Should You Follow SEO or AI SEO?

“The Power of Visibility Can Never be Underestimated”

Stepping into the spotlight, and being visible to your audiences brings power to your brand and business. Search engine optimization (SEO) is (or was) the best way to achieve this and be ahead in this digital arena. Till now, there was a universal agreement to rank higher in Google and stay ahead using the best practices of search engine optimization techniques. Google Search was holding the top position with 92% of the search engine market share until a few months back, when the artificial intelligence research company OpenAI announced the availability of ChatGPT which is currently witnessing around 180.5 million users. Suddenly, with this announcement and the quick arrival of other AI tools, including Microsoft Bing, Google Bard, Gemini, Jasper Chat, etc., businesses are seeing more and more users directly using these tools to search, and get the desired results. User’s search behavior has changed, and searching via AI platforms is poised to become the new norm. Generative search is going to soon go mainstream. Generative search engine optimization (GEO) may be the future of SEO....

So, should businesses continue with the same search engine optimization strategy, and techniques that worked well with Google search engine?

Will AI-based search require a different set of on-page and off-page optimization techniques hyper-focused on page rank? 

Will AI-fueled search engine optimization or AI SEO be the future? 

Should online businesses focus on optimizing their website for AI-powered search engines? 

Will the future of search engines be AI search engines?

This blog aims to analyze and clarify the above-cited doubts.

You all Know What is SEO!

Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing a website to improve the quality and quantity of its web traffic, and ranking high in the search engines. It aims to enhance the ranking of a website on search engines organically without spending much money. It is focused on improving the content, user experience, user interface, page loading speed, etc. of a website to ensure it ranks on the first page of Google and other search engines. At the present time, when paid marketing is exhausting huge amounts of funds, SEO is paramount to businesses in increasing their web traffic, acquiring more qualified leads, conversion rate optimization, enhancing brand awareness, etc. at low costs. In addition, 73% of total search clicks go to organic website listings ranked through SEO. Whether individual content creators, startups, or big corporations, the majority of businesses are using either one or more types of SEO to enhance their digital presence and visibility.

What You May Not Know is…

SEO is Now AI SEO:

“Artificial intelligence would be the ultimate version of Google. The ultimate search engine that would understand everything on the web. It would understand exactly what you wanted, and it would give you the right thing.”

—Larry Page, Former CEO of Google

What is AI SEO?

AI SEO is to optimize the website with the help of artificial intelligence, and to rank higher in the search engines, not just the traditional ones, but also in the AI-based search engines - for the generative searches. Search experience here is going to be search generative experience (SGE). One of the leading methods of practicing AI SEO is to use AI-based SEO tools to conduct SEO activities like website audits, content creation, UI design, keyword research, etc. These tools are leveraged to analyze the website and optimize all the elements of the website to increase visibility and rank higher. After the arrival of Generative AI and other sophisticated AI models, digital marketers and businesses are now switching to AI SEO. Through AI SEO, businesses can develop insights-driven SEO strategies to rank higher on search engines, whether normal or AI-powered. AISEO leverages both AI and SEO together to create sophisticated campaigns for better digital visibility and higher rankings. Even Google’s Bard is standing hand-to-hand with the AI revolution. All you have to do is understand, create, and explore the enormous opportunities that AI can offer for ranking high in your search engines, or AI searches. With access to the native content, Bard can deliver real-time and up-to-date insights in seconds. 

Semrush Copilot is an AI tool for all Semrush projects that is available on the dashboard. Copilot reports various recommendations, including visibility drops, technical issues, broken pages, rising competitors, new keyword opportunities, link-building ideas, and more. These insights can help you make quicker SEO decisions. They can help save time in SEO analysis and planning.

A Few Facts About AI SEO Tools:

• As indicated, nearly 8.5 billion searches are handled by Google in a day. 
• ChatGPT within a short span of time managed to gain 1.6 billion searches. 
• ChatGPT fails to cite sources. 
• The suggestions from SEO.ai are backed by 5.7 million data points.
• ChatGPT's popularity influenced 45% of businesses to increase their investment in AI.
• On average, 73% of consumers trust content written by AI tools.
• AI software can reduce the writing costs by up to 88%.

SEO or AI SEO?

FACTORS	SEO	AI SEO
Automation	Most of the tasks are carried out manually, and a few tasks can be automated.	Most of the tasks are automated.
Optimization	Manual optimization, time consuming, and challenging. But, it completely has a human touch and human approach.	Minimal human intervention. Content automatically optimized.
Personalization	Manual approach, expensive, and time constraint.	Automated, based on the data across the channels, past history, and predictive algorithms.

