Leverage ChatGPT for SEO: The Complete Guide

Table of Contents

• Grading Existing SEO Content with ChatGPT
• Optimizing for Expertise and Trust
• Enhancing Informational Content
• Generating New Topic-Relevant Content
• Building High Quality Backlinks
• Conclusion and Next Steps

Grading Existing SEO Content with ChatGPT

As the video demonstrates, ChatGPT can be a useful tool for analyzing and grading existing content on a website. By exporting site pages and adding specific grading criteria based on SEO best practices, low quality pages can be identified and prioritized for improvement.

For example, the video shows how SEO expert Nathan Gotch exported all indexable pages from the website onpointfresh.com. He then added columns to grade each page on criteria like inclusion of target keywords, heading tags usage, link quality and more. This process enabled quick auditing of onpointfresh.com’s content, revealing opportunities to optimize pages.

Overall, ChatGPT makes it easy to grade content at scale. The AI can review hundreds of pages faster than a human, while still providing valuable feedback on areas like keyword optimization and inclusion of semantic elements. By leveraging ChatGPT to audit content, sites can determine which pages should be refreshed first to improve search visibility and rankings.

Exporting Site Pages for Analysis

The first step is to export all indexable pages from the site. As shown in the video, a crawler like Screaming Frog can be used to generate a sitemap with URLs for all pages Google indexes. This sitemap provides the content to be audited. Alternatively, a site's XML sitemap can also be used as input for ChatGPT. The key is gathering a comprehensive list of pages to assess.

Adding Grading Criteria

With pages exported, additional columns can be added to grade each page on important criteria. Example criteria highlighted in the video include:

• Keyword inclusion and optimization
• Presence of H1 and H2 tags
• Quality of linking to external resources
• Use of multimedia and images Custom criteria tailored to the site can also be added to the spreadsheet. The goal is quantifying how well each page optimizes important SEO factors.

Prioritizing Low Quality Pages

Once pages are graded, it becomes easy to filter and identify the lowest quality pages on the site. Sorting the spreadsheet on overall grade makes underperforming pages readily apparent. These poor pages can then be prioritized for refresh. Drastic failures, like pages without H1 tags or target keywords, should be updated first. The grading and audit process focuses SEO efforts on pages needing the most improvement.

Optimizing for Expertise and Trust

Trust and expertise are critical for SEO success. As covered in the video, ChatGPT can help generate markup and content to better highlight site authors. This improves perceptions of expertise.

Specifically, the AI can quickly create authorship markup and bios to attach expertise to written content. About page schema can also be added to summarize credentials. Implementing ChatGPT's recommendations only takes a few minutes, but pays dividends in search performance.

Adding Authorship

Authorship markup enables search engines to display author photos and bios alongside content in results. As shown in the video, a simple ChatGPT prompt can generate the necessary schema.org/Article markup to enable author rich results. Author bios created by the AI can also improve site trust and credibility. Generating short paragraph bios for each author takes seconds with ChatGPT, but significantly boosts expertise indicators.

Implementing About Page Schema

About page schema further summarizes credentials and capabilities. The video demonstrates how ChatGPT can quickly generate properly structured AboutPage schema.org markup. This should be added to About Us and Contact pages. Google will parse the schema to better understand site expertise. Between author markup and AboutPage schema, ChatGPT provides an easy trust boost.

Enhancing Informational Content

Informational, educational content should aim to appear objective and authoritative. As explained in the video, two simple ways ChatGPT can help achieve this goal are:

• Linking out to trusted external sources

• Including editorial guidelines

Linking Out to Trusted Sources

By linking out to reputable external resources, content appears more objective. ChatGPT can be prompted to recommend trusted sites and sources to link to based on a given topic. This saves writers research time. Inserting a few strategic external links also indicates a page acts as a wider information resource.

Including Editorial Guidelines

Transparent editorial standards boost content integrity. The video shows how ChatGPT can automatically generate an editorial guidelines page outlining sourcing, fact-checking, expertise requirements, and more. Adding such a page demonstrates commitment to quality standards. Combined with external linking, it further enhances informational integrity and authority.

