Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve gotten to know our AI friends.
Google has deemed me worthy enough to un-waitlist me and let me try Bard. I’ve subscribed to the paid version of ChatGPT. And I’ve been chatting with Bing Chat.
It’s been fascinating.
I’ve spent hours revising sucky prompts until I found good ones, pasting them into competing platforms, and reviewing the results.
And I still feel like I have so much to learn. Things are changing so quickly that what’s true today may not be next week.
And so far, there’s one clear winner for SEO writers.
Here are ten things that I’ve learned about how you can use three AI writing tools — ChatGPT, Bard, and Chat — in your SEO writing campaigns.
— I like Microsoft’s Chat — but being forced to use their browser is a PITA that’s keeping me from using it more. Having said that…
— I see Chat pulling heavily from LinkedIn (which makes sense since they’re both Microsoft properties.) I asked Chat to write an article about Heather Lloyd Martin’s Slow Branding (something I only talk about on LinkedIn.) Chat did it! Bard told me it “didn’t have enough information.” Hmmm…
— Chat does cite sources, which Bard doesn’t automatically do (yet.) I didn’t love all the sources that Chat cited, but you at least had something to review.
— Speaking of Bard, I found that it could write sales pages based on the AIDA and PAS sales writing formulas. ChatGPT and Chat could do it too. Granted, they weren’t the best sales pages — but they provided brainstorming ideas.
— I could even get feedback on the sales page by prompting “What’s missing.” The response was surprisingly decent, telling me to “add testimonials” and “add a sense of urgency.” ChatGPT provided more and better feedback than Bard and Chat.
— I even tested the “what’s missing” prompt on one of my existing sales pages. The responses I got from Bard and Chat weren’t so great. But, ChatGPT came up with an idea I hadn’t considered (a comparison chart graphic.) Sweet!
— Speaking of testimonials, Chat, ChatGPT, and Bard spit back entirely made-up testimonials for the sales page test. Even if I specifically told it to write a sales page for the SEO Copywriting Certification Training (a known entity.) There were all sorts of real testimonials Bing Chat, ChatGPT, and Bard could have used…but they didn’t.
— What’s weirder, the fake testimonials were oddly similar to the ones on my site. I didn’t immediately catch that they were fake until I tried remembering the specific people the copy referenced. (“Who was Sarah Jones again?”) Had I been working fast and not paying attention, it would have been easy to let the fake testimonials fly. (PS — WTF, fake testimonials?!?)
— Although I’m not digging the fake testimonials, I do dig how I can prompt Bard, Chat, and ChatGPT to create FAQ questions based on the sales copy. When I’m in “sales writing mode,” writing FAQs feels oddly complex — so this is one prompt I’ll use a bunch.
— One of my SEO Copywriting Certification students asked if ChatGPT was good for keyphrase research. I prefer to use Semrush for research, but I double-checked whether our robot overlords could differentiate between informational and purchase search intent keywords. The results were highly disappointing…for Bard. “Inbound marketing” would be a crappy keyword for a page focused on SEO writing. ChatGPT and Bing Chat got it right (although I don’t dig Chat’s sources.) Interesting.
So which AI writing tool is the best for SEO writers?
ChatGPT by a mile — at least right now. Flipping browsers so I could use Bing Chat was annoying, but I find Chat slightly better than Bard. Bard was easy to use but isn’t ready for copywriting prime time yet.
Having said that, the always-available, better, and faster version of ChatGPT costs money. It makes sense for me to subscribe because I need to test it out and advise my students and clients. It may not make sense for you.
If you have the time to play with it, you could subscribe for a month and see if it is worthwhile. Otherwise, you can hang with the no-cost version for as long as possible.
What do you think about AI content tools?
Have you played with ChatGPT (or one of its robot friends?) Leave a comment and let me know!
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