“SEO is a marketing function for sure, but it needs to be baked into a product, not slapped on like icing after the cake is baked.” —Duane Forrester
In today’s digital age, where capturing attention online becomes ever more challenging, the role of SEO can seem mystifying to a new indie author. You may have heard that an SEO specialist holds the secret keys to organic search, promising to increase your content’s visibility in a crowded arena. But here’s an intriguing twist: what if the power of SEO doesn’t solely lie in the hands of traditional SEO experts?
This writer’s guide explores the dynamic world of SEO and AI, shedding light on a critical question for indie authors: Should you hire an SEO specialist or leverage AI tools to optimize your content strategy?
We explore the capabilities of AI in replicating—and sometimes surpassing—the tactics of an SEO specialist, reveal insider tricks to keeping your audience engaged and offer a fresh perspective on using AI not just as a tool but as a collaborator in crafting content. We look at the pros and cons of traditional versus AI-driven SEO strategies, how to sidestep the pitfalls of outdated methods, and how to inject a unique flavor into your content that search engines and readers will love. As a novice navigating the nuances of online visibility, this writer’s guide provides insights that could change how you think about content creation and SEO.
So, should you hire an SEO specialist? Yes and no.
YES, if you have no wiggle room to allocate time to SEO—and you have room in your budget.
NO, if you have no room in your budget (or have no budget), and you can squeeze in a little time during your week to use AI tools.
Unfortunately, some SEO “experts” will tell you not to bother with AI because it produces generic and outdated results, wasting your time. They encourage you to let the SEO “experts” do it for you.
SEO “experts” don’t want you using AI because it might ultimately drive the “experts” out of business. Some “experts’ give slightly misleading information about AI’s ability to produce valuable content. Sure, AI can produce generic and outdated information—but so can humans.
The SEO “experts” may know tricks to help your site rank in a search, such as putting keywords in titles, alt text, headers, and the first 10% of your content. They may also know other tricks to keep viewers on the site for at least 10 seconds. They may know ways to avoid blogs that have a negative effect on your site. So yes, they can help immensely, but that doesn’t mean AI can’t also help.
If you hire someone to write your blogs or develop website content, they should know the SEO tricks. If you do your own blogs and website content, you should practice the SEO tricks and stay up to date on the evolving changes Google and others make.
Generic thinking produces generic prompts, which produce generic results.
The key to using AI to generate fresh content is to think differently about your topic. That is, as a human, you have to have a unique slant, spin, or take on your topic. It’s similar to how journalists strive for a unique angle to a story. You need to do that with AI to get unique results. You’ll get generic results if you start with a generic way of thinking. If you’re not already, you need to become an out-of-the-box thinker.
If you start with a fresh or unique approach, AI can help you develop that idea. You need to ask yourself, does your approach add value to the conversation?
Search for your idea. How is it being covered? What is not being covered? What is not being said or asked?
Like the old-school advice for those writing magazine articles—look for a fresh approach, a unique angle on a topic, especially evergreen topics. It becomes about how you put ideas together, which would not be regurgitated or outdated (unless your ideas or thinking are outdated or regurgitated).
Avoid posting blogs that might negatively affect other blogs on your site. A blog that does not add value can create a negative impact. A negative blog is generic or regurgitated information that does not give a fresh or unique approach to the topic. It doesn’t add value for the readers. Because it doesn’t add value, search engines, such as Google, see it as a negative. Some SEO “experts” blame AI for producing potentially negative Google ranking results. While that may be true, the blog was likely not entirely optimized for SEO.
Can AI Help with SEO?
Can AI add keywords in titles, alt text, headers, and in the first 10% of your content? Does it know tricks to keep viewers on the site for at least 10 seconds? Can it produce engaging content that avoids blogs creating a negative effect? To answer these questions, we asked Claude-3 Haiku in Poe.com. We wanted to let AI answer for itself. Here are its unedited answers.
Keywords & Other SEO Elements
PROMPT: Can AI add keywords in titles, alt text, headers, and in the first 10% of your content?
AI systems can be used to automatically add keywords to various elements of web content, including:
- Titles: The title tag is a crucial element for SEO, as it helps search engines understand what a page is about. AI can analyze the content of a page and suggest relevant keywords to include in the title.
- Alt Text: Alternative text (alt text) is used to describe images on a web page. AI can examine the image and its context to generate descriptive alt text that includes relevant keywords.
- Headers: Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) provide structure and hierarchy to a web page. AI can identify key topics and subtopics within the content and suggest appropriate keywords to use in the header tags.
