Ep 059- AI & SEO_ Using Tools Without Losing Your Voice _1_
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Welcome to SEO Day Studio with your hosts, the Findability Queen, Denise Millet, and the entrepreneur whisperer, Kim White. This is a space to hear the questions that fellow entrepreneurs have about SEO and get them answered. So many discussions involving techy topics like SEO are loaded with jargon and unnecessary complexity, so much so that anyone outside the tech industry has difficulty getting to the real meaning inside the information.
Denise believes that every entrepreneur can benefit from search engines once they hear how they work in a clear and straightforward way. She is on a mission to help entrepreneurs get the content they spend hours creating included in search engines, so when their customers search online, they're findable because she believes if they can't find you, they can't do business with you.
So stay tuned. The fun starts now
Welcome back to the SEO Day podcast, where we help later in life learning entrepreneurs get found online without burning out. I'm Kim White, and I'm here with your SEO guide and findability queen, Denise Millet. We are changing the format of the show a little and doing our best to group questions in themes.
So no fear, I have not been fired from the official mailbag keeper's position. I have been promoted to the director of themes. So I'm very excited about my new title. Denise, today we're talking about something that feels both exciting and a little scary for a lot of our listeners: AI and SEO. So before we dive in, can you set the stage, why is this conversation so important right now?
Absolutely, Kim. AI tools are everywhere right now. They can help you write faster, brainstorm ideas, and even plan your content. But for entrepreneurs, especially those coming to all of this later in life, there's a big fear, will AI replace me? Can I do this? Will search engines punish me if I use it?
You know, the... it's... there's a lot of unknowns. So today we're going to walk through how to use AI as a helper, not a replacement, and how to protect both your SEO and your unique voice.
So important. So let's start with the first big question entrepreneurs are asking: Where in my SEO process does AI genuinely save me time, and where should I still write things myself?
Mm-hmm. What do you tell people, Denise?
Okay. Well, I'll start with what I believe. So I think of AI as an assistant to the planning phase, not the CEO of your content. So here's where AI can genuinely save you time. Brainstorming topics, you can ask AI to suggest blog topics, podcast themes, or common questions your audience might have around your niche or your specialty.
It can help you with outlining. You can say, "Give me an outline for a blog about..." whatever topic, and aimed at who your audience is. You have to be specific about who it's for to tell the AI what to pull for you, and it'll get you a starting structure. Then you can ask it to draft rough copy. It can give you a messy first draft of a paragraph, intro, or email, then you rewrite it in your own voice.
Where I don't want you hand it over- Completely is like your core story, your brand story. Not your opinions, not your frameworks that are the way you do business or the what you're selling. Not the lived experience. Don't let it tell your story. You tell your story. And then the final copy that goes on a sales page or in any of your key assets, don't use, exact copy.
You have to make sure it's you. So the rule of thumb is let AI speed up the thinking and starting, but you own the deciding and finishing.
Ooh. So I can set the table, but I still cook the meal.
Exactly. It sets out the ingredients, let's continue, but you add the seasonings, you adjust it, and you serve it.
That leads right into our question number two. How can I use AI to brainstorm keywords and topics without copying what everyone else is doing?
Such an important question. So the danger with AI is that it's trained on what already exists. So if we're not careful, we just create more of the same that it's creating for other people around the same topics, right?
So here's how to use it without becoming a copycat, so to speak. You start with your audience, not AI. So before you open the tool, you ask- you ask yourself, "Who am I talking to? What are they struggling with right now? What language do they use?" You have to have those things in your head to feed that to the AI as, the context of what it'll give you back.
So don't ask what are good SEO topics, for example. Instead say, "I help later-in-life entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed by technology. Suggest topics about SEO that feel simple and doable for them." And that gives you a framework that they could pull from for you. then ask for gaps or, myth-busting, that's tough to say
topics. For example, "Give me 10 SEO misconceptions my audience might believe that I can gently correct. Give me 10 beginner questions my audience is afraid to ask about SEO." Those have emotions in them, those have, pain points in them, and those are the things that are going to speak to what somebody's actually looking for.
So and then the other thing is you layer your story on top of the content. So once you have a list, you bring your experience by client examples, mistakes you made, and how you learned, what worked for you in your earlier years, your 40s, your 50s, your 60s, as you started, all the remembering things. And then AI, gives you a starting list, but the moment you add your own stories, it stops being generic, and I think that's the key.
You don't want generic. You want specific and personal.
So AI gives you what, and you provide the how, and the here's what it really felt like.
Oh, I like that. That's the unique part only you can bring. Yes.
Well, question three is a nervous one. Mm. What are the risk of relying too heavily on AI written content for my blog or podcast show notes?
Well, there are a few real risks, and it's good to name them. So you... The one thing is the loss of voice. if everything sounds like generic AI, your listeners won't feel a connection. The whole point of your content is to build trust, and they can sense it right away. inaccuracies. AI can get the facts wrong, especially on things that have nuance or variables in it.
If you don't review it, you can accidentally publish incorrect information, which does not do great for your reputation or your trust factor or any of that. And then if you're creating thin or things that are repetitive that other people do, search engines are getting better at spotting content that doesn't add anything new.
If it's the same advice rephrased, it may not be important to them at all, and it may not keep you being delivered at all. And then this one's a little bit controversial, Kim, so dependence, and I can speak to this. If you never practice writing or explaining things yourself, you don't build your own clarity muscle, which you need, for lives and talks and client work, especially if you're training or cons- things you have to interface with people.
So- That's, a problem, and I can speak to that because if you don't practice, you lose it pretty fast, especially at my age. So anyway, the fix is simple. Use AI as a first draft or brainstorming friend, but your voice, your examples, your story, and your structure should always have your final say.
Mm. I like that, Denise. So AI can save you time, but it shouldn't replace your judgment.
Right, exactly. So, you're the editor in chief, not the tool. you're not just the one serving up words. you're actually putting them all together and doing the creative stuff.
I love this. Well, let's head over, Denise, to a word from our sponsor for today.
This episode is brought to you by the Findability Queen, Denise Millet. Visit her YouTube channel, youtube.com/@findabilityqueen, for her collection of short videos answering questions about findability and SEO for entrepreneurs every day
Okay, so next up, how can I teach AI my brand voice so the content sounds like me and not a robot?
Mm-hmm. Okay, so you can absolutely coach AI to get closer to your voice. Never going to be exactly yours because it's not... It's a mimic, it's not a speaking person. but what you can do is you could collect two or three samples of your writing, so maybe a favorite email or a blog post or, a social description that you put together really well that sounds like you.
And then you tell AI who you are, who you serve. So for example, I would say, "I'm Denise Millet. I help later in life entrepreneurs feel confident with doing SEO themselves. My tone is encouraging, clear, and a little playful, but never cutesy." Right? And then you would also say, "And here are examples," and ask it to analyze your style.
Paste a sample and say, "Analyze the tone, pace, and word choice for this writing. Summarize my style in five bullet points." Then as you're talking to it, you say, "Reuse that style description next time you ask..." next time you ask for help. You say, "Using the style description described above, write a first draft of this thing."
Then this is the most important part, and I hope you agree with me, Kim, is read it out loud That is what saves me every time, is you read it out loud, and anything that doesn't flow, anything that doesn't sound like you, fix it right away. And over time, you'll also get better at prompting it closer to your natural voice, because you're going to change that style guide by supplying different pieces of content that get closer to your voice.
I
love this advice, Denise. So we're not trying to be perfectly robotic. We're getting AI closer to our natural way of speaking.
Exactly. You're training it to be a better assistant, not a replacement.
Love that. Well, our final question for the show today brings this all together. What simple checks can I run before I publish AI-assisted content to make sure it still heps- helps my SEO?
