AI is currently all the rage in practically every sphere of marketing and business. ChatGPT seems to have taken over the world. SaaS companies are racing to develop an AI element to their solutions, afraid they will be left behind in the dust.
But how can AI help you rank your SaaS website better? How can you utilize it for SEO and engage and convert a larger portion of your audience? Here are eight tactics to implement:
SERP Analysis
In order to ensure your pages rank well, you will need to understand what kinds of pages are favored by the search engine. An AI tool can do a lot of the legwork for you in this department, saving you a lot of manual comparison and analysis.
Tools like SEMRush will provide basic information like keyword difficulty and global search volume, but they can also specify search intent and CPC, so you know what you are up against.
Note that these numbers don’t always adequately reflect how easy or difficult it will be to rank for a search term. None of them truly know how the algorithm works, so the best they can provide is an estimate.
Keyword Research
Keyword research has always been a somewhat automated process — i.e., you relied on a keyword research tool to get the job done. And now, you can speed it up further with the use of AI.
If you want to use ChatGPT for your keyword research purposes, you can talk to it about the terms your competitors use to rank certain pages, the search terms people look for when exploring a certain topic, or the LSI keywords that you should include in your article.
You can also rely on an SEO tool like SEMRush or Surfer, which can evaluate keyword difficulty, search volume, and relevant adjacent keywords to rank for. These tools will also come with content editors or content generators, so you can add keywords to your content from the tool itself.
On-Page Optimization
You can use AI to generate all those pesky on-page elements that can take a long time for humans to type, check, and implement on a page.
This includes great title tags, H1s and H2s, meta descriptions, alt attributes, and so on. You will need to provide your target keyword and potentially ask for corrections if you’re not satisfied with the initial result.
All you need to do then is copy and paste these elements into your CMS.
Also, ask for several variations of each element. Then you can run future A/B tests and ensure that you get the best possible click-through rates.
Content Writing
Using AI to create content is where things get a little bit dicey.
There are plenty of tools you can use to generate articles, landing pages, and even ebooks. From ChatGPT and Surfer to Jasper, Frase, and Grammarly, you can now get a complete product in a matter of minutes.
However, AI-generated content is not a long-term strategy. It lacks depth, it is mediocre at best, and it will not help your brand stand out.
Instead of using AI to do all the work for you, use it to enhance your content creation efforts:
- Generate outlines with the help of an AI writer.
The tool will amalgamate the headings used by the top-ranking posts and give you a fair idea of what needs to be included in your article. You can ask for alternatives, add your own, and save yourself a lot of time on manually crafting blueprints.
- Generate first drafts.
If you want to generate an entire article using AI, make sure to thoroughly edit and personalize it. Use the text as a draft and as a starting point; don’t publish it word-for-word.
- Brainstorm ideas.
You can also talk to an AI to get inspired and overcome writer’s block. The bot may spark a new thought or a new point of view. Think of it as talking to another writer, who is a bit less intelligent than you are.
- Proofread and spell-check your work.
AI can catch your misspelled words and incorrect grammar incredibly quickly, and it tends to be much better than any built-in version.
- Ask for a better word choice.
If you know how to ask the right questions, AI can also help you edit your work. This can be a great way to include synonyms and LSI keywords naturally.
- Ask for feedback.
You can also ask an AI tool like ChatGPT to give you feedback on the article you’ve completed. It can evaluate it for style, readability, and ease of understanding, for example.
If you are outsourcing any part of the content writing process, make sure to check with the agency you’re working with whether they use AI and to what extent. A good SaaS SEO service will know how to make the most of AI-powered SEO tools while still relying on human brains to produce the best possible content.
Content Optimization
AI tools can come especially handy when it comes to content optimization. All you need to do is input your desired keyword(s), and the tool will generate a list of keywords you need to add to your article. You can then use the built-in content writer or editor to edit your text and include all of these required terms.
Surfer is probably one of the best tools for this job, but you can also try Frase. Both of these tools can also generate outlines for you if you need them. Surfer also has a SERP analyzer feature that will tell you how optimized the top-ranking pages are so you can easily do a better job and make your page more relevant.
You can also use AI-powered tools to determine whether a page is overoptimized for a certain keyword. PageOptimizerPro, for example, has a neat feature that will tell you which keywords you’ve used too many times.
Image Optimization
Image creation and optimization is another integral part of SaaS SEO. You can use AI tools, like DALL-E, Canva, or Midjourney, to create original images to use in your blog posts and even on your social media. All you need to learn is how to create the right prompts.
It will take a bit of trial and error, as the AI isn’t always quite sure where to place which element of an image, but you very quickly get the hang of it. You’ll notice that most AI image generators are great at creating all kinds of textures, but they have a bit of a problem with generating human hands.
Another great way to use AI for image optimization is to rely on a tool like Imagify to resize and compress images. This will ensure your pages load quickly and that the images fit the screen properly.
Backlink Analysis
AI-powered tools like SEMRush can also help you analyze the backlink portfolio of a competitor (or your own website). You’ll learn about the authority of the website and the quality of the backlinks. This will enable you to understand what kinds of backlinks you need to build to outrank them.
You can compare websites, analyze different backlink types, and populate your backlink-building outreach list at the same time.
This can be a great boost for your SaaS SEO strategy. You won’t just learn about the kinds of links pointing to a competing website; you can also learn more about their overall content marketing strategy and determine what their best-performing content is. You can then outdo them more easily. You’ll also understand your target audience better this way and perhaps uncover pain points you weren’t aware of previously.
Create an Entire Website
Incidentally, you can also create an entire website from scratch with the use of AI. A tool like 10Web can build a website, host it, and even create some content for you.
The best part is that it will also ensure that your page speed scores are very high. It will tick all the required Core Web Vitals boxes so your website will rank well from the get-go.
This can be a great tactic if you want to spend as little money as possible on a designer and developer. You will need to spend some time tweaking the design, but the tool is very responsive. You can literally tell it to adjust the smallest of details, and it will do it effectively.
Wrapping Up
When implementing any AI-power strategy, don’t forget that no AI solution is perfect. AI is not a silver bullet for anything, and that includes SEO. You may not see magic happen overnight, and you won’t be able to take your hand off the wheel completely. Especially not at the very beginning.
With that in mind, there’s no reason why you can’t supercharge your SaaS SEO with the help of artificial intelligence. Just don’t forget your customers are still humans.
