Table Of Contents
- Why SEO Professionals Are Turning to ChatGPT
- How to Get the Most from These SEO Prompts
- Keyword Research Prompts
- Content Optimization Prompts
- Technical SEO Prompts
- Link Building & Outreach Prompts
- Local SEO Prompts
- Competitor Analysis Prompts
- Schema Markup & Structured Data Prompts
- Content Strategy & Planning Prompts
- Beyond Prompts: Scaling SEO with AI Automation
Every SEO professional knows the feeling. You've just spent three hours manually researching keywords, another two crafting meta descriptions, and you're still staring at a backlog of content briefs that need creating. The work is essential, but the time investment is crushing.
ChatGPT has fundamentally changed this equation. What once took hours of manual work can now be accomplished in minutes with the right prompts. But here's the challenge: most marketers are barely scratching the surface of what's possible, using ChatGPT for basic content generation while missing opportunities to automate complex SEO workflows.
This guide provides 30 battle-tested ChatGPT prompts that transform how you approach SEO work. These aren't generic templates you'll find everywhere. Each prompt has been refined through real-world application to deliver specific, actionable results across keyword research, content optimization, technical audits, link building, and more. Whether you're an SEO consultant managing multiple clients or an in-house marketer juggling priorities, these prompts will help you reclaim hours of your workday while improving output quality.
Why SEO Professionals Are Turning to ChatGPT
The SEO landscape has grown exponentially more complex. Between managing technical audits, creating content that satisfies both users and search engines, monitoring algorithm updates, and keeping pace with emerging optimization strategies like Generative Engine Optimisation, the workload has become unsustainable for traditional manual approaches.
ChatGPT serves as an intelligent assistant that handles repetitive, time-consuming tasks while you focus on strategy and high-value activities. It excels at pattern recognition, data organization, content structuring, and generating variations at scale. When used correctly, it doesn't replace SEO expertise but amplifies it, allowing you to execute more campaigns, test more hypotheses, and deliver better results faster.
The key is understanding which tasks benefit most from AI assistance and crafting prompts that produce immediately usable outputs rather than generic suggestions that require extensive editing.
How to Get the Most from These SEO Prompts
Before diving into the prompts, understanding how to use them effectively will dramatically improve your results.
Provide context and specificity. The more information you give ChatGPT about your industry, target audience, competitors, and goals, the better the output. Replace bracketed placeholders in these prompts with your specific details.
Iterate and refine. Treat your first result as a starting point. Ask follow-up questions, request modifications, or ask ChatGPT to expand on particular points that show promise.
Verify factual claims. ChatGPT can generate convincing content that contains inaccuracies. Always fact-check statistics, technical recommendations, and industry-specific information before implementation.
Combine prompts strategically. Many of these prompts work better in sequence. Use keyword research prompts to inform content optimization prompts, or competitor analysis results to guide your content strategy.
Maintain your expertise. These prompts accelerate execution, but your SEO knowledge determines strategy, prioritization, and quality control. The best results come from combining AI efficiency with human judgment.
Keyword Research Prompts
Keyword research forms the foundation of effective SEO, but manual research through multiple tools can consume hours. These prompts help you quickly identify opportunities, understand search intent, and organize keywords strategically.
1. Semantic Keyword Expansion
Prompt: "I'm targeting the primary keyword '[your keyword]' for [industry/niche]. Generate 30 semantically related keywords and phrases that users might search for when looking for this topic. Organize them by search intent: informational, commercial, transactional, and navigational. Include natural language variations and question-based queries."
Why it works: This prompt goes beyond simple keyword variations to identify the full semantic landscape around your topic, helping you capture more search traffic and understand user intent patterns.
2. Long-Tail Keyword Discovery
Prompt: "Generate 20 long-tail keyword variations for '[main keyword]' that have lower competition but high conversion potential. Focus on specific user problems, location-based searches, and modifiers that indicate buying intent. Format as a table with columns for keyword, estimated intent, and suggested content type."
Why it works: Long-tail keywords often convert better and face less competition, making them ideal targets for newer websites or specific campaign goals.
3. Question-Based Keyword Mining
Prompt: "Create a comprehensive list of 25 questions people ask about '[topic]' that could be used for content creation. Organize by sales funnel stage: awareness, consideration, and decision. Include variations using 'how,' 'what,' 'why,' 'when,' 'where,' and 'which.'"
