Why Our AI Competitor Isn’t Really a Competitor
2023 was the year AI broke through to the general public. In November 2022, OpenAI made its ChatGPT chatbot available for free to anyone who created an account. It seemed to answer every question with clear, concise, and easy-to-read text.
It wasn’t long before AI copywriting took off in a big way. ChatGPT was being used to write essays, blog posts, and even books. The death knell sounded for the copywriter.
Fortunately, things aren’t quite that bad. All the experiments with ChatGPT have shown that the model has its limitations and, for now, is running into them pretty frequently.
The bot generates content based on the user’s query and what has already been written about the topic online. However, a poorly worded query or unreliable sources often result in unusable text.
You still need to check AI-generated copy for inaccuracies, screen it for online plagiarism, and rewrite it to match your company’s tone of voice. Enter the copywriter!
ChatGPT is therefore not a replacement for human copywriting, but rather a tool that helps us work more efficiently. We outsource the tedious tasks so that we can focus entirely on the creative aspects.
How ChatGPT Can Help You with AI Copywriting
SEO content is designed to attract people to your website in an organic and sustainable way. You write content that answers their questions, based on the keywords they enter. Yep, writing SEO content is hard work. Outsourcing it to a specialized SEO agency is therefore a wise choice. Contact us so we can help you.
If you do decide to try your hand at AI copywriting, open ChatGPT. Searching for keywords, doing research, outlining a structure, generating metadata, coming up with CTAs…You’ll call on the chatbot for help at nearly every step of the process. The exception is the actual writing, where you enrich the copy with your expertise, experience, and authority to build trust, fully in line with E-E-A-T. That’s how you create helpful content that both Google and your target audience absolutely love.
Incorporate ChatGPT into your SEO process:
Treat ChatGPT like any other SEO copywriter
And by that we don’t mean storming into the office, yelling “Why aren’t we number 1 yet!?”, showing thirteen shoddy pages that HAVE to score, setting the deadline for “yesterday,” and, just before slamming the door shut, announcing that the already meager payments have been delayed a bit.
No, think of ChatGPT more as an in-house personal assistant for all your writing tasks. Just like a real-life SEO copywriter, AI copywriting requires a clear briefing and as many details as possible. So provide the chatbot with all the information about your target audience, your tone of voice, your keywords, the length, structure, and purpose of your text, and the format in which it will appear…
Example
Better not: “Write a LinkedIn post about the opening of a new furniture store.”
Better option: “Write an engaging LinkedIn post of no more than 200 words about the opening of Meubels & Meer. Meubels & Meer is a new furniture store in Hasselt that sells both new and secondhand furniture. The target audience consists of people over 35 living within a 25-kilometer radius of Hasselt. Make sure your text sparks interest and encourages readers to click on the link to the Meubels & Meer homepage. Use a playful, conversational tone.”
The first draft is a jumble of clichés and platitudes, with only names, dates, and addresses to distinguish one furniture store from another. But with a little more polishing of the second version, you’ll have a catchy LinkedIn post ready in a relatively short time, without your entire network realizing you used some AI help.
AI Copywriting for SEO Content: How to Get Started
ChatGPT can be used for various steps in the process of creating new content. In each of the example boxes, you’ll find a prompt that you can easily adapt to your specific question.
Keyword research
You can derive the topics and angles for your content from keyword research. This prompt provides you with immediate inspiration in the form of keywords related to your product or service. Of course, you’ll still need to evaluate them yourself based on search volume and keyword difficulty. Ideally, you’ll want higher search volumes and a lower “keyword difficulty” (KD).
Example
“Give me a list of [number] keywords related to [topic].”
Search intent is at least as important as keywords. What is the question behind the question? Is someone Googling to compare products, to get a quick answer, or to find more information? We break down search intent into different categories—a task that ChatGPT can help you with very well. Tailor your content to the search intent and check whether it aligns with the content on the SERP—the search results pages.
Example
“Group the following keywords based on search intent: informational, navigational, commercial, transactional: [keywords].”
Ten keywords whose search volume and difficulty you’ll be analyzing, neatly organized by search intent, with additional explanations for transactional search intent. Thank you, ChatGPT!
Research
When it comes to the content of your text, draw on your own expertise, experience, and authority. Still, it’s never a bad idea to see what others have already written. Not to blindly copy them and produce duplicate content, but rather as inspiration and to supplement your own ideas. With long texts, that can be a time-consuming task. So why not try this prompt?
Example
“Write a summary of no more than 150 words based on the text below: [copied text].”
Another option is to enter the text into ChatGPT and then ask questions about it, as if you were having a conversation with the original author.
Export Structure
With your keyword in mind, your experience at your fingertips, and plenty of inspiration in your backpack, you’re eager to start writing. Our tip: Start by mapping out the structure of your text. This will give you a better idea of where each heading should go. Headings are important for readability and for the crawlers that index your text. Having trouble figuring out the structure on your own? Just ask for a little help getting started.
Example
“Give me a detailed outline, including H2 and H3 headings, for an article titled [your title]. Under each heading, list two bullet points with topics to explore in more depth.”
Writing
Finally! Let those words flow from your keyboard. Fill in your outline with all your knowledge and examples. And of course, be sure to use our 7 Word tips. Struggling with writer’s block? Or looking for a phrase you just can’t quite nail? Then switch over to ChatGPT, your AI copywriting tool.
Examples
“Give me three different metaphors for an article on [topic]. The metaphors should make my text more lively and colorful.”
“Give me 3 different versions of the text below. Write each version in a different style. [your text]”
Seeing your content in three different styles provides plenty of inspiration for a creative rewrite. The metaphors are somewhat poetic, but they’re still good starting points for spicing up your copy.
Review
Done! Just post it online and move on to the next one. But you’re skipping an important step. Nothing is more distracting or unprofessional than a missing word or a “dt” error in your text. If you’re not entirely confident in your writing skills or find it difficult to proofread your own copy, it’s better to outsource that task.
Example
“Take on the role of a professional editor and edit the text below. Correct any spelling errors and check the grammar. Make sure the text reads smoothly: use short, clear sentences, clear and simple language, and a good structure. [your text]”
Metadata and social media copy
ChatGPT also provides inspiration for short copy, such as page titles, meta descriptions, or social media posts. These need to be a certain length and convince people to click through, so make sure the chatbot takes that into account.
Example
“Provide me with [number] [SEO titles/meta descriptions/tweets] of up to [60/155/280] characters for the blog post below. Make sure to pique the reader’s interest and curiosity. The [SEO titles/meta descriptions/tweets] should encourage readers to click through to the blog post. [your blog post]”
Take all of ChatGPT’s answers with a grain of salt. For both the page titles and the meta descriptions, only two meet the maximum length requirement. What’s more, we cringe at titles with exclamation points and words that are all capitalized. But by combining these five suggestions with your own experience, you’ll come up with metadata much faster than by staring at your screen for hours, waiting for inspiration.
Get the Most Out of ChatGPT for Your SEO Copywriting
AI copywriting is the smart use of tools to produce content more efficiently. We don’t want to keep these tips and tricks—which show how ChatGPT can help with your SEO copywriting—from you.
Example
“Analyze the text below and describe its style, sentence structure, word choice, and tone of voice. Be very specific and clear. [your text].”
ChatGPT will summarize your writing style in its response to this prompt. Save it and use it next time to generate text in your style. Of course, you’ll want to refine it further with specific experiences and real-world examples.
Example
“Clarify your answer.”, “Simplify the paragraph under the second heading.”, “Shorten the introduction.”
Not satisfied with the output or need more options? At the bottom of the answer, you’ll see a few icons: a clipboard to copy the text, a thumbs-up and thumbs-down to provide feedback, and a spinning arrow. Clicking on the latter will prompt ChatGPT to generate a new answer to your question. The prompts above are, of course, also good ways to improve the output.
This guide will help you use ChatGPT effectively to improve your SEO copywriting. Not satisfied with the results? Contact us, and as a specialized SEO agency, we’ll help you with copywriting and all other aspects of your SEO. We’ll also help you get found on ChatGPT. Or let our experts assist you with your AI-driven search engine optimization. Boost your online visibility by leveraging AI-powered search engines.
