PONDERING AI & SEO: WHEN ANYONE CAN MAKE ‘GOOD’ CONTENT, HOW CAN YOU BE BEST?

Before we start, let me clarify that this is not another ‘SEO is dead’ post. Search engine optimization is still a critical part of content production, and will remain so. But, AI has some huge implications for SEO, and I’ve been pondering them over breakfast.

First and foremost, as any copywriter or content creator knows, SEO is still essentially about playing the Google algorithms to your advantage. As anyone as old as myself knows, this was far more blatant ten years ago, and absolutely hilarious twenty years ago. Indeed, SEO has matured into an incredibly sophisticated and data-driven field. But, fundamentally, it is all about SERP rankings - i.e. giving Google what it wants, to get those top spots on the first page.

Ask any SEO expert, and they’ll tell you all about their in-depth research techniques, using powerful tools like Ahrefs and Semrush, and how they collect, organize, and filter vast amounts of data to give content teams the best shot at identifying, and addressing, search intent. And, good SEO teams have proven their abilities to bring companies results. This is all fact.

SEO today: a balance between technology, expertise, and talent

But, all the best SEO insights have to be translated into hard content. Things have to be written and created. And herein is the potential problem. You see, even though many writers dread seeing ‘SEO content’ on a brief (because it’s often soul-destroyingly boring), those with a little talent, experience, and attention to detail can usually produce something pretty effective. However, those without talent, experience, or attention to detail tend to churn out complete twaddle. This is why there is so much crap content. And, it is because most content is, relatively speaking, crap, that some are able to stand out. But, more on that in a moment.

Now, I’m not blaming people for being bad writers - there are often unrealistic time and cost pressures for example. But, I’m saying that the sum total is that, no matter how much every single company espouses its SEO content creation prowess, comparatively few really live up to their claims. This is why, especially in highly competitive niches like iGaming affiliate marketing, a few companies really have come to outperform and consistently deliver results.

However, thanks to AI tools like ChatGPT, the process of writing competent SEO articles has just become a lot easier… or at least, it seems so right now. Indeed, I suspect many content teams are already being earmarked for redundancies and pay cuts. But, that could well be a huge mistake. In fact, as I explained in a previous post, now, more than ever before, it's critical to find real creative talent and intelligence.

Let me elaborate. We all know that the only page of Google that really matters is the first page, and we all know that the top three spots are what it's all about. Anyone running an affiliate or media business also knows that organic traffic is key to sustainability. But, the simple truth is there is only one first page, and only three results can be in the top three. Up until now, the big hitters in any niche have been constantly jockeying for those positions. None of this is news, right? But, think about how a company is able to ‘stay in the fight’ so to speak. Go back to what I said at the start - by constantly improving their content based on real-world search data.

Okay. So, this is only possible because of technology, expertise, and talent. Or, rather, a balance between them. There are winners precisely because some businesses are able to out-compete others. And, they do this by acquiring the right people. This has given rise to a very competitive and dynamic marketplace. It's intense and stressful, but it also provides opportunities. But, what happens if the fluidity and the malleability of this ecosystem start to seize up due to AI?

Will AI-induced homogeneity undermine SEO?

A helpful way to visualize this is by thinking of racing. Specifically, motorsport. You have distinct series like Formula 1 or NASCAR, and they all have certain requirements, to make sure all the cars are within a performance range. When it comes to drivers, again anyone qualified to compete in a certain class will have similar experience and skills, often having worked their way up from karting and through all intermediate tiers. The end result is drivers who all fall into a certain range of ability.

And, range is the keyword. For races to be competitive and race series to be sustainable, environments must be maintained that allow, and even encourage, differences. It would be pointless to race if every car and driver were exactly the same (yes, I know, some race series do use the same cars, but they still have drivers of varying skill levels). F1 teams, for example, use engineering prowess and acquire the best drivers, to give themselves the edge. But, they have to experiment and take risks and have to find sponsors and funding to enable this. And, so it’s this human element (expertise, talent, imagination) that makes racing entertaining, and viable as a business. In fact, if I remember correctly, a few years back, Formula 1 did experience this problem. They introduced rules which made the cars too similar, with the end result being extremely boring races that fans, drivers, teams, and sponsors, complained about.

But, anyway, back to SEO and content creation. As I explained in a previous article, (AI Content Tools: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility), although artificial intelligence has enormous potential to improve productivity, it also has the potential to trip businesses up. In that article, I explained how AI text that reads convincingly can hide serious errors and misinformation - and how, without the red flags of poor writing, much of it will inevitably slip through the rather porous quality controls of many overloaded content departments. But, there’s another issue, and that is degrading qualitative differences in SEO content.

If AI tools enable the standard of SEO content to be raised across the board, it will inevitably result in more homogeneity. And, like the motorsport analogy, this may cause some real issues for SEO teams. After all, though most people like to think of SEO success being because they are good at it, everything in life is relative, so it's also true that success is achieved because other teams are bad at it. So, what happens when no one is bad at it anymore? What happens to analytics and data, when the differences start to diminish very significantly? Again, analytics is possible because there are measurable, qualitative, and quantitative differences.

In other words, if most content stops sucking, then it's going to be harder and harder to stand out. And, if there’s no way of standing out, then how does the Google algorithm continue to evolve? Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is going to happen overnight, and again, I’m not saying SEO is dead. I’m just saying that, so far, I’ve not seen anyone address what happens to search dynamics, over the long term, when content becomes, technically speaking at least, ever more homogeneous. And, then there’s the elephant in the room. What happens when every company can use AI tools to not only augment writers but also augment SEO teams themselves?

I can imagine a situation where AI tools are writing content, that is analyzed by AI. The AI will constantly be evolving and improving, and here’s the clincher, the exact same capabilities will be available to every business. Obviously, there will always be someone who gets the best rankings, but I’ve got a feeling that Google, and the new breed of search engines (yes, Google is doomed in the long run), have changes up their sleeves that are going to transform SEO beyond recognition.

Many years ago, I watched an interview with American entrepreneur Mark Cuban, in which he advised young people to avoid studying technical subjects, and instead go into the arts. The presenter was a little baffled, but Cuban explained that technological changes were coming that would render most technically oriented jobs redundant in the near future, and the key to thriving in that future would be human creativity. Logically, Cuban was likely correct. Although today, companies have teams of humans pouring over ever-increasing amounts of data, and ‘data-led’ is a buzzword, this is exactly the kind of thing AI is built for. However, AI doesn’t get ideas for the next post after six pints at the pub or discovering a Hungarian coin down the side of the sofa.