Let us COMPARE in detail the benefits of SEO and AI SEO:

Benefits of Search Engine Optimization

SEO is one of the easiest yet vital components of digital marketing, which not just facilitates websites to rank higher in the search engine, but also helps in gathering more traffic, driving qualified leads, adding more customers, and better business growth. Some of the notable benefits of SEO are discussed in detail here as follows:

#1 Keeps your Site Technically Strong and Healthy

SEO or specifically technical SEO helps keep a business website technically strong and healthy. It analyzes the technical aspects of a website like page loading speed, site navigation and structure, mobile responsiveness, URL indexing and crawlability, etc., and optimizes them accordingly. Through such analysis and optimization, businesses can quickly enhance their rankings on search engines while ensuring a positive user experience. Here is a list of top performing websites as indicated by SimilarWeb:

#2 Rank High on Targeted Keywords

SEO helps businesses choose the most suitable keywords that represent their brand and offerings based on competition, number of visitors and other factors. Apart from these, SEO also focuses on content optimization, content quality, user experience, etc., which are part of Google search engine ranking algorithms. Due to these reasons, the chances of a website ranking high on the targeted keywords increase hugely. Discovering keywords and uncovering the traffic is one of the prime focuses of SEO strategy. To make this effective it is essential to discover:

• Keywords that are in rage
• Keywords that are used by the competitors
• Region-specific Keywords

Interestingly, there are several tools that help in discovering the right keywords that can best fit with your content on all your web pages. Some of these are as follows:

Google Keyword Planner: One-stop solution to discover new keywords, see monthly searches, determine cost, organize keywords, and create new campaigns.

Semrush: One of few tools that allows users to research and compare competitor’s keywords.

Moz: It helps users to research, categorize and prioritize keywords while predicting keyword performance, gauging competitiveness and estimating click-through rates.

Such a stringent measure to keep up with the trending keywords will not only help your site to rank higher, but also bring more businesses.

#3 Drive High Quality Organic Traffic

Driving organic traffic through keywords is one of the prime strategies of optimizing the website/content/blogs to rank high in the search engines. Since the targeted keywords are chosen according to the SEO strategy, the website has high probability to rank at the top search result for those specific keyword searches - meaning high quality and organic traffic, and prospective leads. This helps businesses enhance brand awareness, digital presence, sales, revenue, and many more. There are several businesses that have seen drastic improvement in the rankings by optimizing the content with relevant keywords. As indicated by a leading global media measurement and analytics company, CNN, an American news channel, achieved over 2.5 million unique visitors by using various SEO types and strategies. Similarly, Quora, an American QnA company, attracted over 700 million in October 2023 by optimizing content quality.

#4 Improve your Link Profile

A good and reputable link profile is very useful in acquiring and retaining high search engine rankings. SEO tools like Ahrefs and MajesticSEO are popularly used by businesses to analyze and improve your link profile. Through such tools, marketing teams can easily determine toxic links, link juice, repetitive domains, etc., to ensure only high-quality links are pointing to the targeted webpage.

#5 Long-term Visibility/ Maximum Visibility

Visibility is directly related to performance; and performance means business. The degree of visibility range can vary and the results of any optimization technique is likely to take a certain time, and make the web pages appear in the top rankings. But once the results start appearing, it offers long term visibility, bringing more leads, and better business. Key benefits include:

• Increase in Organic traffic
• Increase in Brand Search
• Increase in Keyword Searches related to the Website
• Higher Authority
• Promotion Across Other Channels 

#6 Measurable Results

One of the major benefits of SEO is its easily measurable results in terms of engagement metrics, conversion rates, pages per visit, bounce rate, search traffic, scroll depth, etc. Google offers user-friendly and easy-to-use tools like Google Analytics for data analysis to better understand the site and performance of the SEO campaigns. Bing Analytics is an analytical tool for Microsoft Bing users to understand the source of traffic, and where traffic is coming from?, which page has the most views? etc. Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a leading site audit tool to identify and fix on-page and technical SEO issues for better rankings. The SEO tools for site analytics and audits greatly help measure the results and efforts.

#7 Cost-effective

Unlike paid search, SEO is cost-effective as it does not need any major investment; rather, the existing digital marketing team can easily perform the SEO activities with little guidance. In addition, its results can sustain top positions for a longer duration. Businesses only need to spend wisely on the website and content production to accomplish better results. The per-hour charges of SEO experts start from a nominal amount of $25. In addition, the charges for complete 360 SEO services are also affordable, starting from around $2,000.

#8 Improved User Experience

SEO improves the content, graphics, page speed, responsive design, navigation, etc., of a website to rank it in the top positions of search engine result pages (SERPs). But this also benefits the businesses by providing easy to read content, responsive design, mobile-friendly pages, and smooth scrolling functionalities to visitors, ultimately improving their user experience. On-page, technical and local SEO activities significantly contribute to the enhanced user experience. ESPN, a leading sports live-streaming platform, achieved the milestone of over 920.06 million monthly visitors by optimizing the user interface, content and responsiveness.

#9 More sales and revenue

Business growth and SEO are directly related in this digital era. Optimizing your website, and it’s content will definitely influence your search rankings, organic traffic, leads, and business revenue. With a proper conversion strategy in place, businesses can convert prospective business leads into clients/consumers/partners that can bring more sales and revenue. 

The Challenge and the Solution:

Undoubtedly, there are enormous benefits to online businesses if their websites are optimized to rank higher in search engine results as per the SEO strategies that they are following. But, with the advancement of AI, and the smart AI bots that promptly respond to human-generated prompts, it is going to be difficult if SEO is not practiced with AI.

