What should you give ChatGPT before asking for SEO help?

Give it a specific page, a specific reader and the facts that reader needs. SEO means work intended to improve a website's visibility in search. For this exercise, choose a narrower goal: help someone decide whether your service fits their needs.

A prompt is the instruction and material you give the tool. Context and a clear output format help define the task, as explained in Semrush's prompting guide. Prepare this short information sheet before copying any template.

• Your actual products or services.
• The location and language you serve.
• Questions customers ask before buying.
• The existing page text and approved business facts.
• The action you want the reader to take.

Hypothetical example: a bicycle repair shop wants a better service page. Supply its repair categories, booking process and confirmed exclusions. Ask the owner to fill any gaps instead of letting the draft invent turnaround times.

Add one standing instruction: “Use only the supplied facts. Mark missing information as a question. Separate your suggestions from confirmed information.” Treat that instruction as a rule to check, rather than proof that every answer will follow it.

How do you turn keyword ideas into a sensible shortlist?

Collect candidates first, then check demand and business relevance. ChatGPT's suggestions need validation before you choose targets, a distinction made in Semrush's keyword workflow. Do not approve a page simply because an expression sounds plausible.

1. Find the language customers might use

“Using these customer questions [questions], suggest ten search phrases for [service] in [market and language]. For each phrase, state what the person wants to accomplish. Separate phrases grounded in the questions from additional ideas. Do not invent search volumes, difficulty scores or evidence of demand.”

Search intent means the purpose behind a search. Use plain labels in your worksheet: learn, compare or book. Then decide whether your proposed page would actually satisfy that purpose.

2. Compare candidates against evidence

“Review this keyword worksheet [data] against our services [list]. Suggest three priorities. Return the phrase, customer need, suitable page and missing evidence. Preserve supplied numbers exactly. Leave missing measurements blank. Explain which phrases you would answer together on one page.”

Semrush Keyword Overview provides volume, intent and difficulty information for comparison. Its own guide recommends checking generated suggestions there. Use the relevant market and keep the original report beside your shortlist. Keyword validation instructions.

Also search the shortlisted phrases yourself. Note whether you see product pages, local businesses or explanatory articles. Use that observation to question your proposed format, then compare it with what your customers actually ask.

Hypothetical example: a shop selling commuter bikes might consider both “buy commuter bike” and “repair bicycle gears.” Keep the repair topic only if the business can provide a useful answer or relevant service. Do not let a promising phrase redefine what you sell.

How can you get a content brief worth handing to a writer?

Ask for the decisions a reader needs to make, then the evidence each section needs. A content brief is a short writing assignment covering the audience, questions and source material. Approve that assignment before requesting a full draft.

3. Build the page around a customer decision

“Create a brief for [page topic]. The reader is [audience] and needs to decide [decision]. Use these approved facts [material]. Propose an opening answer and question headings. Under each heading, list the information needed, what we already have and what the business must supply. Do not write the article yet.”

For a hypothetical cleaning company, the decision might be whether to book a regular service or a one-off clean. Ask the owner for the actual differences, exclusions and booking requirements. Reject sections that merely repeat the service name.

4. Turn the brief into a limited writing task

“Draft only the section answering [question], using [approved notes]. Start with the answer. Include the relevant limitation and one practical next step. Keep paragraphs short. Do not invent customer stories, personal experience or business policies. List unresolved questions after the draft.”

Review one section before commissioning the rest. Mark the exact sentence that needs correction and provide the missing fact. For product pages, prepare a separate list of approved specifications and check the draft against it.

When a section needs supporting material, consider a useful download described in the lead magnet guide. For connections between existing pages, use the internal linking guide. Give ChatGPT your approved page list before requesting link suggestions.

What makes a useful meta description prompt?

Supply the finished page and ask for an accurate summary. A meta description is a short description stored in the page's HTML. Google includes descriptions and titles in its advice to check AI content for accuracy and relevance. Google's AI content guidance.

5. Draft alternatives without adding promises

“Write three meta descriptions for this page [text]. The main phrase is [phrase]. State the page's concrete value and use natural language. Do not add discounts, guarantees, availability or services absent from the text. Aim for roughly 150 characters as an editorial target. Flag any business claim that needs confirmation.”

The length here is a writing target. Choose the version that describes the page most clearly, and check its length separately. Do not sacrifice meaning to squeeze in another keyword.

For more examples, follow the meta description guide. If the page uses photographs, handle those in a separate review with the image SEO guide.

How should you use ChatGPT for technical SEO?

Give it actual findings and ask for clarification before asking for changes. Technical SEO covers the website mechanics relevant to search systems. Treat the output as a proposed investigation that someone responsible for the site must verify.

6. Turn a report into questions for your developer

“Explain this technical report excerpt [report] for a business owner. Return the observed issue, possible explanation, evidence needed and next check. Distinguish observations from hypotheses. Do not claim to have inspected pages you cannot access. Explain unfamiliar terms and identify changes that need developer review.”

Attach the affected page addresses and preserve the report wording. If the answer recommends a sitewide change, ask what evidence supports that scope. Request a way to verify the change and a way to reverse it.

For a report mentioning a sitemap, continue with the XML sitemap guide. If it mentions crawler instructions, use the robots.txt guide. Keep those investigations separate from rewriting page copy.

What should stop an AI draft from being published?

Pause when a draft contains unsupported claims, unanswered customer questions or content you cannot stand behind. Google's self-assessment guidance asks about originality, completeness and clear sourcing. Use those questions during review. People-first content guidance.

7. Audit the draft against your source material

“Compare this draft [text] with these approved materials [sources]. List unsupported claims, missing answers and repeated passages separately. For each issue, recommend remove, clarify or request evidence. Do not add facts. End with the questions the business owner must answer before publication.”

Creating many pages without adding value can violate Google's scaled content abuse policy. That is the relevant AI generated SEO content risk to assess before expanding production. Google's warning about scaled content.

For a hypothetical florist, ask what makes each delivery-area page independently useful. Require confirmed service information for each area. If the proposed pages only swap place names, reconsider the plan before drafting them.

Your first working session

1. Choose one existing page and save its current text.
2. Collect customer questions and confirmed business facts.
3. Validate a small keyword shortlist.
4. Approve a brief and draft one section.
5. Check the claims and page description.
6. Record what changed and which questions remain unresolved.

Track editing time and the mistakes you corrected. Use those notes to improve the next prompt. A repeated invented promise calls for a clearer facts sheet and a specific review check.