4 ways Artificial Intelligence changes the game for SEO

Will 2017 be the year that computers outsmart human brains? Maybe. It’s one of the many high-tech trends that everyone is keeping an eye on.

But how does that change the game for Google search and those working so hard to optimize their websites for search?

Here are the ways Artificial Intelligence can affect you if Google search and SEO are important.

Less black-hat tactics

As Artificial Intelligence takes over Google search, one of the things SEOs will need to be on the lookout for is the ability for search engines like Google to catch bad behavior amongst webmasters and link builders more thoroughly, and therefore, more often.

As Artificial Intelligence learns the patterns, it will better be able to identify blog networks and other link schemes, allowing penalties to be applied to websites and algorithm changes to be made on the fly if enough patterns are detected.

That’s why you need to have a complete SEO software solution in place, like SEO PowerSuite, to ensure that you are getting quality links and optimizing your website the right way.

No need to govern search engines

You know all of those reconsideration requests and other requests you put through to Google when your website gets hit with one of the above-mentioned penalties or algorithm changes?

If search engines find a way to get Artificial Intelligence to dominate the search and SEO world, there will be fewer people manning the search engine support stations.

And that means less response to support requests, including those to get your website re-listed in search when it gets penalized. So the goal is to do your best not to get penalized, because if you do, your chances of getting your rankings back could be a lot slower.

In other words, your goal as Artificial Intelligence grows is to keep your website as safe as possible.

Exact keyword phrases won’t matter to AI

The Artificial Intelligence behind search engines like Google today are working with more than just keywords typed into the standard Google search box on an average desktop browser. Instead, Artificial Intelligence is now dealing with desktop searchers, tablet searchers, mobile searchers, and voice searchers.

This leads to a lot of variations of keyword phrases based on the searcher’s device, which could be anything from a full-size keyboard to the user’s voice.

Hence, Artificial Intelligence will learn by learning that a keyword phrase on one device could sound difference when spoken than when typed, but still need to go to the same search results.

Or, Artificial Intelligence will learn that a keyword phrase being searched inside a store needs different results (such as price comparisons) than a keyword phrase being searched from home (such as where an item is online and nearby).

Even search companies can’t beat their own AI

You know all of those tips and tricks that Google, Bing, and other search engines provide to help you increase your chances of ranking well in search?

It’s hard to trust their advice when they can’t even get their own products to rank first in search using it.

Overcoming Tough SEO Challenges in 2017 & Beyond

It is often said that the tried and true methods are the ones that get the best results. In the ever-changing world of SEO, having a method that can consistently boost your rankings is worth every second and every dollar you invest into it. This is where Private Blog Networks (more popularly known as PBNs) come in. PBNs are the weapon of choice for any SEO warrior. They deliver results over long periods of time, but the results are consistent and persistent, an aforementioned rarity in SEO.

Experts agree that 2016 was a relatively tough year for SEOs worldwide. We’ve seen multiple Google Updates, ever-increasing competition, and those pesky negative SEOs targeting those hard-to-rank-for keywords. If you got delisted, or your rank simply tanked for more aggressively marketed sites, you’re not alone. The most alarming issue is that this trend has carried over to 2017.

Fortunately, there is our saving grace that has carried over as well: PBNs are still helping you rank and keep your ranks for a longer period of time, when built correctly. Before we get into PBN HOsting, let’s learn about why we need a PBN in the first place.

SEO Control

Having the ultimate control over SEO is not a mirage. The biggest names in the SEO industry have been consistently ranking for years, through large and small updates to the algorythms, they still find a way to rank. Why is that? Because they have absolute control over their SEO. Owning a PBN allows them to control their link building strategies and customize them based on the keywords they are trying to rank for.

Create Authority

How would you like to have unlimited access to links from authority sites on your niche? Building your own PBN allows you to create mini-authority sites that give link juice to your main “Money Site”. This process has been used for many years by the top SEOs in the world, with exceptional and consistent results. However, it’s not all rose petals and bunnies with PBNs. Experts agree that building a PBN the wrong way can severely negatively impact your rankings.

Moreover, all the time and money you had spent on building and subsequently scaling the PBN will be for naught. Don’t get caught sleeping on your PBN laurels, get the best advice and best hosting platform for your PBN to avoid footprints, and keep your money sites ranking high.

