The simple truth is that AI’s capability to analyse data and input changes in real time is so much faster and more efficient than a human’s, that it will begin to override and dominate SEO and digital marketing direction and strategy either way – and that’s something that we want to be able to harness.
What AI is already in place that impacts on search results?
Well, Google announced way back in 2015 that it’s RankBrain AI system was helping to process search results, and in 2017 they added Machine Learning to help fight spam.
What does this mean from a website owner/SEO specialist perspective? Well, it adds a dimension that needs to be understood and acted upon to ensure that how websites are set up and content is created falls within the ‘positive’ parameters of the AI and Machine Learning systems.
These systems are basically becoming ever-more refined in their ability to assess a searcher’s intent and sifting through the myriad possible results in nana-seconds to deliver an ever-more refined set of results. That ability to assess user intent is the crux of the matter – the days of ‘making sure your keywords match’ as the foundation of an SEO strategy are long gone…it’s simply a much more intuitive world now.
What are the key impacts that AI has had on SEO? Here’s a snapshot:
1. Keywords and Anchors
In the past, keyword research was a particularly manual task, but no longer, as AI-enhanced keyword research tools help SEO professionals understand and refine context for keyword usage, and therefore produce a far more intuitive set of keywords for implementation on-site, including anchor text analysis, broader variations of keywords and semantic keywords.
2. Intuitive Content
Both from a creative and analysis perspective, AI has improved Google’s ability to understand the difference between good (relevant) and bad (irrelevant or poorly written) content. This has significantly raised the bar for content creators, with a positive knock-on effect for web users who are now far more likely to receive relevant and well-formed results to their queries.
3. Efficiencies in Data Analysis
Analysing web traffic, audiences, website performance etc. used to be a manual, time-consuming task and one conducted only by those who knew their way around Google Analytics. AI developments like Eye in the Sky and Rankings Analyzer have helped refine these processes enormously, automating not only the analysis processes but helping to predict issues and strategies for improvement, and implement these automatically.
4. Predicting performance
Google’s continuous tinkering of ranking markers and the consequent challenge that SEO professionals face to keep up is a frustrating reality, but AI-based prediction modelling has given these professionals the tools to analyse the raft of ranking factors, play out various scenarios and impacts, assess which of these produces the most favourable ranking result and make recommendations for change.
Once changes have been implemented, the process repeats so that there is an ever-refined ranking strategy that’s able to keep up with Google’s parameter changes.
The same application is in development for search engine algorithm analysis, which will help website owners scan and identify any issues on their sites that may raise negative flags with Google’s ever-changing algorithms.
What does all of this mean for digital marketers, website owners and SEO specialists? While it may be a bit daunting to take in, as AI becomes a staple in our toolkits, the capability it brings will help us:
• Achieve more constant and better rankings
• Serve our target audiences more effectively
• Know and understand our competitors better
• Build more effective SEO and marketing strategies
• Deliver more focused and detailed reporting
• Evolve our digital journeys faster and more effectively
The future is present, and AI is at its core – embrace it!
Find out more about creating websites that really deliver and marketing strategies that will take your business to the next level. Contact Realnet today on 01223 550800 or email info@realnet.co.uk for more!