Why it works: Question-based content performs exceptionally well in voice search and featured snippets while naturally matching user search patterns.
4. Keyword Clustering for Topic Authority
Prompt: "I have this list of keywords: [paste keyword list]. Organize them into logical topic clusters that would support a pillar page strategy. Identify which keyword should be the pillar page topic and which should be supporting cluster content. Explain the internal linking strategy."
Why it works: Topic clusters signal topical authority to search engines while creating a logical content architecture that improves user experience and internal linking.
5. Competitive Keyword Gap Analysis
Prompt: "My website focuses on [your topic/niche] and targets [your main keywords]. My main competitor ranks for [competitor's keywords]. Identify keyword gaps where my competitor has visibility but I don't. Prioritize by those with clear search intent and reasonable competition levels."
Why it works: Understanding where competitors have visibility helps you identify proven opportunities you're missing and informs content prioritization.
Content Optimization Prompts
Creating SEO-optimized content requires balancing keyword integration, readability, user intent, and engagement factors. These prompts help you optimize existing content or create new pieces that perform better in search results.
6. SEO-Optimized Title Generation
Prompt: "Generate 10 SEO-optimized title options for an article about '[topic]' targeting the keyword '[primary keyword]'. Each title should be under 60 characters, include the primary keyword naturally, create curiosity or promise value, and appeal to [target audience]. Vary the formats between how-to, listicles, and question-based."
Why it works: Titles are critical ranking factors and significantly impact click-through rates. Multiple options let you test different approaches or select the most compelling angle.
7. Meta Description Optimization
Prompt: "Write 5 compelling meta descriptions for a page about '[topic]' targeting '[keyword]'. Each should be 150-160 characters, include the primary keyword naturally, create urgency or curiosity, include a call-to-action, and accurately represent the page content. Make each version emphasize a different benefit or angle."
Why it works: Well-crafted meta descriptions improve click-through rates from search results, indirectly boosting rankings through improved engagement signals.
8. Content Gap Identification
Prompt: "I have an article about '[your topic]' currently ranking on page [X] for '[keyword]'. The top-ranking article covers these points: [list competitor's main sections/topics]. Analyze what my content is missing and suggest 5-7 additional sections or topics I should add to make my article more comprehensive than the competition."
Why it works: Comprehensive content that covers topics more thoroughly than competitors often outranks shorter pieces, assuming quality remains high.
9. Heading Structure Optimization
Prompt: "Review this content outline: [paste your outline or headings]. Optimize the heading structure (H2, H3, H4) for SEO while maintaining logical flow. Ensure headings include relevant keywords naturally, follow proper hierarchy, and would encourage users to continue reading. Explain your changes."
Why it works: Proper heading structure helps both search engines understand content organization and users scan and navigate articles effectively.
10. Readability Enhancement
Prompt: "This paragraph is too complex for my target audience: [paste paragraph]. Rewrite it to improve readability while maintaining the key information and SEO value. Use shorter sentences, simpler vocabulary, active voice, and transition words. Target an 8th-grade reading level."
Why it works: Readability impacts engagement metrics like time on page and bounce rate, which are user experience signals that influence rankings.
Technical SEO Prompts
Technical SEO often requires specialized knowledge and time-consuming analysis. These prompts help you identify issues, generate solutions, and implement technical improvements more efficiently.
11. Robots.txt File Creation
Prompt: "Generate a robots.txt file for a [type of website, e.g., e-commerce, blog] that blocks access to [specific sections like admin, checkout, duplicate content pages] while allowing all major search engine bots to crawl important content. Include comments explaining each directive."
Why it works: Proper robots.txt configuration prevents search engines from wasting crawl budget on low-value pages while ensuring important content gets indexed.
12. XML Sitemap Planning
Prompt: "I have a website with [describe your site structure: e.g., 500 blog posts, 100 product pages, 20 category pages]. Recommend an XML sitemap structure including which page types to prioritize, appropriate update frequencies for different content types, and priority values. Explain your reasoning."
Why it works: Strategic sitemap organization helps search engines discover and prioritize your most important content efficiently.