Marketing Automation And VC Funding

Marketing automation platforms are, by nature, almost entirely-cloud based. The journey from the server-room to the cloud is still ongoing, and VCs realize that the ongoing state of flux in enterprise IT will continue to have ramifications across all major business units.

Although data from cloud solutions provider RightScale showed that 93 percent of U.S. businesses are now using the cloud in some form, an equally turbulent second wave of cloud adoption involving transitioning mission-critical data to the systems is expected to be just as disruptive as the first.

This will mean retrospectively-focused efforts to coordinate the cloud IT stack across the organization. Such a review will likely have knock-on effects for less business-critical systems already deployed — such as marketing and sales tools.

Given the evidently unmatched demand from marketers for an intuitive but powerful platform capable of automating all levels of the marketing stack, it is not surprising that martech startups managed to raise $17 billion last year — and marketing automation software continues to rank among the top business models in the category.

Personalized messaging remains key to effective marketing. Given the tendency for larger revenue businesses to more proactively seek out high-tech solutions, scalability, through automation, will not diminish as a prime concern for purchasers.

In an industry expected to be worth $5.5 billion within three years, there is much business at play.

Despite what, at first glance, looks like a rapidly saturating market, too much enterprise spend on these technologies has evidently been directed at keeping up with the Jones’.

A new crop of forward-thinking, leaner tools will emerge in the coming years.

This could significantly displace some of the market share that the current crop of titans enjoy.

The door remains open for new entrants to the marketing automation space. VCs realize this and are continuing to invest in the game-changers of tomorrow.

Intelligent Engagement: Where Artificial Intelligence & Marketing Unite

Artificial intelligence is already well-established in the world of targeted advertising and recommendations. But AI is also rapidly evolving on social media as a way to help brands quickly and efficiently discover, engage with, and learn from their followers.

Although there is no one definition for it, we can summarize social artificial intelligence as a form of collecting and sifting through customer history, user-generated content, and data from social media channels to generate more relevant content and, as a result, a more meaningful experience for followers.

Social AI has the ability to provide a better social experience overall. For an example of what social AI can do, we just have to look at Facebook. The social network has already incorporated artificial intelligence as part of the platform in many innovative ways. From automatic face tagging to the stories that appear in News Feeds, Facebook has been at the forefront of what AI can do for social media by incorporating a variety of AI technologies that help continuously improve the Facebook user experience.

We’re now seeing more and more social networks investing in social AI technologies, and although the technology is still relatively young, many remarkable new ways to surface content to audiences have emerged. Yet despite the groundbreaking opportunities social AI presents, many brands have yet to turn to social AI to help engage their audiences, target new customers, and analyze the enormous volumes of social data that is now accessible.

So to help uncover what social artificial intelligence can do, here’s a look at some of the exciting opportunities it brings to the table for those in the social media marketing world and how marketers can keep an eye on this trend.

It’s highly unlikely that AI will ever replace all engagements on social media — after all, the point of social media is human interaction. But it does give brands the ability to automatically surface the most valuable, important conversations to respond to or engage with.

AI can help social media teams alleviate the pressures of providing instant support in order to spend their time much more effectively, including:

• Identifying which inquiries are coming from real people and which are coming from bot accounts.
• Creating a queue for responses that prioritizes high-profile users first.
• Identifying your happiest followers and the ones who are engaging with your brand the most so focus can be placed on them.
• Uncovering which tools were used by followers to send you a message so that you can avoid dangerous links and spam.

Preparing your company or brand for AI on social media

Increased investments and resources are being allocated to the advancement of social AI technology to revolutionize social media and a brand’s role in it. The intersection of social media and AI also presents many new opportunities for social media marketers to shine. To prepare for this new age, Forrester discussed a number of recommendations on how marketers can adapt. And while they mostly refer to the surge in chatbots, the advice can also be applied to adapting to social AI.

As Forrester put it, “being human, helpful, and handy is key.” The traditional marketer role of “pushing” content must be readjusted to focusing more on two-way conversations. AI will guide the conversations in the beginning, but humans must step in for the actual engagements.

Marketers must also accept that they will need to serve customers in real time. Instant responses are now expected on social media, and these expectations will only solidify over the next year. Making sure your team is set up internally to handle rapid turnarounds on social media, and implementing automated response technology if needed, will ensure your brand is prepared to deal with these customer expectations in both the short and long term.

We are just now at the forefront of social AI marketing. There won’t ever be a complete substitute for human engagement, but social AI definitely has the potential to be a means to the end goal of social media marketing.