Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest topics in the SEO industry. It’s still in its infancy – so most people don’t know how to use it or have a strategy for it. But AI will soon be the norm – so it’s important to start developing a strategy now.v
What is AI?
It’s a computer-driven intelligence that mimics and ultimately outstrips human intelligence. As our world becomes increasingly connected, artificial intelligence can do far more than just perform simple mathematical calculations. It’s something like a powerful calculator that can perform complex tasks, like playing music, understanding a conversation, and helping a brain surgery doctor perform operations. Here are five AI trends you should watch: 1. Deep learning AI has been making big headlines in recent years. It’s used to detect cancer, solve crimes, and help cure illnesses. But deep learning isn’t about just automatically processing big data – it’s about learning complex patterns through data.
Why is it important to optimize for AI?
Well, AI is here to stay. That means your site has a chance to be competitive. That doesn’t necessarily mean your website has to beat out other sites with huge budgets or huge teams. It just means that you have a chance. The implications of AI are enormous. It’s currently responsible for a third of all internet searches. That’s more than double the amount of searches people conduct every year on the internet. And, it’s expected to grow to half of all searches by 2020. It’s predicted that by 2020, 20% of all searches will be AI-driven. That means a third of searches will be AI-driven by then. This is huge, especially since most people think most searches are done by people. They’re not. The people doing most of the search are the marketers who’re using AI for SEO.
Strategy 1Make your site simple to navigate
Today’s site builders are working hard to make sites more simple to navigate. This is one of the primary strategies to optimize a site for AI.
Strategy 2Provide the most important information
It’s important to provide key information about your site. Whether you call it landing page automation or target NPS, this is a key way to optimize your site for AI. A great example is eBizMBA. Their landing page shows them in the best light. A quick glance shows that it’s a company, that their products are B2B, that they’re local to NYC, and that they’re now a global company. The home page even says, “A Small Company with Big Results.” This is the first major impression people have of your business, so you want to make sure it’s good. Strategy 3Make it easy to do business with you The second step is to provide a great experience for your customer and make it easy to do business with you. This can be as basic as having a clean website design and information easy to understand.
Strategy 3Provide easy access to your company’s information
Although some SEOs use artificial intelligence to help with keyword research, their primary objective is to rank high in search engines. A simple SEO strategy is to provide links that will point to your company’s main site. But this is not enough. If people are searching for your company’s website, you’ll need to create an automated site guide that people can easily navigate. It’s important to update your site guide regularly. For example, if there’s a major content change, update the site guide. If there are videos added, update the site guide. Your new website guide should link directly to your site’s home page so it can load as quickly as possible.
Strategy 4Provide a direct contact
All businesses use a phone number or email address for all of their marketing. Even worse, many business owners think that it’s important for their phone number or email address to match the brand they are marketing. There’s nothing wrong with having your phone number or email address match the business you are marketing, but this should be your only main communication channel. If you don’t set it up to ensure your business will be reached through that channel, then customers will look elsewhere. People won’t be interested in contacting you if they don’t have a way to contact you. If you want your business to survive the challenges of your industry, then you need to establish a direct line of communication with customers – and AI will make that easier.
Strategy 5Provide an easy to use navigation
Make it so the visitor can find what they’re looking for on your site. Which usually means long-form content. For example, let’s say you’re in the market for a new vehicle. Nowadays, people want to learn more about your product and features. So, you should be displaying the full specs, features and pricing on your homepage, as well as in ads. And you should be offering videos, images and infographics to back those facts up. For your site, let’s say Airbnb. When a visitor visits Airbnb, they have a brief (12 seconds), 30 second video, and 10 second text block that show the company and its purpose. So, when the customer wants to know more, they can click “Learn more” or “Contact us” and look at their chat feature and FAQ page to get information they’re looking for.
Conclusion
If you want your SEO to be successful, you need to have a solid business model, marketing strategies, and SEO strategies in place. But the real secret to success is to put it all together and use AI as one element of your marketing strategy.
