Learn, test, and increase productivity with AI

Rana says: “Increase productivity using AI – not only in SEO, but beyond.”

How do you decide what you should and shouldn’t use AI for?

“You should look at AI like it’s a real assistant. AI should handle preparing the data, summarising the data, and finding all the information that you need.

However, for the creative part, like brainstorming, you can rely on AI a little bit, but it shouldn’t handle all of your creative tasks. Also, for the overall view of everything, the strategy should, of course, stay human-centric.

The main focus of AI in SEO is not to give everything away. If you create a piece of content with AI, don’t just copy and paste it and publish it right away. You should read it. You should add your touch to it and add the brand voice.”

How is AI changing your own daily workflow?

“I can give you a concrete example. Internal link building is not a straightforward task. Now, though, I can give the website to AI, and it will give me many suggestions for internal linking that I didn't think of.

Another point of view that it’s useful for is keeping ahead of my competitors and everything that’s going on around me. I will ask AI to summarise everything so I can stay on top of what’s trending and what's going on. Also, I can brainstorm with it and ask what I can do to stay ahead of those trends.

At the core of the work, however, it's me who writes and provides my ideas, and it will help me sharpen all of that and put it in a beautiful shape that I can share.”

How do you know that AI is coming up with the best idea for your business?

“It will often give you ideas that someone else has done before, but you can’t always be on top of what everyone else has done.

First of all, as I have said, AI is very good at summarising things. You can rely on that, because it has all the knowledge of what's going on in the domain that you might not have.

When it comes to brainstorming, even though the ideas that you get from AI will be based on what's going on with your competitors, it is a language model. Therefore, it has strong capabilities to give you ideas that you haven’t thought of before.

Keep in mind, it’s the human who will make the decision. It's not the AI that tells you what to do. It gives you outlines and you decide.”

Which AI tools are bringing the most impact today?

“There are a lot of tools, and many of them are still improving. I like Writesonic, and I use ChatGPT a lot. Copilot is especially useful when we are working with a client who has some security concerns and they are already using Microsoft.

My advice would be not to stay tuned to only one tool. You should try many tools, like Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini, and then you will have a better quantity of good ideas coming from different places. Why not use all that knowledge?

Of course, you still need to verify because they can hallucinate and give you false information. You should verify whether the information they are giving is correct or not.

You do want to find the tool that is best for the job, but when you’re brainstorming and trying to open your horizons, I prefer to use different tools. Then, when you come to the details and the concrete tasks, you can specialise and utilise a specific tool.

Try them out. Each model is built in a different way, so by collaborating with each one, you will get different points of view. However, when you get right to the point, it's important to specialise and use one tool that will take you there.

I use Writesonic, SE Ranking has an AI tool, and Ahrefs have a good one as well.”

Are SEOs not just building tools to replace themselves?

“I don't see it like that at all. Of course, some tasks might change. People say that we might not need as many programmers anymore, but ChatGPT are always looking for new developers.

It will change the way we do our work, but it will not replace us. As I have said, it can handle tasks related to data, like collecting data. However, the strategy is 100% human.

All the tasks that we do should be oriented towards creativity; we should just have fewer repetitive tasks. For tasks like handling your emails or responding to comments on your Google Business Profile, AI can help you, but at the end of the day, it's the human who should decide.

There are tasks that we used to spend hours on that can now be finished in minutes. In SEO, it's helping me to keep an eye on my competitors, come up with new ideas, and summarise things.

Outside of SEO, it's handling my emails. I always had a lot of emails, so I use Superhuman to help me. Also, it’s helping me summarise my meetings. I used to go everywhere with paper and a pen. Now, I use Otter.ai because I’m in Europe and we need to take care of things like GDPR. I go to a meeting, I have my AI assistant, and I leave with a clear list of tasks to do.

Another thing that it can help with is the presentation. I use Gamma and Beautiful.ai because it saves a lot of time in preparing content, and it takes care of the details.”

How do you go about using AI for creative tasks?

“Now, my clients are always asking me to add a layer of AI to their work and automate some things.

For creativity tasks, it helps me organise my ideas. Some of my clients were able to finish a book that they started a very long time ago, using AI to help them keep track of the plot and the characters, maintain continuity throughout the story, and come up with ideas that make sense.

On the creative side, I still use AI like a business assistant. It will give me ideas for where to go next. If I have written a blog on X and another blog on Y, it might suggest that I try writing something on both of those topics. I take that into consideration, then I go back. I can give the structure to AI, and by the end of it, I have blogs or articles that were written much more quickly.”

How can AI help you with planning and writing reports for your clients?

“Notion AI is a bit older, but it can handle your calendar, and it can handle all the details that are related to a project, so you can stay on top of your projects for many different clients.

AI integrations in platforms like MailChimp help you to follow a process with your clients – and via Zapier, Make.com, or any other automation tool, you can take it to the next level. If I receive an email responding to a survey, for example, it analyses the answer, it will personally reply to each client, and it will inform me when a client is not content with my service. Then, I can go and take action.

Start by installing small automations, test whether they are working, and then you can get to the next level. Now, we are in the age of agents. They are improving very quickly, so these agents can also get to the next level and help us perform our day-to-day tasks with efficiency.”

What common mistakes do people make when they’re trying to be more productive?

“There are two very common errors that I have seen. The first is that some people are trying to ignore AI, and they want to keep using their old methods. This is a little bit sad because they could be freeing up some time for more creative and productive work.

The other error is moving too quickly. This is also an error, because if you move too quickly and you don't measure your results, then you might not get the right benefit, or you might even choose the wrong tool.”

Are bigger firms with more budget at a greater advantage with AI than smaller firms?

“I don't think it's a handicap. We are lucky to be in the AI boom, so companies are happy that we are using their tools because we are helping them develop their models.

In terms of budget, it comes down to making the right choice of AI tool. If you are looking at a tool that is too expensive, maybe you can find an equivalent that is more affordable. Even in human resources, we have tools now. We have tools for project management.

My advice is to test. You should test before adopting. Test, and see if it will give you a return on investment. If you can earn more time or complete the task more easily, then go back and decide to adopt it in your work.”

What do you think you will be saying about AI in a year's time?

“I imagine that I would be saying that we’re fortunate to have all these tools, but we need to be careful in how we adopt them so they don’t bring more harm than benefit.

However, I think we are very lucky to have seen this boom, and have all these tools that are around us.”

Rana, what's the key takeaway from the tip you shared today?

“Keep learning, keep testing, and most importantly, measure before you adopt a new AI technology into your projects.”

Rana Abu Quba Chamsi is a Consultant and Trainer in SEO and AI. Find out more over at Expando.Digital.