Do they? Yes and no. How’s that for an answer? Let’s dive into this ever-evolving conversation!
Paid Search
First, let’s look at paid search, also known as pay-per-click. This strategy requires payment for your ads to appear prominently on search engine results pages (SERPs). For this purpose, yes, AI can be helpful!
image.works’ digital marketing strategists uses AI for ad performance – with Performance Max campaigns for Google ads. Performance Max uses AI to optimize ads by finding the best ad placements, which bidding strategy to use, what audiences to target, etc. Google has built-in AI capabilities that we take advantage of to help us get the most conversions.
Organic SEO
Second, there’s organic SEO. I’m talking about what you can do to your website so that it naturally ranks well in search results. There are two sides to this coin: content SEO, which refers to the words (especially keywords and key phrases) on your webpages and in your blogs, and technical SEO, meaning the back-end adjustments a web developer can make to your site. These work together to create wholistic SEO, a well-optimized website.
Technical SEO and AI
For technical SEO, here are just some of the best practices that image.works’ digital marketing strategists suggest, and you’ll notice mention of AI in #7:
- Start with a strong headline (H1 Tag). Include your primary keyword or key phrase and add a featured image at the top of the webpage.
- Use proper subheadings and formatting. Utilize H2-H6 tags for subheadings, keep the structure consistent and include keywords and key phrases. Also, apply the same Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) used on the rest of your website, and break up text with bullet points, numbered lists and additional images.
- Add links. Link to other relevant pages on your website using keywords as anchor text, and create external links to resources like community pages, chamber of commerce sites or relevant articles.
- Optimize images. Use descriptive, keyword-rich file names; add “alt” tags with keywords and key phrases; and ensure that images are sized appropriately, compressed, and do not slow down the page load time.
- Include calls to action. Guide visitors to the next step with buttons like “Apply Now,” “Contact Us,” or “Learn More.”
- Integrate the meta title and meta description. The meta title (with 50-60 characters, including the main keywords) and description (with 150-160 characters, including key phrases) appear on SERPs.
- Optimize your content for search engines. Use tools like Google Search Console, which leverages AI, to request indexing of your webpage for quicker visibility in search results; include keywords in the permalink so they’re reflected in the URL.
- Share on social media. Spread posts across your social platforms and especially on your Google My Business page through the updates section.
Content SEO and AI
Turning our attention to content SEO, we’re finding that search engines prefer human-generated content. Generative AI works with what’s already on the internet or what you’ve already provided in the past. Plus, producing relevant content from ChatGPT, for example, requires entering solid prompts, which can take knowledge and practice.
Search engines and users alike value originality. When you’re writing with SEO in mind, think about new information you can provide your readers. What new perspective can you offer? How can you stand out?
Personalization helps! Talk about your community, topics that locals would resonate with and the needs of your customers. Consider including a case study, testimonials, frequently asked questions, a human interest story. It’s OK to draw on the emotions of your readers.
So, when it comes to content SEO, AI is less helpful. We at image.works don’t recommend relying on it for writing an optimized blog or webpage, though it may provide a way to get started. AI can be useful for idea generation or even for creating an outline for content.
Like so much of what we use in marketing, AI is a tool. It’s a tool you can use to be more efficient, but you still need a human on the other side of it, shaping and editing any information it’s giving you.
Wholistic SEO and image.works
At image.works, we use a program that evaluates the webpage and blog content our copywriters create and provides an SEO score. The score considers readability, originality and tone of voice. The program also offers suggestions for improving the score, such as adding more internal links, modifying the reading level or incorporating more – or fewer – keywords.
For more information about writing blogs for SEO, check out our recent blog post on the topic…
• For financial: https://www.imageworksdirect.com/blog/how-write-blog-seo
• For healthcare: https://www.imageworkshealth.com/blog/how-write-blog-seo
• For education: https://www.imageworksedu.com/blog/how-write-blog-seo
image.works’ copywriters are experienced in writing content for SEO, and our digital marketing strategists know all about the technical aspects that lead to greater website visibility, usability and traffic.
We work as a team to bring wholistic SEO to our clients with our SEO program, which includes an initial audit, keyword research, webpage optimization, blogs, performance reports, a dedicated account manager and a dynamic dashboard. We also offer a full suite of digital marketing services: search engine advertising, social media advertising, IP targeting and social media posting. Partner with us, and we’ll take the work off your plate. We’re happy to help! To get started, sign up for a FREE Digital Marketing Assessment: https://form.iwdigitalassessment.com