Marketing AI Institute | Blog

Here Are the Use Cases for Artificial Intelligence in SEO

Written by Mike Kaput | Oct 10, 2019 1:57:00 PM

Research shows that marketers are hungry for ways to use artificial intelligence in SEO.

We surveyed more than 200 marketers about the top use cases they wanted to see for artificial intelligence in marketing. The top two answers were directly related to SEO:

  1. Analyze existing online content for gaps and opportunities.
  2. Choose keywords and topic clusters for content optimization.

We’re pleased to say:

Yeah, AI can do both of those things—and a lot of other amazing stuff for SEO professionals.

At Marketing AI Institute, we’ve spent years investigating AI use cases in marketing, experimenting with the technology, and talking to vendors. We’ve profiled 50+ vendors and currently track more than 1,500 AI-powered marketing and sales companies with more than $6 billion in funding.

And, so far, we’ve discovered quite a few compelling use cases for AI in SEO. Read on to see exactly how AI can start ranking your existing content higher and finding you new search opportunities.

Get Found

That’s the whole point, isn’t it? Publish quality content so that consumers find your brand when they search for topics and look for answers to questions. But, the devil is in the details. What content do you publish? What topics and keywords should you target? Which questions do you answer? 

Don’t worry; artificial intelligence has you covered.

  • Research, plan, and optimize content for search. MarketMuse uses AI to compare search engine knowledge graphs against your site's content inventory, then recommends what content to create to rank better for specific topics.
  • Create content that answers top customer questions. Questions matter, both to customers and to search results. In fact, Google prominently features snippets that answer common questions searchers ask. Frase uses AI to help marketers create and optimize content that answers customers’ questions by automatically fielding customer questions on your website.
  • Get topic suggestions. It’s not always easy to tell how search engines see your website content, nor what to do with those insights. HubSpot uses AI to actually help you understand what themes your content is hitting—and what topics you should be talking about to rank higher in search engines.
  • Increase SEO through content discovery. Uberflip is a platform that uses AI to build better experiences for your customers across your website by recommending content to the right people at the right time. As part of the experience, the tool optimizes these experiences across your blog, video, social, etc., for search engines, increasing content discovery.

Maintain Accurate Search Listings

Ranking for search terms is one thing. But what happens when customers look for your actual business or its locations? You better hope your company info is up-to-date across any and every channel that consumers use. AI can help.

  • Make sure your company’s search listings are accurate. Accuracy is key when it comes to global and local search listings. When customers search for your business, the information that shows up needs to be right. After all, these customers are in the process of making a buying decision. But, updating these listings isn’t always easy. Yext streamlines this process, using AI to help brands make listing and business information updates across hundreds of platforms, including local search and voice.

Scale SEO Efforts

SEO professionals have immense trouble optimizing content at scale and at the speed the market demands. That’s because they spend tons of time and energy on manual SEO work and repetitive tasks, work in silos, and lack the resources to make a real impact. Artificial intelligence exists today to make your company’s SEO work at scale.

  • Automate SEO. With BrightEdge, you can use AI to automatically optimize content, so you and your team can focus on the tasks that matter. BrightEdge’s Autopilot product will actually automatically fix orphan pages, self-optimize mobile pages, and automatically fix duplicate content issues.

How to Get Started with AI in SEO

If you're an SEO professional or rely on search rankings to power your marketing, chances are that AI can help you increase revenue and reduce costs. That means now is the time to get started with AI, no matter your skill or comfort level.

To do so means you build a potentially insurmountable competitive advantage. To delay means you risk getting left behind.

Good news, though:

There are two ways to accelerate AI adoption in your career and your company.

The first is by accessing our free Ultimate Beginner's Guide to AI in Marketing.

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to AI in Marketing is a free resource with 100+ articles, videos, courses, books, vendors, use cases, and events to dramatically accelerate your AI education. It's based on the years we spent on research and experimentation—and you can access this knowledge in a fraction of the time.

The second is by attending our Marketing AI Conference (MAICON).

MAICON brings together top authors, entrepreneurs, AI researchers, and executives to share case studies, strategies, and technologies that make AI approachable and actionable for marketers.

Last year's event brought together 300+ marketers, including attendees from 12 countries and 28 states. The conference is simply the best way to learn how to adopt AI, straight from marketing leaders already using the technology.