Wayne Lockwood: SEO in the Age of AI: How to Get Ahead

We have come to an advanced leg in our internet science journey. We can no longer think of the internet as a glorified encyclopedia. Enter the virtual assistant with its interpersonal secretary skills. Now, we have a machine that functions with human intent. In light of this, our search engine optimization (SEO) must reflect far more than keywords. The internet has become a dimension unto itself. One requiring taxation, government, policing, and commerce. With this complexity comes the need for far-advanced SEO.

SEO Is Distinction

SEO’s raw purpose is to give a brand digital distinction. It uses tech, yes. But these are only the mechanics of it. With so many MarTech options on demand, your challenge is finding the tech that fits well. It shouldn’t be as difficult as finding Cinderella after the ball to try on the glass slipper. Still, market saturation happens at unprecedented rates. There are thousands of feet, but only one can wear the slipper, right? Still, social media gets consumed in mainstream media hashtags. This weighs down the rudder that steers consumers to you. Even with good keywords, hashtags, and relevant shares you get lost in communication. Unless you take the proper steps to move forward with your strategy. You don’t wedge huge feet into dainty glass slippers. You find a metric to size the exact dimensions of the rightful user’s foot.

Changing Venues/Tools

Tailoring your approach to your audience’s preferred method of communication is a timeless SEO skill. SEO is the fertilizer for page relevance continuity. Tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Google Lighthouse are essentials.

Google PageSpeed Insights gives the real-world performance of the pages within your site for both mobile and desktop devices. Additionally, it provides suggestions on how to improve the page. Google Lighthouse is an automated open-source tool for improving the quality of web pages, both public and those which require authentication. It audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, and more.

Mastering the speed of updates is like merging with traffic. Audits like Lighthouse are like crop checking in the agricultural world. Still, location overrides preparation. Plants don’t grow without the sun. Tailor the look of your website to match your message.

Even evolved, the internet will always have basic functions. Plugins aren’t going anywhere soon. If anything, they may be gaining momentum. New major content plugins, like those found on WordPress, are closing gaps in errors. 404 error alerts will become customizable. This means even your failed pages have room for your branding. These plugins will correct redirects and speed the de-indexing process.

Google as an Incentive

Google holds the championship belt in the search engine domination match. That doesn’t look like it will change soon. Acknowledging Google as a deciding force in SEO is standard. Take Google as an incentive to excel past the reach of well-established brands. Google News revolutionizes the way consumers see digital content.

Your customers want pure journalism told from the consumer’s viewpoint. They don’t want the trend race of the major publishers affecting the story. Your SEO puts your report in the Google News docket. The better compatible it is with Google’s new AI search assistants the more chances it has. Your consumers can cut through the hype and opinion mayhem. They can go straight to the pro source. Your source. Brand fame then becomes more than attainable. It is critiqued at all social levels. Responsible SEO is non-negotiable as the gap closes.

Security in SEO

The gap between the tangible and digital world closes further. Data crises have made heavy headlines. One wouldn’t think from an outsider’s view that SEO would hold the keys to this kingdom. Consider it. Becoming an information center for your industry that is also a brand has its own issues. Valuable information becomes exploitable information. Data is gold. Spend and store it with moderation.

Keep in mind that net neutrality is phasing out. Laws like GDPR pass on the same premise as global accounting principles. Data is business. Business requires ethics. SEO must apply to these rules or be a pointless waste of funds. Staying up-to-date on changing security policy is your civic duty. Your evolving content cannot take the transforming step otherwise.

Enter AI Guides

AI has empowered us in more ways than just automation. We have the ability to sift through thousands of pages, which makes these learning machines the university professors of the AI universe. Our dormant digital libraries now become instant downloads. These share to millions of communicating machine brains in an instant. Now, we have to leave lecture notes on each page. Our machines can take our information straight to class. Optimizations give them the ground to form a lecture on their own. SEO becomes more like the University of machines than a keyword list.

Distinguished SEO comes from a professional touch. Speed and performance in SEO now require more muscle behind the vehicle. Solutions exist to take a marketing scheme and add horsepower. Look for AI that empowers the marketer. AI like this has the power of the professor’s mind. It has the ability to find Cinderella on the moon and bring her slipper gift-wrapped. An amazing tool like this is your future saving grace. Invest in the bankable power of AI as a guide. Do so for the speed. Do so also because the traditional models of SEO will eventually fizzle to a low-burn. You will need more machine capacity than the internet’s non-machine learning era had available.

Innovation is Natural Selection

Internet science is in the early civilization years. There will be exploration. Some colonization. Disputes of policy. Some will conquer. Some will take losses. Nothing is certain. Still, one thing we know. Innovation is the evolution of machines. The more life we give them the more they emulate life. Life has basic instincts. Evergreen SEO means optimizing to merge human information with machine intervention. When less is more, life will find its own way. Your job is to be vigilant. To water and sow the seed. As an event, natural growth will happen on its own volition. Allow the best odds for that selection and escape the brand burn-out complex.

As machine learning and AI become more prevalent, what future do you see for SEO? I’d love to hear your predictions in the comments.

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