How to Use AI to Improve Your SEO

There's a gap between using AI tools and using them well for SEO. Most people treat them as content generators. The ones getting results treat them as research and strategy tools first, writing aids second.

Start with research, not writing

The biggest mistake is jumping straight to AI-generated articles. The tools that improve rankings do the thinking before the writing — keyword clustering, SERP analysis, entity research, competitive gaps. Frase and Surfer both do this well.

Build a brief before you generate

Every high-ranking AI-assisted article starts with a proper brief: target keyword, secondary keywords, headings structure, questions to answer, word count target. Generate that brief from SERP data, then write against it — either manually or with AI assistance.

Use Surfer for scoring, not as a crutch

Surfer's content score is a guide, not a target to game. Articles written purely to hit a score tend to read like exactly that. Use it to check coverage and spot gaps — not to justify keyword stuffing.

The compound effect

The real advantage of AI SEO tools is speed of iteration. You can test more angles, publish more consistently, and build topical authority faster than manual workflows allow. That compound effect is where the rankings come from.