Considering the many challenges that local businesses face, owners are constantly looking for strategies that can empower their online presence and operations. And one promising approach is learning how to use AI for local SEO.
A research report revealed that marketers today are keen on using artificial intelligence or AI to improve customer experience.
They further stressed that adding AI strategies to their campaign provided several benefits, including higher conversion rates, enhanced customer engagement, and better lead generation.
With this finding, it is no longer surprising why the use of AI for SEO is likely to rise from 10% to a whopping 58% this 2023.
Artificial intelligence has indeed taken the digital world and local businesses by storm.
With its capability to analyse data, automate processes, personalise experiences, and reduce costs, various industries have started to embrace this game-changing technology.
The question is, is your business ready to do the same?
A better understanding of this invaluable strategy should make it easier for you to decide.
To help, we will highlight how leveraging AI for local SEO can benefit Australian service-based business owners and decision-makers.
Specifically, we’ll explain the relationship between AI and SEO, identify practical ways to apply both, and provide solutions to likely challenges during implementation.
Understanding the Basics of AI and SEO
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of how to use AI for local SEO, let’s define these two as separate concepts first.
We know that SEO focuses on optimising your website to rank better and become more visible on the search results page. This strategy aims to meet the needs of search engines and online users.
To achieve SEO success, website owners should produce keyword-rich content, add links to boost credibility, make their site mobile-friendly, and so on.
On the other hand, AI is the use of computer programming to mimic human intellect. It aims to reduce the human input necessary to complete a task, make decisions, or solve a problem.
Through AI, you get results at a significantly faster pace. But how exactly is SEO related to AI?
Search engines, like Google, have been using AI-powered systems to process web pages and display search results.
They recruit web crawlers or bots to scan millions of pages, index them, and pull them out in response to search queries.
Before 2000, search engines struggled with this whole process, and admittedly, search results back then were not the best.
But thanks to continually developing AI, search engines can now display more relevant results at lightning speed.
Now, imagine knowing how to use similar AI systems for completing local SEO tasks like keyword research and content production.
With the proper AI tools and know-how, more efficient SEO strategies are within reach, even for small businesses and start-ups.
The Role of AI in Local SEO
We now know that AI and SEO go hand in hand. But how will AI use affect your business and local SEO efforts?
Here are the 3 primary functions.
1. To Boost Business Efficiency
Local optimisation tasks like content writing and Google Business Profile updates take time and effort. Business owners may need to hire a copywriter to work on these processes.
But the use of AI can now automate these SEO methods, giving you meaningful and prompt results.
Aside from increased productivity, AI-powered local SEO leads to two vital outcomes: time savings and cost efficiency.
AI can do multiple tasks that a team of copywriters can do. Compared to manual processing, it can also complete tedious tasks in half the time.
For small business owners, AI is a valuable resource for generating and saving money. It also gives them more time to focus on other aspects of their operations.
2. To Improve Customer Experience
User experience is among the most vital search engine ranking signals. The happier the customers, the better for your ranking.
And this factor is especially crucial in local businesses, considering that the owners are pursuing a smaller, more specific audience.
The good news is it is easier to enhance customer experience if you know how to use AI with your local SEO strategies.
Specifically, AI tools can help you identify your target market and understand their needs. As a result, you can produce hyper-personalised content and products to gain their approval.
AI can also help you build efficient customer services or an easy-to-navigate website for optimum results.
These combined efforts lead to satisfied clients who will continue to drive more business.
3. To Future-Proof Your Local Business
A recent survey shows that 90% of marketers will focus on SEO this 2023. And it is mainly because of the current consumer behaviour and economic conditions.
More businesses are starting to lean towards producing impactful content, gaining customer trust, and other strategies that can provide immediate and compounding benefits.
This trend is likely to continue in the coming years. And automating work processes now should help your business stay ahead of the curve.
Learning how to use AI for your local SEO strategies will surely give you short and long-term wins today and in the future.
Practical Ways to Use AI for Local SEO
AI-powered SEO plays an indispensable role in modern businesses and digital marketing.
But with so many SEO practices and AI tools to consider, which one is best for your local business? Here are four combinations that work.
1. AI + Better SEO Content Creation
With an AI tool, you can scan vast amounts of data and identify the exact keywords, phrases, headlines, or topics that pique your customers’ interest.
You can also run the tool and refine results according to search volume or competitiveness. Alternatively, you may use an AI tool to check and update your existing content.
Artificial intelligence can also provide insights about the topics your strongest competitors are working on.
AI-powered topical research is also ideal for identifying topics that help local business owners draw targeted traffic.
Thanks to their natural language processing ability, AI tools can process text and spoken words like humans but at a faster rate.
And with this technology, you can simplify complex tasks and create location pages, blogs, email newsletters, or social media posts that deliver.
One of the most popular AI-powered content tools you can use is ChatGPT-4 by OpenAI. It is among the most advanced tools that produce human-like text. It’s ideal for creating localised website content and blog posts.
2. AI + Enhanced Customer Service and Experience
User experience is essential to local SEO success and knowing how to use AI can help small businesses deliver good customer service.
One way to do that is through AI-powered chatbot platforms. For example, small business owners can use information chatbots to promptly reply to common questions about their products or services without hiring extra staff.
