Like almost every industry it touches, AI is completely changing the game for SEO.
Since the release of Chat GPT and its numerous competitors such as Claude, Mistral & Llama, a delicate dance has played itself out between machine and humans for supremacy of the written word.
Humans are the master and AI is its protege with a steely capacity to consume volumes upon volumes of written material and reproduce it, predictively, in a form that will, in its own estimation, make sense.
It’s a story as old as the ages, the master and his student, and both combatants are taking a slightly different approach to battle.
AI, with its unfettered capacity to join words together in a calculated attempt at making sense, is staking its claim on volume.
Humans, as the pioneers of prose, and the creators of all that AI studied to hone its skill, are pitting their livelihoods on quality, and the nuance of human emotions and insights and reasoning.
Will AI ever rise up to produce written content as well as humans do?
In some cases the answer is already a yes, and in many other cases its a flat no.
Knowing the layers in between, where AI will augment human productivity like many other technologies before it, is something only a human can discern.
This is what we have set out to explore at Writebolt.
Using AI To Enrich Content, Not Write It
So what is the business case for undergoing a study in creating better content with AI, and building a tool such as Writebolt?
Our purpose is to help as many business owners as possible use AI the right way to create better quality content and rank higher on search engines.
Unlike the sea of other AI writing tools out there, our approach is to enrich written content with research from credible data sources, and internal links to ensure better search engine rankings, not just pump out generic, baseless content from an AI.
It works great if you’re writing content and need to reduce time spent on research, or need to enrich content with data, facts, Twitter posts and more.
In the past 12 months, we’ve conducted thousands of tests using the tools provided by Open AI and its competitors such as Claude, Mistral and Llama, to identify the exact methods and tactics that can be utilised to make large language models spit out well-researched content.
We’ve had some terrific results across a portfolio of websites that have seen their rankings grow, and as anyone that’s attempted to write content with AI knows, we’ve also had our fair share of disasters.
The results definitely show that enriching content in a tactical way with AI, and effectively, choosing your battles, is the best approach.
So whilst us humans may still have the advantage for now in certain types of content, it’s safe to say that AI has a place in content creation, and those learnings are baked into Writebolt.
To understand how we got here, it’s necessary to take a look back at how AI evolved into its current form.
How AI Is Evolving As An SEO Tool
It’s pretty wild to think that just 18 months ago, ‘AI’ was still largely just a buzzword that entrepreneurs tacked onto their pitch decks to raise more money.
AI was wedded to another acronym, ‘ML’ or Machine Learning, just so that people could actually understand what AI actually was.
It wasn’t until the introduction of Chat GPT on November 30, 2022, that AI seemed to take form in peoples minds, and large language models entered the arena.
The rather unimaginative product name that is Chat GPT was the output of seven years of research into AI by a non-profit group called Open AI which was founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman, among others.
Anyone following the journey of Open AI knows that Elon Musk is now suing Open AI for veering away from its non profit origins.
Almost immediately, Chat GPT was being utilised by the search engine optimisation industry to produce mountains of new content in an attempt to game the Page Rank algorithm.
Google, which has dominated the internet with its eponymous and all conquering search engine for almost two decades now was slow to respond, but it’s response in the form of a major algorithmic update in March of 2024 came with an uncharacteristic level of spite.
Many pages were de-indexed because they were using AI the wrong way. The removal of content came with a now infamous ‘pure spam’ label appearing in search consoles everywhere, much to the dismay of many SEO practitioners.
Using AI To Add Internal Links, And More
Did an AI write this?
No.
As an admittedly mediocre writer, it’s taken me hours (yes, literally hours) to write this blog post.
A better writer might have done it in less time, but I felt as a founder I should write this one.
Could AI have produced it faster? One hundred, one thousand percent.
AI writing tools like Writebolt can generate fluent text on virtually any topic in seconds, and when it gets it right it’s a huge productivity advantage for writers and content creators.
So much content on the internet these days is created just to appease Google and lure traffic from its claws, so it’s fitting that AI generates at least some parts of the content found online.
AI writing tools offer real potential to enhance writing quality, but its the improper use that has been a major contributor of the glut of low-quality, hastily produced content that flooded the internet when Chat GPT launched.
Proper use is key.
For businesses and content creators looking to stand out in a sea of AI-generated pages and low quality content, Writebolt offers a solution.
Writebolt (in beta at time of writing) is an AI powered chrome extension that enables anyone to create well-researched, data-driven content that is perfectly optimized for search engines, and still offer some human value to readers
Here’s some of the features we’ll offer:
- Instant links to contextual, relevant research from high-authority sources to enrich your content
- Automated internal linking suggestions to optimize any page for SEO
- Integration of relevant Twitter posts, memes, and multimedia to make content more engaging
Writebolt will enable businesses and creators to rise above the noise with content that is trustworthy, thoroughly researched, and optimized for visibility and engagement.
Whether you’re a blogger, content marketer, journalist or just someone looking to create exceptional web content, Writebolt can be a powerful ally. Give it a try and see how data-driven content can elevate your online presence.
You can signup to our waitlist here.