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If you’ve ever felt like SEO is confusing, overwhelming, or just plain too much, you’re not alone. Between keyword research, writing optimized content, and trying to make Google happy, it can feel like a full-time job, and you probably don't have the time for that, or honestly, want to put that much effort into doing SEO on your website.
But here’s the good news: AI tools like ChatGPT can make SEO so much easier. Whether you're brand new to search engine optimization or you tried it before and it's kinda sorta maybe worked, using ChatGPT as your SEO assistant can help you save time and help you get results faster. Yes, you read that right, ChatGPT can help you do SEO on your website.
Let's talk about how to use ChatGPT to plan, write, and optimize a blog post quickly and easily. You don’t need to be techy. You don’t need to be an SEO expert. And you don’t need to spend hours staring at a blank page ever again. You can also use ChatGPT to complete other SEO tasks on your website. A few years ago, I would have cautioned you not to use ChatGPT to do SEO work, but it's improved a lot and is much better today than it was initially.
Short answer? Yes.
But before you get started, let's talk about how. ChatGPT is a tool; you want to think of it as your own trained SEO assistant, not your SEO strategist. It can help you, but it can't quite do everything for you... yet. It may change in a few years, but for now, it still needs you. It can help you brainstorm keywords, create outlines, and even write parts of your blog post. It can also write title tags or meta descriptions, it can review website pages, and tell you what to add to make the SEO better. There's a lot it can do.
Here’s what ChatGPT does well:
Help you brainstorm keywords
Create a blog post outline based on your keyword
Speed things up by writing your first draft for you
Help you organize your thoughts
What it doesn't do so well:
Choosing keywords for you (you still need a keyword research tool)
Including your voice, experience, or stories, it still needs you to do that
Creating content that will rank on Google or in AI search without your input
So yes, ChatGPT can help you do SEO, but it can't do everything. You still need to set the strategy, choose the keywords, and edit the content, but ChatGPT can save you hours on each blog post or with your SEO work on your website.
You need a few tools to do SEO on your website or blog. ChatGPT can't replace everything you use for SEO.
A ChatGPT account. I personally use a paid account and version 4.0. I find it works much better than 3.5. I like that I can train my GPT, and it learns over time and can reference other chats, so I don't have to keep feeding it the same information like I did in the beginning.
A keyword research tool like Keywords Everywhere, Ubersuggest, or Google Keyword Planner. ChatGPT can help you with keyword brainstorming, but I want to be sure you understand that it shouldn't be used for keyword research and selection. It doesn't have the information you need to make your final decisions.
You also need to know your ideal customer. Who are you trying to reach? What questions do they have? How can you help them? If you're not sure who your ideal customer is or you don't have a good ideal customer narrative to use to write your blog posts, you can have ChatGPT interview you to help create a profile for your ideal customer. Don't skip this step; it makes a difference in your final content quality and will help you succeed faster. The ideas you get from ChatGPT will be better if it understands who you're trying to connect with.
You'll also want to have a brand voice guide to help ChatGPT understand how you want it to speak to sound like you. Yes, you can train ChatGPT to sound like you today. You're not stuck with the super generic, robotic-sounding text that we had when it was first introduced a few years ago. I was very reluctant to use it because of the quality of the content, but I've learned that you can train it, and that helps a lot.
Also, get out your SEO checklist from the Beginner's Guide to SEO so you can make sure that everything is done right before you hit publish on your blog post that ChatGPT helps you write. If you don't have a copy of it handy, you can request it right here.
Before you ask ChatGPT to start helping you do SEO, you need to have a keyword you will use. This is one step that ChatGPT can't do for you. You can ask it to help you brainstorm keywords, but you will need to decide which one you want to use. You'll want to verify search volume and competition information in an SEO keyword research tool like Ubersuggest, Keywords Everywhere, or the Google Keyword Planner within AdWords. ChatGPT is good at brainstorming keywords, but in my experience, it's not good at keyword recommendations or selection. You still need to be involved in that step.
If you want to use ChatGPT to help you start brainstorming your keyword, you can use this prompt:
Think like an expert SEO content strategist, using the information you know about my ideal customer and their needs, what are five blog post keyword ideas around [insert topic] that my audience is searching for?
Once you’ve chosen your keyword, the next step is to outline your blog post. This is where ChatGPT can save you a lot of time. Rather than having to think about everything you might want to include in your post, you can ask the tool to help you with this and have an outline within a minute or two.
Ask ChatGPT to create an outline for your blog post and include what should be included for SEO and AI SEO benefits. This is important if you want to rank in Google and in AI search. We need to include different things for the different search engines.
