Generative Information Retrieval and AI-powered SEO agents are revolutionizing how organizations approach SEO, enabling them to streamline workflows, derive data-driven insights, and create high-quality content that resonates with users and search engines.
This article explores the practical applications of AI in SEO and its benefits, primarily focusing on how businesses of varying sizes can harness these advancements. The content of this article is derived from my last talk at the Human + AI Symposium event.
Table of content:
Knowledge graphs in Generative Information Retrieval (IR)
The Role of Practical AI in SEO and the long wait for AGI
Artificial intelligence is designed to search faster
The Human-AI Collaboration Paradox
Automating Product Descriptions
Generating Product Highlights for Google Merchant Center at scale
Shifting the SEO Approach: The Human Element
Everything at WordLift starts with a knowledge graph.
They enable IR systems to interpret queries better, generate factually accurate and informative responses, improve search and discovery, and support complex question answering, ultimately delivering more intelligent and relevant results.
More so, delivering results grounded in reliable data.
The adoption of generative AI has massively increased in 2024, doubling from the previous year. This rapid growth is particularly evident in sectors where the technology can deliver substantial value, such as marketing and sales. A recent McKinsey report highlights the concentrated adoption in these areas, with a twofold increase in usage since 2023. This trend underscores the transformative potential of generative AI across functions and industries.
The transformative potential of generative AI is evident across various industries, where companies are increasingly adopting Practical AI applications designed to deliver real-world benefits and solve specific problems. Unlike the ambitious goal of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI), which seeks to create machines with human-like intelligence and remains a distant, challenging objective, Practical AI is focused on producing concrete, scalable outcomes that can be readily implemented in business settings.
Star Wars like AGI isn’t going to happen soon. While promising revolutionary advances, it involves complex challenges in achieving general knowledge and cognitive capabilities comparable to humans.
Strategies based on Practical AI are characterized by:
Production of direct and measurable results;
Implementation of scalable solutions;
Learning opportunities and insights;
Robustness, privacy, fairness, and accountability in AI applications.
According to Microsoft’s data on adopting Copilot in search journeys, the number of consumer journeys involving Copilot is increasing four times faster than those using only traditional search methods.
Content creators must keep up with the increasing performance of the new search engine.
We already mentioned our revised theory of the Messy middle and how content must be qualitative and grounded with structured data.
Search Generative Experiences have transformed how users interact with information online, making it imperative for businesses to have high-quality, structured data. This data ensures that users do not get lost in the vast sea of information and can quickly find the content they seek.
The WordLift AI SEO Agent is an exemplary tool in this domain, designed to optimize website performance by leveraging AI. This advanced tool helps businesses ensure their content is attractive to search engines and reliable and trustworthy for users. High-quality content and well-structured data benefit the website owner through increased traffic and the broader web community by providing verified and accurate information.
Providing the web community with good and reliable content has a two-fold benefit:
Setting a new standard for digital presence
Integrating structured data and publishing good content unlocks the full potential for increasing a website’s online visibility.
Setting a benchmark for quality in the digital age
In the era of AI-generated content, publishing highly personalized and accurate information represents a transformative act for the web community.
Adding structured data to your content ensures content traceability and helps us respond to users’ queries by directing them to the right pages on our websites.
Below are examples of searches related to the SEO industry and me. The information provided is 100% factually correct, and it mostly comes from my entity page. This page aggregates publicly available information about me and is enriched with supporting metadata.
Building the authority of a business or a person as a credible player in their domain by providing all the information about them in one place in the form of metadata.
The intersection of AI, SEO, and Knowledge Graphs is the place to be for website owners and content creators.
The integration of AI in SEO brings forth the human-AI collaboration paradox. While generative AI holds immense potential for content creation, it can also lead to content overload, making it difficult for users to find specific information. Search engines have started altering their algorithms to manage the surge of AI-generated content, a direct response to the misuse of generative AI.
Generative AI can, however, be a powerful tool for content curation and personalization. Businesses can produce fact-based content that aligns with their data and lexicon by grounding generative AI in databases such as knowledge graphs. This approach ensures that the content generated is accurate, reliable, and tailored to the user’s specific needs, addressing the issue of information overload while enhancing the overall user experience.
There are some specific use cases (Practical AI for SEO) in which AI can perform exceptionally well in SEO.
AI’s capabilities extend to automating product descriptions, which is particularly beneficial for e-commerce platforms. By starting with robust SEO groundwork and a good product feed, businesses can map the attributes they want to include in their descriptions.
The knowledge graph and client-specific AI models then handle the rest, automatically generating detailed, SEO-friendly product descriptions.
Publishing custom AI-generated product descriptions increased clicks by 5.4% on a big e-commerce retailer in the US.
Product Highlights are concise, bulleted lists that summarize the most relevant product features. They provide shoppers with quick, scannable information that addresses common questions or highlights the most important product attributes.
This list needs to be uploaded to Google Merchant Center and is not visible to the end user, which makes it the perfect use case for Gen AI because it is scalable and impacts the bottom line.
We can produce the highlights based on the data inside the Knowledge Graph.
Internal linking is essential for establishing a robust site architecture and effectively distributing link equity. SEO agents can streamline this process by leveraging generative AI to create more efficient internal links.
