How to Leverage Content and AI-powered Tools in Your Content Writing

There’s been a lot of chatter that the increasing prominence of AI writing tools will replace writers in the future and cause a flood of poor-quality content. This couldn’t be further from the truth, in my opinion.

When you approach AI as a tool rather than a threat and embrace its collaborative potential, you realize that these tools are designed to enhance and assist human creativity, not to replace it. They automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, allowing writers to focus on crafting engaging narratives, strategic thinking, and adding a human touch to the content.

AI writing tools should be viewed as tools that augment creativity, not diminish its importance. They enhance productivity and efficiency in the writing process, such as with data analysis, content optimization, and keyword research, allowing you to focus on higher-value tasks that require strategic and creative thinking.

Here’s what Jon Gillham, the founder of Originality.AI, has to say on this topic:

“The use of AI by writers can be a massive efficiency booster for everyone. One of the biggest struggles I see right now is everyone trying to understand who benefits from that efficiency. Everyone involved in the writing process getting on the same page with when and how AI can be used in the writing process is key.”

It’s also important to note that AI tools can assist with the content writing process but can’t replace the innovative thinking and creativity that content creators bring to their work. Only humans can develop unique ideas, express expertise and authority, write engaging narratives, and connect with their audience on a deeper level.

AI is still far from achieving human-like writing. It lacks the tone, nuance, and cultural understanding that humans possess. Human writers apply emotional intelligence to evoke emotions, adapt to various writing styles, describe experiences, and connect with an audience in a way that AI can’t and may never be able to replicate.

1. Moz Pro’s Keyword Explorer

Keyword research is the pillar of SEO. When you publish content, you’ll want to make sure to use the right keywords so that your content pops up in the results when people search for information online. This is one of the first steps you’ll take when creating and writing content.

Keyword research tools, like Moz’s Keyword Explorer, can help you find out what keywords you’re ranking for, those that people are searching for, which keywords are searched the most, and which other sites are competing for your target keywords.

To understand what content to write and how to optimize it to target relevant traffic, you need to conduct keyword research.

Moz Pro’s Keyword Explorer can also help you identify the most competitive keywords in your industry. The tool will also show you what relevant keywords are most popular among consumers in a particular industry and which ones are worth targeting.

Here’s how you can use Moz’s Keyword Explorer tool to generate keywords:

Step 1

Log into Moz Pro and type in your root keyword. If you sell dog food, for example, type in ‘dog food’ and select the country of your choice from the drop-down arrow as shown below.

You can now use this list of keywords to inform your content strategy. Create targeted and relevant content around these keywords to improve your site’s search engine visibility.

Remember that your content should always address user intent and provide value to your audience.

2. Use AlsoAsked to find FAQ-rich results

The FAQ-rich results, such as the People Also Ask (PAA) section in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), is a SERP feature from Google that displays a list of questions asked in relation to the original search query.

It is a goldmine for content writers because it can give a deeper insight into the specific concerns and questions of your target audience.

Particular tools have brought a new level of efficiency and effectiveness to content writing by fetching real-time PAA query data and insights.

When writing content, the PAA section can help you to:

• Generate relevant and valuable content that addresses common questions and concerns.

• Expand your article’s topics, cover related queries, and enhance the article’s depth and comprehensiveness.

• Integrate PAA queries as keywords in your article to improve its search engine visibility and alignment with user search intent.

• Incorporate PAA queries to create a structured FAQ section within your article, enhancing user experience and providing quick answers to common queries.

Here’s what Mark William Cook, the founder of AlsoAsked, has to say:

“I work with a lot of data when doing keyword research, and a common challenge people run into is wondering “Should I answer all PAA questions in my content?” In my opinion, great content will always include an intent statement that summarizes what the reader can take away from the content. It’s this intent statement that gives you your scope of questions to answer.”

Tailor your content to match the language and phrasing of PAA queries, aligning with how users search, increasing the chances of your article being considered relevant.

The tool AlsoAsked is a valuable asset that utilizes AI algorithms to fetch PAA queries directly from SERPs. It then presents this data, including a tree of subsequent results when questions are clicked, providing valuable insights into the interests, concerns, and informational gaps of your target audience.

Follow the below steps to generate PAA questions using AlsoAsked:

Step 1

Enter your search term in the query box, and choose the language and region you are researching. Click on the Search button. I’ve searched the keyword “vitamin b for dogs.”

When perfectly balanced, the marriage between human expertise and AI has the ability to birth successful content. By embracing AI and combining the best of both, a content writer can maximize efficiency, adapt to evolving trends, and maintain authenticity.

This balance can help you stay competitive in the digital landscape with content that connects with your audience on a deeper level.

Here’s what SEO Specialist Samantha North has to say about balancing AI and Human expertise:

“AI content writing often gets a bad rep, but it’s definitely here to stay. In fact, Google has stated that it doesn’t differentiate between human or AI-written content. The main factor is the content being of high quality. Speaking from my own experience, it’s possible to leverage AI automation alongside human expertise to create high-quality content. For example, a writer might use AI to create a detailed outline for an article; then, a human writer would flesh out the sections by themselves. In many cases, poor quality, generic AI content is a result of overly basic and lazy prompting. If the writer takes the time to learn how to interact properly with the AI and craft detailed and meaningful prompts, then it’s possible for AI to generate high-quality text (not just the surface-level, fluffy stuff that a basic prompt usually produces). Finally, it’s always essential to edit and fact-check AI content before publishing. So, as you can see, there’s a lot of scope for human content writers and AI tools to work very effectively together.”

Here are examples of AI-powered tools that you can use to speed up different aspects of your content-writing process.

1. Use AI-powered tools for Generative AI detection

Very ironic, yes, but AI tools are invaluable when it comes to detecting AI-generated content.

Lazy writing that reads like it was entirely produced by AI may affect how search engines rank it, which is why it’s essential for you to be able to detect whether or not this has occurred in particular pieces of content.

But these are tools, and as such, one must exercise caution when using them.

There is chatter about the inaccuracy of these tools, as pointed out on LinkedIn by Michael King, founder of iPullRank as shown in the screenshot below. He scanned the US Constitution and got a result of 92.26% AI generated result. Clearly, when using generative AI detection tools, it’s important to use them in the context of other data points.