AI SEO or the artificial intelligence search engine optimization has numerous benefits currently. Smart online inhibitors need to switch quickly to AI SEO to reap the benefits and stay ahead.

Benefits of AI SEO:

AI SEO undoubtedly has the power to optimize websites for better SEO performance. Artificial intelligence when combined with traditional search engine optimization techniques can bring huge benefits to businesses as it allows them to optimize their content, website and apps based on data-driven algorithms. 

5 Ways AI Helps In Ranking High in Search Engines and AI Searches

• Customized schema markup assistance
• Better on-page optimization guidances
• Keyword-rich suggestions
• Competitive analysis
• Insights on Technical SEO

How to Use AI to Boost Your SEO?

Automate your SEO tasks by using AI to better understand your target audience and their search intent. AI also helps you to create more relevant and Google E-E-A-T optimized content for your target audience, and optimize them for AI-search. Additionally, it helps in quickly improving voice search and featured snippets. Let us discuss this in detail;

Quickly generate and optimize content

Currently, AI tools are used by around 44% of businesses to quickly create content that is optimized for SEO. Not only creation, but these tools can also optimize the content for higher search engine rankings by using relevant keywords, eliminating grammatical errors, reducing sentence fragmentation, improving readability issues, changing tone and structure, etc. This is beneficial for businesses in efficiently creating high-quality Google E-E-A-T optimized content to gain top rankings in the AI search engine results. AI tools like Scalenut can write 1500+ word blogs, emails, articles, etc. in a few minutes using AI.

Have a look at the search prompts given on the reputed search engine and on a AI search:

ChatGPT search for top 2 car brands in the world

Normal search engine results for top 2 car brands in the world

Hassle-free automated keyword research

Keyword research becomes hassle-free and easy with the help of AI tools. One needs to just give a website or some relevant keywords to the AI tools for analysis. Based on the analysis, the tool displays the most appropriate keywords for the given website. AI tools can also determine whether the targeted keywords are listed above the fold or not. As per a research, keywords that are listed above the fold get 69% more clicks than keywords below the fold.

Keyword research in normal tools

Keyword research using AI tool with focus on target audience, purpose, etc.

Voice search optimization

Voice search has grown significantly owing to the growth of Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, etc. Artificial intelligence can help with improved rankings for voice search by processing and predicting the best results specific and relevant to the search query. It uses AI technologies like natural language generation and processing-to-function to implement rich snippets and short answers for voice search optimization. 

Work faster and smarter

AI tools also help with SEO automation to eliminate the hard work and time-consuming tasks from the SEO processes. With just a few prompts and clicks, AI SEO tools can quickly perform keyword research, generate content and images, conduct website audits, etc., making the overall SEO work faster and smarter. According to a recent report by Hubspot, 37% marketers leverage artificial intelligence to automatically perform repetitive and time-consuming SEO activities.

Have a look at the following prompts given on top search engine and on AI search:

AI content for B2B platforms

Human written content on B2B platforms

Advanced data analysis and reporting

AI tools can easily acquire critical information regarding the clicks data, impressions, conversion rate and other touchpoints. This is beneficial in data analysis through which businesses can determine which of the competitor’s pages are ranking higher?, which pages can grow quickly owing to the low competition?, what should be done to rank higher, etc. AI tools like Salesforce's Einstein GPT come with advanced data analysis and reporting to personalize the user experience, which helps rank higher on AI search engines.

Natural language processing (NLP)

When it comes to AI, natural language processing is one of the best ways for SEO experts to analyze the natural language of the web content to identify semantic relationships, synonyms, related terms, etc. Through this, businesses can better optimize content, discover long tail keywords, assess content quality, understand user intent, personalize web pages, etc. to ensure higher rankings, improved organic traffic and greater online visibility.

Sentiment analysis

Sentiment analysis is another major benefit of AI SEO. It is used to identify the tone or emotion of a webpage, its content or structure by using advanced AI, deep learning and machine learning capabilities. Using sentiment analysis, digital marketers can develop or modify their content according to the users, evaluate the performance of content, segment the audience as per sentiment, identify negative feedback, etc., allowing them to build a positive sentiment regarding their brand.

Predictive analytics

Sentiment analysis is another major benefit of AI SEO in which the tone/emotion of a webpage, its content or its structure is identified by leveraging AI, deep learning and machine learning algorithms. Using sentiment analysis, digital marketers can develop or modify their content according to the users, evaluate the performance of content, segment the audience as per sentiment, identify negative feedback, etc., allowing them to build a positive sentiment regarding their brand.

Machine learning algorithms 

Machine learning algorithms are capable of handling, processing and analyzing large amounts of data to achieve higher rankings. These machine learning algorithms help digital marketers suggest relevant recommendations to optimize the existing content, write SEO-optimized articles, target high-performing keywords, perform A/B testing, etc. which are beneficial in improving the accuracy and relevance of search results.

How Can AI be Leveraged to Apply Different Types of SEO?

The concept of Whitehat SEO, Black hat SEO, Grey hat SEO, Local SEO, International SEO, Negative SEO, On-page SEO, Technical SEO, Off-page SEO, Mobile SEO, and E-commerce SEO even applies for AI SEO.