Automating internal linking simplifies the task and ensures that links are regularly updated, keeping content well-connected. This continuous refreshment makes it easier for search engines to index and rank pages, improving the website’s overall SEO performance.
There are a few steps to follow to be able to generate internal links with WordLift’s SEO Agent:
Identify Content for Internal Linking
The pages to enrich with internal links can be cornerstone content, high-traffic pages, or pages that can be improved with links pointing to other relevant pages. Here is an example of a prompt for one of the articles on WordLift’s blog:
Find content on my website from the “Dynamic Internal Links in SEO” page (https://wordlift.io/blog/en/dynamic-internal-links-in-seo/). Analyze the text to identify up to 5 related articles. For each article, determine a relevant keyword, generate keyword suggestions for each keyword, and create an anchor text of no more than 30 characters. Finally, compile the HTML for all 5 links with their respective anchor texts.
Batch Processing for Multiple Pages
If you need to create internal links for multiple pages, use a more comprehensive prompt to handle this in batches.
Example Prompt:
Find content on my website from the “Dynamic Internal Links in SEO” page (https://wordlift.io/blog/en/dynamic-internal-links-in-seo/). Analyze the text to identify up to 5 related articles. For each article, determine a relevant keyword, generate keyword suggestions for each keyword, and create an anchor text of no more than 30 characters. Finally, compile the HTML for all 5 links with their respective anchor texts. Do the same work also for the pages: “The GS1 Digital Link explained for SEO Jedis (and their clients)” (https://wordlift.io/blog/en/gs1-digital-link-seo/), “What is structured data?” (https://wordlift.io/blog/en/entity/structured-data/), “Understanding LLM Optimization: Ethical AI and Protecting Your Content” (https://wordlift.io/blog/en/understanding-llm-optimization/) and “From Harold Cohen to Modern AI: The Power of Symbolic Reasoning” (https://wordlift.io/blog/en/the-power-of-symbolic-reasoning/). Remember the following rules: never link to the homepage of the blog (https://wordlift.io/blog/en/) choose carefully the anchor based on the content relevancy and keyword opportunity analysis.
Execute the Prompt with WordLift AI SEO Agent
Using the prompts provided, execute the commands with WordLift AI SEO Agent. The tool will analyze the specified pages, identify related articles, and generate appropriate internal links and suggested anchor texts.
Review and Implement the Suggestions
Once the internal links and anchor texts are generated, review them to ensure they align with your content strategy and SEO goals. Make any necessary adjustments before implementing them on your website.
By following these steps, you can effectively use Agent WordLift to create and manage internal links, enhancing your website’s SEO and user experience while saving time and resources.
Our AI-based internal linking strategy increased clicks by 14.75% on a USA-based e-commerce retailer.
For more use cases and prompt examples, check my presentation on the Human + AI Symposium and WordLift SEO Agent documentation.
Despite AI advancements, the human element remains irreplaceable. Successful AI implementation in SEO requires knowledgeable human leaders who can guide the technology rather than merely follow it. These leaders understand the nuances of their business and can make strategic decisions that align AI capabilities with their specific goals.
To shift the approach, managers, business owners, and digital professionals must do what humans do best:
Plan
Effective planning involves setting clear objectives, developing strategies, and allocating resources efficiently. While human leaders can leverage AI to gather insights and data, strategic vision and planning remain distinctly human endeavors.
Develop Relationships with Clients
Building and maintaining solid relationships with clients is crucial for business success. While AI can assist in personalizing communication and automating responses, the empathy, understanding, and personal touch that humans provide are irreplaceable.
Experiment with New Use Cases to Keep Pioneering the Industry
Innovation and experimentation are key to staying ahead, especially in the SEO & digital marketing industries. Human creativity and curiosity drive the exploration of new AI applications and use cases, pushing the boundaries of what is possible and keeping the industry at the forefront of technological advancements.
Upskill Themselves and Their Teams
Continuous learning and professional development are essential in the rapidly evolving field of AI. By upskilling themselves and their teams, leaders ensure that they remain knowledgeable about the latest AI technologies and methodologies, enabling them to make informed decisions and stay competitive.
Advance in Their Careers
AI can save time that can be invested in personal and professional growth. Leaders can focus on advancing their careers by taking on new challenges, pursuing further education, and developing new skills that enhance their expertise and value in the industry.
Integrating AI with SEO, mainly through knowledge graphs and generative AI, is set to revolutionize business content optimization.
Generative AI and SEO agents are reshaping the industry by automating workflows, providing data-driven insights, and generating high-quality content that appeals to users and search engines. While achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) remains a distant goal, practical AI already yields measurable, scalable benefits across various sectors, especially in marketing and sales. SEO agents specialize in optimizing content, ensuring it is both search engine-friendly and reliable for users.
However, leaders and managers must recognize that the human element remains indispensable in AI workflows. Effective AI implementation depends on knowledgeable leaders who can guide technological applications and make informed strategic decisions.
The greatest value emerges at the intersection of AI’s capabilities and human expertise, enabling businesses to optimize content, improve SEO performance, and strengthen their digital presence.
The post The Human-AI Collaboration: Leveraging Knowledge Graphs, AI, and SEO for Enhanced Content Optimization appeared first on WordLift Blog.
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