Marketing

AI won’t save your SEO, but it can supercharge it; here’s how

AI is shaking up the SEO industry. Some people treat it like a magic wand that can replace human expertise, while others refuse to touch it, convinced it’s a shortcut to mediocrity. The truth? It’s neither. AI is a tool – one that, when used correctly, can make SEO faster, smarter and more efficient.

The problem is that most people don’t use it correctly.

They type in a one-line prompt, take whatever generic response they get and call it a day. They churn out AI-generated content and wonder why it doesn’t rank. SEO isn’t just about pushing words onto a page; it’s about trust, expertise and context. And AI doesn’t inherently have those things. But it can help you build them.

At its core, SEO is laborious: Keyword research, content creation, technical audits and competitor analysis. AI won’t do it all for you, but it can automate the repetitive, speed up the tedious and help you get more done for less. The key is knowing where and how to use it.

Before we go through some of the most effective – and creative – ways that you can use AI for your business’ website, let’s go through some common mistakes people make.

When we talk about AI in this article, we refer to Large Language Models (LLMs), like ChatGPT or Gemini.

Mistake #1: Using one-line prompts and ending up with generic, low-value content

People assume AI can read minds. They give it vague prompts like: “Write a blog about the best SEO strategies.”

AI then pulls together a mash-up of generic tips from random blogs used to train its LLM (Large Language Model). Nothing that Google – or your audience – hasn’t seen a thousand times.

A better approach? Treat AI like an intern – give it clear instructions, context and a specific goal.

Try: “Write a 1500-word guide on SEO strategies for e-commerce websites. Cover technical SEO, product page optimisation and link-building. Keep it conversational, with real-world examples. Avoid generic advice like ‘use keywords’ and focus on advanced tactics.”

Now, AI has clear guidelines to follow. It knows the audience (e-commerce site owners), the tone (conversational) and the structure (detailed strategies with examples).

Don’t expect AI to do all the work while you sit back. After all, you wouldn’t tell a junior employee to write a report and expect perfection. You’d guide them and add your expertise. AI is no different.

Wrong ways to use AI:

• Ask for a full blog post and copy-paste whatever it gives.
• Expect AI to understand nuance without context.
• Use AI-generated content without fact-checking or editing.

Right ways to use AI:

• Use AI to brainstorm ideas and refine rough drafts.
• Guide AI with detailed prompts and clear instructions.
• Edit, fact-check and add human insight.

Mistake #2: Publishing AI content without trust signals

Think of AI like an eager student: It’s great at summarising existing information but terrible at establishing authority. A search engine isn’t just looking for content, it’s looking for content that deserves to rank.

What doesn’t work:

• AI-generated content with no real expertise.
• Articles that repeat what’s already ranking.
• Blog posts with no human perspective or unique insights.

What works:

• Adding real examples (case studies, first-hand experience or industry data).
• Using authoritative sources to back up claims.
• Injecting a human voice.

The above ‘What works’ examples are all ‘trust signals’, which will tell search engines that your content should rank higher.

Let’s say you’re writing about technical SEO mistakes:

A generic text would look like this: “One common mistake is not optimising site speed. A slow website can negatively impact rankings and user experience.”

A stronger, more trustworthy version would look like this: “A slow website doesn’t just frustrate users; it can kill conversions. In 2023, Google reported that if a page takes longer than three seconds to load, 53 per cent of mobile users will abandon it. One of our clients, an e-commerce store, saw a 27 per cent increase in sales just by reducing load time from 4.5 seconds to 2.8 seconds.”

See the difference? The second example contains real data and real impact. That’s what makes content credible.

Give your AI some context Just like a human assistant, an AI assistant needs context to create effective content.  When using AI, instead of generating generic blog post ideas in separate threads, keep the same chat thread for every project. AI remembers previous prompts and builds internal logic.  Also, train AI on your site’s structure to suggest relevant internal and external links. This way, you can ask your chat bot for internal linking suggestions, which encourage navigation around your site.

How to use AI the right way for SEO

Most people just use AI for content generation, but that’s like buying a Swiss Army knife just to open bottles. AI can streamline keyword research, content strategy, technical SEO and competitor analysis, saving you time, effort and money.

The key? Use AI strategically: Feed it the right inputs, refine outputs and leverage its capabilities beyond content creation.

Let’s break down some ways you can use AI to make sure your business ranks.

Conducting keyword research

Many people approach keyword research like they’re shopping for groceries – grabbing items off the shelf without thinking about the full meal. AI changes that. Instead of looking at individual keywords in silos, AI helps you see the bigger picture – related terms, supporting topics and the entire search-intent funnel.

Most people blindly trust keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner (GKP). But here’s the catch: Ahrefs relies on historical data and averages, meaning it doesn’t always detect emerging trends. GKP excludes many valuable keywords and often pushes advertisers toward higher CPC terms.