That is a great closing question, because this is where people can feel stuck, you know? Here's a, sample checklist you can run through before you hit the final send or publish button, right? First, you check for relevance. Does this piece clearly answer one real question my ideal person is asking?
'Cause we still believe in one idea, one main idea for each piece of content. Sometimes AI wants to provide supporting things, so you wanna make sure it's one idea. And if not, then tighten it. And then the keyword check. do I know the main phrase this content is about? Can I identify that from what I scan and what I see?
it's naturally the title, the subheadings, the first few lines in the paragraph, that kind of thing. You should know right away what it's about. If it's not, then your keyword needs to be more prominent in what you tell the prompt to create for you and what you create. So you've got to go back and keep working that.
The other thing is the voice, is reading it out loud is a definite check-through. Even if it's reading in your head, but do the exercise, 'cause it makes a difference. Then you're going to do two last things. So one is you're going to say, "Where did I add a story so is it unique?" And the way you make things unique is did you add a story or an example or an opinion that I could bring on the subject?
So your actual thinking. If you don't put any of those things in, you have to add something. You have to add something of yourself to everything you create. If you don't, they're going to know. You know it when you pick something up. You're going to know. And then the final thing is I'm going to say about any piece of content is action.
What are you asking them to do? And does the piece match that? So do you want them to subscribe? Do you want them to download something, take a quiz, book a call? All those things should be a natural extension of what you've written about. So, you're not going to say, "Subscribe to my newsletter," about something that's, off the wall and not even talking about that.
It's only highly technical or, you're going to try to relate the two. This is to help you, so I want you to subscribe to get more help. So maybe it's in the describing of the action you want has to match what you've told them in the beginning. Does that make sense?
Yes.
So those five things are kind of like this, the sections I would do to stop yourself before you hit the button and make sure that it's aligned
I love it.
That's such a helpful doable list, Denise. It turns that feeling of, "Is this okay to publish?" into, "Let me quickly walk through my five checks."
There you go. I am ... so you don't do that perfection pressure. It's just a simple quality thing. You'll get used to going through all five if you just keep doing it.
Well, Denise, for the listener who's thinking, "I'm just getting started with all of this. I'm curious about AI. I'm trying to do some SEO, but I honestly don't know what I'm supposed to understand if I want to handle SEO myself," what's a good next step for a beginning entrepreneur?
Well, that's exactly who I had in mind when I created my do it yourself DIY SEO quiz.
It's designed specifically for what beginning entrepreneurs who want to understand what they actually need to know about SEO, see which parts of SEO they can realistically do on their own. The quiz walks you through, like, a handful of simple questions and then gives you a clear result. Here's what you're doing well.
Here's where you're maybe leaving opportunities on the table, you need to figure something out. Here's what to focus on first if you wanna manage SEO yourself without getting, dragged down by it or overwhelmed. And again, it's not tech jargon stuff, no giant to-do lists. It's just seven simple questions, and it's a starting place.
So that's why I created that, the quiz.
I love that it's a starting line. I have taken the quiz, and I've loved it. So if you're a beginning entrepreneur and you want to understand what you really need to know to do SEO on your own, go take Denise's quiz, DIY SEO. The link is in the show notes. You have no excuses, y'all.
Take a few minutes, answer honestly, and use your results as a simple roadmap. It will show you which SEO pieces deserve your attention now and which pieces you can stop worrying about till later.
Denise, thanks for breaking down how to use AI in a way that supports SEO without losing your voice, our voice.
And thank you for listening, sweet listener, to SEO Day. If this episode helped you, share it with another beginning entrepreneur who wants to be more findable online without sounding like a robot. We'll see you on the next episode.
Bye for now
Thank you for joining Denise and Kim in the SEO Day studio for today's discussion. If you would like one of your SEO questions answered in a future episode, head on over to denisemillet.com/questions to let us know. The link is also in the show notes. We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of the SEO Day podcast.
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