For example, white hat AI SEO may involve using AI to identify and fix common SEO issues, such as keyword placement, title tag optimization, and meta description optimization. Black hat AI SEO may involve using AI to generate spammy backlinks or to create cloaked content.

Here is a table that summarizes the 11 different types of SEO and AI SEO application:

SEO Types	PURPOSE	AI SEO Application
On-page SEO	Optimizing web content for search engine results	Generate SEO-friendly content using AI, and improve the user experiences.
Off-page SEO	Building backlinks, optimizing content across the channels	AI can help improve the authority of the website by creating appropriate, and sustainable backlinks.
Technical SEO	Improve search engine crawlability, website speed, mobile friendliness, etc.	AI is used to generate schema markup, robots.txt, XML sitemap, etc.
Whitehat SEO	Improving user experience, building trust, generating high quality content, etc.	Optimize content, automate rank tracking, competitor analysis, website audits, etc.
Blackhat SEO	To be avoided: This practice is basically for manipulating search engine rankings using spammy techniques	Help identify keyword stuffing or cloaking in the content for optimization purposes
Local SEO	Achieve higher rankings in local search results	Use AI to build geo-targeted content, build local citations, and add more local reviews.
Grey hat SEO	To be avoided: This practice is basically for spammers to gain high rankings for short-term	Quick spam content generation and content spinning
Negative SEO	Degrade competitor's online presence, reputation, and visibility on search engines	Quickly identify low-quality links with AI, and avoid search engine penalties.
International SEO	To target a website for multiple geographical regions or countries	Automate language translation, AI-based localized content creation, performance analysis, generate alt text in multiple languages, etc.
Mobile SEO	Optimize the website and its responsiveness for mobile devices and different screen resolutions	Mobile first analysis and indexing, rank alert tracking, load time optimization, etc.
Ecommerce SEO	Improve the visibility of an online store for more traffic and sales	Build custom product knowledge graph, add product schema markup, product catalog optimization, write product descriptions, etc.

Top Useful Tips for using AI SEO (as ethically as possible):

1. Ideally, you should leverage AI SEO tools that are in compliance with the guidelines of search engines.
2. The purpose of using AI SEO should be to create relevant, high-quality, and informative content for users.
3. Avoid manipulating search engine rankings 
4. Acknowledge, and be accountable for your AI SEO.

SEO is segmented into different types based on the activities, business needs and impact on search engine rankings. Many of these types are commonly used by businesses, few are specific to businesses and some are not recommended by the search engines. These are as follows:

• White hat SEO
• Black hat SEO
• Grey hat SEO
• Local SEO
• International SEO
• Negative SEO
• On-page SEO
• Technical SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Mobile SEO
• Content SEO
• E-commerce SEO

Let us see each of these in detail and understand the benefits of applying AI for these techniques:

White Hat SEO

When digital marketers and businesses use ethical SEO strategies, practices and techniques in accordance with search engine guidelines, it is termed as white hat SEO. Earlier white hat SEO was focused on factors like user experience, content relevancy, elegant website UI, etc., in order to manually improve the online visibility of a website on targeted keywords. However, in the present time of AI search engines, white hat SEO should mainly focus on the content in terms of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, i.e., E-E-A-T, giving less priority to other factors. AI-based writing assistant tools can be used to quickly generate meaningful content but ensure it is not spam otherwise, the website may be hit by the latest October 2023 spam detection systems update of Google.

White Hat AI SEO

Whitehat SEO refers to the use of ethical techniques to improve the search engine rankings of a website. In Whitehat SEO, AI plays a crucial role in determining the right keywords, automating competitive analysis, optimizing content, automating rank tracking, performing competitor analysis, website audits, etc. Tips for a successful white hat AI SEO strategy are as follows:

• Conduct keyword research using AI tools considering traffic volume, competition, monthly change in traffic, etc.
• Target keywords specific to your business or products/services instead of using relevant keywords
• Automate competitive analysis to regularly find new keywords
• Create content to teach and educate not for backlinks
• Use insights from Google Analytics and Search Console

Black Hat SEO

Black hat SEO is the process of ranking a web page on search engines using techniques that are strictly prohibited by search engines. It focuses on exploiting the algorithmic loopholes of search engines using techniques like keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, scrapped content, spam links, and using content generation tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, etc. Search engines have uncompromising penalties in place to discourage businesses from using black hat strategies. For example, Google has automated systems in place to detect policy-violating content. If any content/web page is found violating the policies, then Google either downgrades the rankings or completely delists it from the search results, meaning a permanent ban. So, it is advisable to ignore black hat SEO.

Black Hat AI SEO

Black hat AI SEO is a great way to identify unethical SEO techniques used on a website. AI SEO tools can analyze a website and let the users know if there are any issues of keyword stuffing, cloaking, etc. However, there are some tools that offer AI based black hat SEO services like spammy content generation, automating backlinking, irrelevant link redirection, etc.