AI can process vast amounts of data and help uncover hidden opportunities. Say you’re selling smartphones. Instead of just targeting ‘best smartphones’, AI can:

• Identify related searches: ‘Best camera phone under $1000’.
• Surface supporting products: Screen protectors, fast chargers, wireless earbuds.
• Spot seasonal trends: ‘Best phone for Christmas 2025’.

Why does it matter? Because Google doesn’t look at a keyword in isolation – it looks at context. The better your content fits into a larger ecosystem of related queries, the stronger your SEO strategy.

Make transcripts of audio or video content

Do you have any audio or visual content on your website? Don’t just optimise titles and descriptions; turn your audio and video into transcripts for easy content. 

Use AI to transcribe and summarise videos for blog content. You can also extract key insights for FAQs, snippets or even social-media posts, which then link back to the main content on your website.

For example, a 20-minute podcast on digital marketing can be repurposed into:

• A 1500-word blog post.
• A Twitter thread of key takeaways.
• A LinkedIn post with insights from the discussion.

Use AI for schema markup

Help search engines better understand your website content by using schema markup. This step is often very intimidating for non-technical business owners. Even something as simple as JSON-LD can look like hieroglyphics. But structured data boosts visibility in search results with rich snippets, FAQs and star ratings, so you should be using it if you want to rank highly.

AI can generate schema for you, explain errors in schema markup, and fix or validate structure data before you implement it.

AI can generate:

• FAQ Schema
• Product Schema
• Event Schema

… but always validate it in Google’s Rich Results Test.

Check out competitors’ SEO strategies

If you want to see how your top competitors are optimising for search, there’s no need to manually check all of their blogs, titles and metadata. 

AI can visit your competitors’ site and scrape the top 10 ranking pages for a given keyword. It can analyse meta titles and descriptions, heading structures (H1, H2, H3s), common themes and formatting tricks. You can then use what you find to edit your own content. For example, if three of your top competitors use ‘2025’ in their blog titles, guess what? You should, too.

What AI can do:

• Analyse the top-10 ranking pages for keywords.
• Identify common themes in metadata, content length (word count), and keyword usage.
• Identify other content styles, like product comparison tables.

Say you want to scan a competitor’s page to see if they’re using structured data. Instead of digging through their source code, you can:

• Create a JavaScript bookmarklet that extracts schema markup.
• Click it while on their page.
• AI instantly summarises what schema they’re using and how it affects rankings.
• It saves you hours of manual checking and gives you instant insights into competitor SEO strategies.

Identify duplicate content issues

Google considers duplicate content as not having any value, small changes can make a big difference. AI can compare your content to your competitors’ and highlight similarities. Then, you can ask it to rewrite your content to be unique, keyword-rich and engaging.

Fix Google Search Console (GSC) errors

It can be hard to understand error messages if you’re not tech savvy. AI can act as an SEO translator for non-tech users by breaking down tech speak into actionable fixes in plain English. 

For example:

• Error: “Page indexed, but blocked by robots.txt”
• AI explanation: “Google tried to index your page but was blocked. Check robots.txt and remove disallow rules.”

Automate technical SEO Tasks

There are lots of small, repetitive, and/or technical SEO-related tasks that AI can help with. For instance, AI can:

• Create robots.txt
• Create sitemaps
• Create hreflang tags
• Check title tags
• Scan for broken links
• Monitor redirects

Handle Google warnings

Ever had Google flag your site with a site safety warning or a CrUX (Chrome User Experience) issue? It’s like getting a cryptic message from a mechanic: “Your car has an issue, but we’re not going to tell you exactly what’s wrong.”

Instead of seeing a Google warning and blindly tweaking code without understanding the root cause, or spending hours Googling solutions, hoping for a fix, use an AI-enhanced approach.

AI-enhanced approach:

1. Upload your source code to AI and ask it to diagnose issues.
2. Get an easy-to-understand explanation of what’s broken and how to fix it.

Using AI to reduce friction between funnel stages

SEO is not about just rankings, it’s also about moving users through the sales funnel. Most businesses lose potential customers because of friction between Tofu (Top of Funnel), Mofu (Middle of Funnel) and Bofu (Bottom of Funnel).

This friction can occur when you expect users to convert immediately after reading a blog without considering what might be stopping them from taking action.

AI can map out user journeys and identify gaps in content. It can suggest micro-conversions to move users smoothly from top of funnel to middle of funnel to bottom of funnel.

For example, say you have an e-commerce store selling running shoes. A blog post on ‘Best running shoes for flat feet’ is getting traffic, but people aren’t buying.

AI can help by:

• Analysing drop-off points (where users leave without purchasing).
• Suggesting content upgrades (like an interactive shoe selector).
• Optimising calls to action (for example, changing ‘Buy now’ to ‘Find your perfect fit’).

The key takeaway? AI isn’t just for content – use it for keyword discovery, technical fixes, automation, competitor research and more. The smarter you use AI, the further you’ll outpace those still doing everything manually.

• This article first appeared in issue 48 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine.