6 tactical ways to responsibly use AI for everyday SEO

SEO has always involved a lot of manual, repetitive work.

Keyword research, writing title tags and meta descriptions, parsing GA4 exports, auditing massive content libraries – it’s all important, but it’s also time-consuming.

Now, we have tools that can help lighten the load.

From accelerating content ideation to pulling insights from performance data, AI can be a powerful (and efficient) part of your daily SEO workflow.

The real question isn’t if you should use AI – it’s how to use it well.

1. Build a custom AI assistant

A custom GPT is a tailored version of the AI language model that you can create to perform specific tasks or provide particular expertise.

You supply in-depth knowledge by telling it who it should be, its areas of expertise, and providing supplemental information to back that up.

This is beneficial because once you create an “identity,” the AI remembers “who” it is for ongoing support, allowing for very specialized output for your unique needs.

Custom GPTs ultimately improve the consistency of every AI interaction.

Create a GPT

To get started, using ChatGPT, find the Explore GPTs page and navigate to My GPTs > Create a GPT.

You will be greeted with a prompt asking what you would like to make.

Walk through some of the initial questions posed around what your GPT should do and who it’s for.

Configure your GPT

Navigate to the Configure tab to further refine the GPT settings and instructions.

Here, clarify “who” the GPT should be, what specific tasks will be needed, and even example output.

Be as clear and specific as possible.

Prime your GPT

Further prime the GPT by uploading supporting documents, images, and links. This includes:

Audience personas.
Style guides.
Brand standards.

Maybe you have template documents you can supply or links to articles written by the persona you want the GPT to take.

The more information you provide, the better and more strategic the output.

Follow these best practices for priming your custom AI assistant:

Specify, specify, specify: Add as much context to your prompt as possible, such as the tone of the output, who it is for, how long the response should be, or how you want your output to be presented.
‘Act as if’: Ask AI to behave as if it were a person, process, or object. For example, ask “create a recipe as if you are my personal trainer.”
Use ‘do’ and ‘don’t’: Think about what you do and don’t want as a result of your prompt, and be sure to include them to get responses closer to what you envision.
Use examples: Give AI examples of what you would like your output to look or feel like. It is important to avoid using copyrighted material as examples.
Build on previous prompts: Start with a smaller prompt and add more context and information over time. This will allow you to make controlled, smaller edits to the AI output.
Correct mistakes and give feedback: Treating AI like an intern means explaining what parts of its output were useful and which were not.

Creating a custom GPT does require a paid subscription; however, if you are planning to use AI in any meaningful way, it is a worthy investment.

2. Content ideation and topic expansion

You already:

Know your audience.
Have keywords mapped.
Personas defined.
Themes established.

Now, it’s time to scale your content with AI as your brainstorm partner.

The key? Start with the right prompts and priming, and guide the AI like a strategist, not a robot.

Define your starting point

Before even opening ChatGPT, you need to define your foundation.

Think through what keyword themes you want to target, what audience personas or segments the content will speak to, and what stage of the funnel the content is for.

If you have created a custom GPT, then much of this information is pre-loaded.

You just need to ensure the AI assistant knows the goals for the specific content you’re ideating.

The more context you give up front, the more useful the AI’s ideas will be.

Prompt for a brainstorm

Once you’ve clarified your inputs, use a prompt like:

“Generate 20 blog post ideas targeting [PERSONA] interested in [TOPIC], for [BRAND]. These should be optimized for [TREND or PAIN POINT or MOTIVATION]. Ideas should range across different funnel stages and include titles and a short one-sentence description.”

Run the same prompt with different variations of personas, trends, pain points, etc.

Also, change the format to scale ideas across channels, such as changing from blog posts to landing pages, newsletter themes, etc.

Prompt for topic expansion

You probably have some blog posts or resources that are already performing well.

Use prompts to help brainstorm spinoff ideas or content cluster topics, like:

“This blog titled [‘Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet’] at [URL] performs well for [PERSONA or FUNNEL STAGE]. Based on this, suggest 10 related blog post ideas we could create as part of a content cluster. Include different angles like FAQs, how-tos, seasonal content, and guides.”

Organize and prioritize

Drop your AI-generated ideas into a spreadsheet or content planning doc.

Then evaluate based on relevance, alignment with your SEO strategy, and potential for internal linking or different formats.

3. Content gap analysis

A content gap occurs when people search for something related to your business but find that your website doesn’t have content that answers their questions or meets their needs.

Traditional content gap analyses can be time-consuming.

You have to:

Identify what’s missing from your current content.
Think through subtopics, angles, or questions your audience cares about.
Find what your competitors rank for that may also be relevant to you.

That’s where AI comes in to help streamline the process.

Define your approach

There are a few different ways to conduct a content gap analysis, and the route you choose will impact the prompts you give AI.

Are you looking for gaps around specific keyword themes?
Are you comparing your site to specific competitors?
Or are you looking purely to identify what content would complement your existing website?

Prompt for content gaps

Depending on your approach, you need a prompt asking AI to help find what’s missing.

Keyword themes

“Given the content pillar [PILLAR THEME], list keywords where [BRAND WEBSITE] does not rank in this niche. Identify vulnerabilities in the content, like a lack of in-depth analysis or low-quality backlinks, that I can address. Also, list any related articles or pages that can be linked to to build internal relevance.”

Competitors

“My website [URL] focuses on [NICHE], similar to [COMPETITOR WEBSITE]. Perform a content gap analysis to see which topics they’ve covered that are missing from my website.”

Optional add-on

“Compare our content topics with the top 3 competitors for [KEYWORD]. List the topics we’re missing.”

Specific content

“My website [LINK] focuses on [NICHE]. Review this content [URL] and suggest 5 additional subtopics or questions that should be included to make this page more comprehensive.”

Again, give your AI tool feedback and refine the prompts as needed.

Analyze and prioritize

Not every suggested idea will be right for your brand, audience, or goals, but many of the AI responses should highlight content opportunities you may have missed.

Look for:

Frequently asked questions and related concepts.
Internal linking opportunities and ideas that allow for format variety.

Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.

See terms.

4. Repurpose video content

Turn video content into blogs, social posts, transcripts, and SEO-friendly assets.

Video content is often underutilized for SEO.

But when repurposed thoughtfully, especially with the help of AI, video can become a high-impact asset for visibility, engagement, and authority.

It’s not just about squeezing extra mileage out of your assets, it’s about expanding their reach, accessibility, and discoverability.

By turning that content into SEO-friendly formats such as blog posts, landing pages, FAQs, or transcripts, you build topical depth around your priority themes.

Dig deeper: The future of SEO content is video – here’s why

Make sure you have the right tools in place

For transcription, there is a wide range of free and paid tools:

Descript: Fast and accurate, but limited free version.
TurboScribe: Three free transcripts per day.
Otter.ai: Fast and affordable with solid accuracy.
YouTube’s auto-captions: Free and easy if your video is already hosted there.

Generate and clean up the transcript

Start by transcribing your video.

Once you have the raw text:

Review it to clean out filler words.
Fix speaker labeling.
Make it more readable.

This is the initial content that your AI assistant will work with.

Prompt your AI

For writing assistance in turning those transcripts into structured, written content, there is ChatGPT (and you can use your previously created custom GPT for help!), Gemini, Claude, Copilot, etc.

Regardless of the tool you select, this is where the magic happens and where your prompt really matters.

Paste the cleaned-up transcript into your AI tool and ask the AI assistant to rewrite the transcription as a blog post, a webpage for your site, a longer evergreen article, or whatever you need.

As always, be sure to provide specific direction.

Don’t just say “write a blog post.” Instead, try:

“Rewrite this transcript as a blog post targeting the keyword ‘[TOPIC].’ Use [BRAND]’s tone and voice, and preserve the diction used. Include a clear headline, subheadings, helpful bullet points, and a 2–3 sentence summary at the top. Keep it around 800 words and optimize for SEO best practices.”

The more context you give, the better the results, especially if your assistant has already been trained with examples of your voice and goals.

Edit and optimize

Once you have your AI-generated draft, your work is not done.

Now, it’s time to:

Humanize the content.
Refine it for clarity.
Polish the tone.
Check for accuracy.

Optimize for search.
- Add internal links to related content.
- Ensure heading structure is correct.
- Evaluate keyword usage.
- Create metadata.
- Include schema markup if appropriate.

As a final step, consider running your content through an AI detection tool.

GPTZero is my go-to. It details what percentage of your copy is probably written by a human and highlights any specific sentences that are likely AI-generated.

Grammarly and Writer have free AI-detection tools as well.

5. Data analysis and reporting

Digging through Search Console exports, GA4 dashboards, and third-party SEO tools can be daunting.

There’s a wealth of insight buried in all that data, but it takes time, strategy, and context to extract what really matters.

That’s where AI tools can help to summarize, analyze, spot patterns, and even suggest next steps.

Export and clean your data

Start by exporting the relevant data as CSV files or Google Sheets. Depending on your needs, that may include:

Google Search Console query data, page-level performance, and indexation metrics.
GA4 reports on organic traffic, landing pages, engagement metrics, and conversions.
SEO Tools such as Screaming Frog, Semrush, Ahrefs, etc., for keyword rankings, site audits, or link data.

Remove any unnecessary columns, clearly label all of the data, and add any context needed.

Prompt AI for what you need

Upload your file or copy/paste your cleaned-up data into your AI tool of choice. Give the AI a structured, goal-oriented prompt such as:

“Summarize the key SEO insights from this Search Console export. Highlight [DATA POINTS] to explain [TREND]. Then suggest 3 possible next steps based on this data. Also highlight any outliers.”

Fact-check and humanize

Review the AI output critically and consider how the insights align with what you know about the client, campaigns, or search trends.

Before using any of the insights or next steps, be sure to refine the wording and add context so that the information aligns with your objectives.

You can even take the summary provided a step further by asking the AI to help turn the insights into client-facing bullets, written in your brand’s tone and voice.

If you created a custom GPT, this is a great use case for it.

6. AI-branded search audit

As more people turn to AI tools to search, learn, and make decisions, your brand’s representation in these LLMs matters.

Chat agents can impact your brand image, underscoring the importance of proactive digital PR and SEO efforts.

We’ve covered how to integrate AI into your SEO process, but it’s just as important to recognize that these same tools are answer engines in their own right.

Just like with traditional search engines, we need to be intentional about how our brand appears in those results.

An AI audit for brand consistency helps ensure that LLMs accurately, consistently, and positively reflect your brand.

Their understanding of a brand is a reflection of the content available online, including official websites, especially About pages, news outlets, and industry publications.

Define a set of brand-specific questions

Start your audit by identifying a standard set of questions that someone may realistically ask an AI tool about your brand.

Be sure to include some broad questions as well as those that are more specific.

“What does [BRAND] do?”
“What services does [BRAND] offer?”
“Is [BRAND] a good company to work with?”
“How does [BRAND] compare to other [INDUSTRY] competitors?”
“What is [BRAND]’s mission or values?”
“Can you tell me about the history or origin of [BRAND]?”
“What are the reviews or feedback about [BRAND]’s customer experience?”
“Are there any recent controversies, notable news, or accolades associated with [BRAND]?”

The goal is to test how the AI agents describe your company across different themes, such as brand overview, services, culture, reputation, and positioning.

Understand what LLMs know about your brand

Use the same question set across multiple AI tools and LLMs. Start with ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude.

Don’t forget to ask for citations, especially if the response is unexpected.

Manually input each question and copy/paste the responses into a spreadsheet.

Create a table where each row is a question and each column is a platform. This makes patterns (and red flags) easier to spot.

Analyze responses for consistency, accuracy, and opportunity

Now that you have your data, it’s time to audit it.

For each response, consider if the information is accurate, if the tone is aligned with how you want to be perceived, and if anything important is missing.

Also consider if there are insights that signal SEO or content gaps (e.g., services not mentioned, outdated leadership info, incorrect history).

Improve responses

While you may not be able to log into ChatGPT and “fix” an answer, you can influence how your brand is portrayed.

The final step is to update the source material from which these LLMs are drawing.

Ensure your About page, service pages, and leadership bios are up-to-date and comprehensive.
Publish well-optimized blog posts and press releases that reinforce your positioning.
Leverage off-page SEO and PR to earn mentions from authoritative third-party sources.
Consider Reddit SEO to engage with your audience and share content.
Update directory listings, social profiles, and partner sites.
Use structured data and schema markup to clarify information.

If the web is your brand’s resume, ensure it’s not outdated or missing your best accomplishments.

Use AI responsibly: Final tips

Now that you’ve seen how AI can level up your SEO workflow, it’s worth remembering a few key principles to get the most out of these tools, without losing the human touch.

AI = intern, not expert

While AI is a great tool for repetitive tasks and simple analysis, you are the marketing expert.

Treat AI as an intern who can get work started – don’t rely on it as you would an expert on your team.

Be specific

It is important to be clear when it comes to prompts and guardrails for AI.

Tell the AI who they are, what their area of expertise is, what tone and voice to use, what you don’t want included in their response, etc.

Validate everything

It is crucial to validate everything that has been done through AI (with a human).

This allows you to understand a tool’s strengths and weaknesses so you get better outputs.

AI tools are known to hallucinate, or provide seemingly concrete answers that are wrong or misleading. Even robots need fact-checking.

Document prompts that work

AI can give vastly different results depending on the prompt you give it, so it is helpful to save prompts that are proven to work. (More on example prompts below!)

Start small, scale wisely

AI is still evolving, so it’s best to start small and truly understand how AI capabilities can impact your workflow.

Once you understand a tool on a small scale, you will be able to scale up tactically.

Know your tools

Not all AI tools are created equal. Different platforms excel at different tasks, and knowing which tool to use and when can improve your workflow.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT: Great for structured writing, ideation, and refining copy – especially if you’re using a Custom GPT trained on your brand voice
Google’s Gemini: Best for analyzing and problem solving, integration with Google apps is a bonus
Anthropic’s Claude: Performs complex tasks that go beyond simple pattern recognition or text generation. Can process significantly longer inputs than most competitors.
Microsoft’s Copilot: This tool’s strong data security and compliance features make it a great choice. It provides human-sounding answers and works within the Microsoft ecosystem, so it’s perfect for Excel and PowerPoint projects.
Perplexity: Ideal for research and information gathering. Provides quick fact-checked answers with citations.
Deepseek AI: Best for technical tasks, code generation, logic-based SEO challenges, and regex or schema help.

Used responsibly, AI can streamline your SEO efforts, help you move faster, spot more opportunities, and create better search experiences.

But it should always work alongside your expertise, not replace it.