Grey Hat SEO

Grey hat SEO is the process of collectively using the White hat and Black hat SEO practices to rank higher within shorter times. In this, most of the practices are white hat, such as keyword research, targeting long tail keywords, improving UI/UX, etc., but with a mix of black hat SEO techniques like keyword stuffing, user-generated spam content, etc., to boost the rankings easily. One of the most common great hat SEO techniques using AI SEO tools is to easily create content and make minor modifications to it in hope of ranking it high on AI search engines, but know that it is risky. It is comparatively harder to catch than black hat SEO, owing to which it is used by spammers to accomplish their malicious goals in a shorter time by gaining high rankings. Search engines may still penalize you if they find out about your Grey hat SEO strategies, so avoid using it just like the black hat. Focusing only on white hat strategies will bring more favorable results to businesses instead of mixing black hat SEO tactics.

Grey Hat AI SEO

Grey hat AI SEO uses both white hat and black hat SEO strategies to instantly rank content on the search engines. AI-based SEO tools are used to perform a wide range of Grey hat SEO activities, such as selecting and targeting long-tail keywords, wisely stuffing keywords, automating the backlinks, generating clickbait content, etc.

Local SEO

Local SEO, as the name suggests, is the process of optimizing a local business or particularly brick-and-mortar businesses, to show higher in local searches for improved visibility, traffic and brand awareness. Any business with a physical location in a region can opt for local SEO. Local SEO search results are segmented into two types, which are Local Pack/Finder and Local Organic. In a recent research on local ranking factors, around 32% digital experts said Google Business Profile (GBP) heavily contributes to the higher rankings in Local Pack/Finder results, whereas 36% respondents said that on-page factors heavily contribute to the Local Organic results. If you are a small business owner or a location-specific business, it is recommended to use relevant keywords and locations in the bio of GBP or social media accounts so that targeted customers can easily find it on a local level. 

Local AI SEO

AI is used in local SEO for creating AI-generated localized content for specific keywords, implementing a call back option, improving link building, creating service pages around easy-to-rank keywords, etc. that can go well with the local audiences. In the present era of artificial intelligence based search engines, businesses perform local SEO activities in the following ways:

• Leverage AI keyword research tools to identify local search patterns and user behavior
• Automate the review monitoring systems for promptly responding to the user reviews, feedbacks, etc.
• Align and optimize content structure for voice search
• Analyze and optimize your Google Business Profile using AI SEO tools
• Automate NAP(Name, address and phone) citations using local citation builder
• Set alerts to optimize the Google business profile for events, festivals, etc.

International SEO

When a business desires to rank well in the search engine results of multiple countries and regions, international search engine optimization comes to the rescue. It is the process of optimizing a website in a way that can meet the needs of the global audience. Search engines can easily identify the targeted countries of a website when proper international SEO is in place. International SEO greatly benefits global businesses as seen in the case of Gaia Inc., an American on-demand streaming service provider. The company saw an exponential growth of 46% increase in organic search traffic and a 54% increase in transactions from organic traffic using international SEO for Spanish, German and French viewers.

With the evolution of the internet, international SEO is not just limited to traditional SEO practices, rather its activities can be performed using AI SEO tools. Any business having website visitors from different countries, languages, cultures, etc., can opt for international AI SEO to ensure a better user experience. This technique of SEO is one of the best ways to target and attract customers from different geographics when searched on AI search engines. It requires more effort, content, in-depth research, etc., than local SEO. For instance, YouTube has a feature for video translation in multiple languages. This is helpful for YouTube content creators in publishing global content intended for an international audience.

International AI SEO

AI can help with multilingual keyword research, content translation, regional content targeting, adapting content for different locales, ensuring proper hreflang tags to indicate language and regional targeting, and optimizing for local search engines. 

Tips to leverage AI tools for international AI SEO are as follows:

• Deploy a multilingual AI-based plugin or translation bot
• Define Hreflang tags to specify language and regional targeting to AI search engines
• Analyze the website support different browsers, operating systems, and screen resolutions
• Use international-friendly URL structure, domain name and extension for quick understanding of AI search bots/crawlers
• Create multilingual content and engage with the audience in multiple languages

Negative SEO

Negative SEO refers to the unethical SEO practices that are used to downgrade the rankings of a competitor’s website. The intention of the digital marketers behind negative SEO is to achieve a higher competitive edge by reducing the organic traffic, credibility and sales of a competitor. Negative SEO is done using link farming, fake DMCA takedown request, content modification, fake business profiles/website creation, malware integration, etc. Recently, Google identified and filed a lawsuit against 2 individuals who were found guilty attempting negative SEO of their competitors. Google also keeps on improving its algorithms and features to protect the websites against such unethical practices. Disavow link feature in Google Search Console is one such rollout aimed at preventing damage to websites from unnatural links. 

