Is it possible to use automated content creation to spin news headlines into SEO friendly content?

It’s a serious question. This morning, I saw a tweet from a company I’d never heard of who offered me a free tool that did automated content creation.  This tool, they promise, would automatically create SEO friendly articles on any topic in just one click.

Being the skeptic that I am, I had to try it to see if it’s worth anything.  And being a search marketer, I decided to test it on a phase that I was intimately familiar with – “search marketing”.

So I went to the aforementioned web site, typed in my search term, selected “3” for the number of articles I wanted, and pressed “send”.  A couple of minutes later, I got a web page with “an original” article and 2 “created for me” articles on it.

Hmmm.

The two articles that were created for me are below.  I’d love to have you read them and then answer the poll at the end of the page. Thanks!

Article One: How Your Business Can Win At Voice Search

Voice is the biggest change to the way people search since the rise of mobile.

Just a decade ago, the concept of controlling technology using just your voice was the stuff of sci-fi. Today, it’s a readily accepted part of our daily lives.

Most consumers’ first exposure to voice search came with the debut of Siri on the iPhone in 2011. Today, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana compete for our attention, and the booming smart speaker market features a who’s who of tech competitors, including Google (Home), Amazon (Echo), and Apple (HomePod).

Nearly one-third of marketing leaders see voice search as the “next big thing” in search marketing. Clearly, voice search is not a technology your business can afford to ignore.

Businesses can prepare for the future through digital knowledge management

Consumers have been quick to adopt voice search, but businesses are less prepared for its implications. In the past, when a consumer searched the Web for something such as “best pizza near me,” the list of search results included multiple blue links on a page.

Now, when consumers pose that question to voice-enabled services such as Google Assistant, Siri, or Alexa, the result will often be just one answer—the one the search service determines is the best result. That means if a business isn’t that first response, it risks not showing up at all—and losing business.

The website, once the centerpiece of a brand, is quickly being overtaken as third-party information sources, such as voice assistants, become more and more intelligent. That is why brands need to go beyond traditional SEO.

That shift also means brands must ensure that the facts about them are managed and published accurately, and that they are recognizable to intelligent services—including voice assistants—that consumers rely on today. When your business does that, the need for, and the delay associated with search engine crawling, is eliminated, and you ensure your consumers receive accurate, timely information about your business straight from the source.

Here are three steps your business can take to stay competitive in the world of intelligent services, voice search, and AI:

Gain control of your digital knowledge. The foundation of any voice search strategy is organizing and centralizing all the public facts about people, products, and locations. Have a central source of truth to easily make updates and maintain consistency. Technology alone will not address that underlying need. It’s also critical to have great people—and a great process—working together.
Actively manage your business facts. Businesses are dynamic, and so are the facts about them. Store relocations, seasonal changes, special promotions, and weather-related closures imply constant flux. That means managing a brand’s knowledge isn’t a one-and-done project; it should be done on an ongoing basis.
Integrate internal systems, and publish your digital knowledge. Once you organize all the important facts consumers want to know, publish them to the services customers are using. That includes websites, voice search tools, apps, and even your own site. Providing the most accurate, up-to-date information everywhere is crucial to offering an excellent consumer experience.
Take a conversational approach

The shift to voice search also means that if businesses want to be seen as the best provider of an answer to a voice query, they need to secure the search engine’s trust with the right information presented in a coherent way.

However, search engines don’t work miracles. If content is hidden or difficult to discover, it won’t show up when people search for it. A brand’s website, videos, and other content are key to contextualizing the public facts about a business for intelligent services… but only if those intelligent services can find and understand them.

In addition, with the growth of conversational search (i.e., when a consumers ask search engines questions as they would of another person), businesses need to ask themselves, “What else can I tell prospective customers to help them make a buying decision?”

A consumer will want to know everything, from whether a hotel has rooms available to the average wait time at a restaurant. If a business can make all of that information available, it is more likely to be the answer consumers hear to their questions in voice search.

Understand the customer journey

Businesses must understand the customer journey to thrive in today’s environment. That extends beyond having just the top search rankings for select keywords. With voice search, contextual relevance is key. To be successful with voice search, businesses must understand the moments of context that exist for a person, and then meaningfully map to those moments.

For example, although a business may not come up as the first search result when asked “What’s the best sushi place in New York?” it might be number one when asked “What’s the best sushi place in SoHo in New York?” or “What’s the best sushi place that’s open late?” If a business is able to share specifics of its offerings (e.g., hours, menu items, exact location, etc.), it will crop up in results to more-specific queries.

Voice search now has the ability to understand a lot of context. That means brands must understand why a consumer would choose their business over another (such as shorter wait times, cheaper prices, more convenient location) and make that information available.

Ultimately, a brand’s ability to understand those moments of context, meaningfully map to them, and then publish relevant digital knowledge effectively will determine its success with voice search.

