AI in SEO: what works and what to avoid

It’s becoming clear that churning out complete, finished articles using AI tools is not going to be a sensible strategy as far as SEO is concerned. Search engines are working hard to be able to detect this practice and downgrade the content accordingly. However, using the tools to create outlines for us to be able to write the articles in our own words is definitely a strategy which can save time and possibly make the articles more comprehensive.

There are areas where AI tools can help with SEO: for example generating a list of headlines for an article from which we can choose. And I’ve found ChatGPT to be particularly good at writing description meta tags too.

To illustrate this, I gave ChatGPT the following prompt to generate the headline and description for this very article.

Please write 3 potential headlines for the short blog post below, which should be eye-catching. Also write 3 meta descriptions which will work for SEO. Incorporate the keywords for the page if possible. These are “SEO uses” and “AI”. The headlines should be no more than 65 characters, and the meta descriptions no more than 160 characters.

BLOG POST CONTENT: [I pasted in the two paragraphs at the top]

Here’s ChatGPT’s response, which (as you can see) I’ve now used:

Headlines

1. “Smart SEO Uses for AI: Write Better, Rank Higher”
2. “AI in SEO: What Works and What to Avoid”
3. “SEO Uses of AI: Boosting Creativity, Not Cutting Corners”

Meta Descriptions

1. “Learn how to use AI for SEO effectively. Discover smart strategies like generating outlines and meta descriptions while avoiding content penalties.”
2. “Maximize your SEO with AI! From creating outlines to writing meta tags, discover AI’s best uses while staying safe from search engine penalties.”
3. “AI can boost your SEO when used wisely. Explore how to generate headlines, outlines, and meta descriptions while avoiding search engine downgrades.”