ChatGPT Prompts for SEO

A prompt is the instruction you give an AI assistant: the text you type into ChatGPT or a similar tool. In its prompt engineering guide, OpenAI describes prompt writing as phrasing instructions so a model returns what you need, every time. The more precise your instruction, the more useful the answer. Below you'll find six SEO prompts for five tasks that you can copy and fill in. After that come the jobs you should keep for yourself and what Google says about AI-generated text.

The short version

ChatGPT and similar assistants help with SEO work that comes down to sorting, varying and proofreading: grouping keyword ideas, drafting titles, outlining an article, suggesting internal links and checking old pages. Facts, figures, search volumes and statements about Google come from the source, not from an assistant. Google does not penalize AI-written text, as long as it is useful and you have reviewed it yourself.

What goes into an SEO prompt?

Every example below is built from the same parts.

• The task in one sentence, starting with a verb such as suggest, group, write or check.
• Who you are and who you write for: your business, your audience and your region.
• The material the task is about, pasted in by you. An assistant knows nothing about your Search Console figures or your site structure unless you provide them.
• Requirements for the result, such as tone, length and what must stay out.
• The format of the answer, for example a table or five numbered suggestions.

Replace everything in square brackets before you send the prompt. If the first answer misses, say what to change in concrete terms, for example "shorter, no adjectives".

How do you find keywords and search intent with a prompt?

An assistant can expand a list of ideas and sort it quickly. Treat the result as a list to test. This prompt also asks for search intent, meaning what the searcher wants to achieve with the query, so you know which type of page fits.

Prompt: "I work for [company name], a [type of business] in [city or region]. Our customers are [audience]. Come up with 30 search terms in [Dutch or English] that someone could use to look for [topic or service]. Put them in a table with three columns: the search term, the search intent (finding information, comparing options, buying or requesting a quote, looking for a specific company) and the type of page that fits. Do not give search volumes or difficulty scores."

Check the output against figures from a real source. Keyword Planner in Google Ads shows estimates of monthly searches. The Performance report in Search Console lists the queries your site already appears for, with clicks, impressions, CTR and average position. You can hand that export to the assistant too.

Prompt: "Below is a Search Console export for [domain] covering [period], with clicks, impressions and average position for each query. Group the queries by topic and note the search intent for each group. Point out the queries with many impressions and few clicks. For each group, suggest which existing page I should update or which page is missing. Use only the data I paste below. [paste the export]"

Don't turn a list like this into a separate page for every way someone could phrase the question. Google's guide to generative AI features in Search (updated July 10, 2026) says that pages made mainly to influence rankings or AI answers fall under the scaled content abuse spam policy. The same guide says Google's systems understand synonyms, so you don't have to cover every long-tail variant.

How do you write titles and meta descriptions with AI?

For titles and descriptions, an assistant produces variants fast and you pick the best one. Include the page text, or the model has to guess what is on the page.

Prompt: "Below is the text of a page on [domain]. The main search term is [search term]. Write 5 suggestions for the page title and 5 for the meta description. The title describes the page in plain words, contains the search term once and is about 60 characters long. The description is one or two full sentences of about 150 characters that say what the reader will find on the page, plus one concrete detail from the text, such as [price, place or date]. Use no hype and no exclamation marks, and add nothing that is not in the text. [paste the text]"

The lengths in the prompt are a rule of thumb. Google sets no maximum for a title or description and cuts off whatever does not fit the screen. To build the title in search results, Google draws on several sources, including the title element and the heading on the page. The description in search results mostly comes from the page text itself. Google uses your meta description only some of the time, when it describes the page better than the text does. Count the characters of every suggestion yourself, and read it the way a visitor sees it in the results.

How do you get AI to outline an article?

An assistant can arrange an article into headings and key sentences. The substance has to come from you. In Google's AI features guide, generic tip lists built on common knowledge are called commodity content, because anyone could have written them. According to the guide, content with its own angle and firsthand experience is likely to affect your presence in generative AI search results more than the other tips, especially over the long term.

Prompt: "I'm writing an article about [topic] for [audience] who [situation or question of the reader]. The main search term is [search term]. These are questions customers actually ask me: [questions from email, phone or Search Console]. Create an outline with a working title and subheadings on two levels. Under each heading, say in one sentence what goes in it. Next to each one, note what I need to supply to make the text my own, such as an example from a project, an experience or a figure from my own work. Do not add facts, figures or sources that I have not mentioned."

Write the text yourself, with the additions the outline asks for. If you let the assistant produce a first draft, check every claim before you keep anything.