Future-proof your business

As businesses deploy those strategies to win at voice search, they will also find themselves far better prepared for new user interfaces beyond voice.

Amazon, for one, is already pioneering the visual search space with products such as Echo Look, Spot, and Show, and Google Lens lets you scan the real world to see location-specific information. Just as with voice search, if a visual search involves your business, you want the consumer to get accurate information straight from you.

By managing, updating, and publishing key facts that consumers want to the intelligent services they use, you’re already taking the next step to future-proofing your business for whatever user interfaces consumers adopt next.

Yes, voice search is disrupting traditional search optimization strategies, but it is also creating a huge opportunity for those ready to future-proof their business.

After all, if you don’t manage the public facts about your business, who will? Perhaps I’d better go ask Siri.

Article Two: 11 Voice Search Statistics Digital Marketers Need To Know

More and more consumers are using voice search to perform search engine queries, find local businesses, make purchase decisions, and more. And when consumers search for local businesses with their voices, they usually engage with those businesses the same way — by calling. Below, we’ve compiled the top statistics digital marketers need to know to succeed in tomorrow’s voice-first world.

1. 65% of 25-49 year olds speak to their voice-enabled devices at least once per day. The 25-49 year old demographic is the most likely to perform daily voice searches, followed closely by 18-24 year olds, and 50+ year olds, respectively. Though 25-49 year olds are the most active voice searchers, the 18-24 demographic is credited with helping to drive early adoption of the technology (Source: PwC).

How often people speak to their voice devices

2. 61% of 25-64 year olds say they’ll use their voice devices more in the future. The 18-24 demographic mirrors this trend, with 57% saying they’ll increase their voice device usage in the coming years (Source: PwC).

3. 71% of wearable device owners predict they’ll perform more voice searches in the future. Though wearable users are the most optimistic, tablet and speaker users are not far behind (Source: PwC).

People will increase voice search usage in the future

4. Half of all online searches will be voice searches by 2020. The voice search revolution will dramatically alter how consumers engage with businesses. Marketers who optimize their SEO for voice searches will gain the advantage in this new landscape (Source: ComScore).

5. 53% of consumers use their smart speaker at least once per month to find information on a local business. A substantial percentage of consumers also voice search for local businesses on their smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Because of their convenience for on-the-go customers, voice searches are often used to research and locate local businesses (Source: BrightLocal).

Across devices, people use voice search to find local business info

Recommended for You

Webcast, October 17th: How to Solve Your Marketing Data Nightmare

6.51% of consumers use voice search to research restaurants. This is the most commonly voice searched business, though consumers research a broad range of businesses on their voice devices, from hotels to doctors to insurance companies (Source: BrightLocal).

People use voice search to research businesses across industries

7. 28% of consumers go on to call the business they voice searched for. This is the most common action following a voice search, since it allows consumers to continue interacting with brands via their voices (Source: BrightLocal).

People tend to call after making a voice search

8. Calls will influence $1 trillion in US consumer spending this year. In a voice-first world, calls will be the most convenient way for customers to convert, driving this number even higher (Source: BIA/Kelsey).

9. Phone calls convert to 10-15x more revenue than web leads. Calls are the most valuable conversions marketers can drive from voice searches. By tracking the calls driven by your Facebook ads, you can measure your full ROI and optimize accordingly (Source: BIA/Kelsey).

10. Callers convert 30% faster than web leads. Calls provide a more immediate return on your digital marketing investment (Source: Forrester).

11. Caller retention rate is 28% higher than web lead retention rate. Driving calls from voice searches is also more profitable in the long-term — callers are more loyal than web leads (Source: Forrester).

• Voice searches are longer than traditional text searches. Optimize your content for long-tail keywords and queries likely to be spoken aloud.
• Voice search keywords and queries differ from traditional text searches, but the same SEO principles apply. Adhere to SEO best practices to ensure you rank high.
• Optimize for local searches by providing an easily accessible phone number and address, updating your Google business listing, and adding “near me” in the title tags, meta description, and anchor text.
• Mine calls to your business for the questions consumers ask before buying. Add them to your website to improve SEO and CRO.
• Analyze calls from voice search to determine if you should retarget the caller and with what ad campaign.
• Analyze call conversations to measure how well each location converts callers to customers — and what tactics work best — and share best practices.

Are you ready for the voice search revolution? Download our Digital Marketer’s Guide to Voice Search to learn more tips to prepare.

What are your thoughts?

Keep in mind that the query was for “search marketing”.  What came back is about “voice search” so right off the bar, I’m a bit skeptical.

Is the content compelling, well written? Is it viable? Or is it just another waste of time? The question is, would you use this tool and more broadly, any automatic content creation tool?  What do you think. I’m dying to know.

[poll id=”2″]