9 ways to use ChatGPT to improve your SEO

Taking charge of your SEO sometimes feels like starting a jigsaw with a million pieces. Just when you think you’ve found the edges of search engine optimisation, the rules change.

Finally, there might be an SEO tool that catapults you ahead — improved rankings without turning SEO into your second full-time job.

Enter ChatGPT, an AI tool that’s also an SEO tool — when you know how to use it.

If you’re ready to give your SEO a serious boost to get your website climbing the rankings, read on. What I’m about to show you is easy to do.

And you can do it in a manageable amount of time.

Table of contents

How can ChatGPT help my website’s SEO?	ChatGPT can generate high-quality content, optimize keywords, provide regular updates, enhance user engagement, and scale content creation. These factors contribute to improved SEO.
Exploring your clients’ knowledge landscape with an AI tool	ChatGPT can help identify what your audience is reading, analyze the content of those sources, and assist in keyword research. This understanding can guide your content creation strategy.
SEO fundamentals with ChatGPT	ChatGPT can assist in keyword research, classifying keywords by search intent, and writing SEO-optimized title tags and meta descriptions.
Using ChatGPT to brainstorm content topics	ChatGPT can help create content clusters, outline blog posts, and write the content. This structured approach to content creation can boost your SEO.
The Importance of ALT Text to SEO and how ChatGPT can help	ALT text is crucial for SEO as it helps search engines understand images. ChatGPT can generate descriptive and SEO-friendly ALT text for your images.
Summarise your content	Summarizing your content can cater to different reader preferences and reinforce key points.

How can ChatGPT help my website’s search engine optimization (SEO)?

Sometimes artificial intelligence is the best kind of intelligence. As you’ll see when you use ChatGPT for SEO, having ChatGPT on your team is like having a super-smart, super-creative, and super-efficient copywriter at your disposal 24/7.

And just like the best copywriters, ChatGPT doesn’t just create content. Used right, ChatGPT creates effective content.

That’s good for search engine rankings because effective content is king in Google’s world.

Below, we’ll cover how AI-generated content from ChatGPT can give your SEO a serious boost:

Generate high-quality content with ChatGPT

ChatGPT fits into your whole content creation process. It can generate content ideas. Then it can write those ideas — engaging, informative, and well-structured content writing.

This content generation and content optimisation isn’t just good for your readers; it’s also good for your website’s SEO.

Search engines love high-quality content and are more likely to rank your website higher if your content is top-notch.

Keyword optimisation with ChatGPT

ChatGPT can help you create content that naturally incorporates your target keywords without resorting to keyword stuffing.

This is a big plus in the eyes of search engines, which prioritise content that is:

1. Relevant to the keyword AND
2. Provides value to the reader

Regular updates

Google, Bing and other search engines love fresh content. With ChatGPT, you can keep your website updated with new, engaging content.

Those fresh offerings signal to Google that your website is active and relevant.

User engagement

By creating engaging and relevant content, ChatGPT can increase the time users spend on your site, reduce bounce rates, and encourage social shares.

These are all SEO efforts because they’re all positive signals to search engines.

Scalability

With artificial intelligence, you can rapidly generate a large amount of content.

This means you can scale your content creation efforts without sacrificing quality, giving you more opportunities to rank for various keywords.

Does it sound like this could give your website’s ranking a fast boost? Here are 9 ways ChatGPT can help to optimise your website for search…

1. Exploring your clients’ knowledge landscape with an AI tool

Hard truth time…

Your audience isn’t just reading your content. Your readers are at a buffet, filling their plates with multiple cuisines.

Knowing what information your clients are feeding on will guide you as to what you should cook up in your content.

Here’s where ChatGPT comes into that:

A. Find where your readers are grazing

Use this prompt for suggestions about what your ideal clients are reading.

I am a [what your business does]. Tell me some websites my ideal clients read for information about my area of business.

B. Content analysis

Use AI to break down the content on the websites found by the first prompts. What topics are they covering? What’s their tone of voice?

Treat ChatGPT like your SEO expert and see what it says about what your target audience is reading.

At the time of writing this, ChatGPT had limited access to the live internet, but you can run this prompt in Bing Chat or Bard.

Try this:

Tell me about this website [URL]. What sort of content do they produce? And what's their tone of voice?

C. Keyword research

AI can help identify the keywords your competitors are targeting.

Try this:

What keywords is the website [URL] targeting?

SEO fundamentals with ChatGPT

Optimising your website for search engines involves its share of tedious, repetitive tasks. Fortunately, AI never complains.

2. Keyword research with ChatGPT

Keyword research forms the foundation of any successful SEO campaign. ChatGPT can be an invaluable tool in this process, providing you with intelligent insights and suggestions into:

You’re looking for:

Keywords: These are the words or phrases that users type into search engines when looking for information or products. They are crucial in SEO as they help search engines understand what your content is about and match it to relevant user queries.

Related Keywords: These are keywords that are semantically or topically related to your primary keyword. They help to enrich your content, making it more comprehensive and relevant to a wider range of user queries. For example, if your primary keyword is “running shoes,” related keywords might include “athletic footwear,” “trail running shoes,” or “best shoes for running.”

Seed Keywords: These are the core keywords that are most relevant to your business or content. They are typically broad and consist of only one or two words. Seed keywords serve as the foundation for your keyword research, helping you identify more specific, long-tail keywords.

Long-Tail Keywords: These are more specific, often longer keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they’re closer to the point of purchase or when using voice search. They’re called “long-tail” because if you were to plot your keywords by their search volumes, these would be on the “long tail” end of the graph, which typically has lower search volume but higher conversion rates.

