Website optimization for search engines and SEO has a virtual priesthood of experts willing to shape your SEO strategy, usually for a fee, but what about AI SEO? With the rise of ChatGPT and other AI tools, leveraging your content marketing for artificial intelligence is more than a good idea. It's a necessity.
Search rankings and search engine optimization are just a few things that should influence your content creation now that chatbots are here—the AI SEO optimization steps outlined below work well with machine learning algorithms and SEO. However, always keep your customer experience, marketing strategy, and target audience at the forefront of your content strategy. When in doubt, opt for excellent user experience and average SEO since the former is harder to create while the latter is easy to fix.
The rub in anyone's SEO efforts has always been whether you are creating web pages for search engine results or your content reinforces your company, brand, and digital marketing's ideals, stories, and positioning, as Martin outlined in Start with Why. High-quality customer experiences live between SEO and AI SEO. Backlinks, the core of search rankings, are best when earned, and nothing makes backlinks and customer engagement faster than great content well-optimized for AI SEO.
Use links below to discover how to optimize your website for AI SEO.
Optimizing the large amounts of data most websites produce for AI involves making your website and landing pages easily accessible, understandable, and navigable for AI algorithms and systems like search engines, chatbots, and other automated tools. Here are some steps you can take to optimize your website for AI:
Structured Data Use structured data markup (e.g., Schema.org) to provide a standardized way for AI algorithms to understand and categorize your website's content. Structured data helps search engines, chatbots, and other AI tools better interpret and display your content.
Semantic HTML Use semantic HTML tags that provide meaning and structure to your content, such as headings (h1-h6), paragraphs, lists, and tables. Semantic HTML will help AI systems better understand the organization and hierarchy of your content.
Content Write your content clearly and concisely, avoiding jargon and overly complex language. Concise content will make it easier for AI algorithms and users to understand and use your content.
Natural Language Don't rely on AI to write your site because Google and AI will know. Google and AI bots understand and process natural language. Use clear and concise language that is easy to understand and infused with your company, brand voice, and tone. Make sure your content sounds like a human created it. Remember, Google penalizes "duplicate content," so riffing a ChatGPT response directly to your site risks a duplicate content penalty since others may use the same prompt, receive the same answer, and publish it to their website. Google Bard and Microsoft's Bing will detect its AI content and penalize those who overuse it.
Accessible Media Always provide alternative text (alt text) for images and transcripts for videos to help AI systems understand and process your visual content and make your website accessible for the eighty million Americans with disabilities (LINK). Ensure your images are correctly compressed and optimized for fast loading times.
Mobile Ensure your website is optimized for different screen sizes and devices because AI systems like voice assistants often access websites through mobile browsers. Use responsive web design to ensure your content looks great on every device.
Internal Linking Organize your website's structure with clear and logical internal links. Internal Links help AI algorithms understand the relationships between different pages and topics on your website.
XML Sitemaps Create and keep your XML sitemap up-to-date to help AI systems and search engine crawlers navigate and index your website's content.
Performance Ensure your website loads quickly and efficiently by compressing and optimizing images, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, and using a content delivery network (CDN) to improve loading times.
Social Media Integrate social media sharing buttons, metadata, and feeds on your website to help AI algorithms understand your content's popularity and relevance in the social.
Continuous Improvement Audit and update your website's content and performance frequently to ensure your content remains optimized for AI. Monitor analytics and user feedback to identify improvements.
By following these steps, you'll be well on your way to optimizing your website for AI and improving its accessibility, visibility, and overall performance. As always, if you have questions email eg (at) wte.net. Thanks, Eric.
User intent, aka search intent or query intent, is the goals or purpose behind a search query. In other words, it's what the user tries to achieve or find when they type a specific search term or phrase into a search engine. Understanding user intent is essential for search engines like Google because intent provides patterns Google and Bing use to tune their search results.
There are four types of user intent:
Informational Intent The user is searching for information or answers to questions. For example, they might search for "what is user intent" or "how to tie a tie." Chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT answer user questions quickly, but due diligence is needed to ensure accuracy.
Navigational Intent The user wants to visit a specific website or web page. They might search for "Facebook login" or "OpenAI blog" when navigational intent is behind their search.
Transactional Intent The user intends to complete an action, such as making an ecommerce purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a file. "Buy iPhone 14" or "Download Photoshop" are examples of transactional intent.
Commercial Investigation These users research or compare products and services before deciding on or purchasing. "Best smartphones 2023" or "iPhone 13 vs. Samsung Galaxy S22" are examples of commercial investigation searches.
For companies, brands, website owners, and digital marketers, understanding and catering to user intent is crucial for creating valuable and relevant content that addresses users' needs and pain points. In addition, aligning content with user intent can improve organic search visibility, drive more targeted traffic, and increase user satisfaction and engagement.