November 24, 2023

Whiteboard Friday Recap 2023: AI Edition

Marketing Industry | Advanced SEO | AI and SEO

The topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT has dominated headlines over the past year. With the widespread adoption of ChatGPT, a chatbot from OpenAI that has reportedly reached 100 million weekly active users recently, there is no doubt that this level of adoption is drastically altering the way the online world functions.

So how does this impact the search industry? Is AI going to take our jobs? Will AI change the roles of digital marketers and SEOs? Are traditional search engines a thing of the past? How will AI chatbots in search impact the search results? Will the generation of content through AI result in piles of inaccurate and low-quality information on the web?

In the last 12 months, our expert Whiteboard Friday presenters covered the challenges and pitfalls SEOs face in this new world, from implications in the search engine results to content strategies to using chatbots to improve efficiencies in day-to-day SEO tasks. So take a seat with a nice hot cuppa and learn about how to overcome those challenges and pitfalls so you, too, can embrace this new way of working.

Let’s take a look back at our AI-related Whiteboard Fridays.

Google vs. AI — Whiteboard Friday

Tom Capper let us know how Large Language Models (LLMs) were starting to take the world by storm in his Google vs. AI Whiteboard Friday episode earlier this year. As searchers, we use Google as the go-to tool for such a varied set of uses and intents. Tom discusses how the introduction of AI poses a threat to Google as we know it.

How Content Is Evolving Thanks to AI — Whiteboard Friday

Ross Simmonds shared how our workflows, processes, and content creation would positively evolve thanks to AI. As marketers, we have the opportunity to use AI tools to elevate, improve, and enhance our content. Evolution is happening, technology continues to evolve, and in order to stay ahead of the game, we need to embrace the future.

Ross left us with some uplifting advice:

"The best piece of advice that I can give anyone looking to use AI in their marketing workflows today is to take the time to plan and create a culture where embracing the evolution is not only embraced but also celebrated. The future is here."

How to Create 8 Million SEO Test Ideas Using ChatGPT — Whiteboard Friday

As SEOs, we tend to come from an audit mindset, to look for things that are wrong and to try and decide what is the best way of doing things. In Will Critchlow’s Whiteboard Friday episode, he attempts to transform that mindset into becoming an ‘explorer’ by generating test ideas through ChatGPT.

5 Ways SEOs Can Use ChatGPT — Whiteboard Friday

In his Whiteboard Friday, Chris Long showed us five different ways that we can use ChatGPT to enhance our SEO processes, including featured snippet optimization, getting feedback on content, enhancing your knowledge base, Screaming Frog extractions, and creating custom tools.

What GPT Means For Structured Data — Whiteboard Friday

Tom Anthony introduced ‘context explosion’ to us in his Whiteboard Friday. One of the exciting facets of ChatGPT is the promise of being able to refine and filter your search right there in the search engine. You ask ChatGPT something, get some results, and can then ask clarifying questions — this is really powerful and compelling. The challenge that this new wave of searching faces is that it’s in a completely different interface, which may cause some resistance among searchers.

Harnessing Generative AI for SEO and Content Success — Whiteboard Friday

Alisa Scharf showed us how to harness generative AI for SEO and content success. Alisa noted that while these technologies are extremely smart, there are some worries that the outputs from GenAI may not apply to E-E-A-T principles. She introduced the PARS framework (Populate, Activate, Retrieve, and Scrutinize) that Seer Interactive uses when using GenAI for SEO and content success.