- First 10% of Content: The beginning of a web page’s content is crucial for SEO, as it helps search engines quickly understand the main topic. AI can analyze the text and insert relevant keywords within the first 10% of the content.
Does it know tricks to keep viewers on the site for at least 10 seconds? Can it produce engaging content that avoids blogs creating a negative effect? We again asked Claude-3 Haiku.
Time On Site
PROMPT: Does AI know SEO tricks to keep viewers on the site for at least 10 seconds?
Yes, AI can be leveraged to implement various strategies to help keep viewers on a website for at least 10 seconds, which is generally considered a good engagement metric for SEO:
- Content Optimization:
- AI can analyze the content and structure of a web page to ensure it is engaging, informative, and easy to read.
- It can suggest ways to break up the content into scannable sections, use appropriate heading structures, and incorporate visuals to enhance the user experience.
- Personalization:
- AI-powered personalization algorithms can tailor the content, layout, and recommendations on a webpage based on the user’s browsing history, interests, and behavior.
- This can help keep users engaged by presenting them with content that is more relevant and appealing to their specific needs.
- Dynamic Content Delivery:
- AI can be used to dynamically generate and serve content that is tailored to the user’s on-page behavior and interactions.
- For example, if a user starts to leave the page, the AI can detect this and trigger the display of a relevant call-to-action or additional content to encourage them to stay.
- Interactive Elements:
- AI can be leveraged to create interactive elements, such as quizzes, polls, or calculators, that encourage users to engage with the content and spend more time on the page.
- Multimedia Integration:
- AI can help select and integrate relevant videos, images, or audio content that complement the written content and keep users engaged.
- Internal Linking:
- AI can analyze the website’s content and structure to identify relevant internal linking opportunities, making it easier for users to discover and navigate to related content.
- User Behavior Analysis:
- AI-powered analytics can provide insights into user behavior, such as click patterns, scroll depth, and time spent on page, which can inform content and design improvements to enhance engagement.
By implementing these AI-powered strategies, you can work toward increasing the average time users spend on your pages, which can positively impact SEO metrics and overall user experience.
Negative Impact Blogs
PROMPT: Can it produce engaging content that avoids blogs creating a negative effect?
Yes, AI can be leveraged to produce engaging content that avoids the potential negative effects often associated with blogs. Here are some ways AI can help:
- Content Quality and Relevance:
- AI-powered content generation systems can analyze a brand’s target audience, industry trends, and competition to create high-quality, relevant, and engaging blog content.
- This helps ensure the content provides genuine value to the reader, rather than being perceived as low-quality or “clickbait.”
- Tone and Voice Optimization:
- AI can be trained to understand the appropriate tone, voice, and language that resonates best with a brand’s target audience.
- This helps maintain a consistent, authentic, and relatable brand personality throughout the blog content.
- Personalization and Contextual Relevance:
- AI can analyze user behavior, interests, and browsing patterns to dynamically generate personalized blog content that is more likely to keep readers engaged.
- This contextual relevance helps prevent the blog from feeling generic or irrelevant to the reader.
- Content Structuring and Formatting:
- AI can analyze best practices for blog post structure, readability, and scannable formatting (e.g., use of headings, bullet points, images) to ensure the content is easy to consume.
- This helps prevent the blog from feeling overwhelming or difficult to read, which can lead to high bounce rates.
- Sentiment Analysis and Optimization:
- AI can detect and analyze the emotional tone and sentiment expressed in blog content, helping to identify and refine any potentially negative or off-putting elements.
- This can help ensure the blog content maintains a positive and uplifting tone that encourages readers to stay engaged.
- Continuous Improvement:
- AI-powered analytics can provide insights into reader behavior, engagement, and sentiment, allowing the content to be iteratively refined and improved over time.
- This helps prevent the blog from becoming stale or irrelevant and ensures it continues to meet the needs and expectations of the target audience.
By leveraging these AI-powered strategies, brands can create engaging, high-quality blog content that provides genuine value to readers, avoids negative perceptions and keeps visitors coming back to the site.
The use of AI to optimize these elements can help improve a website’s visibility in search engine results, as strategically placed keywords can signal to search engines what the page is about. However, it’s important to note that overusing keywords or “keyword stuffing” can be detrimental to the user experience and may be penalized by search engines. A balanced and natural approach is recommended when leveraging AI for keyword optimization.
Claude admits that while the concerns raised by some SEO “experts” have some validity, they don’t reflect AI’s full capabilities when it is appropriately used and integrated into your overall content strategy. With the right prompts, AI can be a valuable assistant for creating high-quality, engaging, and relevant content that drives SEO success. We agree.
