With the release of ChatGPT by Open AI, marketers and SEO pros have flocked to the tool to tap into its SEO and content writing capabilities.
I’ll be honest, I jumped on this bandwagon myself, going so far as to write this post all about how to use ChatGPT in your SEO writing.
However, ChatGPT has been pretty transparent about its limitations. Some of these include producing incorrect/non-sensical answers, biases in the training data, and over-optimization issues.
Even so, ChatGPT has some pretty valuable use cases so long as you don’t depend on it for SEO.
Below, you’ll find some simple and straightforward ChatGPT prompts you can use to streamline your SEO processes and strategy.
1. Generate a list of SEO-friendly blog topics
Prompt: “Can you come up with a list of X blog post ideas, including organic search volume, for a website about <topic>?”
Description:
Need help coming up with blog post ideas? ChatGPT can help you generate a list of topics and provide the estimated organic search volume for each.
(Note: I recommend validating the search volume with your chosen SEO tool, just to be sure).
Result:
2. Create an “SEO content strategy”
Prompt: “Create a table of keywords for an SEO content strategy plan based on the topic <topic>”
Description:
If you want your keyword recommendations in a more organized format, ChatGPT can even create a table of what they call an “SEO content strategy”. Again, this is helpful for topic ideation purposes, but some of their recommendations can be a little off — so take them with a grain of salt.
Result:
3. Generate a list of popular questions
Prompt: “Generate a list of popular questions related to <topic>”
Description:
Optimizing for user questions is a great way to rank in the People Also Ask search results and for long-tail keywords. ChatGPT can help you generate a list of common questions related to your primary topic. Then, you can optimize for these questions on an FAQ page or in your blog content.
(Note: Tools like Surfer can also help you generate a list of topically-related terms and questions to target in your content. I recommend using a trusted SEO tool (like SEMrush) to validate any recommendations made by ChatGPT.)
Result:
4. Create a topic cluster
Prompt: “Create a cluster of X topics related to <topic>”
Description:
Adopt a “hub and spoke” content structure by using ChatGPT to generate a topic cluster related to your primary topic. These topics can be the inspiration for blog articles (whether SEO-focused or not).
Results:
5. Translate a list of terms
Prompt: “Translate the following words from <language 1> to <language 2>, in order.”
Description:
Easily translate a list of terms from one language to another. You can even request that ChatGPT put the original terms side-by-side with the translated terms in a table.
Result:
6. Create a list of unique title tags
Prompt: “Generate a list of unique title tags under 60 characters each for a blog post about <topic>”
Description:
Stumped on how to write unique title tags? ChatGPT can generate a list of title options related to your content topic or rewrite an existing title tag.
Result:
7. Write unique meta descriptions
Prompt: “Generate a list of unique meta descriptions under 150 characters each for a blog post about <topic>”
Description:
Similar to the above, you can use ChatGPT to generate a list of unique meta descriptions for a blog post or web page. Just be sure to specify the character limit.
Result:
8. Find statistics and sources to add to your content
Prompt: “Generate a list of X facts and statistics related to <topic>, including the source”
Description:
Find sources and statistics to reference in your content by using this simple ChatGPT prompt. You can even get more specific about the source type (e.g. academic article, blog post, etc.), publishing date, and more.
Result:
9. Generate structured data for your content
Prompt: “Generate the <schema type> Schema markup for the following content:”
Description:
Schema markup is used to help search engines better understand your website content. Research the schema type you’d like to use and then prompt ChatGPT to generate the structured data for a particular piece of content. Then, add this to your website code.
Result:
10. Create a list of SEO-friendly YouTube video topics
Prompt: “Generate a list of YouTube video topics related to <topic>, including organic search volume >
Description:
YouTube is one of the world’s largest search engines. Use ChatGPT to come up with a list of searchable video topics, plus the estimated organic search volume for each.
Result:
11. Write a YouTube video description
Prompt: “Write a YouTube video description for a video titled <’title’>”
Description:
Save time writing your video descriptions by having ChatGPT write them for you. Just tell ChatGPT what the video is about and how long the description should be.
Result:
12. Generate Hreflang tags for international web pages
Prompt: “Generate hreflang tags to add to pages for the <country> in <language>, <country> in <language> and <country> in <language>…”
Description:
Hreflang tags help search engines know what version of a web page to show a user based on their location and language. Use ChatGPT to generate the hreflang tags for your web pages based on country and language identifiers.