13. Page Speed Optimization Recommendations
Prompt: "My website has these Page Speed Insights issues: [paste main issues from report]. Explain each issue in simple terms, prioritize them by impact on performance and ranking, and provide specific implementation steps for each fix. Focus on solutions that don't require extensive development resources."
Why it works: Page speed is a confirmed ranking factor and critical for user experience, but technical reports can be overwhelming without prioritization and clear action steps.
14. Redirect Mapping Strategy
Prompt: "I'm restructuring my website and changing these URLs: [list old URLs]. Recommend the appropriate redirect strategy (301, 302, etc.) for each, suggest optimal new URL structures following SEO best practices, and identify any potential redirect chain issues. Explain the SEO implications of each decision."
Why it works: Proper redirect implementation preserves search equity during site migrations while avoiding common technical SEO pitfalls.
15. Canonical Tag Implementation
Prompt: "I have duplicate content issues with [describe the duplication scenario: e.g., product variations, paginated content, print versions]. Recommend a canonical tag strategy that consolidates ranking signals to the preferred version while maintaining necessary duplicate pages for user experience. Provide implementation examples."
Why it works: Canonical tags resolve duplicate content issues without removing pages users need, consolidating search equity to your preferred URLs.
Link Building & Outreach Prompts
Link building remains one of the most time-intensive SEO activities. These prompts help you identify opportunities, craft compelling outreach, and build relationships more efficiently.
16. Link Prospect Identification
Prompt: "I want to build backlinks for my [type of content] about '[topic]'. Generate 15 specific types of websites that would be natural, high-quality link prospects for this content. For each type, explain why they'd be interested in linking and suggest the specific page type on their site where my link would fit naturally."
Why it works: Targeting the right prospects dramatically improves outreach success rates while reducing time wasted on low-probability opportunities.
17. Personalized Outreach Email Template
Prompt: "Write a personalized outreach email template for link building in the [industry] niche. The email should: reference specific content on their site, explain genuine value my content provides to their audience, make a specific, reasonable request, and feel personal rather than mass-produced. Keep it under 150 words."
Why it works: Personalized outreach gets significantly higher response rates than generic templates, but crafting individual emails for hundreds of prospects is unsustainable.
18. Guest Post Pitch Creation
Prompt: "Create a guest post pitch for [target website] in the [industry] niche. Suggest 5 article topics that would appeal to their audience based on their existing content themes, haven't been covered on their site recently, and allow me to naturally reference my expertise in [your topic]. Include a brief pitch paragraph for the strongest topic."
Why it works: Guest posting remains effective when pitches align closely with the host site's content strategy and audience interests rather than your promotional goals.
19. Broken Link Replacement Outreach
Prompt: "I found a broken link on [website] pointing to [broken URL topic]. I have similar content at [your URL] that could replace it. Write a helpful outreach email that: alerts them to the broken link, briefly explains the user experience issue this creates, suggests my content as a replacement, and maintains a helpful rather than salesy tone."
Why it works: Broken link building succeeds because you're solving a problem for the site owner rather than just asking for a favor.
20. Linkable Asset Ideation
Prompt: "I operate in the [industry] space targeting [audience]. Generate 10 linkable asset ideas that would naturally attract backlinks from industry websites. For each, explain what makes it link-worthy, which types of sites would link to it, and the estimated resources required to create it. Prioritize assets that provide lasting value."
Why it works: Creating content specifically designed to attract links is more efficient than hoping existing content earns links organically.
Local SEO Prompts
Local businesses face unique SEO challenges requiring location-specific optimization. These prompts help you dominate local SEO in your market.
21. Google Business Profile Optimization
Prompt: "I run a [business type] in [location] targeting [services/products]. Write an optimized Google Business Profile description that includes relevant keywords naturally, highlights unique selling points, includes a clear call-to-action, and stays within the character limit. Also suggest 10 relevant business categories and attributes to select."
Why it works: Your Google Business Profile is often the first impression for local searchers, and optimization significantly impacts local pack rankings.
22. Local Content Topic Generation
Prompt: "Generate 15 locally-focused content topics for a [business type] in [city/region]. Topics should target local search intent, incorporate neighborhood names and local landmarks, address location-specific customer concerns, and support local keyword rankings. Organize by content type: blog posts, landing pages, and FAQ content."
