As we enter into 2023, ChatGPT is everywhere and huge questions are emerging about the impact that ChatGPT and AI as a whole will have on our lives. Marketing professionals have their own questions and those in the SEO and content spaces are on the frontlines of being affected in the immediate future.

Will ChatGPT and other AI replace content writers and content agencies? What role will this tech play in SEO, will it replace SEO altogether? These are legitimate questions for us to be asking, and before you form an opinion you may want to do some testing of your own to see how powerful this technology really is.

Before ChatGPT

AI and machine learning are nothing new in the SEO space, Google has been incorporating NLP (natural language processing) machine learning into their algorithm for years and there are a large number of SEO platforms leveraging similar technologies. So why all of the fuss over ChatGPT? AI is accelerating and this time it is pointed in the direction of potentially automating jobs within the marketing sector, and is putting out a product that looks very human-like.

It’s worth noting that many of us have been talking into our phones, cars, and smart speakers for years now and already interacting with advanced NLP systems, however seeing the creation of written content in real-time is mesmerizing, and the human-like quality of the written word being produced from thin air is impressive. ChatGPT has some very real limitations, so it won’t be the end of content writers or SEO for now, but at the rate this technology is progressing there are very real mid and long-term implications for content, SEO, and all of digital marketing for that matter.

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Danger Will Robinson

ChatGPT’s prowess in crafting captivating, one-of-a-kind content is a game changer for SEO. Imagine having a virtual writing assistant that can effortlessly understand your business and target audience, then generate text that speaks directly to them.

But can ChatGPT really understand your business and target audience? No, but it writes content that is extremely convincing regardless of accuracy. The previous paragraph was written by ChatGPT. This is the most immediate capability that will impact SEO, written content creation. The scary thing is that if this tech is used improperly, it will create large scale convincing content that may be full of inaccuracies.

While SEO agencies and practitioners at the forefront will assuredly use this tech with discretion, you can be assured the spammers and all of the bottom of the bucket providers will not. Hang on to your seats, we will have a problem that search-engines and online content producers will have to deal with. Maybe ai content-detection software and watermarks will be part of the solution.

General Limitations

ChatGPT has some key limitations, the most critical being accuracy. ChatGPT does not “know” things, it is a chat bot using an underlying machine learning model based on NLP. It was trained using text databases from the internet, so the focus is more on creating text with language technology versus figuring things out and providing solutions. Ultimately, the accuracy of information being put out cannot be trusted, beyond that the databases used were up to date as of some time in 2021, so anything reliant on recent information can also not be trusted.

SEO Capabilities

Things are moving very quickly with ChatGPT and SEO, with most practitioners researching, testing, or at minimum asking questions about how this technology should be navigated. Some of the current uses for SEO are:

1. SEO Content Creation
2. Content & Blog Strategy
3. SEO Content Outlines
4. Keyword Research
5. Title & Meta-Description Generation
6. URL Mapping
7. On-Page SEO Analysis
8. Ecommerce Product Description Generation
9. Relevant Sites Identification (link-building)
10. Schema Markup Generation

Now just because ChatGPT can perform these tasks doesn’t mean it is done properly, which is the issue. However, SEO is expensive and these functions could prove extremely valuable for implementing basic SEO.

One challenge is when non-SEO professionals begin using this tool but don’t have the experience to recognize when the output is incorrect. Either way, the SEO game is going to change and ChatGPT and its successors are going to play a big role.

Enterprise SEO Implications

If we look at the nuances of enterprise SEO we can see big potential opportunities with ChatGPT. This tech isn’t going to replace enterprise SEO strategy, but it is a powerful tool in efficiently optimizing large scale websites to achieve SEO best practices. Think about a website with 1k+ pages that has duplicate meta-data (it happens more than you might think). Instead of slugs and formulaic solutions, you could easily use ChatGPT to create custom title tags and meta-descriptions. You have a large scale solution that gets you to point B efficiently as a first step.

Enterprise SEO also often requires large scale content production with a multi-faceted content strategy, and while most enterprise organizations may not be ready to commit to automating content, ChatGPT could play an important role in increasing efficiencies and empowering content staff to create more with less and save countless hours on initial research.

Google’s Position Today

Google initially came out against AI-generated content in April 0f 2022, but has since seemingly shifted its position. Now the focus really seems to lead back to the quality of the content and focus on the user versus a search-engine. Google has a section in Search Essentials (formerly webmaster guidelines) on “Spammy automatically-generated content”. Google states: “Spammy automatically generated (or “auto-generated”) content is content that’s been generated programmatically without producing anything original or adding sufficient value; instead, it’s been generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.”

So ultimately the AI-generated content is ok if it is created for real users and offers value? In the short term that is the message, so you can expect many to be using ChatGPT to create content, probably with heavy oversight. You can also expect the spammers to be heading into overdrive to churn out as much as possible 24/7 to see if they can get a leg up on Google.

Google Looking Forward

It is believed that Google can detect content written by AI, to what degree we don’t know. That being said, as it is abused we can count on Google to release updates to demote or penalize content not in line with their guidelines. These updates can be messy, so maybe you are creating good content with AI and all the right oversight, and maybe you still get affected by these updates. Is it worth the risk? Maybe, maybe not. But we can bet on EEAT becoming even more important as time goes on, so worth investing in that as an extra insurance measure if you are playing in this space.

SEO’s, Writers & Digital Agencies

In some ways everyone in the content and SEO space has just been put on notice, AI is here and is accelerating. The internet is about to get flooded with “pretty-good” content created by ChatGPT, and basic SEO is going to get even more commoditized and cheaper. That means the bar is getting raised for everyone. This is going to ultimately affect all channels in the digital space, content, social, paid media, etc. We all have to get better and put out higher quality.

SEO Automation

ChatGPT isn’t going to end SEO agencies, consultants, or in-house practitioners, but the next iteration might get closer. SEO’s performing basic best practices may not have a place for too much longer, and agencies that rely on process and tools over expertise and talent may be in trouble at some point too. The tools and technology have become too central to modern SEO strategy, we need to use human creativity, innovation, and a more marketing-focused approach to draw out the timeline as long as possible. If it’s simple to execute using tools and process, it will probably get automated through AI sooner than later.

Looking Ahead Into 2023 and Beyond

For now, SEO has another tool to use to improve capabilities, and the search-engines have another moving target to deal with when it comes to spam and its ongoing algorithm improvements. But the trend line is clear, AI will continue to advance and the most simple aspects of SEO, content, and digital marketing will begin to be automated. Step by step it will progress, so we as digital marketers need to be better, improve quality, and use our brains to innovate and deliver better than the machines for as long as we humanly can.

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