🔍 What is SEO and Why Is It Important?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of optimising your website and content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is simple: increase your visibility when users search for topics, products, or services relevant to your business.

Why does it matter? Because 75% of users never scroll past the first page of Google. If your website isn’t ranking well, you’re essentially invisible to potential customers. SEO helps drive organic traffic, meaning you get more visitors without paying for ads. This leads to higher brand awareness, better lead generation, and ultimately more revenue.

In today’s digital-first world, SEO isn’t just an optional marketing tactic, it’s a core strategy. Whether you’re running an online store, a SaaS business, or a content-driven blog, SEO ensures you’re discoverable, competitive, and aligned with user intent.

🔍 Why AI Matters in SEO 

With search algorithms becoming increasingly sophisticated and user expectations constantly shifting, relying solely on traditional SEO tactics is no longer sufficient. Artificial Intelligence introduces a layer of automation and adaptability that allows SEO efforts to become more intelligent, scalable, and aligned with how modern search engines operate.

One of the most significant impacts of AI on SEO is its influence on how search engines interpret queries. Google’s algorithm updates are built on AI frameworks designed to better understand the context and intent behind search terms, rather than just matching exact keywords. To remain visible in search results, websites must align their content strategies with this AI-driven approach, focusing more on relevance, structure, and user value.

AI also empowers marketers with the ability to process massive amounts of data in real time. Whether it’s analyzing search trends, monitoring competitor strategies, or tracking user behavior across a website, AI tools can uncover actionable insights in seconds, saving time and enabling quicker decision-making compared to manual methods.

Finally, AI streamlines the SEO workflow by automating time-consuming tasks. It can handle everything from running technical audits and identifying crawl issues to generating optimized meta descriptions or updating outdated content. This automation frees up time for SEO professionals to focus on strategy, content development, and long-term growth initiatives.

🔍 5 Steps to Leverage AI for Smarter SEO

✅ Step 1: Supercharge Keyword Research with AI 

Keyword research has evolved from a manual, data-heavy process into a highly automated and insight-driven strategy thanks to AI. SEO AI tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs go beyond just listing keywords, they use AI to analyze your niche, uncover long-tail keyword opportunities, and assess the competitiveness of each term. These platforms also provide related questions, keyword difficulty scores, and SERP insights that help you target terms with genuine potential. 

AI-powered SEMRush

Google Keyword Planner, powered by Google’s own machine learning, suggests variations and trends based on user search behaviour. If you’re looking to understand what users are asking, AnswerThePublic uses AI to visualise real-time keyword queries in question-based clusters, which is invaluable for building topical authority. 

AnswerThePublic

And for forward-thinking strategies, AI-powered SEO tools like BuzzSumo or Exploding Topics identify emerging trends early, helping you get ahead of the competition. By using AI-powered tools, you can spend less time on research and more time executing a keyword strategy that reflects what your audience truly wants.

Exploding Topics

✅ Step 2: Use AI to Create and Optimise SEO Content

Producing high-quality content that satisfies both users and search engines can be a balancing act, but AI can help streamline the process without compromising creativity. SEO AI tools like Jasper and Copy.ai use AI to generate blog post ideas, create outlines, and even write long-form content tailored to your tone and audience. These platforms are especially useful when facing writer’s block or scaling up content production across topics.

Once content is drafted, platforms like Surfer SEO and Frase take optimisation a step further by comparing your content with top-performing pages for the same keywords. They’ll suggest improvements around keyword usage, structure, headings, word count, and even internal linking opportunities.

Frase

Additionally, tools like MarketMuse audit your existing content and identify areas that need refreshing or expansion, ensuring your content stays competitive and relevant. Whether you’re creating new blog posts or updating old ones, AI ensures your content is built for both discoverability and engagement.

✅ Step 3: Optimise Technical SEO with AI

Technical SEO often feels overwhelming, but AI is changing that by automating audits, diagnosing issues, and guiding implementation with precision. Screaming Frog is a trusted SEO crawler that uses AI to scan your entire website, detecting problems like broken links, duplicate pages, missing meta data, and crawl errors, all within minutes.

Tools like Botify offer similar functionality but go deeper into crawl budget optimisation and log file analysis, ideal for enterprise websites. For performance and speed, PageSpeed Insights and NitroPack use AI to measure Core Web Vitals and offer targeted recommendations to reduce load time and improve mobile responsiveness.

PageSpeed Insights recommendations

When it comes to structured data, Schema Markup Generator helps you implement schema with little coding knowledge, allowing search engines to display rich snippets that boost click-through rates. These tools allow you to maintain a technically sound site without needing to be a developer.

✅ Step 4: Build Smarter Backlinks with AI

Earning authoritative backlinks is one of the most powerful ways to boost rankings, and AI makes the process smarter, faster, and far more strategic. AHREFS Backlink Checker allows you to reverse-engineer your competitors’ link-building efforts, revealing the sources of their top backlinks so you can target similar opportunities.

AHREFS Backlink Checker

Pitchbox, an AI-assisted outreach tool, streamlines the process of identifying high-quality link prospects, crafting personalised pitches, and managing outreach campaigns, all at scale. It takes the guesswork out of email templates and prioritises the most responsive contacts. The result is a backlink profile that’s not just big, but credible, relevant, and strategically aligned with your SEO goals.

✅ Step 5: Track Performance with AI-Powered Analytics

Once your AI-driven SEO strategy is in motion, the next step is to monitor progress and adjust based on real-time insights, and this is where AI-powered analytics tools shine. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) integrates AI-driven predictive metrics, such as the likelihood of conversions or churn, helping you anticipate trends and optimise content and campaigns accordingly.

For more SEO-specific tracking, SEO Tester Online offers a suite of tools that track keyword positions, monitor crawl health, and audit on-page elements, all enhanced by AI insights that flag areas for improvement.

If you’re juggling data from multiple sources, like Google Search Console, AHREFS, and SEMrush, Databox consolidates these metrics into visual dashboards with AI-powered alerts and recommendations. This allows you to identify what’s working, what’s not, and what to do next, all without having to analyze spreadsheets manually. With AI in your analytics stack, you gain not only visibility into performance but also the foresight to optimise faster and more effectively.

🎯 Final Thoughts: Make AI Your SEO Co-Pilot

Ultimately, AI is not just a buzzword or a passing trend, it’s a transformative force reshaping how SEO is strategised, executed, and optimised. Whether you’re trying to climb the rankings, streamline your workflow, or stay ahead of algorithm changes, AI gives you the competitive edge to do it faster, smarter, and with greater precision.

But leveraging AI effectively isn’t just about using tools, it’s about knowing how to orchestrate them into a cohesive, high-impact strategy. That’s where we come in.

At Rijks Digital Marketing Agency, we specialise in helping businesses harness the full potential of AI to supercharge their SEO. From automated content optimisation and technical audits to AI-powered keyword research and performance tracking, we bring a data-driven, forward-thinking approach that delivers real results.

If you’re looking for expert guidance on how to implement AI into your SEO efforts, or you want a team that can handle it all for you, Rijks is ready to help. Let’s future-proof your SEO strategy together.

🚀 Ready to automate your SEO with AI? Get in touch with us and let’s turn search engines into your strongest growth channel.