It's true: if your business doesn't have an online presence and a digital marketing strategy, it might as well be invisible. But digital marketing mostly depends on search engine optimization (SEO) for success.

Having been involved in SEO for almost a decade, I can easily say that SEO is not easy. It requires constant adaptation and learning because it comes with challenges. However, I have found that using artificial intelligence (AI) to address these requests is a huge time and money saver in SEO.

Below, I outline some ways in which you can AI levers for greater SEO efficiency and success. Let me start by focusing on link building.

Related: Want to boost your SEO strategy? Here are 4 emerging link building trends you should know about.

Using AI for efficient link building

Although Google may shroud the inner workings of its algorithm in secrecy, one thing we can all agree on is that building effective links in your content is a ranking factor for the search engine.

The “link juice” flowing between authority websites and yours is a clear signal that your content is authoritative and trustworthy enough to link to. But everyone involved in link building knows that this is a goal that takes a lot of work. This is where AI comes in and what it can help you with:

• Search for connections: Finding prospects is no longer a long and tedious task that requires hours of research. You can simply use AI tools to help you find suitable candidates, such as web owners, organizations and bloggers, in a fraction of the time.

• Automation of outreach and follow-up: I know from experience that the outreach and follow-up involved can be overwhelming and oh-so time-consuming. You have to be very organized, but this is often difficult. With AI, your outreach and follow-up efforts are automated, meaning you can focus on core tasks.

• Analyzing link profiles and identifying gaps: Analyzing link profiles can also be time-consuming, as can identifying potential gaps for link inclusions. Tools like Harpa AI help you analyze broken linksenabling you to make the necessary adjustments before they affect your ranking.

• Backlink performance monitoring: Wondering how well your backlinks are performing? AI tools can help with this as well. Whether you're checking the quality of your backlinks or monitoring for unnatural link patterns, AI tools are capable of highly intelligent analytics that help you identify patterns and areas for improvement.

Automating content creation and optimization

With generator AI tools to maximize creativity and productivity, your content ideation and generation process becomes infinitely more streamlined and efficient. Here are just a few ways I use such tools to help me:

• Search topics, keywords and content ideas: Looking for content gaps where your blog could improve? What about high-traffic, low-competition keywords? Platforms like SE Ranking not only provide you with a large portfolio of SEO tools, but can also help you with its AI-powered writing assistant.

• Generate draft content with AI writing assistants: A tool like Agility Writer can be instructed to create your content for you. You feed it a main keyword and it generates a draft title. You can also give it up to three external sources to study, give it a list of keywords and it will generate three possible drafts that you can choose from first before going on to create the article your

• Optimize content for SEO through AI-powered analysis: Using the power of natural language processing, AI can help ensure that your content is complete optimized for search engines suggesting relevant keywords and phrases to include in your text as you explore what your competitors are ranking for. A tool like NeuronWriter also gives you an overall content optimization score to let you know what potential your content has to rank above the competition.

Of course, I have to stress the importance of human oversight in maintaining your brand voice and content quality. After all, the last thing you want is to risk penalties from Google for AI content that doesn't meet its EEAT guidelines for being too low-quality or “thin” and not fulfilling the user's intent.

Related: 4 ways this SEO expert uses AI to create content – and how you can too

Improving workflow and decision making

Another area where AI tools can shine is by improving your SEO workflows and decision-making processes. I use various tools to help me do the following:

• Automating repetitive tasks such as keyword research and technical audits

• Provide data-driven insights to inform strategic decisions

• Enable real-time monitoring and optimization of campaigns

It is essential to strike a balance between AI and human expertisehowever. It's about using AI as an enabler rather than a final decision maker. Its main purpose is to help you improve your productivity, but the real decision-making should be left to the people.

Quality assurance and pitfall avoidance

While Google does not necessarily penalize AI-generated content, and while AI content may be ranked, it is essential to use AI responsibly to maintain content quality. Some guidelines I always follow include:

• Establish guidelines for review content and processes

• Always looking at user intent first to answer search queries

• Using AI as a tool, not a replacement for human expertise

• Adding value and original perspectives to content whenever possible

• Continuous AI-assisted content performance monitoring

Related: 3 Principles for Scaling Content with AI Without Sacrificing Quality

If you're still doing SEO the traditional way, you're in for a treat – rightfully so AI toolsyou can dramatically and immediately improve your efforts and efficiency. It's about taking the time to explore which tools work with and not against your workflows.

At first, you may find yourself a little overwhelmed by all of its capabilities. Just remember that it is there to help and not to hinder. But ultimately, you need to strike the right balance between automation and human oversight for the best results.