Your SEO strategy needs AI. Pronto.

Marketers are overstretched and overstimulated. They’re bouncing around among dozens of marketing techniques and tactics. Every year, there’s a new communication channel or platform to navigate.

Despite this fragmentation, marketers still need to incorporate everything into a single, cohesive strategy. All of their tools and campaign elements need to address fundamental needs, including search engine optimization (SEO).

This is where artificial intelligence can make a real difference. As in so many other areas, AI is both unsettling the present and paving the way for the future, not just in marketing but in SEO, specifically. 

Siteimprove recently commissioned a study from Forrester Consulting, The Costs of Complexity: Unify Marketing Performance to Enhance CX and ROI, that sheds light on how vital it is that SEO teams get on the AI bandwagon. Indeed, as the study makes clear, there’s no time to waste if you want to unify your content, simplify your technology stack, and extract maximum value from your data.

AI is the new baseline

Let’s be direct: AI is the future, and as a marketer, you can’t afford to miss it.

Like all major business innovations, failing to embrace AI now means falling behind later. Markets evolve constantly. Those who are early adopters of AI to refine their SEO will naturally outpace competitors.

According to one CMO interviewed for the 2025 Forrester study, “Artificial intelligence is impacting our company tremendously.” So far, so good. But their follow-up was sobering: “We have to get ahead of it in order to stay relevant in this field.”

According to the study 73 percent of marketers plan to implement or expand use of SEO solutions within the next year, including AI-integrated search. It’s a matter of basic marketing survival. 

How AI benefits your SEO

Beyond keeping pace with competitors, AI offers concrete advantages for SEO. Here are a few of them:

AI connects systems: When surveyed, 82 percent of marketers found the inability to improve organic search results and the lack of unified systems challenging. Marketing teams operate in silos, and digital governance is difficult. AI offers a way to empower overstretched marketers to unify disparate marketing pieces into a single, full-funnel, unified marketing system.

AI simplifies complexity: Sixty-two percent of marketers say their marketing tech stack is too complex. AI streamlines various pieces of a tech stack into integrated systems. It also analyzes data sets across different applications much faster than humans can.

AI transforms outcomes: AI makes specialized SEO skills accessible to more people. It creates a common language and unifies data. This breaks down silos and sparks cross-functional collaboration. Marketers recognize this potential — 66 percent expect SEO tool capabilities to significantly transform their marketing outcomes moving forward.

How does AI work in SEO?

If you’re wondering what AI looks like in an SEO context, there are several approaches (and more popping up all the time). Here are a few of the top ways it can impact content marketing:

• Automating keyword research
• Generating new SEO-optimized content
• Enhancing existing content quality and relevance
• Identifying and filling content gaps

There are plenty of other ways AI can positively influence SEO, too, such as:

• Optimizing technical SEO (things like site audits)
• Analyzing and improving on-page SEO elements (think titles, metadata)
• Monitoring and analyzing SEO performance metrics
• Predicting search trends

SEO demands complex and comprehensive work from marketers. The process can be time-intensive and data-heavy. AI offers end-to-end solutions that accelerate and amplify results.

Steps to take to integrate AI in your SEO

If you see the value but aren’t sure where to start, here are three ways you can start to integrate AI into your SEO processes:

1. Find the right people

In the Forrester study, one interviewed CMO admitted, “We don’t have enough qualified personnel to fully integrate AI into our marketing strategy.” It’s a common refrain. 

Start by adding AI knowledge requirements to job descriptions and interviews. Train your current team on AI tools to build a thoughtful, AI-friendly workplace culture.

2. Get the right tools

Countless marketing tools now feature seductive AI elements. Approach each one with healthy skepticism and never buy based on flashy descriptions or landing pages. 

Partner with established platforms that demonstrate a clear track record of success. Whenever possible, ask for demos and use those opportunities to voice concerns and ask specific questions.

3. Set boundaries and establish metrics

We specifically said “thoughtful AI-friendly workplace culture” for good reason. The study by Forrester emphasizes that while AI has the potential to accelerate marketing, it needs proper guardrails.

Marketers need clear digital governance guidelines to understand what is acceptable use of AI and where it crosses ethical boundaries. You should also implement marketing performance technologies to measure results and leverage AI effectively over time.

AI is a linchpin to SEO

As a marketer, finding ways to integrate AI into everything, including your SEO, offers big benefits. AI has the potential to improve connectivity and efficiency, and it underpins genuinely valuable data analysis and improves collaboration among marketing teams and departments.

Most importantly, bringing AI into workflows and procedures ensures that you stay current with emerging technologies. Marketing is evolving at lightning speed, and the urgency of adopting AI-powered tools cannot be understated.

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