How AI is changing SEO

SEO is a results business. So imagine if you have access to data that tells you precisely what you need to do in order to optimise your website and improve visibility in search engines.

Well, you don’t have to imagine, the technology is already available.

Although AI SEO is still in its infant stages, in the next couple of years it will dominate how digital marketing companies develop SEO strategies.

AI is already being used in digital marketing to gather data on ad targeting, determine the relevancy of content, identify customer segments for cross-selling, streamline marketing campaigns and analyse emotional values which have the most impact on a target audience.

But, currently few firms are using machine learning to improve search engines rankings.

Whilst using AI offers marketers insights that will improve ad campaigns, adopting AI specifically for SEO presents you with tactics that enable you to rank higher in search engines and get your ads seen by more people.

How doe AI SEO work?

First and foremost, the data gives you insights that enable you to optimise your website, build links with the high-authority domains and identifies the best keywords to use for each webpage.

All you have to do is structure content appropriately.

The primordial functionality of AI works using algorithms that identify patterns in user systems. This data enables the generation of insights and predictions that are often more accurate than human analysis.

But AI has now progressed into ‘deep learning’ which is capable of using raw data to determine a list of possibilities and perform the tasks.

deep learning is capable of using raw data to determine a list of possibilities and perform tasks

This greatly reduces the need for humans to code software and saves huge amounts of time and money.

Google’s RankBrain is a prime example.

This portion of the search engine’s core algorithm looks at search terms that have not been used before and compares the keywords against other searches to determine what type of results the end user is looking for.

But RankBrain also gives Google data about the relevancy of webpages against specific search terms.

This enables the search engine company to rank webpages appropriately against those search terms.

If website owners had access to this high-level data, you would know what information search end users are looking for. You can therefore publish content and optimise your webpages accordingly. That’s what AI SEO does.

Bringing big data to SEO

Machine learning accrues tons of data from around the internet and compares practices which deliver the best results. In Google’s case, RankBrain can identify the type of websites that engage end-users the most.

As a result, Google can categorise good sites from bad sites based on data that includes, information architectures, keywords, depth of content, use of images etc.

machine learning accrues data from around the internet and compares practices which deliver the best results

This data is then used a yardstick to measure the predicted potential of other websites.

Websites that have similar infrastructure as the yardstick websites, will rank higher in search engines. Furthermore, RankBrain assesses search categories and correlates these ‘yardstick settings’ as an industry-based measure rather than websites across the board.

For example, a website that publishes content about psychotherapy will have a different infrastructure and depth of content than an ecommerce site selling kitchen utensils.

Using AI for SEO purposes therefore narrows down the best strategies that are most relevant for your website. It essentially tells you what you need to do to outperform the competition.

Where can you get AI SEO?

Surprisingly there are few AI options available for SEO. At the time of writing only one SEO agency in the UK is providing AI SEO services.

Digipeak use a $3m supercomputer which has a success rate of over 99%.

The alternatives are a few raw artificial intelligence software tools such as SEO Powersuite and Muncheye.

At best these software tools help you stay within search engine guidelines, monitor keywords and identify a handful of strong links.

As search engines algorithms up their game with artificial intelligence, there is a growing importance for SEO practitioners to match them by accessing insights to similar data.

AI supercomputers do that for you, and because the software available on the internet is mediocre in comparison, online businesses can expect to find more SEO firms adopting multi-million supercomputers that do deliver results.

In the next couple of years, we will witness a surge in AI SEO.