Negative AI SEO

Negative SEO is used to degrade competitors’ online presence, reputation, and visibility on search engines. AI is a beneficial technology for protecting a business website against negative SEO. It can help businesses identify and remove the poor quality backlinks that are usually used in negative SEO. Best practices to protect against negative AI SEO are as follows:

• Set alerts for sudden drops in rankings and other suspicious activities
• Use AI tools to Implement robust security measures like firewalls, DMCA certification, 2-way authorization, etc.
• Automate the updates for plugins, database and other components
• Periodically check for duplicate content issues
• Leverage AI to check and disavow harmful backlinks

On-page SEO

On-page SEO is one of the best ways to rank higher on search engines by checking and optimizing content and some other technical parameters. The technical parameters include web factors like meta description, image alt text, page URLs, internal linking, keyword density, etc. It also covers the changes done in the content with the intention of improving the search engine rankings. When indexed, Google automatically places it at a particular position from where off-page SEO takes over to improve the rankings further. In these digital times, on-page AI SEO lets AI-based search engines understand that the content is valuable and helpful, which is beneficial in improving rankings and click-through rates in search results. The Windsor Store, a leading US based fashion store saw a massive 59% increase in page one keyword rankings and 73% increase in impressions using on-page SEO. They optimized title tags, meta descriptions, image, etc. for all web content including blog posts, resulting in higher digital visibility.

On-page AI SEO

The main purpose of on-page SEO is to optimize the internal aspects, such as the content of a website. In on-page SEO, AI can be used to analyze and identify the content related issues of a website. By using AI in on-page SEO optimization, businesses can test and scale multiple website for improved rankings and traffic Ways in which AI tools can assist with on-page SEO are as follows:

• Leverage real-time content optimization suggestions to ensure proper keyword placement, readability, content length, etc.
• Keyword research based on user behavior and search trends
• Title and Meta tags optimization for better click-through rates
• Analyze, tag and optimize the images for fast loading
• Identify linking opportunities to enhance user experience
• Perform content personalization, mobile responsiveness testing, etc.
• Ensuring the keyword density at <4%

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is among the critical SEO types without which the overall SEO strategy is expected to fail. It focuses on optimizing technical factors like indexability, crawlability, core web vitals optimization, load time optimization, security, etc. Through this, search engines can easily crawl, index, and rank a website. It allows search engines to quickly understand a website, which helps achieve higher rankings and better visibility in search results. This is because Google and other internet search providers can only show a website in their results if it is crawlable. They cannot access the website for ranking without crawling and for that, technical SEO is needed. Earlier technical SEO was done manually but in the times of AI, digital marketers are using tools to smartly perform technical optimization of a website.

Technical AI SEO

The purpose of technical SEO is to improve the website speed, crawlability, responsiveness, etc. for ensuring search engines can index and access a website for ranking purposes. AI is used in technical SEO to analyze website structure, identify technical issues, and optimize site architecture. Other ways for technical AI SEO are as follows:

• Use AI tools for SEO audit to analyze root domain, subdomain, subfolders, etc.
• Define site-wide optimization rules
• Deploy code changes down to individual pages
• Analyze the relationships between sites, content pages, and search engine rankings
• Compress images, enable browser caching, and minimize the redundant code
• Use AI tools to automate XML sitemaps and robots.txt submissions for crawl control
• Use Schema markup for rich snippets in search results

Off-page SEO

Any activity done outside of a website with the intention to improve the business rankings on SERPs falls under off-page SEO. The results of off-page activities are greatly influenced by the level of on-page and technical SEO of a website. If technical and on-page SEO are done properly, off-page strategies quickly improve the rankings. One of the most common Off-page SEO tactics is backlinks. Knorr, a British food and beverage giant, gained massive 250% growth in US organic traffic, and a 300% increase in global organic traffic using backlinks with optimized content. Off-page SEO is also not limited to manual work rather AI is also helping it perform well. One of the best off-page AI SEO strategies is to create original and value-based content. This is beneficial in acquiring backlinks automatically, as other websites could cite you as a source when using your content. This increases the trust of AI search engines in a website, enabling the site to acquire better rankings.

Off-page AI SEO

After technical and on-page, off-page SEO takes over, in which additional keyword-specific activities are done to enhance the results. These include link building, increasing engagement, improving social media engagement, guest posting, increasing positive reviews, etc. AI is used in off page SEO for backlink analysis, track rankings, and perform competitor analysis, etc. Other applications of off-page AI SEO activities are as follows:

• Take backlinks from domains having high page authority and domain authority
• Use AI to act like human searcher for acquiring more accurate SERP data 
• Use AI-driven suggestions to optimize on-page SEO, improve website indexing, and enhance search engine visibility
• Integrate AI plugins to find the best links for your internal linking strategy
• Use at least one image in the page or content
• Connect with reviewers to convert negative reviews into positive ones

Mobile SEO

According to a research analysis, there were more than 5.44 billion unique mobile users in 2023 and the number is growing day by day. As a result, businesses having mobile-optimized websites will have an upper edge over the competitors. In such a scenario, mobile SEO should be a critical area to focus on. Mobile SEO, as the name suggests, allows the optimization of a website for different mobile devices by improving user-friendliness, page loading speed and UI/UX. In the times of ChatGPT and Bard, optimizing your website using AI SEO tools for different mobile devices helps enhance user engagement and conversions on smartphones and tablets, which strengthens their satisfaction and loyalty levels.