Result:
13. Generate a list of recommended web pages
Prompt: “Generate a list of X recommended service pages for a <business> website”
Description:
Not sure what service or web pages to have on your website? ChatGPT can help you generate a list of potential web pages. This works well for agency websites, bloggers, and service providers.
Result:
14. Create rewrite rules for URL redirects
Prompt: “Create the .htaccess rewrite rule to 301-redirect <source> to <destination>”
Description:
Take the complexity out of writing .htaccess rewrite rules. Use ChatGPT to write rules for 301 redirects and more.
Result:
15. Categorize a list of keywords based on search intent
Prompt: “Categorize this list of keywords based on search intent (commercial, transactional, or informational…”
Description:
Quickly categorize a list of keywords based on user search intent, whether Commercial, Transactional, or Informational. Knowing the search intent (i.e. the user’s intention when they Google the search term) will help you determine the right focus and content type for each term.
For example, a keyword with Transactional search intent may be best suited for a product page or sales page.
Result:
16. Create a featured snippet response
Prompt: “Generate a Featured Snippet response for the question <’question’>”
Description:
Trying to optimize for Featured Snippets? Enter your question into the ChatGPT prompt above and it will generate some text that best answers the question you are hoping to rank for.
Result:
17. Generate a list of relevant sites for backlink outreach
Prompt: “Generate a list of X popular blogs about <topic>, including their URLs”
Description:
Before you dive into backlink outreach, use ChatGPT to generate a list of relevant and popular blogs. Make sure to request that ChatGPT includes the URLs for each source. Then, you can reach out to these websites in hope of a backlink!
Result:
18. Generate a Regular Expression (Regex)
Prompt: [ example ] “Generate a Regular Expression to find the word <“word”> in this list of terms…”
Description:
Regular Expression (Regex) refers to a pattern that describes a set of functions or rules that matches a pattern. For example, regex can be used to find words in a list of phrases, find different spellings of words in a set, match an alphanumeric format, and so much more. Use ChatGPT to generate regex and streamline your processes.
Result:
19. Write backlink outreach emails
Prompt: “Write a backlink request email to the following website: <domain>. Keep it friendly and professional.”
Description:
Writing backlink outreach emails is time-consuming and tedious. ChatGPT can quickly write and rewrite outreach emails for you.
Result:
20. Create an SEO blog post outline with headings
Prompt: “Create a blog post outline, including H1 and H2 headings, for a blog post titled <’title’>”
Description:
Create a simple outline for a web page or blog post by having ChatGPT generate a simple layout of the recommended H1 and H2 headings. However, you will likely need to optimize the headings/body content with keywords yourself.
Result:
21. Create a list of external link sources
Prompt: “Create a list of X external websites to link to related to the topic <’topic’>”
Description:
If you need reputable sources to link out to, ChatGPT can help with that. Simply ask that it create a list of popular sites related to your topic, with the URLs to match.
Result:
22. Create a “best of” listicle
Prompt: “Generate a list of the top X <products, topics, etc.>”
Description:
Need a quick and simple listicle? Tell ChatGPT what to want to find and it will create a numbered list of items, products, businesses… whatever you want! This can save you a ton of time. I just recommend adding content to make the listicle more valuable to readers.
(Note: ChatGPT is not able to browse the internet so it may be unable to provide things like “most profitable businesses in 2022” or “highest grossing movies”, etc.)
Result:
23. Generate a list of local businesses and addresses
Prompt: “Generate a list of X <business type> businesses in <location>. Provide the address, phone number, and website URL for each location.”
Description:
There are many reasons one might need to create a list of local businesses: for SEO purposes, to attract new customers, or to compare similar businesses, just to name a few. ChatGPT can quickly generate a list of businesses and provide the contact information for each, so you don’t have to copy/paste the information yourself!
Result:
24. Write image alt tags
Prompt: “Write an image alt tag for an image about <image description>”
Description:
ChatGPT can be used to generate alt tags for images on a website. Alt tags are used to describe the content of an image to search engines and to help visually-impaired users understand the image via e-readers.
Result:
Got Any ChatGPT Prompts to Share?
I’m sure this list is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to helpful ChatGPT prompts.
As far as SEO is concerned, ChatGPT can be an extremely useful tool for planning content, writing outlines, and so much more. Just make sure you take this tool with a grain of salt because there are limitations when it comes to optimization.
Please share your ChatGPT in the comments below if I missed any!