Remember, a successful SEO strategy involves a mix of these keyword types. While seed and related keywords help increase your visibility for broad searches, long-tail keywords help you attract more targeted, high-converting traffic.

And with tools like ChatGPT, you can effectively incorporate these keywords into your content, boosting your SEO efforts.

ChatGPT can’t replace the mountains of SEO-specific data powering a professional tool like Semrush (which you can try for free here).

When it comes to keyword research, ChatGPT is more like a better-than-nothing guesswork machine — guessing faster (and perhaps more accurately) than you could on your own.

Try this:

My business is [YOUR BUSINESS AREA]. Give me some search keywords relevant to my business.

3. Classify keywords by search intent

Understanding users’ search intent is crucial for effective SEO. (There’s a gulf between the searcher looking for information about a service and the searcher who is ready to buy.)

ChatGPT can classify keywords based on search intent, whether it’s informational, navigational, or transactional. Then, you can:

1. Align your content with user expectations
2. Optimise your website for specific search intents
3. Improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results

Try this after ChatGPT has listed keywords for you:

Categorise those keywords by search intent

4. Have ChatGPT write your title tags and meta descriptions for search engines

Crafting compelling title tags and meta descriptions is essential for attracting clicks from search engine result pages (SERPs).

ChatGPT can assist you in generating creative and engaging titles and meta descriptions that entice users to click through to your website.

By using the AI’s language capabilities and considering the best practices of SEO, you can optimise your snippets for higher click-through rates and ultimately improve your organic traffic.

When you have a webpage ready to go, try this:

I have written a webpage/blog post about [TOPIC]. Write a compelling title and meta description to enhances my search engine ranking

Using ChatGPT to brainstorm content topics

This is where we get to the part ChatGPT is most famous for: Writing. However, there are a couple of things we need to do first…

5. Creating Content Clusters

A content cluster is a strategic approach to content creation where you develop interlinked content around a central theme or topic.

This not only helps in providing comprehensive coverage of a subject but also boosts your SEO, as search engines love well-organised, interconnected content.

You can use ChatGPT to generate a list of subtopics related to your main topic. For example, if your main topic is “digital marketing,” ChatGPT can suggest subtopics like “SEO best practices,” “social media marketing trends,” “email marketing strategies,” and so on.

To get started, try this:

Generate a list of subtopics related to [TOPIC] for a content cluster.

6. Outlining

Once you have your content cluster topics, it’s time to outline your blog posts. An outline is like a roadmap for your content, helping you structure your thoughts, ensure logical flow, and cover all key points.

ChatGPT can assist you in creating a detailed outline for each of your blog posts. For instance, for the subtopic “SEO best practices,” it can suggest sections like “Introduction to SEO,” “On-page SEO techniques,” “Off-page SEO techniques,” “Technical SEO tips,” and “Conclusion.”

To get ChatGPT to help with outlining, try:

Create an outline for a blog post on SEO best practices.

7. Write the content

Now comes your reward — writing the content that will boost your search engine optimization.

With your outline as a guide, you can use ChatGPT to draft each section of your blog post. The AI can generate informative, engaging, and SEO-friendly content, saving you time and effort.

Try this:

Write a section on [SECTION OF YOUR OUTLINE].

8. The Importance of ALT Text to SEO and How ChatGPT Can Help

You’ll want to use images to enhance your blog post, which takes us to a crucial, yet often overlooked aspect of SEO – ALT text.

ALT text, short for “alternative text,” is the text that describes an image on your website. It’s like a short caption that tells search engines (and users who can’t see the image) what the image is about.

So, why is ALT text so important for SEO?

Well, search engines, as smart as they are, can’t yet “see” images. They rely on ALT text to understand what an image represents. By providing accurate and descriptive ALT text, you’re helping search engines index your images more effectively, which can boost your visibility in image search results.

Moreover, ALT text is crucial for accessibility. For users with visual impairments who use screen readers, ALT text provides a description of the image, making your content more inclusive.

ChatGPT can help you generate descriptive and SEO-friendly ALT text for your images. All you need to do is provide a brief description of the image, and ChatGPT can craft an appropriate ALT text. For example, if you have an image of a sunset over a beach, you can use a prompt like: “ChatGPT, generate ALT text for an image of a sunset over a beach.”

The AI might suggest something like: “A breathtaking sunset casting golden hues over a serene beach, with gentle waves lapping at the shore.”

Remember, good ALT text should be descriptive and concise, accurately representing the image while incorporating relevant keywords where appropriate. With ChatGPT, you can ensure that all your images are SEO-optimized and accessible, enhancing your website’s performance and user experience.

Try this:

I have an image of [WHAT]. Write ALT text, taking my keywords for this post into account.

9. Summarise your content

Not everyone is going to read every word.

People skim.

People like their information in different ways. Some people like paragraphs, some people like summary tables.

Sometimes, the people who like the paragraphs, appreciate the reinforcement of a summary.

Try this:

Below, I've pasted my article. Create a summary in the form of a table: [PASTE YOUR ARTICLE]

(This prompt generated the table at the start of this article.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, using AI tools like ChatGPT can significantly enhance your SEO efforts. From generating high-quality content and optimizing keyword usage to creating content clusters and crafting compelling ALT text, ChatGPT offers a multitude of ways to boost your website’s visibility and ranking.

It’s not just about getting your site to the top of search engine results — it’s about providing valuable, engaging, and accessible content for your audience. As you navigate the ever-changing landscape of SEO, remember that tools like ChatGPT are here to help. Embrace the power of AI and watch your website climb the ranks.