Prompt to use:
Think like an expert SEO content strategist and create an outline for a high-ranking blog post using the keyword [insert your keyword here]. I want this to have the chance to rank on Google, AI Overviews, and ChatGPT, so it must be formatted for both AI and SEO. Include 5 title options and tell me which one you recommend and why.
Now that you have your keyword, post title, and outline, it’s time to write. ChatGPT may ask if you're ready to start writing your blog post. If you are, go ahead and let it get started. If you want it to follow specific guidelines, let it know before it begins working on your first draft. You can ask it to focus on E-E-A-T for Google and let you know what information to include when you edit. You can ask it to follow the StoryBrand format. Be specific in what you want. If you want a 500-word blog post that's high-level, that's OK. If you want an in-depth piece that's 1,500 words or more, let it know.
Prompt to write your first draft:
Please create a first draft of this blog post, following SEO best practices for both Google and AI. Make sure the post will rank well for E-E-A-T and ask me for the information you need to fulfill that, or let me know what I need to edit. Think like an expert SEO content writer when you craft this draft. It should be approximately [word count, if you care].
Once ChatGPT has written your initial draft, you'll want to edit it and make it sound like you. I've found that I can get a blog post to about 75% of the way with ChatGPT's help, and then I spend a little while editing and making it my own. You'll want to do the same thing. Don't publish what it gives you without editing to make it sound more like you. Yes, it does a much better job of understanding and writing in your voice today than it did a few years ago, but it's still not you.
Now it's time to optimize your blog post. You'll also want to format your content for AI SEO. Make sure your paragraphs are short, add header tags to organize your content (those are the bigger font lines that separate my paragraphs in my posts), link to other applicable posts or pages on your website, and include a call-to-action in the post so you can hopefully get your new reader on your email list. You'll also want to make sure your image files are small (KB, not MB) and name your images in an SEO-friendly way, using your keyword. If you're not sure how to do image SEO, this post will help you.
Once your post is ready to go, it's time to create your SEO elements. ChatGPT is pretty good at this in my experience. You can likely have it do this for you and use what it recommends without much editing. This is a big time saver.
Prompt to use:
Please create a title tag and meta description for this blog post using the keyword I shared. Follow SEO best practices for both.
Bonus, for AI SEO, create an FAQ section at the bottom of your post, just like I've done below. This information is formatted to have a better chance of ranking in AI search because it's conversational text, and that's what the LLMs (large language models) like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode search tab are looking for when they're searching for information.
Not really. ChatGPT can help you brainstorm keyword ideas, but doesn’t provide real-time data like search volume or competition. Use a keyword tool to get the best results as discussed earlier in the post. It will give you search volume or competition information, but I've found it to be incorrect many times, so I always recommend my students verify in a keyword research tool before making a decision.
Focus on choosing the right keyword, writing helpful content, and following on-page SEO best practices. Always review and personalize what ChatGPT gives you. There's no way of guaranteeing that your content will rank on Google or in AI search, just as there's no way of guaranteeing that something you write without help will rank. You have to follow the rules, provide helpful content designed for your ideal customer, and optimize it for search. Ultimately, Google or the AI search engines will decide which sites have the best content.
No, don't ever do this. Google doesn't want you to have ChatGPT write a blog post for you and publish it on your website. It's not the quality that you need if you want to rank high on Google. Initially, people tried to do it; people always try to cheat the system, and Google worked hard to remove what it considered AI spam from the search results. Think about it: what you get out of ChatGPT isn't unique, it's not specific to you, and it doesn't have your anecdotes and stories. What ChatGPT gives us is information that's already available in other places. You need to edit, customize, and personalize the content to have a better chance of ranking high on Google or in AI search. If you're not sure why ChatGPT content isn't OK for your website, read this blog post to understand better.
Yes, if it's AI-generated without personalization, editing, and customization. You can't simply ask ChatGPT to create a blog post for you, post it, and rank high on Google. The AI Spam update stopped that. There were people who tried to do that when ChatGPT first came out, and it worked briefly. I never recommended that strategy because I've been in SEO long enough to know that it wasn't going to work long term. Google wants high-quality, relevant content in the search results it shares. If you create your content with AI as a helper, you'll be fine. Follow the process I've taught you in this blog post and others, and you'll be good.
ChatGPT can be an incredible support tool for blogging and SEO. From outlines to drafts to optimizing your content, you can use it to simplify the process and save yourself hours. But remember—it’s still your voice, strategy, and perspective that make content great. Use these prompts and steps as a guide, then make it yours.