Home / Generative AI in Content Marketing & SEO: How to Use It Without Losing the Human Touch

Generative AI in Content Marketing & SEO: How to Use It Without Losing the Human Touch

AI tools like ChatGPT can help with content creation and SEO—but they’re not magic. Here’s how to use AI to streamline your workflow while keeping your content human-centered.

Key Takeaways

  • Generative AI can boost content marketing workflows, but it shouldn’t replace human creativity.
  • Use AI to brainstorm ideas, outline content, simplify complex topics, and automate repetitive SEO tasks.
  • Leave brand voice, strategy, and emotional connection to experienced human writers.
  • Always review, refine, and personalize AI-generated content.
  • Combining AI efficiency with human insight leads to better content and stronger SEO results.

Organic content marketing and AI are becoming more intertwined by the day. Whether you’ve been using AI tools like ChatGPT from the start or are just now exploring their potential, there’s one crucial thing to remember: your audience is still human.

AI tools can help you stay competitive but can’t replace human creativity, emotion, or strategy. Here’s how to use generative AI to enhance your content and SEO — without losing the human touch that connects with your audience.

Smart Ways to Use AI in Your Content Workflow

Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT can be helpful tools to have by your side. Still, they should only be used for specific purposes — like brainstorming, helping you overcome the blank page, making complex topics digestible, and automating SEO tasks. 

Brainstorming & Ideation

We’ve all been there. You have a content calendar deadline looming menacingly overhead. But no matter how hard you stare at your screen, you just can’t seem to squeeze even one more topic idea out of your brain. 

AI might not save the day, but it can certainly help get your creative juices flowing again. Prompting your AI platform for blog topic ideas can provide the inspiration needed to wrap up your planning session. You may get the perfect blog topic or ideas that inspire your next big post. Either way, the combination of your expertise and ideas generated by AI can help move your content forward. 

Getting Started

The dreaded blank document stares back at you, your fingertips just barely hover above the keyboard, and you’ve suddenly forgotten every word that has ever existed. Similar to content ideation, AI can help when you’re stuck in the writing process. 

While you may not want to turn to AI for a complete draft, it can kickstart your blog, landing page, or other piece of marketing content. A quick prompt can give you the outline, intro, or key points you need to get rolling. 

Understanding Complex Topics

You need to understand something before you can write about it. If you work in an agency setting, you may have to write for clients whose industries you’re completely unfamiliar with. Even if you work in-house, some topics are more complicated than others, and you may struggle to fully understand them. 

If you feel like you need an “Explain Like I’m 5” Reddit post on a topic, AI can help. You can ask it to explain complex ideas in a more digestible way. Remember: AI can be wrong, so don’t use it as a research replacement. Instead, feed it trusted materials like research papers, blog posts, news articles, etc., and ask for a simplified summary. 

Automating Repetitive Tasks

Meta descriptions. Title tags. Alt-text. There are countless menial writing tasks involved in every SEO content piece. AI can save time by crafting these for you as you write, but it can also help during SEO audits. If your audit flags problems like long/missing/short title tags, duplicate H1s, etc., you can give your AI platform the list and have it rewrite all those for you. Just make sure you have a human review before implementing!

Where AI Falls Short (and Humans Step In)

AI can be helpful with tasks like those we mentioned above, but it can do more harm than good in other scenarios. Human writers and editors aren’t going anywhere, and here are the places they shine on an internet overrun with AI-generated content. 

Understanding Nuance & Infusing Brand Voice

AI can mimic different writing styles, but it often struggles with those small nuances that really make a brand unique. It may get close, but it can’t nail the tone, rhythm, and feeling that causes your brand to stand out. You need human writers who can truly understand and protect your brand identity. This will matter even more as other brands begin relying on generic AI content that dilutes their identity.

Strategic Thinking

The large language models (LLMs) that make up generative AI platforms can recognize patterns and synthesize information, but they can’t think. AI can’t understand your audience’s deeper needs, uncover content gaps, or build a narrative arc that aligns with your business goals.

Great content goes beyond the words you put on a page. It’s supported by a solid foundation of strategy and expertise. Generative AI can fill the page, but only humans can put the strategic thought behind the piece that makes it matter.

Final Quality Control

Humans make mistakes, but so do computers. Even the best AI-generated content can include outdated info, made-up facts, or awkward phrasing. AI might catch glaring mistakes on a first pass, but a human should follow to make sure even the tiniest errors are caught. If you use AI for any part of your content, a human should always double-check it for accuracy, grammar and readability, SEO best practices, and brand alignment. 

Relating to Humans

Even as generative AI platforms advance and produce better content, they’re still just machines. They can parse the internet and other sources to gain knowledge and better understand how humans use language, but they can’t connect to the emotions humans feel. That’s where an experienced human writer is indispensable. Only a human can understand the intent and feelings behind another human’s search and create content that speaks to it. 

Don’t Settle for Generic Content. Get Human-Driven Strategy.

When you don’t have time to juggle all your content marketing needs, you don’t have to settle for low-quality, generic AI-generated content. Instead, turn to the experts at GPO. From content and SEO strategy to high-quality blog posts and landing pages, we ensure that every piece of content is optimized, engaging, and aligned with your brand voice. Let us take content off your plate — strategically, creatively, and the right way. Contact GPO today!

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