SEO began as simple landing page optimizations on desktop computers, soon evolving into more sophisticated processes that include creating engaging content and enhancing compatibility with mobile devices. Artificial intelligence has been around for a long time, but it still holds a unique place in movies—certainly not something that would directly impact the internet any time soon. However, AI is revolutionizing the marketing landscape, and SEO will have to adapt to its presence. How will the two interact?

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No more tricks

Many SEO specialists rely on sleuthing techniques to exploit search engine algorithm weaknesses that achieve higher rankings for websites. AI is trained to look for these clues; thanks to machine learning, systems will adapt to any new tricks human marketers devise without developers consistently updating them.

Instead, AI is going to decipher searchers’ intent at an unprecedented level. What does a question really mean? Is this video or image relevant, despite lack of keywords? Are there any related topics the searcher might want to see?

AI’s pursuit of doing so entails a significant amount of complex linguistic analysis. According to Google’s research division,

“Recent research interests of the Google NLU [Natural Language Understanding] team include syntax, discourse, conversation, multilingual modeling, sentiment analysis, question answering, summarization, and generally building better learners using labeled and unlabeled data, state-of-the-art modeling, and indirect supervision.”

SEO content should be engaging anyway, but marketers are not only appealing to search engines and readers’ attention spans anymore. Instead, they will need to adapt to readers’ ever-changing habits, which AI is more than capable of detecting.

What else will SEO need to account for?  

Rand Fishkin, a marketing professional known as the “Wizard of Moz”, said in a youtube video

:

[My] opinion is that SEO is going to have to accommodate by getting smarter about its keyword research. That means figuring out what types of intent those searchers have on all those devices and platforms, and it’s going to mean that content has to do a better job of serving that searcher intent going forward. This is going to require SEOs to revisit a lot of their basics: getting my keyword research right, tying that to my content—and I don’t think it will change SEO much from a domain perspective or a traffic perspective, but I think those SEOs who fail to connect these dots are going to lose out.”

Something to note in Mr. Fishkin’s statement is that kinds of searches will change. Technological advancements mean that people will not always be typing in queries via keyboard; they will be using voice commandments and searching from an increasing number of smart gadgets. SEO will need to adapt to changing methods in order to keep up.

SEOPressor mentions that one of AI’s most significant impacts on SEO will be the effectiveness and speed that it offers to marketing efforts. In this regard, marketers can make AI work to their advantage: the technology can assess real-time changes, including customers’ willingness to pay for something at any given moment, so SEO professionals can adjust their strategies accordingly.

Can anyone help?

Companies with in-house SEO specialists will be fine, but what about companies that do not have the time, education, or resources to update their SEO strategies when artificial intelligence is at play? There are partners available: 180fusion, one of the world’s most innovative search engine marketing firms, is prepared to help clients gain traffic. They have been assisting businesses with their SEO strategies for years to score one of the coveted top ten Google results, but 180fusion can also help create engaging content that satisfies AI’s criteria for content worthy of the front page.

For people who want a better understanding of how artificial intelligence itself works and how to harness it, a platform called AI Gaming is an excellent resource. Marketers do not have to re-enroll in school to learn about the technology. Instead, AI Gaming

, which allows users to develop “bots” that compete against each other in clever online games, has educational materials to teach neophytes the basics. As participants write their own code that solves puzzles, they can glean a better idea of how to work with search engine AI that is either working for or against them.

AI can do incredible things, like reducing spam and more accurately providing pertinent results to searchers. Both SEO and AI have human components, though, so if marketing professionals know how to adapt to this new technology, they can efficiently navigate an internet landscape that is also home to artificial intelligence.