Can A.I. Content Rank on Google?

Intro

With the big hoo-hah surrounding Artificial Intelligence (A.I) and the recent drama surrounding open A.I and their CEO changing 3 times within 3 days, as marketers and SEOs, these questions still continue to boggle the mind - What’s the big deal about A.I? Can A.I Content truly rank on Google? Where should our focus be moving forward? Should we go hand in hand with A.I or should we avoid it completely?

As an SEO specialist myself, I decided to test it on my own website. Slight Disclaimer: This test was done earlier this year, in April 2023.

My initial thought process was – instead of listening to all the fluff from Google or self-proclaimed SEO gurus, why not test it out and see if it works?

Going Back to Basics, the foundation of SEO lies in - Keyword Research and Competitor’s Analysis.

Keyword Research Process

Regardless of countless Google core updates or algorithmic changes, Google is ultimately still a search engine, and will show content relevant to what the users are searching for. Google takes into account the user’s search intent and Semantics. I believe that Ranktracker has a pretty well written article detailing all you need to know about Semantic Search: https://www.ranktracker.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-semantic-search/ Having said that, the following is a quick run down of my keyword research process:

1. Web Scraping of social sites: Reddit, Quora, and other forum sites using any relevant seo tools. In my case I used Ahrefs for this case study.
2. Filter by Country + SERP Positions (I usually filter position 1-10 because I’d ideally want to rank on Page 1)
3. Look for keywords relevant to your industry. In my case - my website/company’s core competency lies in Corporate Graphic Design + Branding.

Screenshot taken from Ahrefs

After taking a look through the potential relevant keywords, I found a keyword that I could potentially rank for - Mixed Branding.

Quick screenshot showing potential keyword and content headers

Competitor’s Analysis

1. Identify Potential Content/Content Gap Analysis
2. People Also Ask Queries

Content Analysis - If you’ve yet to write your article, take a look at what’s ranking on Page 1, identify common headers (H2, H3 tags) on what’s ranking on the first page.

Content Gap Analysis- If you have an existing article (not ranking on page 1), compare your existing article vs those 10 articles on the first page. Look for similarities and differences in terms of content and header, alongside the average word count for those ranking on page 1. Although word count may not necessarily be a ranking factor, consider using it as a gauge instead, especially if your article has thin content. (<500 words)

For those headers that you may have been missing out on, consider adding them in as well to optimise for search intent.

Last but not least, utilise ‘People Also Ask’ Queries. These are potential low hanging fruits that may have minimal search volume, but they are highly relevant organic traffic that could be useful, especially when you’re starting a new website.

Drafting of Content

After completing the keyword research and competitor’s analysis, the following is my structure and flow for this article.

Table of Contents:

• What is Mixed Branding
• Examples of Mixed Branding
• Mixed Branding vs Mainstream Branding
• Advantages of Mixed Branding
• Disadvantages of Mixed Branding
• Mixed Branding Strategy
• Choosing the Right Mixed Branding Agency
• Final Words

A.I Prompts

For this article itself, I utilised ChatGPT 4.0 as my A.I writing tool for the whole workflow. These are the prompts that helped streamline the whole content writing process.

Prompt 1:

You are doubling as an SEO Content Specialist. Craft an enticing article with relevant headers on the topic: <insert topic>

In my case, the topic was Mixed Branding. ChatGPT will generate a rough guideline for the topic.

Prompt 2:

If the title (H1) is not catchy enough, you can use the following prompt: **Propose 10 alternative titles to <insert topic>. ‘Regenerate Prompt’ **where applicable, until you’re satisfied with the title of the article.

Prompt 3:

Next, type in the rest of the headers as a prompt (from the draft table of contents drafted earlier). In my case, ‘E.g. Advantages of Mixed Branding.’

Follow up with the following prompt:** Please include real-life case studies for the relevant headers.**

Repeat this process for the rest of the article.

Prompt 4:

Last but not least, our conclusion prompt: Craft an enticing conclusion

to <insert topic> and entice interested users to reach out

to us (<insert nature of business>) for our services.

Image Creation:

In our case, we designed original infographics (for Headers) and sourced for relevant images for case studies. From a business perspective, blog article images were a good platform for us to showcase our skill sets and offerings to potential web users.

Additionally, there’s always opportunities to rank for ‘images’ tab and drive potential organic traffic to the website.

Image Sourcing:

Since case studies are based on existing brands, please provide credits where applicable. For instance dropping a link to L'Oréal since they’re a case study we’re basing the article off.

Proofread Content Before Publishing

Before publishing any content, always remember to proofread your article. In our case, we edited the language to British English instead of American English (since our main service offering is based in Singapore).
Next, remember to apply best practices for on-page SEO, e.g relevant Header Tags and optimise the images before uploading the article.

Once you’re ready, hit ‘Publish’ and remember to send in the article URL to Google Search Console for indexing!

Image source: conquest creatives wordpress backend

In our case, the article was published on 28 April 2023.

Results

Prior to posting, these are the sites ranking on page 1.

On 11 June 2023, we started ranking on position 11 (Page 2 rank 1).

On 03 August 2023, we started ranking on Rank 1 position 7. Later that month on18 August, our ranking improved to position 6, with 5 of our original infographics ranking in the ‘images’ tab.

Screenshot taken from Google on 18 August 2023.

Here’s the link to the article on Mixed Branding for those who require a visual reference: https://conquestcreatives.com/ultimate-guide-to-mixed-branding/

Alternatively, please feel free to do a Google Search for ‘Mixed Branding’, and you’ll probably find our article ranking on Page 1.

Conclusion: Can A.I content really rank on Google?

So with all the hype surrounding A.I is it really worth the investment? Personally, here’s our take from this study:

• A.I content has the potential to rank on page 1
• However, the foundation for SEO still lies in Keyword Research + Competitive Analysis before content creation.
• Identify Semantic Search before drafting content/applying relevant on-page optimisation and alt text.

A.I has turned out really great for us, not just in streamlining the content writing process, but also in our day to day workflow. E.g drafting emails, replying to clients, summarising e-meetings and scheduling. If you’re not leveraging A.I, why not grab an A.I tool and get started today?

Breakdown of Time Efficiency

The above infographic is a quick breakdown of our time spent leveraging A.I versus without A.I. It took us around 7-8 hours instead of the usual 22-31 hours to complete the article.

Here’s my personal take - if A.I can help to improve productivity and streamline your workflow, why not leverage it? The potential of A.I is limitless and it’s only going to continue improving.

(BTW here’s a link to the reddit thread for those of you who want to catch up on the open AI saga)