This increases engagement, reduces bounce rates and signals relevance to search engines, making it an effective strategy for improving organic rankings. – Andres Zunino, ZirconTech
12. Tap Into Trending Topics
Businesses can leverage AI to dynamically research and tap into trending topics that people are currently searching for on platforms like Google. By integrating AI tools that analyze search trends and patterns, companies can swiftly adapt their content to align with these insights, optimizing their SEO strategies to capture more organic traffic. – Dmitry Mishunin, HashEx
13. Automate The Creation Of Dynamic Meta Tags And Descriptions
AI can boost SEO by automating the creation of dynamic meta tags and descriptions. By analyzing content and user behavior, AI can generate highly relevant, keyword-rich meta information that adapts to search trends. This is effective because it ensures that each page is optimized for visibility, improving click-through rates and search engine rankings without requiring constant manual updates. – Vamsi Vemoori
14. Focus On The Fundamentals
Generative AI isn’t highly effective for strategic SEO, as it’s based on widely available, often generic advice. To succeed, focus on the fundamentals: creating high-value content, optimizing on-page and off-page elements, and consistently delivering value over time. AI can help organize information and refine writing, but lasting SEO success requires sustained, dedicated effort. – Yusuf Sar, Hardwarewartung 24 GmbH
15. Engage AI In A Constructive Dialog
The most powerful way to leverage AI is to engage it in a constructive dialog. Avoid what I call the CAP (copy and paste) model. This strategy is effective because it can help you discover more effective word combinations and unique insights that likely aren’t readily available. A critical part of that dialog is taking advantage of the right large language models. – James Stanger, CompTIA
16. Forecast Future Search Trends And Keyword Performance
AI-powered predictive analytics can help forecast future search trends and keyword performance. This enables businesses to create content before certain search terms become highly competitive, giving them an edge in ranking early for upcoming trends. Early positioning is key in dominating search results. – Vamsi Krishna Dhakshinadhi, GrabAgile Inc.
17. Identify Good Content Topics
Businesses can use AI to find popular search keywords and suggest content topics based on them. This helps improve SEO by creating content that matches what people are searching for, making it more likely to show up in search results. AI quickly spots trends, so it keeps content relevant and attracts more visitors. – Margarita Simonova, ILoveMyQA
18. Turn To Your Customers
Skip the AI SEO tools and go old school. Literally call some of your customers or users. Ask them what words they actually use to describe their problems (that is, how they found you). Pick the ones with the least complexity, and include those exact phrases in your content. Real people are better than machine learning models at understanding human search intent. Plus, this strategy is free, and it builds customer relationships. – Joey Bertschler, VolanteChain.com
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