If you weren't able to join our recent webinar in person we've got you covered with this quick run down of what we looked at.

The webinar was hosted by our very own search engine optimisation (SEO) Guru Jon Monk with the spotlight on the fusion of artificial intelligence (AI) with SEO strategies for events. 

Jon has over 12 years' experience working in SEO and over the past year he's been using the power of AI as part of his work with events clients. During the session he shared his experiences (good and bad) and showcased some practical applications of AI for enhancing SEO efforts.

Here are some of the key takeaways (and you can view the live recording too, scroll down to see it).

AI’s Role in Streamlining SEO processes
What is quite clear is that AI has great capacity to streamline many SEO processes. And while it offers great efficiency in automating tasks and generating content suggestions, we believe it's crucially important to maintain human oversight. AI should be viewed as a complementary tool rather than a substitute for human ingenuity.

From generating comprehensive keyword lists to crafting optimised meta tags and descriptions or re-writing speaker biographies, exhibitor profiles and sponsor content, AI is a valuable ally in enhancing website visibility and traffic.

AI’s Role in Content Creation
When it comes to content creation it's useful to first of all consider the ethical and copyright implications of using AI. Originality and transparency remains paramount. Search engines are adept at spotting AI-generated content, which will probably impact the search rankings for your websites. Instead, we'd advocate for leveraging AI to augment content creation, ensuring it adds genuine value to users.

Think of AI as an additional writing assistant. While its ok to ask it to summarise, rewrite, check spellings and grammar, generate ideas, reformat or even translate content we'd advise against using it as an author to write your blogs or web page copy.  

AI Tools for Copy & SEO
These are very much our personal recommendations on the AI tools that we currently use as part of our content and SEO strategy.

• Chat GPT - great as a writing assistant but not so current (currently the information it holds is only up to Sept 2022).
• Gemini - brilliant as it uses real time data but we've found it's not so good for creative writing.
• Claude - we use it for code related tasks and long content reasoning (summarising information from large documents, for example), but it's a more recent tool so is less developed than some of the others.
• Frase.io, Semrush, Clearscope, Jasper are all good for SEO work. 

As Jon said in the session, think of AI as a real person. And like a real person it may not always understand you so you'll need to be patient and embrace the iterative nature of working with it. Treat your interactions with AI tools as ongoing conversations for clarity and improvement.

Here are some of Jon's top tips for talking to AI:

• Be clear and specific - speak clearly and specifically, as if explaining a task to a colleague.
• Give detailed Instructions - provide detailed instructions to avoid ambiguity.
• Be precise about your expectations and desired outcomes.
• Give feedback - offer constructive feedback for adjustments, rather than generic criticism.
• Provide context in your requests.
• Give examples or references when possible

AI Prompts 

Social media seems to be full of posts sharing standard AI prompts. While we think there is a place for some carefully used prompts, on the whole we'd advocate for using your own creativity. Jon shared his advice on how to prompt the AI tools, including:

• Engage Your Creativity: Start with your own imagination. Think about what you're trying to achieve.
• Mimic Real Conversations: How would you ask a colleague for help? Use that natural language as your guide.
• Beware of Standard Prompts: While useful, overly generic prompts can stifle creativity and may not capture the nuance of what you really need.
• Encourage originality: to ensure your requests yield the most beneficial and innovative outcomes.
• Leverage AI for Refinement: If you're unsure about a prompt why not use AI feedback to fine-tune it. For example: "Can this prompt to ChatGPT be improved for better SEO brainstorming for my event's website in the events industry? I’m looking for diverse sub-topics people might search for."

Technical SEO Empowerment through AI
Technical SEO tasks, including schema markup generation and site structure optimisation, can also benefit from AI integration. Jon highlighted how AI can ensure websites adhere to technical best practices, thereby bolstering SEO performance.

In Summary
Looking ahead, we believe that AI will be an indispensable component of SEO, promising greater efficiency and effectiveness. But it's important that you stay op top of AI developments and adapt your strategies accordingly. 

If you'd like to learn more about the wonderful world of SEO for events websites why not attend one of our upcoming sessions or if you'd like help with your SEO strategy get in touch with us here (it's one of our favourite topics)!

View the video of the session

The session was recorded on 23 April 2024