Generating New Topic-Relevant Content

ChatGPT is remarkably effective at drafting on-topic content from scratch. As the video covers, keyword research can identify gaps to target. ChatGPT can then develop content briefs and preliminary drafts to make new high-quality content creation achievable.

Identifying Gaps with Keyword Research

Tools like Ahrefs make it easy to discover relevant keywords a site should be targeting but is not currently ranking for. As demonstrated in the video, sorting keywords by position reveals many opportunities. This analysis points ChatGPT to promising targets when later crafting content. Performing the research in advance provides direction to optimize ChatGPT’s output.

Creating an Effective Content Brief

With target keywords identified, the video shows how ChatGPT can develop structured content briefs covering focus keywords, related keywords, competitor analysis, and more. This brief ensures the AI writes strategically. The video also demonstrates how Surfer can automate brief creation even more by pulling keywords and headings from top ranking content.

Automating Draft Content Creation

With a directional brief, ChatGPT can then generate draft content that closely aligns with keyword and topic targets. Surfer's AI writer produces ready-to-publish drafts in seconds. Either solution creates on-brand content faster than human writers. Though editing may still be required, ChatGPT automates the heavy lifting of content creation.

Building High Quality Backlinks

Links remain one of the strongest ranking factors. ChatGPT gives innovating ways to earn links, like crafting interactive tools as demonstrated in the video. The AI makes creating unique link earning assets simple and repeatable.

Crafting Linkable Assets

By prompting ChatGPT to generate ideas for linkworthy interactive tools and resources, weeks of ideation gets condensed into seconds. The video shows how the AI can produce code to turn these ideas into web assets. This enables rapidly experimenting with new link building tactics. Any asset that gains popularity can be fleshed out and promoted to earn high quality links.

Implementing Interactive Tools

After picking a promising interactive concept from ChatGPT, the remaining step is turning it into a finished tool or resource. As shown in the video, the HTML, CSS and JavaScript code can simply be plugged into WordPress as a custom page or widget. Adding the interactivity drives viral shares, links, and engagement. The AI's ideas unlock innovative ways to get others linking to your site.

FAQ

Q: How can ChatGPT help with on-page SEO optimization?
A: ChatGPT can assist in evaluating existing content, identifying optimization opportunities, generating new optimized content, and implementing key on-page elements like metadata and schema markup.

Q: What are some ways ChatGPT can help build links?
A: ChatGPT can help generate ideas and content for linkable assets like tools, resources, quizzes and graphics that attract backlinks. It can also help identify relevant sites and influencers to connect with.

Q: Can ChatGPT fully automate SEO for a website?
A: While helpful, ChatGPT cannot fully automate all aspects of SEO. Human oversight is still needed for strategy, prioritization and contextual optimization. Use ChatGPT to augment SEO efforts.

Q: How reliable is SEO advice from ChatGPT?
A: ChatGPT provides general guidance but lacks nuanced expertise. Validate any recommendations against established SEO best practices and customize for your site's unique needs.

Q: What are limitations of ChatGPT for SEO?
A: ChatGPT lacks real search data or ability to crawl sites. Any SEO analysis is theoretical. Human judgment still required to interpret ChatGPT's suggestions.

Q: Does using ChatGPT for SEO violate search engine guidelines?
A: When used properly as a content generation aid, ChatGPT aligns with search guidelines. Avoid spammy techniques or automating links out of context.

Q: How can I customize ChatGPT prompts for better SEO advice?
A: Provide relevant context like domain, keywords, and explain your goal. Reference search best practices. Review output critically before implementation.

Q: What SEO topics can ChatGPT assist with most effectively?
A: ChatGPT is most effective for ideation and draft content like titles, meta descriptions and article topics. Use judiciously and customize its suggestions.

Q: Is content created by ChatGPT helpful for SEO?
A: If well-optimized for topics, keywords and intent, ChatGPT content can positively enhance SEO. But quality human-written content tailored to audience remains ideal.

Q: How can I stay updated on using ChatGPT for SEO?
A: Follow leading SEO sites and experts sharing insights on leveraging AI. Monitor search engine announcements regarding guidance on AI-generated content.