Does AI know what’s best?
AI tools are increasingly being used to “audit” websites and provide optimization advice. While these tools can be helpful, treating AI as an authority on your website’s SEO is almost always misguided.
AI does not see your website the way search engines do. AI can’t crawl live ranking signals, measure competitive landscapes, or evaluate performance data. It generates responses based on probabilities and patterns.
That distinction matters.
AI Does Not Perform Real Audits
When an AI tool reviews a website, it is not conducting a technical crawl or analyzing actual rankings. It does not know:
- How your pages currently rank
- Which keywords drive traffic
- Local considerations
- How competitive your market is
- What tradeoffs were made intentionally
As a result, AI often presents confident sounding, generalized advice that is useless. It regularly suggest fixes for things that don’t exist or flag “problems” that aren’t problems at all.
This behavior is sometimes referred to as hallucination, but in practice, it’s simply the limitation of predictive language models.
Confidence Does Not Equal Accuracy
One of the biggest risks of relying on AI for SEO feedback is tone. AI tends to speak with confidence, even when it’s unsure.
That confidence can make recommendations feel authoritative when they’re actually speculative or generic. In some cases, following AI suggestions blindly can undo intentional strategy, weaken page focus, or conflict with best practices that are already working.
AI is good at sounding right. It is not always good at being right.
Where AI Is Useful
None of this means AI has no place in SEO or marketing. When used correctly, it can be a valuable support tool.
AI works well for:
- Brainstorming content ideas
- Generating written copy
- Identifying common questions or themes
- Speeding up research
The Bottom Line
AI is incredibly useful, but it isn’t an SEO authority. It doesn’t crawl your site, track real results, or understand your broader strategy. Use AI to enhance your digital efforts but don’t rely on it to do the thinking just yet.
