Recently, stories about new AI developments have appeared on SEO blogs, forums, and on social media daily. According to Search Engine Journal, the increased reliance on AI by search engines and SEOs will permanently change how websites get developed, optimized, and ranked.
On the positive side, various intelligent tools have gotten affordable and accessible for small businesses and even individuals. These tools may improve workflows, productivity, and accuracy. People can benefit from a hands-on understanding of how they can already use artificial intelligence to understand which tools may help them in the future. In fact, many folks use AI all the time right now without even realizing it.
At the same time, people design intelligent tools to simulate but not duplicate human intelligence. Thus, AI tools may assist with ranking on increasingly intelligent search engines. Still, the bots can’t replace the personal touch when gathering information to make decisions, particularly when thinking critically and forming connections with others.
How Do Search Engines Employ AI?
Sometimes, even those who work with search engines and websites daily don’t understand how much AI has crept into typical digital experiences. A deeper understanding of the technology that search engines rely on can make it easier to select the best tools for various purposes.
For instance:
- Voice assistants: Apple Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa might offer the most common examples of machine intelligence people use daily. They employ machine learning to improve their responses based on user feedback. In addition, natural language processing (NLP) helps them understand voice commands and content.
- Image recognition: Today’s search engines use video and image recognition to find, index, and categorize graphics and videos. Thus, search engines can automatically return various content types in response to queries. Some apps can even view images and return information about the subject. For instance, searchers can supply a plant photo and find the species’ name and detailed information.
- RankBrain: Google’s RankBrain works within the search algorithm. This AI software uses machine learning to improve its understanding of the content’s meaning and the user’s likely search intent, thus improving the results of queries.
- Google Maps: Google Maps tracks over 80 billion images from all over the constantly-changing world. Not even large teams of humans could keep up with this much data in a reasonable timeframe. Google employs machine learning to remain updated and offer real-time information to users.
Which AI-Empowered Tools Can Help With SEO?
The massive amount and dynamic nature of data forced search engines to turn to artificial intelligence for processing power. Instead of writing code to handle every conceivable situation, the developers can train the AI to recognize context and learn how to react. SEOs operate in the same world that search engines do, and they also have smart tools they can use to keep up with the increasingly complex and competitive nature of search engine optimization.
Several companies offer high-quality AI tools. However, the various platforms offer different features. This overview of popular AI-empowered tools can provide a springboard for understanding which products may already offer a solution to a website optimization issue you may encounter as search engines continue to evolve and the market grows more competitive.
Unbounce
Unbounce started as a landing page builder. The product now offers a suite of tools, enhanced with artificial intelligence. Features include:
- Smart Copy: Powered by GPT-3, this copywriting assistant can help provide the text and headlines for emails, landing pages, blogs, videos, and more.
- Smart Traffic: The company says the machine intelligence behind Smart Traffic can identify traffic patterns after as few as 50 visits. It uses this information to show visitors the landing page most likely to convert. It reduces the need for A/B testing and automatically serves the best page for each visitor.
- Smart Builder: Enhanced with AI, the landing page builder considers the user’s goals and industry to help design high-converting landing pages.
Memorable
According to Memorable.io, people don’t excel at choosing which content other people will find the most engaging. The company’s research found people only make the best choice about half the time. The AI works with a database of millions of human reactions to choose and optimize creative assets for better engagement and conversions.
The company says that their machine intelligence can pick the best-performing creative over 90 per cent of the time. This product might also reduce the need for A/B testing and best of all, help maximize engagement. Lower bounce rates can help improve search engine ranks, improve conversions, and increase ROI. Thus, this smart tool should prove useful for SEO and paid ads.
OpenAI ChatGPT and The New Bing
ChatGPT from OpenAI clarifies that it doesn’t function as a search engine. It doesn’t pull real-time data. Instead, the platform uses a periodically-refreshed database. It works as an advanced chatbot capable of producing simple summaries as responses to queries in the form of a text reply.
Still, the product can offer SEOs an excellent chance to gain hands-on experience with how a sophisticated AI would approach a topic. The answers can also often spark inspiration.
The New Bing
Google and Bing recently announced plans to incorporate an AI-empowered interface into their search engines. Instead of producing a list of links in response to a query, the search engine will provide summarized content with links for reference. The user experience will feel more like speaking with a chatbot than interfacing with a traditional search engine.
Bing has already released The New Bing website to provide examples and a chance to sign up for access. SEOs need to gain familiarity with this new disruption by familiarizing themselves with the way their audience will experience search very soon. For instance, many SEOs have expressed concerns that more content in response to queries leaves less room for links on the first page. When search engines start to function more like personal assistants, businesses will even more urgently need to offer high-quality content that satisfies user intent.
AI Won’t Replace Human Website Developers and SEOs
For years, Google has told website owners to develop pages for people and not for machines. Indeed, the search engine giant uses artificial intelligence to satisfy their users better. Artificial intelligence lacks emotion, so as much as it can want to do anything, it strives to learn what pleases the company’s customers and user base.
As any savvy salesperson knows, individuals and businesspeople make decisions based on emotions. Harvard Business Review supported this idea with recent examples of companies that enjoyed double-digit growth after improving their emotional connection with consumers.
These gains appeared across various markets, from household cleaning products and dining to travel and financial services. Savvy consumers gather information to inform their choices, but how they feel about a brand or product figures heavily in their choices.
HBR concluded that emotional motivators offered a better measure of a customer’s future value than other metrics, including customer satisfaction and brand awareness. Brands can leverage this power by helping customers feel distinctive, confident, independent, or excited.
Even the most sophisticated AI doesn’t feel emotion. The machines can’t get excited. If interactions with any AI from Amazon Alexa to ChatGPT offer examples, they also don’t do an excellent job of expressing or conjuring up emotions in people either. Thus, good SEOs should have experience interfacing with AI and using the tools they need to improve their processes and provide better insights. At the same time, the best SEOs will take time to understand their audience’s problems, drives, and ideals to inspire them.