Mobile AI SEO

AI in Mobile SEO is used to determine the critical SEO issues that hamper the experience of mobile users. It includes content, structure, navigation, UI, graphics, etc. While some AI SEO tools help businesses to identify such factors, other tools enable them to fix these issues as well. Some of the applications of mobile AI SEO are as follows:

• Assess the mobile friendliness of your content using AI tools
• Automate image compression for reducing loading time
• Voice search optimization for Siri and Google Assistant
• Identify and eliminate issues associated with JavaScript, CSS, etc.
• Personalize content based on past user interactions and preferences
• Integrate Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for low page loading times
• Create adaptive graphics that can adjust as per the screen resolution
• Optimize the website for easy navigation, breadcrumbs and readability

Content SEO

Content SEO deals with content optimization techniques in order to improve search engine rankings and visibility. Digital marketers optimize the content for relevance, quality and structure in order to ensure good rankings. Content that is helpful and can be easily found and understood could acquire first-page rankings automatically without any additional effort. Myntra, a leading Indian e-commerce platform achieved around 79% increase in organic users for clothing and footwear after creating informative content for title, meta description, etc. and optimizing web content with percentage discounts, price, powerful CTA’s and increased word combinations. For AI search engines, content should be in line with E-E-A-T guidelines. Google is more focused on helpful, reliable, people-first content rather than focusing on how it is produced. Content optimized for AI search engines can significantly contribute to increased user engagement and conversion rates. AI content SEO also helps create search-optimized content, which is beneficial in increasing organic traffic. 

Content AI SEO

With AI content SEO, business websites can have up to 750K monthly visitors within a few months. However, content generated by AI should only be used for awareness purposes. A human touch is essential for bringing more emotions and feelings to the content. Ways AI can assist in content SEO are as follows:

• Optimize headings, subheadings and content with targeted keyword
• Use AI content creation tools but with a human touch and optimization
• Leverage AI for relevant blogs, posts and other content suggestions
• Schedule and automate the content distribution on multiple platforms
• Recommendations to update content at regular intervals of time
• Better insights on how a user interacts with the content 
• Optimize the content structure
• Adding relevant multimedia elements, including images and videos in the content

E-commerce SEO

“AI-driven SEO is the key to unlocking higher sales potential in eCommerce.” – Resultfirst

AI-based e-commerce SEO is the need of the hour for online businesses and product listing websites in these times, when the number of Americans purchasing through online channels is anticipated to reach 114.3 million by 2025. Not only this, e-commerce businesses have grown significantly in numbers over the last few years, resulting in huge market competition. Moreover, Google takes extra precautions in dealing with queries associated with financial transactions and online selling. Furthermore, reports indicate that 46% of the retail customers use the Google search engine to order their favorite products. Owing to these conditions, AI-based eCommerce SEO is a top-notch choice for online sellers and e-commerce websites to optimize their stores and products for AI-based searches. With AI e-commerce SEO, AI-based search engines can easily find and parse the content of an e-commerce website for showing it in relevant search results and other surfaces. 

E-commerce AI SEO

The purpose of eCommerce SEO is to optimize online stores or eCommerce platforms for more traffic, sales and revenue by ranking the products and services higher on SERPs. In e-commerce SEO, AI is increasingly being used to create optimized product descriptions, landing pages and blog posts for search engines. Other applications of AI tools for e-commerce SEO are as follows:

• AI-based URL optimization for user-friendly URL structures
• AI-powered website optimization using browser caching, image compression and other sophisticated algorithms
• Scan excluded pages using AI crawlers to improve their crawlability and indexing
• AI-driven content creation and optimization highlighting the products, their potential uses, benefits, etc.
• Add Schema Markup to display rich snippets in search results

Top Best AI SEO Tools for AI-based Search Engines

At present, digital marketers are using a wide range of AI SEO tools to conduct AI-based website audits, keyword research, ranking checks, report generation, etc. Some of these popular tools are as follows:

Alli AI

Alli AI is a leading AI-based SEO tool for digital marketing agencies, enterprises and e-commerce businesses for easily handling and scaling the SEO campaigns for AI search engines. It is one of the few tools that offer best AI based on page SEO suggestions besides creating site-wide optimization rules. The starting price of Alli AI is $299/month with a 10-day free trial. Add-ons are available for extra sites, keywords and pages.

Source:Alli Ai

Features of Alli AI are as follows:

• Bulk on-page optimization
• Live editor to edit and optimize text, content and code
• Instantly deploy code and content changes 
• Automated A/B testing
• Website speed optimizer
• Schema markup generator
• Automate hyperlinking with Interlinks

Diib

Diib is a leading AISEO tool for rapidly growing traffic and rankings on AI search engines using SEO automation. It offers an answer engine that can deeply analyze a website, competitor and industry benchmarks to create a growth plan for suggesting relevant changes to a web page. It is widely used to automate website monitoring, ranking changes tracking, competitor activities tracking, etc. using advanced predictive algorithms. It is available in both free and paid versions starting at $7.99/month that renews at just $44.99 per month.

Source: Diib

Features of Diib are as follows:

• Custom growth objectives and alerts
• Track SEO keywords and backlinks
• Generate new keyword and content ideas
• Track progress versus other websites
• Speed/Security monitoring
• Email deliverability to prevent spam
• Security, speed, and SEO overview

Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO is one of the best AI based SEO tool for creating, managing and optimizing content related SEO tasks in any language. It also ensures authenticity in the generated content to avoid any plagiarism penalties from search engines. The tool offers integration with other major tools such as Google Docs, WordPress, Jasper, etc. It comes with Surfer API to automate query creation, get shareable links and analyze data without accessing the Surfer web app, besides a Chrome-based keyword surfer extension to view the search volume, and a complete list of keyword ideas. The basic pricing of Surfer SEO starts from $69 per month, billed annually with custom add-ons to choose from.

