A Human-First Approach To Generative AI and SEO

Content creators are constantly seeking ways to produce high-quality, SEO-friendly content that provides real value to their audience. At the same time, content marketers are expected to scale programs—without sacrificing quality—within stricter timelines and smaller budgets. 

It’s daunting. But it doesn’t have to be.

AI and automation platforms, like Copy.ai, offer content marketers an extraordinary advantage—the ability to generate high-quality content at scale.

And before you go down a “but what about Google” rabbit hole for SEO-centric content, as of early February, Google stated that they don’t care about how content is produced, so long as it’s high-quality.

In this article, we’ll discuss several best practices to help you make the most of these AI-powered tools and create high-quality content that ranks.

Focus on quality and value

When using generative AI tools, it's essential to remember that the quality of the content generated is directly related to the quality of the input (prompts) you provide. 

Think of it this way: If you provide a writer with a half-baked brief that lacks direction, helpful context, and even a goal, you can’t expect the first draft to be a home run. The same goes for your prompts.

To get the best possible output, take the time to carefully craft your prompts, ensuring they’re designed to generate the highest quality and most valuable content. Don't just throw a few keywords at the AI and hope for the best—be intentional with your prompts. If you’re not sure where to start, you can use any of these marketing prompts to get started.

Tips for Prompt Engineering

1. Be specific: Clearly define the topic and the angle you want the AI to cover. This will help the AI understand your requirements and generate relevant content. To ensure you’re writing fantastic prompts 100% of the time, you can use Copy.ai’s Prompt Improve feature, which will probe you for the appropriate additional context needed to go from ok prompt to fantastic prompt!
2. Ask open-ended questions: Open-ended questions encourage the AI to think more deeply about the topic and provide more comprehensive answers.
3. Provide context: Giving the AI some background information about the topic can help it generate more accurate and relevant content.

There’s a lot you can do within the realm of prompt engineering to improve the quality of content that’s generated. That’s why our very own Anna Bernstein, Prompt Engineer at Copy.ai has put together a lesson on prompt writing:

Want to become a prompt writing expert? Check out these resources:

• 7 Prompt writing improvements you can make today
• [Webinar] Introducing Prompt School: Your output is only as good as your input

Use prompt chaining

Instead of asking the AI to generate an entire article in one go, use prompt chaining—a technique that breaks down the content creation process into smaller, manageable tasks. This approach allows the AI to focus on each task separately, resulting in better overall content quality. Here's a simple prompt chaining workflow you can follow:

1. Create an outline: Ask the AI to generate an outline or a list of subheadings for your content. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure a logical flow of information.
2. Write the content: With the outline in place, ask the AI to write the content for each subheading. This will ensure that each section is well-developed and focused on its specific topic.
3. Rewrite in your brand voice: Once the content is written, have the AI rewrite it in your brand voice to maintain consistency across all your content.
4. Format the content: Ask the AI to format the content with proper markup, such as headings, bullet points, and bold text, to improve readability.
5. Edit and refine: Finally, pass in your style guide and editorial criteria to the AI, allowing it to act as its own editor and further improve the content quality.

Leverage available data

AIaaS platforms like Copy.ai are designed to take in data and use it to generate personalized, relevant content. To make the most of this technology, ensure that you provide the AI with as much data as possible. Here are some ways to leverage data when using AI:

1. Target keywords: Pass in your target keywords to get SEO-optimized content that ranks well on search engines.
2. Customer data: Provide customer data (such as demographics, preferences, and behavior) to generate personalized marketing content that resonates with your audience.
3. Existing documentation: Summarize and repurpose existing documentation to create fresh content that covers familiar topics from new angles.
4. Web searches and data scraping: Perform web searches and scrape reliable data sources to include the latest information and statistics in your content.
5. Internal documentation: Integrate your internal documentation as a source of truth, ensuring that the AI-generated content aligns with your organization's knowledge and expertise.

When using Copy.ai, you can save time on the context sharing with Infobase, a place where you can store information about your company that can be referenced in prompts to improve the quality of content generation. 

Maintain brand voice and style

Consistency in brand voice and style is essential for building trust and recognition among your audience. To achieve this, have the AI learn from your existing content and pass in your style guide, ensuring that it follows your rules and writes content that matches your brand's voice.

Tips for maintaining brand voice and style

1. Analyze existing content: Review your current content to identify the unique elements of your brand voice and style.
2. Create a style guide: Document your brand voice and style guidelines, including tone, language, formatting, and any other relevant elements.
3. Train the AI: Provide the AI with examples of your content and your style guide to help it understand and replicate your brand voice and style.

Wrapping up

Google's guidance on AI-generated content emphasizes the importance of rewarding high-quality content, regardless of how it's produced. Their ranking systems aim to surface content that demonstrates expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T). By following the best practices outlined in this article – prompt engineering, prompt chaining, leveraging available data, and maintaining brand voice and style – you can harness the power of AI to generate high-quality content that ranks well in search results and provides real value to your readers.