The Antidote to AI Taking Over SEO: Publish More Content?

Well folks, sharpen your pitchforks and abandon the marketing strategy we’ve been swearing by for 10+ years because industry influencers have delivered a shocking exposé: AI is taking over Marketing.

Yeah, right…

Image Source: Giphy

Is it just us, or does this feel like a classic game of “telephone”? A few whispers of crazy AI claims and the entire marketing community is up in flames!

We think we are at the height of the hype cycle with all this AI noise, and it’s our duty to set the record straight.

AI is not taking over SEO. It is not making marketing strategists obsolete. We are not going to be marrying robots equally as we are not saying farewell to human writers.

Actually, AI is making SEO even more vital to the success of you, your business, and your brand. How is THAT? Here’s our diagnosis and the content-creation-cure.

Quick Takeaways

• With the rise of AI language models, SEO is more vital than ever to the success of you, your business, and your brand
• When you’re a notable content creator and dedicated to educating your audience, large language models (just like search engines) will know you and recommend you
• Start building your thought leadership brand by publishing secondary text sources, like YouTube videos with subtitles, podcasts with transcripts, and other traditional PR
• News reports and publications inform a lot of AI machines’ training data, so start testing paid content promotion (ask us about this?)

So put down the pitchfork and start building your thought leadership, and together, we can overcome the “AI is taking over Marketing” epidemic!

Pick Your Poison

Is AI taking over SEO? Not quite. You’ve probably heard some of these AI-marketing myths, and maybe even believed them, but we’re putting our foot down and the fire out.

The Extinction of Human Writers

BREAKING NEWS: human writers as we know them are soon to be extinct due to the uncontrollable spread of AI machines!

Image Source: Giphy

What is this, the zombie apocalypse? Are you happy with the idea of replacing human-generated content with mundane marketing material generated by robots? Of course not! Neither is the rest of humanity.

If there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that robots cannot replace the humor, personal experience, or expertise that human writers weave into content. What robots can do is give human writers a starting point via suggested topics or outlines, ultimately freeing up time for humans to write even funnier, more entertaining, and engaging content.

Not only that, but we also believe the more realistic prediction that AI is going to add a new job description to the market: “prompt engineering”. The ability to craft effective prompts for AI machines that result in quality responses is going to be a highly sought after skill in every industry, not just marketing.

Existential Crisis Pending

We couldn’t help but chuckle when we saw one influencer report that “AI will create an existential crisis in marketing!”

WHAT?! AI will automate mundane tasks, like generating social media copy from a blog post, not conquer the marketing industry. We are currently in the process of proving (shhh, it’s a secret test) that AI can’t even write blog quality posts that rank for search, let alone create an existential crisis and come after our jobs.

AI might be able to give you a meal plan for a week, but it can’t automate your marketing strategy– at least not if you want to look like a brand people actually want to do business with.

The Last Straw

We heard from another influencer that AI is killing organic search and we’re all destined to marry robots. If that’s not jaw-dropping enough, the real kicker is that the net result of their conclusion is to keep doing what we’re already doing: create high quality content.

While we’re not so sure about getting hitched to a robot, we can’t argue with that last part! The only way we can educate large language models about our work is by creating something called content mass with high quality content. When you have a dense arsenal of ungated web content, machines will know you and recommend you to their users.

So, we took this little experiment for a spin on our own, and just as we expected…

Image Source: ChatGPT-3.5

Nailed it! That’s because Michael is the king of content creation, and AI machines know it. (Although he didn’t write a book titled “The Empathy Imperative” – Chat-GPT you are such a pretty little liar.)

This confirms what we’ve all known for a long time: content creation is key to keeping your name in search results, even on AI platforms. When you’re a notable content creator and dedicated to educating your audience consistently, large language models are going to pay attention.

With that, we rest our case – here’s what you can do to make yours.

AI Is Taking Over SEO: The Antidote

The antidote to AI taking over SEO is to build content mass. If you’re still on the road to becoming a notable content creator, there’s a few things you can do to kick your content marketing engine into high gear.

1. Prioritize Published Text

We know that language models are primarily trained on text. So, it makes sense for us to create content mass by, you guessed it, publishing more text!

Yes, this 100% includes creating and publishing traditional content forms like:

• Blog posts
• Newsletters
• Social media posts

But when it comes to educating AI, we can’t overlook the impact of also building content mass with other text sources like:

• Published books (on databases, like Books3)
• YouTube subtitles (in YouTube videos)
• Academic papers (on academic paper sites like ArXiv)

Think of it this way: Publishing only traditional content is like serving a hearty vegetable soup to AI machines. Delicious, but they’ll probably be hungry again in an hour or so.

When you add other text sources into the mix, it’s like throwing some pasta, beans, and a little parmesan cheese into your SEO soup. You still need the vegetables, but adding more ingredients will ultimately make your soup more satisfying and memorable.

By publishing both traditional and secondary text sources, large language models are more likely to recognize your marketing efforts and associate your high quality content with your industry, ultimately recommending and mentioning your name to AI users.

You know what to do.

Image Source: Giphy

And remember, creating more published text doesn’t have to be entirely your responsibility…

If you’re short on resources, outsourcing creation allows you to crank out high quality content while you sit back, relax, and reap the rewards.

2. Create Relevant Content

While publishing more text can help, it can also hurt if it isn’t relevant to your work, your industry, and your audience. So, before you click “publish” on the latest version of your marketing manifesto, make sure it addresses your audience’s:

• Questions
• Interests
• Pain points

Creating relevant content mass positions you as a credible source and thought leader, and properly educates both your audience and large language models. This way, AI machines will have a clear understanding of what you’re about, and suggest your name or company in appropriate situations. Voila!

Oh, and remember – publish as much as you can on platforms that aren’t gated, like YouTube. Sharing relevant content on LinkedIn is great until AI machines can’t read it because they aren’t “logged-in”.

3. Be Everywhere Always

Haha! We’re not joking.

How is this even possible, you ask? Start by maximizing the potential of your:

• Blog. Post consistently (at least 1-2 times per week, but more is better), and discuss topics that interest and educate your audience.
• Website. Optimize landing pages for SEO, include CTAs, and track analytics to identify areas of improvement.
• Medium or Substack account (without paywall). Build your subscriber list, share high quality content, and promote your brand regularly.

Build relevant content mass in these areas, and then move into (potentially) less familiar territory. Reach out to thought leaders in your industry, and appear as a guest on their:

• Podcast
• Blog page
• Livestream
• News site

While you’re at it, shout out your brand a couple times to remind both the audience and AI machines that you are a valuable asset to your industry.

Get Your Name Out There

Lastly, you need all eyes on PR and content promotion. We use content promotion to generate guaranteed eyeballs and leads from our client’s best content. Reach out to us asn aks about how!

When it comes to PR, whether you’ve hired a professional or you’ve assumed the position yourself, great PR invites media opportunities, bylines, and more places to publish your content.

News reports and publications inform a decent amount of AI machines’ training data sets, so appearing in the press as much as possible will lead to a marketing-win on your end.

Get Cracking on Content Creation!

Ah, high quality content creation as a means to mastering SEO: a tale as old as time. Now that you have the antidote to the “AI taking over SEO” epidemic, it’s time to get cracking!

Get started today by checking out our weekly blog content service, or schedule a free consultation now to learn more!