Why it works: Location-specific content signals relevance for local searches and helps you rank for neighborhood and area-specific queries.
23. Local Citation Source Identification
Prompt: "Identify 20 high-quality citation sources for a [business type] operating in [location]. Prioritize sources that: are relevant to my industry, have strong domain authority, are actively maintained, and would provide legitimate referral traffic beyond SEO value. Organize by priority level."
Why it works: Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) citations across relevant directories strengthen local search signals and help search engines verify business legitimacy.
24. Local Landing Page Content Structure
Prompt: "Create a content structure for a local landing page targeting '[service] in [city]'. Include sections that: address local search intent, incorporate location keywords naturally, include trust signals specific to the area, answer common local customer questions, and follow SEO best practices. Provide brief descriptions of what each section should contain."
Why it works: Well-structured local landing pages that genuinely address location-specific needs outperform generic pages with city names plugged in.
25. Review Response Templates
Prompt: "Create 5 response templates for Google reviews of my [business type]: one for 5-star reviews, one for positive reviews with minor concerns, one for 3-star neutral reviews, one for 2-star negative reviews, and one addressing a specific complaint about [common issue]. Each response should be professional, address the feedback specifically, and encourage continued engagement."
Why it works: Consistent, thoughtful review responses improve your business reputation, customer trust, and local SEO performance, but crafting individual responses for every review is time-consuming.
Competitor Analysis Prompts
Understanding what's working for competitors helps you identify opportunities and refine your strategy. These prompts help you extract actionable insights from competitive research.
26. Content Strategy Reverse Engineering
Prompt: "Analyze this list of top-performing articles from my competitor [competitor name]: [paste article titles and brief topics]. Identify patterns in their content strategy including: preferred content formats, topic selection approach, content depth, target audience, and apparent content gaps they haven't covered. Suggest how I can differentiate my approach."
Why it works: Understanding competitor content strategies reveals market opportunities and helps you position your content to capture overlooked search demand.
27. Backlink Profile Analysis
Prompt: "My competitor [competitor name] has backlinks from these types of sources: [list main backlink types from their profile]. Analyze their link building strategy, identify which tactics appear most successful, determine which are replicable for my site, and suggest improvements to their approach I could use for competitive advantage."
Why it works: Analyzing successful competitor link profiles reveals realistic link building opportunities in your niche and helps you identify overlooked tactics.
28. SERP Feature Opportunities
Prompt: "For the keyword '[target keyword]', the SERP features these elements: [list featured snippet, People Also Ask, local pack, etc.]. Analyze how competitors are capturing these features, identify which features I'm not targeting, and recommend specific optimization strategies to win each SERP feature type relevant to my content."
Why it works: SERP features capture significant click share, and winning them often provides more value than ranking #1 organically.
Schema Markup & Structured Data Prompts
Schema markup helps search engines understand your content better, often resulting in rich results that improve click-through rates. These prompts simplify implementation.
29. Schema Markup Generation
Prompt: "Generate appropriate Schema.org markup in JSON-LD format for: [describe your page type: e.g., local business, article, product, FAQ, recipe]. Include all relevant properties based on this information: [provide specific details]. Ensure the markup follows current Google structured data guidelines."
Why it works: Proper schema implementation can earn rich results in search, but manually creating error-free markup is tedious and requires technical knowledge.
30. FAQ Schema Creation
Prompt: "Based on this content [paste article section or summary], create FAQ schema markup in JSON-LD format featuring the 5-7 most important questions and concise answers. Ensure questions reflect actual user search queries and answers are within the optimal length for FAQ rich results."
Why it works: FAQ schema is one of the easiest rich results to earn and can significantly increase your search visibility and click-through rates.
Content Strategy & Planning Prompts
Beyond individual tasks, these prompts help with strategic planning and content calendar development that drives long-term SEO success.
Editorial Calendar Development
Prompt: "Create a 3-month content calendar for [business type] in [industry] targeting [audience]. Include 20 article topics that: align with seasonal trends or events, address various sales funnel stages, target a mix of head terms and long-tail keywords, and build topical authority around [main topic]. Format as a table with columns for topic, primary keyword, content type, priority, and target publish date."
Why it works: Strategic content planning ensures consistent publishing, builds topical authority systematically, and aligns content creation with business goals rather than random topic selection.
