AI isn’t just here to write blog posts or generate chatbot scripts anymore—it’s now your new best friend when it comes to optimizing content that actually performs. From crunching your data at warp speed to adapting content for niche audiences around the globe, AI is making content marketers’ lives a whole lot easier (and less headache-inducing).
But it’s not about handing over the keys to the robot overlords. It’s about collaboration—you + AI = content that slaps. In this blog, we’re covering the dos and don’ts of using AI for content optimization, with real-world use cases, example prompts, and some (very avoidable) pitfalls.
Dos: How to use AI for content optimization
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Content performance data analysis
To spare yourself from the headache of staring at large datasets (and not to mention, sometimes missing a thing or two), you can use AI for your data analysis to identify patterns.... in a matter of seconds, too. No painkiller required.
The more data you can feed your AI tool, the better—consider what other marketing tools could fuel your AI insights, whether it be Google Analytics, Semrush or Ahrefs, or your own forecasting report perhaps.
Example prompt: "Analyze our blog performance data from the past 12 months and identify which content topics, formats, and headlines have the highest engagement rates and conversion metrics" -
Headline and metadata testing
Let AI help you craft different variations for headlines or metadata to see what hits... and what doesn't. Use it right, and you can even predict how each variation will perform before you've even clicked publish.
Example prompt: "Generate 10 headline variations for our article on sustainable manufacturing practices that would appeal to operations executives, predict CTR for each, and explain your reasoning" -
Content personalization for different audience segments
Scale your personalization efforts by using AI to adapt your core content for different buyer personas or industries. In fact, with Optimizely Opal, you can make the most of the Industry Marketer Agent.
With a specialized AI agent like the Industry Marketer Agent, you can make sure your content is ultra relevant to your target industries, using the right terminology and knowing all the trends. 😎
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Example prompt: "Take this product overview and adapt it for our three target industry segments: banking, software, and healthcare. Maintain the core value proposition but emphasize different benefits for each" -
Translations and multilingual optimizations
Globalization starts with localization, and localization not only improves your reach, but general engagement and conversions too. That's just the facts.
The first step in content localization? Local language... and you guessed it, AI can help you with that. But you don't want to just translate; you want to optimize your content for cultural context and local search behaviors too. Specialized AI tools or agents will translate content and take into account any local business terminology that could be translated a little too literally by things like Google Translate (or your colleagues that love a bit of Duolingo).
And imagine if you had this AI translation tool in your CMS, translating pages without any copy-pasting or complex restructuring. Cue: Optimizely's AI Translation Agent.
Example prompt: "Take our top-performing blog post on digital transformation and adapt it for the German market. Consider local business terminology, cultural references, and optimize for German-language SEO" -
Readability and accessibility
Readability is one way to encourage more engagement with your content, and so is accessibility (something which can often be forgotten).
Use AI to make sure your content is as inclusive as possible, check over any unnoticed bias, and simplify more of the complex stuff to get your readability and accessibility scoring 10/10.
Example prompt: "Analyze this technical whitepaper for readability issues, suggest ways to simplify complex sections without losing technical accuracy, and recommend improvements for screen reader accessibility" -
Spotting content gaps and opportunities
Seeing as we're in that whole 'competitive digital landscape' that ChatGPT keeps going on about, you do need to be working on competitor analysis and making sure your content funnel is streamlined AF.
Using AI for content research and competitor research will free up your time so you can actually start creating the content—or better yet, repurposing old content.Check out our guide to content repurposing with AI (to save you time, and money)
Example prompt: "Based on current search trends in the marketing automation space, identify five emerging topics our competitors haven't covered thoroughly that match our audience's interests"
Don'ts: How to NOT use AI for content optimization
- Risk: Blindly implementing AI suggestions without human review, leading to a variety of "WTF" moments from your audience, eg. "WTF does this mean?", "WTF is this metaphor?", "WTF did you get that information from?", and so on.
Solution: Establish a clear workflow where AI recommendations are always (please) reviewed by human editors, who have a deeper understanding of your brand voice and business goals before hitting publish or deploy.
- Risk: If you feed your AI tool with a prompt or rules that hold keywords more powerful than real-life, real-human experience, you're not going to end up with good-to-read, engaging content. Instead, you'll end up with over-optimized content for search engines.
Solution: We're not in the early noughties anymore—stop trying to make keyword stuffing happen. Use AI to balance SEO recommendations with readability metrics, and prioritize user experience over keyword density. Consider putting it to the test with your users too.
- Risk: If you rely too heavily on AI to create all your net-new content, you could lose that strategic direction that's oh-so-important for successful marketing strategies.
Solution: Think of AI as a collaborative tool rather than a replacement for human creativity. Fuel it with clear guidelines, examples of successful content, and specific objectives for any AI-generated content... and always, always check your AI's output.
- Risk: Whatever you do, do NOT use the same optimization approach across all content formats and channels. Sure, this will save you a little bit of time, but the lack of understanding for each marketing channel will mean a lot of content goes to waste.
Solution: Customize your AI prompts and tools for different content types (blog posts, social media, email campaigns, and so on) and create channel-specific optimization criteria. It's worth the extra time, we promise.
- Risk: Another time-saver, but a brand-destroyer is not inputting your brand guidelines into your AI tool—not only when you're creating content with AI, but when you're optimizing it too.
Solution: Create a detailed brand voice guide for AI tools, including examples of approved content, tone preferences, and prohibited language or approaches.
- Risk: Focusing only on traffic metrics rather than conversion goals will mean you don't get a full picture of how your AI-powered content optimizations are improving your numbers and helping hit your goals.
Solution: Define clear conversion goals for each content piece and instruct AI tools to optimize for these specific objectives, not just visibility or traffic.
Tips for using AI for optimizing content: Quick round-up
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Blind trust: Always review AI-generated content... seriously, we can't say it enough.
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Over-optimized = underperforming: Don’t sacrifice clarity for keywords.
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Creative strategy still matters: AI can generate, but you steer.
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One-size-fits-all doesn’t work: Customize your prompts for different channels and formats.
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Don't ditch your brand voice: Feed your AI tools clear brand guidelines.
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Vanity metrics ≠ results: Optimize for conversions, not just clicks.
AI for content optimization: What's next?
AI’s role in content optimization is only growing—but so is the need to use it strategically. The best results happen when you pair smart prompts, clear brand guidance, and a good ol’ fashioned human eye for quality.
If you’re ready to see where AI can take your content strategy next, start experimenting with the tips above—and check out all our content on how Optimizely’s AI capabilities can help you actually get results (not just clicks). 🚀
[CONTENT SERIES] Using AI across your content lifecycle
Über den Autor
Leah is the Content Marketing Manager for Optimizely Content Marketing Platform (CMP) solution. A keeno for writing since well… forever, she’s kept a strong focus...
