Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you’ll have noticed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been taking the world by controversial storm. The realm of digital marketing is certainly no exception to that. From SEO AI writers to video producers, the tools available to aspiring SEO marketers have been steadily growing for a while. But are there any AI marketing tools that can live up to their grand claims to be able to transform the way we work?
While there are still reservations about the reliability of AI in everyday life, there’s no denying that AI tools – if used correctly – can enormously boost efficiency. Our SEO agency’s team of experts have rounded up three of their favourites.
ChatGPT
First up, we thought we’d look at arguably the most well-known of the current wave of AI tools, ChatGPT. ChatGPT is the least marketing-focused software on this list, yet its broad versatility still packs plenty of benefits when it comes to SEO strategy. All it requires is an understanding of how to make the tool work for you, while also appreciating its limitations.
Importantly, there are two versions of ChatGPT available: the standard, free model using the GPT-3.5 engine, and the paid-for Plus model that utilises the more powerful GPT-4 engine. For the best SEO functionality and results, you’re better off with ChatGPT Plus, but that doesn’t mean to say the basic model isn’t worth considering. If you’re reluctant to part with the money or are simply interested in trialling what AI marketing can offer, the free version of ChatGPT can still work wonders for SEO.
As mentioned above, ChatGPT’s primary function is not as a marketing tool. It’s an AI language model that generates human-like text responses based on the input it receives. When you type in a request, ChatGPT will respond as if it was a human – except it uses the vast wealth of the internet’s resources to formulate its response and delivers it back to you within seconds.
Used in such a way, we’ve found ChatGPT particularly useful for coming up with content ideas and blog titles. Provide ChatGPT with a subject and it will scour the web before coming back with relevant topic headers, helping to inspire future content plans. It can even structure and plot out these content plans, making the process of writing significantly easier.
While ChatGPT can also be used to write blog posts, here’s where its limitations begin to show. A lot of its content is generic, sometimes irrelevant, and occasionally outright false. As such, you should avoid exclusively using ChatGPT for writing SEO content, though it can certainly be helpful as a tool for creating drafts and outlines.
Frase
From an SEO strategy point of view, Frase offers a significant step up from ChatGPT.
At its core, Frase is an SEO AI writing tool that draws from in-depth SEO research to formulate content. Getting it to work effectively can be a little tricky, but the premise at least is simple: Frase will analyse the top 20 SERPs for any given search term, draw keyword data and other information from each of these SERPs, and use this data to structure and deliver tailored written content.
This ability to produce optimised content based on both competitor research and ranking keywords is, in theory at least, ideal for SEO. If it worked as well as it claims, this could potentially save hours of manual searching on each article or blog. However, just as with ChatGPT, we’ve found that Frase does have its limitations.
The main issue we’ve found is with the content itself. While it can churn out a 2,000-word article in no time, the content is largely unusable without a lot of heavy editing. You’ll be removing a lot of duplicate content, deleting whole sections of false information, and generally having to rewrite everything for readability. Frase certainly isn’t producing finished articles then, but it can serve as a strong foundation for your own content. In this aspect, it more than surpasses the AI SEO abilities of ChatGPT.
Beyond the SEO AI writing software, there are also several bonus tools included with Frase. These include handy features such as meta description writers and the ability to compress long paragraphs into shorter summaries. While ChatGPT can do all these things too, it’s nice to have dedicated tools for each without having to type out a detailed prompt each time. All in all then, while Frase is by no means perfect, it can certainly play a part in your SEO strategy.
Pictory
Often overlooked, video content can play a far larger part in SEO performance than many realise. When Google analyses a page, it doesn’t just look at text; it also looks for other types of media, such as video, to determine the variety of information being displayed. The more varied a page is, the more likely it is to perform in SERPs.
The downside of this is that producing high-quality video content can be incredibly time-consuming. However, Pictory’s AI marketing tool aims to change that.
Pictory, as you may have guessed, is an advanced AI video-creation software. Take a preexisting blog and Pictory will automatically convert the text into a script, allowing you to edit and tweak as you see fit. When you’re ready, it will then turn this script into a full-length video by applying stock footage, music, and voiceovers in a process that takes just a few minutes.
As great as this is, and as with every SEO AI tool we’ve experimented with so far, Pictory does have its weaknesses. For one thing, the stock footage does feel very much that: stock. There’s not much here to make a brand feel unique or stand out. Similarly, Pictory also struggles with anything niche. This is especially true if a word has more than one meaning. When we tried to put together a video about masking products for the building industry, what we got back was footage of facemasks and beauty treatments.
Still, with a little practice, there’s no reason Pictory can’t be an effective tool for producing supporting content. While not for everyone, it will be most effective for those who don’t have video-making experience, or those who simply don’t have the time to spend hours putting together a few minutes of footage. Either way, if you accept that Pictory is unlikely to achieve anything truly groundbreaking, it can certainly contribute to a successful SEO strategy.
So what’s the verdict?
No one AI tool does it all. We’ve tested a few and are underway testing more before we decide to incorporate them into our digital marketing process. Stay tuned for future updates!
Keen on taking your SEO strategy to the next level? Upperdog is a leading SEO marketing agency with proven experience in reaching prime positions in SERPs. Get in touch by sending us an email at hello@upperdog.co.uk or by calling us on 01202 798820.