Short Essay 2 LI Yuwei（1155228261）

AI, SEO and algorithm auditing

In the context of today's exponential development of digital technology, artificial intelligence and search engine optimization (SEO) is occurring in the depth of intertwined and collision, this convergence of dynamics in the reshaping of the industry ecology at the same time, but also bring a number of pros and cons worthy of detailed examination.

Currently, the algorithmic bias that exists in search engines may be technical or social. Search engines serve advertisers in two ways, the first is the paid performancemodel, and the second is paid inclusion model.

AI has achieved a leap in efficiency and accuracy for SEO. According to my previous work experience in the agency, in the search engine keyword management, the traditional SEO keyword research work is complicated and arduous, the optimizer needs to spend a lot of energy, in the massive amount of data manual screening, screening. The process is long and tedious, and easy to miss the key information due to human negligence, the effect of data processing is not satisfactory. AI tools streamline the investment in manpower and time costs. More critically, the keywords screened by AI fit the semantic understanding model of the search engine, and provide a precise anchor direction for subsequent page optimization, laying the foundation for the whole process of SEO from the beginning.

In terms of content creation and analysis, content quality is always the core focus of SEO work. Now, although there is still controversy around the compliance of AI-generated content, the development of auxiliary creation tools based on large models such as GPT-4 has already demonstrated its unique value in the content production process. Creators can use AI to efficiently stimulate creative inspiration, build content frameworks, and help polish high-quality content that fits the theme and user needs. At the same time, AI can also quantitatively assess existing content, accurately analyze the quality level, and point out the optimization path, so that the content can better fit the search engine algorithms' preferences, and thus effectively enhance the ranking potential of the website.

In terms of traffic and ranking monitoring, traditional monitoring tools such as Google Analytics can provide a huge amount of detailed data resources, but there are drawbacks of complex and time-consuming data interpretation, and it is often difficult for optimizers to pay attention to the key information of website traffic trends and ranking fluctuations in a timely manner. AI-driven monitoring tools, such as SEO Vendor's ‘Eye In the Sky’ and ‘Rankings Analyzer’, can accurately capture abnormal rankings fluctuations and instantly output corrective suggestions.

However, the integration of AI and SEO has also given rise to a series of negative issues. Firstly, over-reliance on AI tools can lead to a slippage in the professionalism of optimizers. Secondly, at the algorithm level, although AI helps companies keep up with the rhythm of algorithm updates and effectively avoid the risk of violations, it also leads to new violations of the hidden dangers. Improper operation will seriously disrupt the normal search order, erode the ecology of fair competition, resulting in damage to the interests of other enterprises and users.

Thirdly, the copyright attribution of AI-generated content is fuzzy, and the content is seriously homogenized. A large number of AI-assisted content output style convergence, a single point of view, seriously diluted the diversity and richness of the Internet content ecosystem. Fourth, AI-based SEO optimization tools are overly dependent on algorithms for data interpretation.

Therefore, algorithm auditing is very necessary. Algorithm auditing is a direct or indirect review of the operation logic of the algorithm. It can effectively avoid the black box effect and increase the transparency of the algorithm. By conducting algorithm auditing on search engines, it can effectively stop them from abandoning the reliability of the content for the sake of economic interests, so that the algorithm application can be developed in a positive direction.