AI and SEO

Most human resource departments have little need to get involved in the complexities of SEO –   the business of improving a website so that it ranks higher in the search engine rankings of Google, Microsoft Bing, etc. However, anticipating that at some point you will need to write articles for your company website, here are a few tips gleaned from our experience at Education Quizzes.

A well-crafted article or blog of around 1,500 words might take a human up to eight hours to write, while ChatGPT can generate a similar piece in under a minute. So why wouldn’t everyone turn to AI?

The answer lies in the high priority search engines place on originality. In online marketing, ‘Content is King’ – but in today’s world, it’s more accurate to say, ‘Content is King, provided it’s original.’

Sure, you can employ AI to write an article on “The role of human resources in a large company” but so can thousands of other people – and they probably will.

The job of the search engines is to ensure that the most valuable, most readable articles acquire links near the top of the SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages.  The search engines’ weapon of choice for sorting the wheat from the chaff is ORIGINALITY.

If your article, written by AI, is the same as thousands of others written by AI then you can kiss goodbye to the first 10 pages of Google.

You might think that having your article relegated to page eleven on Google is the worst-case scenario when relying solely on ChatGPT, but you’d be mistaken. Numerous companies, overly eager to embrace AI, have discovered their entire websites completely blacklisted by Google.

Psychological safety is a cornerstone of a productive workplace. Employees need to feel secure enough to take risks, ask questions, and share ideas. Anonymous quizzes support this by allowing employees to voice opinions or concerns without the risk of repercussions.

Consider using anonymous quizzes to assess employee satisfaction or gather feedback on new initiatives. For instance, after rolling out a new software system, HR could use an anonymous quiz to ask employees about their experience. If the feedback reveals frustration or confusion, HR can address these issues promptly, showing employees that their voices matter.

Don’t get disheartened! There are ways to use AI that not only save you time but also make it more likely for you to be regarded favourably by Google and its peers. Let’s look at a few…

(As with earlier blog articles, to make for clearer understanding the blue text below is used for prompts I have provided for ChatGPT and red text is reserved for the AI’s responses)

It is true that high-quality, original content is the most important factor for achieving a strong search engine ranking; however, from Google’s perspective, good content means incorporating the right keywords, which is where ChatGPT becomes invaluable. I provided ChatGPT with this prompt:

I want to write an article about quizzes that can be used in onboarding. Please give me a list of keywords that will be valuable for SEO

And here is its response:

Here are 20 keywords that could be useful for an article on onboarding quizzes
• Onboarding quizzes
• Employee onboarding
• New hire quizzes
• Onboarding assessments
• Training quizzes
• Interactive onboarding
• HR onboarding tools
• New employee training
• Quiz-based onboarding
• Employee engagement
• Onboarding best practices
• Learning and development
• HR training tools
• Onboarding quiz benefits
• Company onboarding process
• Digital onboarding
• Employee retention
• Knowledge retention
• Compliance quizzes
• Onboarding feedback

This exercise often sparks fresh trains of thought. AI is excellent at encouraging you to think outside the box.

Reviewing the list above, I noticed that a few words appeared a bit too frequently. I realized that overusing any single term might be seen by Google as “keyword stuffing” – a discouraged practice that could lower the article’s ranking. “Onboarding,” in particular, stood out.

With this in mind, I returned to ChatGPT with a modified prompt:

Please give me a further list of keywords that do not include “onboarding”

Here is its response

Certainly! Here’s a list of relevant SEO-friendly keywords that focus on the onboarding topic without directly using the word “onboarding”:

1. New Hire Integration
2. Employee Engagement Strategies
3. Company Culture Introduction
4. Team Building Activities
5. Employee Retention Programs
6. Job Orientation Tips
7. Learning and Development Plans
8. Skills Training Programs
9. Employee Success Path
10. Workplace Familiarization
11. Role-Specific Training
12. Employee Welcome Guide
13. Orientation Process Checklist
14. Career Development Pathways
15. First-Day Preparation Tips
16. Corporate Training Solutions
17. Employee Support Systems
18. Structured Induction Process
19. Performance Readiness Programs
20. Engagement and Retention Tips

These keywords focus on topics that relate closely to onboarding processes but broaden the potential audience reach. Let me know if you need more variations or specific themes!

Magic – I now have a list of words that will make me think and at the same time help my article rank better without the risk of keyword stuffing.

Remember that search engines are looking for original content.  It’s comforting to know that you can be original but at the same time employ ChatGPT to do some heavy lifting.  Here is the 3-step policy that we adopt at Education Quizzes.

1. We Use ChatGPT for Research

When we first sit down to write an article, ChatGPT is a wonderful tool for surfacing things we hadn’t considered – what Donald Rumsfeld cleverly called the ‘unknown unknowns.’ Think of it this way: the AI has been “trained” on billions of web pages – it has read and understood all of them. It’s ideally placed to bring information to light on virtually every subject you care to mention.

2. We Write the Article Using Our Own Perspective

We remember stories about how the subject directly relates to us. We think of suggestions for how it can be used in our field. We research the subject and gather facts and figures that others haven’t brought together. We then write the article in our own words, knowing that the article is original – indeed, it’s unique.

3. We Use ChatGPT to Correct Our Errors

I well remember the days when every article had to be reviewed by multiple people to ensure there were no typos. ChatGPT will do that better than any human – even if you ask it at 3:00 a.m. So, we go back to the program and enlist its help.

We don’t want AI to substantially change our wording because if it did, the article would no longer be original. This is the exact prompt we use:

Please look through the article that follows and ensure there are no spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors. Change the wording only if it’s essential to clarify the meaning. Here is the article…”

The net result is that we have an error-free article that taps into the vast knowledge of ChatGPT, yet remains original and written in our own style. Most of all, it is ORIGINAL

Meta titles and descriptions work behind the scenes on every effective website, helping pages rank higher and guiding Google in displaying search results. After working through the above process with Google on an article titled “AI and Office Procedures” I fed the completed article back into ChatGPT and provided this prompt:

Please give me suggestions for a meta description and title for this article…

Here was its response:

Meta Title:
“ChatGPT in the Office: Versatile Uses Beyond Writing”

Meta Description:
“Discover the many ways ChatGPT streamlines office tasks, from SEO and keyword generation to document editing and Excel formula support. Learn how it elevates productivity.”

Though I had some ideas of my own, I had to admit ChatGPT’s suggestions were perfect for what was needed, so I used them exactly as they were!

Many of us are curious – and perhaps a bit anxious – about how AI will shape our world and, especially, our jobs over the next decade. I’m both amazed by what ChatGPT has already achieved and concerned that its intelligence might soon outpace my own. Yet, amid these thoughts, I find comfort in the words of Alan Kay: ‘Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower.’

Colin King – CEO of HR Quizzes