Watch Out for These Big AI Blunders in SEO
Everything's fine until your website traffic starts to drop
AI is like the newly born kid in the SEO world, and lots of people think they've struck gold with it. But the truth can be a lot different from what they expect, and I'm here to tell you about the traps you might fall into.
Everything's fine until your website traffic starts to drop
Lots of SEO experts say they can get websites to rank using AI, but they don't always tell you about the problems that can come with it. Getting less than 1K clicks per day with AI isn't something to brag about. (I've noticed individuals sharing their progress, even posting screenshots of their search console data. Quite amusing, isn't it?)
Yes, you can get AI websites to rank, but there are some things you need to think about:
Organic Traffic isn't forever, it will go away at some point
Conversion rates are really bad
You get the same content as everyone else, as with AI usually people aim for mass content production
Even with really good prompts, current AI has some limits, and one of them is being creative. You can tell AI to use fancy words and a certain style, but the content won't be as good as a human writer. Even with a detailed example like above, the output will never be as good as what I can write by hand. But, it's a good chance to get briefs, templates, and drafts!
Better Approach: Use it to come up with ideas and plan out your content.
ChatGPT is super cool
OpenAI solutions have been used in SEO since 2019/20, and they were just fancy content spinners. We all have used tools like Article Forge, Jasper, and Spin Rewriters. ChatGPT isn't the magic solution to building a SaaS. Some tools just make API calls to OpenAI and don't give you any competitive edge. You're paying for a nice-looking interface, not the features. (It's like they're really working hard to make money, trying to sell you their tool)
This happens a lot in the SEO tool industry. If you understand how they work, you can replicate many tools. With the right coding skills, you can use ChatGPT to build your own tools, extensions, or apps.
For example, now that SEO Minion costs money, maybe you could create something similar as an alternative. I've done something like this myself. I took different features from various tools and combined them into one tool that I use for my own work.
If you're paying for a tool that just does one thing and doesn't have any unique data, then you can copy it easily. And this was all before ChatGPT, so you don't even need it. AI has made people more aware of what's possible, but that's what coding does. Use it as a chance to learn to code and save some money.
Better Approach: Use LLM only if you really need it and there's no other option. It's great for a chatbot but not so great if you just need to write simple code.
Content is dead if not good content is dead
This is something people say online to scare you into buying AI tools. Everyone wants to use AI, but how many people want to read content made by a machine? Always think about the users first, then the rankings.
I've noticed people debating about Google's statement on AI. According to Google, we can use AI if it's beneficial. This statement can be understood in many ways. But if you're really paying attention to what Google says, what about their update on helpful content? They encourage more original, helpful content written by people, for people, rather than content made mainly for search engine traffic. So, what happened to content 'written by the people, for the people'? The answer is right there for you to discover.
The best content agencies are still around and they don't need to worry about average content. If you work in content, you should be good at creating it. AI is a handy tool for coming up with ideas and speeding up drafting, but it's not a writer!
The only content that's really dead is the thin, unoriginal affiliate content that was all over the SERPs a year ago.
Better Approach: Learn more about different types of content and look at YouTube/Social content. AI can even help you with sharing & repurposing!
AI can do data analysis
OpenAI's Code Interpreter is a good tool, but it's often used the wrong way. Analytics isn't just about coding or making cool plots, that's the easy part. It's more about finding useful patterns that can help you make good decisions. AI can't do that, it's a clear-cut fact.
And no, Analysts won't be replaced just because some people on the internet say so. You need to understand the industry and get some practice. I use ChatGPT every day to write or check code and it's pretty good. But for doing analyses? No way, it's not as good as a trained human (or even an intern, for those wondering).
Also, you should never put personal data into ChatGPT because they will use it to train their models! Code Interpreter is a good tool too, but ask yourself: who is promoting it? SEOs are not engineers, so you should check your sources before you use something.
Better Approach: Use Code Interpreter as a helper for coding. Never put personal data into it or use it for business stuff.
AI moves faster
No. Not really. AI might seem fast but it's actually pretty slow. Let's say you have to make a tool that looks at GSC data. You decide to rely totally on AI and write a prompt that asks it to analyze data. Remember Chat GPT is not google. When GPT gives you an output, it might not match up with Google and its algorithms. It's pretty clear that this solution isn't the best one.
Here's why:
You still need to write code, you're only skipping a part
It's a black box approach, harder to debug and standardize
It costs more
You're relying on a 3rd party (which isn't good)
Developers who use AI might move faster; making API calls and building your tool instead of writing regular code isn't faster. It will cause a lot of problems in the future (and no value proposition).
Better Approach: Take the time to learn how things really work. It's not your main job as an SEO but it will help you spot problems.
End Note
AI is really good at doing hard tasks like thinking through problems or looking at a lot of data at once. But, it's not so good at easy tasks like seeing or moving things around. This might seem strange, but it's because what seems easy to us is actually really hard. It's easy for us because we've been learning how to do these things for a very long time.
AI is still learning and growing. It's going to take some time for AI to get really good at these easy tasks. But, AI has a lot of potential. As we keep working on AI, it's going to get better and better.
In the world of SEO, which is all about making websites easier to find on the internet, we should think of AI as a helpful tool. It can help us do our jobs better, but it can't do everything. The future of SEO will be a mix of AI and people working together. We'll use AI to help us with some things, and people will do the things that AI can't do. This way, we'll be able to do the best job possible.
Freebie: ChatGPT Plugins DataBase
Author: Hawrry Bhattarai