Using Images for SEO
Adding images and keyword alt text helps SEO. However, AI, such as Claude 3, cannot create or generate images. It’s a language model trained to process and generate human-readable text. Rather than image creation, its capabilities are focused on understanding, responding to, and producing written content.
For image creation and generation, Claude recommends looking into specialized AI-powered image-generation tools and apps. Here are a few popular options it offered:
- DALL-E 2: This is an advanced AI model developed by OpenAI that can create unique, photorealistic images from textual descriptions. It has a wide range of use cases and can generate highly imaginative and creative images. DALL-E is built into the paid version of ChatGPT 4.
- Midjourney: Midjourney is a powerful AI-powered image generation tool that uses a novel text-to-image approach to create visually stunning and artistic images from textual prompts.
- Stable Diffusion: Stable Diffusion is an open-source AI model that can generate a wide variety of images based on textual descriptions. It’s highly flexible and can be customized for different use cases.
- Photoshop: While not an AI-only tool, the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop include AI-powered features, such as Neural Filters, that can assist with image manipulation, enhancement, and generation. There are free alternatives and free trials.
- Canva: Canva is a user-friendly design platform that offers a range of AI-powered features, including the ability to generate images from text prompts and tools for design and layout. Kick Ass Writer’s Guide often uses Canva for its ease of use.
These are just a few examples of the many AI-powered image-generation tools and apps available. Of course, the best option for you will depend on your specific needs, budget, and the level of control and customization you need. We recommend exploring and trying a few different options to see which currently works best for your use case.
SEO Specialist & AI Wrap Up
Learn the truth about AI’s talent with SEO and content creation, then decide what’s the best strategy for your needs. Stay informed, as the AI tools change rapidly.
Understanding and utilizing SEO and AI effectively can significantly influence your success as an indie author. Both traditional SEO expertise and the revolutionary potential of AI have advantages in optimizing your content and increasing visibility.
As a new indie author, the decision to hire an SEO specialist or to use AI tools should align with your current needs, expertise, and budget. While SEO specialists offer experienced guidance and proven strategies, AI tools provide an accessible, budget-friendly alternative that can empower you to take direct control of your content’s impact.
Moving forward, we encourage you to experiment with AI tools to get a hands-on feel of how they can enhance your content strategy. Stay curious and open to learning—whether that means picking up SEO skills, leveraging AI, or both. The digital tools at your disposal are more powerful and accessible than ever. Explore your options, and keep writing. Your next great story could be just a keyword away.
We hope you’ve found the SEO specialist and AI strategies valuable and motivating. We hope they’ll equip you with the insights and tools needed to help you succeed as a new indie author.
Writing is an experience of continuous learning and improvement. You don’t have to go it alone as an indie author. We’re excited to continue the journey with you, providing guidance and encouragement every step of the way. Our goal is to provide essential insights and practical advice to help you navigate the writing world with increased confidence.
For more on AI for indie authors, check out the Best AI Tools for New Authors. Lastly, for help writing a non-fiction book, read Write Your First Non-Fiction eBook: a 30-Day Workbook for Getting It Done.
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FAQs–SEO Specialists & AI
These FAQs provide additional insights into how AI can enhance SEO practices and the practical implications of integrating these technologies.
How does AI specifically improve keyword optimization for SEO?
Answer: AI can analyze vast amounts of data to identify trending keywords and phrases related to specific topics more efficiently than manual methods. It can also suggest variations and long-tail keywords that may have lower competition, helping content rank better.
What are some limitations of using AI in SEO compared to human experts?
Answer: While AI excels at processing and generating data-driven content, it may lack the ability to fully understand user intent or cultural nuances in language that a human SEO expert would recognize. This can affect the contextual relevance of content.
Can AI replace the need for SEO experts altogether?
Answer: No, AI should be viewed as a tool that complements the expertise of SEO professionals rather than replacing them. Human oversight is necessary to guide AI, interpret its data correctly, and apply strategic decisions based on marketing goals and audience understanding.
How can indie authors for SEO without significant investment?
Answer: Indie authors can use freely available AI tools and platforms that offer SEO services such as keyword suggestions, content analysis, and optimization tips. These tools often provide a basic level of AI-driven SEO assistance suitable for those just starting out or operating with a limited budget.
What is the future of AI in SEO?
Answer: The future of AI in SEO looks promising, with advancements leading to more personalized search experiences and improved content relevance. AI is expected to become more adept at understanding user queries, predicting search trends, and automating more complex aspects of SEO strategy, thus making it an indispensable tool for marketers.