Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, automation and AI have significantly impacted the SEO industry. You might be wondering how these technologies fit into your SEO strategy, which tools can be integrated, and which tasks are better handled manually. When thinking about automation in SEO, consider what can streamline your workflow without sacrificing the personal touch that ensures quality and relevance. By smartly integrating the right tools, you can enhance your efficiency and maintain high standards—think of it as gaining an edge in a competitive field while keeping your unique voice alive.
What Can Be Automated in SEO and How?
It’s easy to be dazzled by the latest automation tools and services that promise to handle every aspect of SEO with a single click, but often these all-in-one solutions fall short of expectations. In my experience, the most effective automation tools are those designed with a specific function in mind, turning those laborious and time-consuming tasks into a breeze, which helps us stay productive and efficient.
We’ll look at how automation and AI are impacting the SEO industry in Keyword Research, Link Building and Technical SEO. More importantly, I’ll highlight the type of tasks within these areas where automation can be used and should not be used. It’s crucial to understand where automation can help us and where it might hinder our efforts to maintain a balance that promotes both efficiency and quality.
Keyword Research
Can we completely automate keyword research? Not exactly. While full automation isn’t possible, we can certainly automate many steps within the process. Here’s a quick rundown on what to do and what not to do.
Do’s
- Useful industry-leading tools, here are some of my favourite tools:
- Google Keyword Planner: A free tool to discover keyword volumes.
- SEMrush: A paid tool that provides data on search volume, intent and more.
- Keyword Insights: Perfect for clustering keywords efficiently.
- SERProbot: Great for analysing the top 10 search results for our keywords.
- Gemini: Fantastic at analysing the top results if provided with the data.
Don’ts:
- Avoid over-relying on AI: Tools like ChatGPT or Gemini can assist but they aren’t replacements for tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush. It’s essential to input accurate data from reliable sources to guide their outputs effectively. Automation is powerful, but it needs direction—yours.
Link Building and Outreach
Can we completely automate link building entirely? Not quite, but we can get close by automating many of the time-consuming processes involved. Here’s a quick rundown on what to do and what not to do.
Do’s
- If conducting a brand mention outreach strategy utilise Google search operators to look for mentions of your brand while filtering out results for your brand for example intext:”nimbl” -site:nimbl.com.au.
- Use Google API, to produce the results for these search operators and output them into a Google Sheet autonomously.
- Use tools like Buzzstream to manage the outreach and monitor the results of your link building.
Don’ts:
- Avoid buying services that promise hundreds of links. These can do more harm than good to your site’s SEO performance.
- Don’t ask AI tools like ChatGPT to find links for you. While AI has made great strides, it’s not yet reliable enough to find opportunities for us.
Technical SEO
Can we completely automate technical SEO? While we can’t automate every aspect of Technical SEO, there are definitely parts of the process we automate. Here’s a quick rundown on what to do and what not to do.
Do’s
- If you don’t already, utilise a technical SEO analysis tool called Screamingfrog this is your one-stop solution to auditing everything technical in SEO.
- Use Screamingfrog’s scheduling to do regular crawls of a website.
Use Screamingfrog’s API integrations, such as Google Analytics, and Google Search Console to integrate key data for decision-making. - Utilise Google Search Consoles API to bulk request indexing for pages you want to be indexed.
Don’ts:
- Avoid over-reliance on plugins: While plugins can be helpful, they shouldn’t be your sole resource for analysing a website’s SEO performance.
- Don’t use ChatGPT for technical analysis: AI tools like ChatGPT are fantastic, but they’re not yet equipped to handle the complex analysis required for Technical SEO without precise input and oversight.
This all goes to show that SEO Automation in 2024 has improved by leaps and bounds and there are several effective strategies we can utilise in our workflows but when it comes down to it AI and automation aren’t a complete solution to SEO.
It’s crucial to use the right tools for the right problems and integrate them effectively and to let automation and AI be your ally and not a substitute for your expertise
