Can SEO be done by AI?

With the advent of AI, more specifically generative AI, by Openai and the like – many people have asked whether SEO can be done by AI, leading to a change in the landscape for SEO professionals. 

I’m in the camp that AI can help SEO, but I don’t think it will ever replace humans. There is something to be said about a person creating thoughtful content. AI can help organise thoughts, and maybe even help structure content, but it can never replace human-written content. 

Is SEO dead? 

No. Well, I certainly hope it isn’t. With AI, many believe that traditional SEO is dead, but this is far from the truth. While SEO is certainly changing, this is evident, search engines, like Google and Bing, have put a lot of effort into AI. With AI overviews now appearing at the top of search results, it’s easy to believe that SEO is now done for. Also, with more users completing zero-click searches, anyone in the SEO industry might become daunted by the evolving nature of search. 

With this in mind, it’s worth noting that to appear in rich results and AI overviews, schema and content still need to be optimised so crawlers know what your content is about and serve them higher in SERPs. 

SEO isn’t dead – it’s changing.  

Will AI replace SEO? 

No. AI will certainly help with SEO strategies, but in terms of content, it will never replace SEO. Will AI help with analysis, keyword research, competitor analysis, and technical SEO? (Which I think is the more likely statement) Yes, absolutely.

As AI continues to be improved and refined, using more data and generally generating trustworthy results, SEOs will use AI to speed up processes and make client work more efficient. 

Can AI Conduct Keyword Research? 

Can AI come up with words it thinks are relevant for your business? yes. Does it know whether these words are good for your business? no. 

The problem with this question is that although AI can generate a list of keywords and phrases that might help your business, it doesn’t know how well these keywords perform, making the research part more difficult and long-winded. You will likely end up conducting your own research which by that point, there’s not much use for AI. 

What AI can do is help organise your data to allow you to visualise key points which will help you with your strategy. 

Should I use AI for my company’s SEO? 

Honestly, we can never say no, AI certainly speeds up processes, but the question should be – do you want quality over quantity? If the answer is yes, then I suggest using an agency like Website Design. That is a cheeky plug… although we’re the best when it comes to digital marketing, so you may as well chat to us. 

AI is great for pumping out a lot of content, but it won’t have that particular flair that makes your business unique. Google has created algorithms that prefer human-written content, especially with the December spam update. So while it’s tempting to use AI to write lots of content with the hope something will stick – spaghetti at the wall idiom – it will most likely hurt rather than help. 

Additionally, AI scrapes data from a lot of sources and repurposes it. If you go ahead and use AI for your company SEO, be mindful that duplicate content will not fly in the eyes of Google bots, and could land you with spam penalties and derank any pages you have. By that point, you’ll create more work for yourself, making the whole exercise redundant. 

Conclusion 

So while many companies are using AI for SEO, AI will never replace a human who has put a lot of effort and time into learning the practice, moreover, it will never replace that human touch with its nuances.