Seven and half million blog posts are published every day (source). AI has made creating these articles content both far easier and far more complex.
Now that the competition is using a stack of AI-powered tools, should you?
The answer is “yes, but…”
Lots of the competition is using the tools to generate the words in the post itself. You can use AI to get ahead of the competition by using artificial intelligence for all the other research and organization that goes into publishing successful blog post.
Here are 5 ways to use AI to do this:
1. Identifying Keywords
Before you or your AI tool start writing any piece of content, you’ll want to identify keywords.
There are long-tail keywords that are typically easier to rank because they are more specific, such as “best vegan restaurants that allow dogs near me.” And then there are short-tail keywords. These are broader with higher search volume, and so will be harder to rank for. An example is “best restaurants near me.”
SEOs are people who are experts in identifying keywords through a process that involves analyzing the competition for that keyword and understanding the client’s current position in the market.
This makes the process of figuring out what keywords to target in your content light years faster than before. However a human is still necessary to weed out duplicates and remove any suggestions that are off the mark. For example, if you sell “dog beds,” an AI tool might suggest “king size bed” and you’d need to delete that from your list.
Note: Google Helpful (Unhelpful!) Content Update back in September of 2023 made it harder for small businesses to rank at the top of the search results. If you own a small business, look for low-competition, short-tail keyphrases.
AI Powered Tools & Resources:
2. Creating Content Clusters
It’s not good enough to have a list of 300 keywords to go after with your content. You’ll also want to organize your target keywords into a hierarchy. This is called a content cluster. Search engines want to be able to easily crawl and understand what is on your site, and the best way for them to do it is if your topics are organized into levels.
When I was working on my site called Bathtubber, I had a cluster for freestanding bathtubs. (These are the kinds of tubs that are not fixed to a wall. Those are alcove tubs, FYI!) Under freestanding bathtubs, we had articles about “faucets for freestanding bathtubs,” “accessories for freestanding bathtubs,” and “how to clean freestanding bathtubs.”
I actually hired someone who was an expert at building out these clusters to do it for me. But now, we can use AI tools to generate content clusters in a few minutes. As always, you’ll need to review the results with a critical human eye before using your cluster to generate content.
You can use AI to review your current content, sort it into clusters, and identify any gaps that are necessary to target your target audience at each stage of the buying funnel.
AI Powered Tools & Resources:
3. Outlining
When generating content using a Large Language Model like OpenAi’s ChatGPT tool or Claude, if you’re hoping to rank for a particular keyword, you’ll want to make sure your blog post or web page actually contains the information that the search engine’s want to see. How do you know what the search engines want? Simple. Look at the headers in the content that is already ranking.
You can use a browser extension like Chrome’s Detailed SEO Extension to analyze the headers of competitor articles, or there are many AI tools available as well. Let’s say I’m targeting the keyphrase “how to fill a hole in my wall,” when I upload my post to an AI tool like Surfer, it will quickly analyze the top ranking content for this keyphrase and then direct me to add information that I may be missing about “best tools” and “where to buy.”
I used Surfer for many months, and even though it was good for my content,I didn’t like the process. I felt like I was doing a mad libs game trying to fill in the blanks in what previously felt like a decent post. I prefer the slightly more manual version of using Detailed SEO, but hey, we’re all different.
In any case, the danger with using these tools is that you may over-optimize, tilting your piece of content into a zone that Google might consider machine-generated, even if you actually put the sentences together yourself. Fortunately, these tools will tell you how much optimization to do to stay safe.
AI Powered Tools & Resources
- Detailed SEO Chrome Extension (use with Claude or GPT)
- Surfer
- Rankability
4. Writing Meta Titles and Descriptions
After you finish an article, it’s easy to overlook the small detail of filling in the SEO title and the description on the backend of your CRM. However, these two bits of information are key to getting readers to click through to your post.
The SEO title needs to be 50-60 characters and not more, or else the full title won’t display on someone’s screen. It should be powerful, include the target keyphrase, and invoke action. It also needs to mirror the other types of titles that are ranking for your target keyphrase. The description should convey the author’s authority on the topic.
Here’s an example for a client who is a couples therapist:
Original meta title:
Don’t use the word no with your partner
Original description:
When we use the word no, we create disconnection in the relationship. There are better ways to disagree.
I can prompt ChatGPT:
I am a couples therapist. I wrote a blog post that is about how to communicate with your partner and how using the word “no” creates disconnection and what to say instead. Create 10 attention-grabbing titles for this blog post that are 60 characters or less. My target audience is couples in distress. The title should include the keyphrase “couples communication tips”
AI-assisted Result:
“Couples Communication Tips: Better Alternatives to ‘No’”
Your meta-description is also key for convincing readers to click through to your content. How will your article help them? Write 150-155 characters. Use a free AI tool like the one from Ahrefs to generate options and pick the best. I always prompt the tool to include my client’s expertise.
AI-assisted Meta-description:
AI Powered Tools & Resources
- Chat GPT + Prompt
- Ahrefs Free Meta Description Generator
SEO Title Prompts:
I am a [role]. I wrote a blog post about [topic]. Create 10 attention-grabbing titles for this blog post that are 60 characters or less. My target audience is [insert audience type]. The titles should include the keyphrase [include keyphrase]
Meta Description Prompt:
[client’s name] is an expert in [role]. This page is about [topic]. Generate meta descriptions highlighting [client’s name’s] expertise.
5. Data Analytics
Hopefully you already have your website connected to Google Analytics 4. This free data monitoring tool has AI insights built into it. You can use these insights to understand if conversion rates for a particular product are increasing or decreasing. (You can also upgrade to a paid insights tool.)
You can ask it to monitor a particular set of customer behaviors, such as whether they are clicking on a particular page or completing a form.
The tool also provides you information about which customers are most likely to convert so that you can nurture these leads.
AI Powered Tools & Resources
Paid AI Insights Add-On to Google Analytics
Artificial Intelligence capabilities in Google Analytics
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