Source: Surfer SEO

Features of Surfer SEO are as follows:

• Research, write, and optimize content in any language
• Generate briefs with catchy headlines in seconds
• Keyword research with relevant topic clusters
• Plagiarism checker
• SEO audits
• SERP analyzer
• AI article outline generator

Frase

Frase is a content optimization and AI writing assistant software for marketing agencies, content strategists, businesses and freelancers. The tool is designed to visualize key SERP metrics like word count, domain rating, heading count, etc., besides creating value-driven content based on facts and competitors' website analysis. Apart from these, it also offers intuitive in-product tools to simplify collaboration and seamless teamwork. The premium pricing starts from 12.66/month, paid annually, apart from a trial version of 5 days at $1.

Source: Frase

Features of Frase are as follows:

• Automated content briefs
• Share documents easily
• Google search console
• Content scoring
• Project status settings
• Custom templates
• Content editor and Frase AI writer
• Team project folders
• Outline builder

Scalenut

Scalenut is an all in one content marketing tool powered by artificial intelligence to manage the entire SEO content lifecycle at one place. One of the best features of Scalenut is Cruise Mode that can rapidly generate 1500+ word blogs and articles in 5 minutes with NLP key terms and a high SEO score. It is widely used by content marketers, digital marketing executives, agencies and SEO experts for web traffic analysis, keyword planning, content strategy planning, acquiring actionable SEO insights, SEO-friendly content generation, content optimization with AI, etc. It can integrate with Semrush, WordPress, Copyscape and other custom tools upon consultation. It is available for a free trial of 7 days after which pricing plans start from $19/month, billed annually.

Source:Scalenut

Features of Scalenut are as follows:

• Cruise mode to save research time
• Content optimizer
• Keyword planner
• Marketing copyWriter
• NLP terms to create engaging content
• Traffic analyzer

INK

Ink is a rapidly growing AI powered SEO assistant tool for marketers, writers, and entrepreneurs to efficiently perform a wide range of SEO functions. These include image generation using command prompts, AI writing, SEO optimizer, automated keyword research, etc., to grow, convert and protect your audiences. It is one of the best tools for AI audits, plagiarism audits, URL audits, text analysis, scheduled audits, etc. It is available in professional and enterprise pricing packages starting from $39/month, billed yearly.

Source: Inkforall

Features of INK are as follows:

• AI content shield
• Keyword research & clustering
• Compose and command mode AI writing
• SEO Keyword Analysis
• Real-time semantic SEO scoring
• 360° Competitor analysis
• Inbuilt AI assistant
• AI image generator using prompts
• SEO optimizer with sentiment analysis

Outranking

Outranking is a great data backed SEO tool for effortlessly writing high quality content for SEO briefs, blog drafts, title, description, etc. It lets businesses check their SEO score on a real-time basis using more than 10 on-page SEO factors, automatically optimizes content for missing keywords, strategically identifies quick ranking keywords, automate interlinking, select and cluster keywords into focused topics, etc. It streamlines SEO workflow using WordPress plugin and Google Docs and Grammerly integration. The starting price of Outranking is $25/month, billed annually.

Source: Outranking

Features of Outranking are as follows:

• SEO Content generator, checker and automatic optimizer
• Build custom style templates
• Generate and optimize title, description, outline, etc.
• Automatically find and insert semantic phrases in content
• Content originality improvement suggestions
• Check and remove plagiarised content
• Automatically link semantically related pages

The Future of SEO is AI SEO

“Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence.”

—Ginni Rometty

Generative search optimization or the GEO will be the future of SEO. Search experience will transform to search generative experience. Undoubtedly, AI will revolutionize the way we optimize our websites and rank high in any search generation results. While we are yet to see the completely matured AI SEO, it is a helpful component of any successful digital marketing strategy. AI can automate several manual tasks of the search engine optimization professionals. There are signs signaling that the demand for AI SEO will only go higher, just like the businesses using it for ranking high. One signal is the 17.90% CAGR growth of the global SEO services market in the upcoming years. Another sign is the 42% CAGR growth in the Generative AI market, which could reach $1.3 Trillion Market by 2032. Coupling these two, one can clearly see the growth of AI in SEO. Artificial intelligence will help SEO to evolve further. New AI models like ChatGPT, BARD, etc., are assisting digital marketers in many tasks ranging from keyword research and content generation to basic SEO strategy development and are expected to perform many more. One fine example is AI agents, a chatbot that can play games, query websites, build bar charts, etc., for SEO campaigns. Such new developments will keep making the AI SEO work easy, pushing the demand in the long run. 

Last year we had predicted top SEO trends for 2023 and many of them turned out to be the fact. This year we have a clear-cut prediction that AI will enhance the power of SEO for 2024. To have a better understanding of the AI SEO tools and other related tools, do check GoodFirms pages, and the latest updates.