Whether your business is a team of one or many, there’s an AI content platform with features designed for your business needs. In addition to evaluating features, you’ll want to consider how those features will impact your optimization efforts.

These efforts will change based on the type of content being produced. For this discussion I’ll include features and optimizations that are needed for long form online content such as blogs. 

If you’re not publishing online content you can disregard references to keywords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And keep in mind the process is much simpler and faster for shorter content.

Preparing to Use AI Writing Features

Many content writers will ask you for information before providing you with a prompt. This provides extra context and customization that’s more likely to meet your requirements.

This nformation often includes:..

Topics or Keywords

Platforms often ask for the topic or keywords related to your content prompt. This helps the AI model understand the subject matter and generate relevant content. The keywords are critical because they are going to drive your SEO for the article.

Desired Tone

You may be asked if the content should be formal, casual, persuasive, informative, humorous, etc. Knowing the desired tone helps the AI model tailor the writing style. A few platforms such as Jasper have AIs that can learn to write based on your own voice.

Your Target Audience

Depending on your target audience, different writing styles, vocabulary, and complexity levels may be called for. 

Word Count or Length

 Setting boundaries for content length helps the AI provide the right level of information. It can also help your budget, since many platforms determine cost based on the number of words produced. 

Additional Instructions

You may have seen in a previous post that context is one of the biggest challenges for an AI writer. The additional instructions can include your guidelines to help provide context for the AI. 

Platforms like Content-at-Scale let you provide context using links from outside sources. These include other blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and audio files.

At this point you’re ready to prompt the AI writer to create content…

Optimizing Your New AI Content

And…congratulations, here’s your first AI written content, ready to optimize!  

The following list is not meant to prescribe a particular order. That may vary depending on your existing tools, personal preferences, and the integrations provided by the AI platform. 

First Edits

Read through the content and decide whether you want the AI to write additional sections or paragraphs. If it’s not close to meeting your needs, you may want to redo the preparation steps and request a rewrite.

Plagiarism Detector

It’s important to ensure your work is original. Many AI content platforms have an integration for this. If they do not, Originality.ai is a well respected tool you can use.

 AI Detector

Sometimes AI detection is built into the platform. If it’s not built in, there’s two detectors that are generally at the top of the most recommended lists. Content-At-Scale has a free AI detector and Originality.ai has a paid service along with free tools such as a prompt tool for ChatGPT.

My recommendation is to at the very least revise text that’s color coded as likely or definitely AI. You’ll find your own balance on this issue as you gain experience. As I discussed in a post about Google’s take on AI content, the lines between AI and human created content is becoming increasingly blurred. 

I discovered this for myself after AI detectors flagged content that I had written. As the chart shows, false positives are an issue and you can find out more about how this could affect you in the Originality.ai article. 

Grammar / Spelling

You’ll find spelling and grammar tools on many AI content writing platforms. One of the most respected tools in this category is Grammarly. It checks for grammar, spelling, punctuation, voice, sentence clarity, and more.

General Edits

You’ll want to add your own story and ‘spin’ to the article. This includes providing any missing context where it’s needed. As you’re editing look for opportunities to remove ‘fluff’, which means unnecessary words, phrases, and repetitions.

SEO Edits

Many AI content platforms are integrated with SEO keyword analytics tools. For example Jasper has an integration with SurferSEO. These tools will show analysis results for the keywords you selected during preparation. And sometimes will include a more in depth analysis of alternative keywords. That way you can revise the article for maximum online visibility. 

Many platforms also provide a content editor which you can use to do other edits, some SEO related. These include adding images, internal and external links, Meta description, and so on. 

If you’re already producing online content there’s a high probability youre already using an SEO tool. And using it together with an online editor such as WordPress to edit your content. This will influence how you view the importance of the SEO integrations offered by the platform.

How Long Is All This Optimization Supposed to Take?

Yes, all of the above optimization sounds like a lot. Especially given the promise of AI content writers to produce content more efficiently. This is where I had to stop for a minute to separate the hype from reality.

Because here’s the reality. Most of what I’ve described is stuff we’re already supposed to be doing for long form online content. The only items I would leave off of a manual writing effort are the plagiarism and AI detections. 

It’s also a great reason to evaluate your needs carefully. Then select an AI writer with platform longevity in mind. 

AI content platforms that update features and integrations in response to change will make reliable long term partners.

Coming up, reviews of AI content platforms I’ve taken for a spin.