Is AI affecting my SEO? One among a legion of questions surfacing since generative AI went mainstream. But it’s one we’re fielding a lot, so let’s get into it.
First, the basics. SEO, or search engine optimization, is how you optimize your website content to up the odds that search engines like Google will rank your webpages high on their results pages. The goal is to appear as the top result for relevant search queries. You’re likely more than familiar with the concept.
You may also know that search engines have been utilizing AI for years. It’s what helps them understand the meaning and intent of a search query – a function known as semantic search, which uses machine learning and natural language processing to help Google and other search tools understand what users are searching for.
So, it’s not AI, per se, that’s got marketers worried. It’s generative AI.
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There’s a concern circulating that ChatGPT will become people’s first-stop search engine. Or that when people use Google, its Gemini content will usurp any hard-won top-ranking SEO results.
We’ll put it this way: Do not worry. Do, however, get informed on how to use generative AI to boost your SEO. Really.
Our recommendation: share this post with your Search Engine Optimization team and get around a table and talk it through. Below, we suggest some helpful discussion prompts to get the conversation going.
Read on…
Does SEO still matter?
Answer: Yes. 100%.
ChatGPT is not a search engine. Using it as such is a little risky as it only pulls information from its own LLM (language learning model), which is different than the web that Google crawls. ChatGPT’s data is also somewhat dated. So, if you want real-time or direct results, Google is better. ChatGPT is more suited for synthesizing information, creative assistance, and interactive queries that enable you to dig deeper into research.
On the other hand, asking ChatGPT for a list of resources in a specific area will avoid the sponsored (read paid) results that muddy up your Google search results. See it in action: search for "Chicken Piccata Recipe" using Google and then with ChatGPT. You'll see what we mean instantly.
The bigger elephant in the marketing room may be the Google Gemini chatbot. You have likely noticed Google often gives it preferential placement at the top of the results page. The good news here for enrollment teams (or any marketing strategist) is Gemini leverages Google’s search infrastructure, enabling well-played SEO to rank your content higher in both traditional Google searches and the information retrieved by Gemini as it synthesizes its own response.
Put more directly: when Google deems your content highly relevant for a query, your content will not only appear high on the results page but is also more likely to be among the content Gemini processes for its answer.
To be sure, Gemini is imperfect. It’s obviously powerful and useful, but it still gets things wrong. And there’s really nothing brands can do about that. Essentially it scans relevant content from a variety of sources and synthesizes the results into a paragraph-like structure. It may be accurate, sort of accurate, or completely wrong. Oh, the stories we could share on this front!
Suffice to say: it’s user beware. Still, there are some things that you can do to up your chances of appearing in that Gemini search.
The bottom line: traditional SEO management tactics are as relevant as ever.
Team Discussion Points (how well are you doing this?)
- Curate your website and content for your intended audience. Read: prospective students and their families. Consider counselors as well.
- Write to searchers’ specific intent and true motivations. Google is really good at knowing a person’s motivation behind their query. So, it’s to your benefit to understand what the user is hoping to achieve with their query and respond directly. An example: Instead of using “50% of our students graduate without debt” (an institution-centric response) to answer “Can I afford Indiana University,” use “You can afford Indiana University, and here’s how…” (a student-centric response). This oversimplifies the strategy, of course, but you get the point. Google prefers content that provides the most relevant/direct answers to queries.
- Do not use AI-produced copy in your webpages. Google has made it clear that they do not want to see straight up AI generated content. They are looking for it, flagging it, and avoiding it. They want to crawl content that is original and useful.
- Play with relevant keywords for your audience and sprinkle them throughout your content.
- Update your content regularly to ensure its current and relevant. Google prefers its content fresh.
Use AI to inform your SEO approach.
SEO is driven by your website ranking, an algorithmic combination of your content’s relevance to queries and its Google-deemed quality. AI also considers keywords, but it crawls different forms of content than what a search engine crawls. And it’s not scoring content in the way Google does either. Google applies a relevance score to every page on the web. That’s why meta tags, headings, page load times, and keywords are so important. These rules are not in place for AI.
That said, AI can help you build out your institution’s SEO strategy. It’s a great partner for:
- Keyword research that identifies specific, long-tail keywords relevant to prospective students. Ask ChatGPT to simulate queries your key audience might use.
- Content ideation based on popular search queries and FAQs from prospective students to ensure your website offers relevant and helpful pages that match users’ search intent.
- Meta descriptions and tags that are keyword-optimized, ensuring the content stays relevant to your SEO strategy.
- On-page optimization that gives feedback on how well your content matches SEO best practices for readability, keyword use, and relevance.
Employ Generative AI as digital collaborator.
Everyone is still trying to figure out how to best utilize generative AI. And for digital marketing, it can be a great in-a-pinch tool providing SEO support and ideation back-and-forth as you imagine new content.
Ultimately, we see generative AI as a useful collaborator but poor stand-in creator as it tends to overgeneralize with responses that come across as being vaguely familiar. Not ideal when your SEO – in fact your digital marketing as a whole – requires you be anything but vague and general.
Need help getting specific with SEO and SEM (Search Engine Marketing)? Be in touch at info@intead.com.
