14 Dec How Are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Influencing SEO practices?

The AI revolution is one of the most critical advancements in the technological field to occur in the last twenty years. And the impact of neural networks and machine learning on SEO processes is, and will continue to be, significant. Companies active in the SEO industry can use AI to boost their link-building campaigns and improve the quality of the end products delivered to clients. Firms operating in the digital marketing space can now use AI to boost their content generation and create text or descriptions relevant to target audiences. Moreover, they can optimize their automated link-building outreach and increase staff productivity.

Why use the link-building offerings of an SEO agency? Time. Link-building is one of the most time-consuming parts of an online optimization process. And this is thanks to the level of skill required for its success. Until recently, identifying backlink opportunities was done manually and required finding relevant websites for the client’s business and contacting them individually. AI is slowly but surely changing these processes, and nowadays, it is possible to automate the procedures for identifying areas of interest for collaborations.

AI tools can analyze the existing content on your pages, find out what needs improvements, use NLP to spot the topics relevant to your field of activity, perform audits of competitors, assist in outreach tasks, monitor your backlinks profile, and use chatbots to automate the messages you send to websites potentially interested in your content. In other words, in the right hands, AI can be a catch-all and do-all tool, which can be used to decrease the execution time of SEO tasks drastically. Does this mean it will replace human operators? No, not now and not in the future. However, it is a tool that can increase productivity and drive field innovation.

Why Is a Link-Building Strategy Important for Businesses? 

AI will revolutionize the SEO sphere. However, it won’t change the importance of link-building strategies for the SERP performance of websites. The high-quality SEO link-building services will improve rankings for search engines like Google, Yandex, or Bing and increase the number of interactions you get from your target audience. A link obtained from an authority site will expand your organic reach, enhance your content’s visibility, boost your profitability, and establish your domain as a trusted source of information.

The referral traffic you get from external links will give you a competitive advantage over rivals in your field, minimize the impact that algorithm updates will have on your business, positively influence your local SEO initiatives, and determine the growth potential of your site. Backlinks are not the only aspect that matters in a successful SEO strategy. But it is one of the most important. With a proper link-building plan, your services can become more visible to the audiences you market to. And that, over time, will result in increased profitability.

What Are Backlinks? 

Also known as inbound links, backlinks are, to use a simplified definition, gateways through which content from one site can be referenced by another. Are you an authority on Artificial Intelligence and have written several articles on machine learning? In this case, websites that want to use your articles must provide links to sources, i.e., your pages. A link-building strategy involves discovering the websites that use your content without proper citations or finding opportunities for link-building with domains that could benefit from the information you present.

Nevertheless, not all backlinks are the same.  Standard hyperlinks are of the “Dofollow” type and influence the page’s search engine ranking. The other type is “Nofollow” links, which have no direct effect on SEO traffic but can impact the visibility of content, albeit to a lesser extent. For search engines, the quality of external links is more important than their quantity, and their relevance to your domain is a primary consideration in determining your SERP score.

Do you receive links from a textile manufacturing company? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But if you’re not in the same industry, visitors will most likely not interact with the services you offer, which means your profitability will stagnate. A professional link-building strategy, especially one aided by AI, will require finding hyperlink-sharing opportunities with sites relevant to your field of activity. This does not mean that links received from websites outside your domain are not helpful. But their impact on profitability will be lower.

What Are Some Tips to Obtain Qualitative Backlinks? 

For starters, the content presented on the pages of your website must be qualitative. The articles in your domain’s blog section must respect the E-A-T guidelines developed by Google and be filled with specialized information that other websites might find valuable. When well put together, a strategy created by a company specialized in link-building services can be of tremendous value. However, getting to that point will take a lot of work.

The link-building services of an SEO company will involve a careful analysis of your competitors, require tools to identify broken links, and may even demand guest posts from authorities in your field. A link-building strategy will necessitate analysis of information found during the SEO audit process, correction of articles that are no longer relevant to your target audience, will be aided by collaborations with industry-specific authorities, and will largely depend on the skill of the SEO expert you collaborate with. AI will help, of course, but in the end, link-building strategies, at least for now, require experience and subjectivity. 

What Tools Can Be Used to Discover Backlinks? 

AI promises to revolutionize the way qualitative backlinks are discovered. But on the other hand, at least for now, the process is still manual and is determined by the experience and persuasiveness of SEO experts. Nevertheless, getting backlinks requires professional SEO programs whose use cases differ from instance to instance. What can you utilize? For starters, you can start with link-building tools, such as Ahrefs, that can analyze the quality of the internal link strategy on your pages and identify link-building opportunities with websites relevant to your domain. Then, you can move on to applications that analyze your competitors.

Here, the expert you call might prefer to use programs such as SEMrush, though there are free alternatives that can be just as effective. Why audit your competitors? There are many reasons. However, the main one is they could benefit from connections to sites relevant to your industry. Many of these are interested in your content and, with little persuasiveness, will probably be keen on a partnership. With apps like BussStream, you could reach out to these firms and present why your business is a good match for their content.

Social media can also be a tool. Backlink opportunities can occur by posting on LinkedIn or encouraging guest blogging. If you want quick results, one idea might be creating custom content for content marketing platforms like Contently or Seismic. Moreover, an effective way to attract professional connections is to create infographics with programs like Creately or Canva. Backlink strategies can be complex and involve numerous professional SEO programs, including AI-based ones like LinkHunter. In the end, however, it is up to the expert you call on how to use these applications and how they will influence the success of your strategy.

SEO and the Future 

Artificial intelligence will fundamentally change how we interact with search engines. However, it won’t eliminate the need for professional search engine optimization services. Whether talking about optimization for voice searches or focusing on link-building, SEO is and will remain relevant because people will forever need to boost their sites in the SERPs. What does the future look like? It’s hard to predict, but what is clear is AI tools won’t be missing from the toolbox of SEO companies.

Machine learning and neural networks can be used to generate leads, target link-building opportunities, optimize content, find keywords, or complete specific processes of SEO audits that would typically fall on the shoulders of human employees. SEO and AI can complement each other and be integrated tools that serve the same purpose: the performance growth of your website. As for link-building opportunities, AI can perform performance analysis of content and identify broken hyperlinks, automate the communication necessary for link-building outreach, and find link-building opportunities. The future is looking bright and prone to changes that will massively alter the profits of forward-thinking companies.