Content Refresh Prioritization
Prompt: "I have these 10 existing articles that have declined in rankings: [list article topics and current positions]. Analyze which articles should be prioritized for refreshing based on: traffic potential, current position (pages 2-3 are easier wins), content quality gaps, outdated information, and strategic importance. Suggest specific refresh approaches for the top 3 priorities."
Why it works: Refreshing existing content often delivers faster results than creating new content, but prioritization ensures you invest effort where it will generate the greatest return.
Search Intent Alignment
Prompt: "For the keyword '[keyword]', analyze the top 5 ranking pages and identify the dominant search intent: informational, commercial, transactional, or navigational. Describe what content formats and angles are performing best, what users are clearly looking for, and how I should structure my content to match intent better than competitors."
Why it works: Matching search intent is arguably more important than keyword optimization. Content that fails to satisfy user intent won't rank well regardless of technical optimization.
Beyond Prompts: Scaling SEO with AI Automation
While these ChatGPT prompts dramatically accelerate individual SEO tasks, they still require manual execution for each project. True scaling happens when AI capabilities become embedded in your workflows rather than requiring constant prompting.
This is where Hashmeta AI's approach to AI SEO transforms the equation. Rather than spending time crafting prompts and managing outputs, their AI SEO Writer autonomously publishes ranking-ready articles daily, handling everything from keyword research through content optimization and publishing. The system learns your brand voice, understands your target keywords, and produces publication-ready content that matches search intent without requiring prompt engineering for each piece.
Similarly, while prompts can help you draft outreach emails, Hashmeta's AI Leads Response handles instant, personalized follow-ups across all channels 24/7. The system doesn't wait for you to craft the perfect prompt; it engages prospects intelligently based on context, conversation history, and your business objectives.
For businesses serious about scaling SEO beyond what individual prompts allow, integrating AI capabilities directly into your marketing infrastructure through solutions like those offered by Hashmeta AI represents the next evolution. The prompts in this guide remain valuable for specific tasks and learning how AI can enhance SEO work, but fully automated workflows eliminate the bottleneck of manual prompt execution entirely.
The distinction matters: prompts make you more efficient at SEO tasks. AI automation eliminates entire categories of manual work, letting you focus exclusively on strategy, analysis, and high-level decision-making while AI handles execution at scale.
Whether you start by incorporating these prompts into your current workflow or explore comprehensive AI automation platforms, the competitive advantage goes to organizations that embrace AI augmentation sooner. The SEO landscape moves too quickly and demands too much volume for purely manual approaches to compete long-term against teams leveraging AI effectively.
The 30 ChatGPT prompts outlined in this guide represent practical, immediately applicable tools that can save hours of manual SEO work weekly. From automating keyword research and content optimization to streamlining technical audits and link building outreach, these prompts transform how efficiently you can execute SEO campaigns.
The key to maximizing their value lies in treating them as starting points rather than complete solutions. Customize prompts for your specific industry and use cases, iterate on outputs to refine results, and combine prompts strategically across your workflow. Most importantly, maintain your SEO expertise as the guiding force behind strategy and quality control while letting AI handle repetitive execution.
As search continues evolving toward AI-generated results and experiences like Generative Engine Optimisation and AEO become critical, the organizations that thrive will be those that adopted AI augmentation early. These prompts provide an accessible entry point for integrating AI into your SEO practice today, building familiarity and workflows that position you for continued adaptation as both AI capabilities and search technologies advance.
Start with the prompts most relevant to your current bottlenecks, whether that's keyword research consuming too much time, content optimization requiring too many revisions, or outreach campaigns yielding insufficient results. Track the time saved and quality improvements, then gradually expand your AI-assisted workflows across additional SEO functions.
Ready to Move Beyond Prompts to Full SEO Automation?
While ChatGPT prompts accelerate individual tasks, Hashmeta AI delivers complete SEO automation that publishes ranking-ready content daily without manual intervention. Our AI-driven platform combines 12 years of digital marketing expertise with proprietary AI agents that handle everything from keyword research through content creation and optimization.
Stop spending hours on repetitive SEO tasks. Discover how Hashmeta AI provides a 10× marketing department at the cost of one marketer, with expert teams that design, build, and run end-to-end growth campaigns so you can focus on your core business.