They can also opt for utility chatbots to provide product recommendations, schedule appointments, or process orders.
Either chatbot type can provide 24/7 support and, in the process, personalise customers’ experience and boost overall satisfaction.
Moreover, adding a chatbot to your website provides other indirect SEO benefits like increased engagement, increased session duration, improved ratings, and better social media performance.
Growing businesses can also use AI software for local SEO through predictive analysis. This tool uses machine learning algorithms to process customer data and translate them into patterns and trends.
For example, you can gather your customer browsing or purchase history, feed the data to the AI tool, and then use the results to identify potential customers or repeat buyers.
You can also use this AI-generated information when sending newsletters, creating marketing campaigns, writing content, or personalising your website.
On top of better customer engagement and trust, these AI-powered efforts also increase conversions.
3. AI + Voice Search Optimisation
Local businesses typically have a limited customer base. So, strategies that help widen their reach are valuable.
One good example is using AI-enabled voice search in their local SEO campaign.
This technology can tap into an additional market segment, particularly mobile phone users and customers who find searching through voice more convenient than text.
In Australia, a recent survey shows that 49% of Australians use their smartphones for voice searches. Also, 33% use voice commands to interact with a brand, product, or service.
Aside from broadening your target market, AI-powered voice search optimisation can help local business owners understands their customers better.
After all, voice commands are usually in complete question format and more conversational.
Such queries likely contain long-tail keywords that businesses can utilise to optimise their web content for voice search.
Currently, there are no specific tools yet for voice search optimisation. But you can use popular AI voice search programs, like Google Assistant, Siri, and Amazon Alexa, to get ideas on how your content is faring in the voice search results.
You can then utilise the results as the basis for your reverse-engineering steps.
Also, you can help voice assistants understand your website better by adding schema markup, using clear and concise sentences in your content, and optimising your local presence.
Potential Challenges and Solutions in Implementing AI for Local SEO
Like other new SEO tactics, using AI for local SEO is a double-edged sword. It is not free from challenges, and you must cautiously use it.
Here are three problems you’ll likely encounter when implementing AI for SEO and the practical solutions to overcome them.
1. AI-generated content may be outdated or inaccurate.
Remember that while AI is an intelligent tool, its output still depends on human-generated data that is already available.
That means AI tools may create content based on sources that could be a few or several months old.
This possibility is problematic for website owners or local businesses who want to produce updated content.
Relying too much on AI-generated content can affect rankings, too, since search engines prioritise reliable web information and pages.
Also, outdated and inaccurate content from AI tools could potentially mislead customers and result in domain authority or organic traffic drop.
- SOLUTION: AI-generated content is not error-proof and still requires checking or editing. So, it is still best to regularly update and fact-check your posts or articles when using AI for local SEO. Make sure the details of AI-generated content are correct and valuable to your intended readers. Keeping your content up-to-date should be good for your ranking as well.
2. AI tools lack originality, creativity, and authenticity.
Using AI-powered tools for local SEO may help you save business resources or simplify tasks. However, their outputs tend to feel unnatural and sound robotic.
Readers find it hard to connect or relate to a copy or article that is not creatively written or lacks emotion.
And continuously presenting AI-made content to your visitors will likely affect trust and engagement.
Also, as AI tools rely on existing content or information, they become less reliable if you want to introduce something new to your customers.
This tendency can be an issue since search engines value original ideas that users find interesting.
Eventually, constant use of AI for your local SEO content may lead to lower ranking, organic sessions, and conversion.
- SOLUTION: While using AI content tools for local SEO speeds up the creation process, these cannot replicate the emotional perspective or our personal experiences. So, add a human touch to your writing to make your articles or posts feel more genuine to readers and search engines. Also, consider using different blog post ideas or formats, like videos, to keep your content fresh and engaging.
3. AI can increase less informative articles online.
Imagine if most or all businesses will use AI for their local SEO content because it’s faster and more cost-efficient. That means every article we will read is AI-generated and unoriginal.
An influx of similar AI articles or spin-offs will only make it difficult for businesses to rank for keywords.
- SOLUTION: Rather than let artificial intelligence take over your optimisation efforts, adopt a more collaborative relationship between AI and local SEO. Combine AI-generated data with your unique inputs or insights. Also, limit AI tools to repetitive tasks or those that do not heavily require human intervention or creativity. For instance, you can use AI tools to generate a blog topic. Then, build the content structure using your ideas and expertise.
The advantages of using AI for local SEO are undeniable, but it also has risks. It is then imperative for local business owners to know how to implement AI and still meet the expectations of users and search engines.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, the use of AI has revolutionised local SEO implementation.
Australian service-based businesses can now run AI-powered tools to speed up research, online content creation, link building, data analysis, and other complex optimisation tasks.
These tools can help spot and correct SEO errors, too.
In turn, website owners can heighten customer satisfaction, boost search rankings, outperform competitors, and future-proof their operations with reduced effort and cost.
But while promising, AI application in local SEO is not risk-free. Problems can still arise, particularly in SEO approaches that require human insights.
To overcome such issues, business owners should adopt AI responsibly and treat AI as a helpful tool rather than an ultimate SEO solution.
Better yet, consider getting in touch with a trusted SEO company like us. Our expertise will help you do the SEO heavy-lifting for your business.