How do you find internal links with a prompt?

Google uses links to find pages and reads the link text along with them. Good link text describes the target page in a few words. "Click here" and "read more" say nothing, and a row of links back to back leaves it unclear which one is for what. An assistant doesn't know the pages on your site, so export the URLs and titles from your CMS or sitemap and paste them in.

Prompt: "Below is the text of an article, followed by a list of pages on my site, one line per page with a URL and a title. Suggest at most [number] places in the article where a link to one of those pages would help the reader. For each place, give the sentence the link belongs in, the page it points to and a suggestion for the link text. The link text describes the destination in a few words and does not contain 'click here' or 'read more'. Use only URLs from my list and do not invent pages. [paste the article] [paste the list of URLs and titles]"

Then open every suggested link and check that the page exists and fits the sentence. The same goes for external links: only link to a page you have read yourself.

How do you check existing text with AI?

On old pages, an assistant works as a first reader who points out what to look at. Let it point and nothing more, so the check stays with you.

Prompt: "You are a copy chief. Below is a text on [domain] about [topic], last updated on [date]. The text should be found for [search term]. Make four lists. The first holds claims, figures, years, product names and rules that may be outdated or wrong, each with its sentence so I can check them. The second holds questions from a reader searching for [search term] that the text does not answer. The third holds paragraphs that repeat what is already said. The fourth holds places that stay generic and lack an example of our own. Do not rewrite anything and do not add extra facts. [paste the text]"

Look up whatever the list flags at the source, such as the provider's website, the government or the documentation. Update the page once you know what is correct. Change a page's date only when the content has changed. In its guidance on helpful content, Google calls editing dates to make a page look fresh a warning sign of content made mainly for search engines.

How do you fix a prompt that is too vague?

Most disappointing answers come from an instruction that lacks context. An example shows the difference. The vague version reads: "Write a title for my page about plumbers." The model doesn't know which city, which service or which reader, and fills the gaps with generalities.

The improved version: "Write 5 page titles of at most 60 characters for the page 'Emergency help with leaks' of [company name], a plumbing company in [city]. The reader has a leak right now and wants to know whether someone can come today. Mention the city once, use no exclamation marks and include no prices or response times that are not in the text below. [paste the text]". It states the task, the reader, the requirements and the limits, and it returns suggestions you can choose from.

If it still doesn't work, change one thing at a time and watch what shifts. That shows you which part of the instruction steers the answer.

What does the assistant do, and what do you do?

The table below sets out, for each SEO task, what you can hand to an assistant and where you stay in charge.

How do you put this to work?

A fixed routine keeps you from trying one-off tips forever. You can use these steps for every page.

1. Start with the reader's question. Write down what someone landing on this page wants to know.
2. Gather your own material: customer questions, Search Console data, examples from your work.
3. Let the assistant sort and draft variants with the prompts above.
4. Write or rewrite the text yourself, with your examples in it.
5. Check every fact at the source, in the page title and meta description as well as the alt text.
6. Publish, and after a few weeks look in Search Console to see whether the page gets impressions and clicks.

If you want this set up for your business, we can look at your content approach and at where AI fits in your workflow.

What should you not leave to AI?

According to Google's guidance on generative AI content, a generative model predicts a likely sequence of words based on its training data and does not look up facts. The output can therefore contain errors, known as hallucinations. Google asks you to manually review all AI-generated content for accuracy, including titles, meta descriptions, structured data and alt text. For that reason, keep the following away from the assistant.

• Facts, figures, years, prices and rules. Take them from the source itself and link to it.
• Search volumes and competition. Get those from Keyword Planner and Search Console.
• Statements about how Google ranks. Google's AI features guide says no external tool has access to Google's internal ranking systems or AI systems.
• Publishing text you haven't read yourself. In its helpful content guidance, Google gives producing large amounts of text with generative AI and no manual oversight as an example of low effort.
• Personal data of customers or colleagues. On August 6, 2024, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) warned about data breaches caused by employees entering personal data into an AI chatbot. It advises organizations to set clear rules on what is and is not allowed.

What does Google say about AI-generated content?

Its position on AI text

On February 8, 2023, Google wrote that appropriate use of AI is not against its guidelines, as long as you don't use it mainly to manipulate search results. Google says AI content gets no special advantage: it is simply content, and useful, original content can do well.

The guidance on generative AI content, updated October 1, 2026, says generative AI can help with research and with giving structure to your own content. Producing many pages without adding anything can run into the scaled content abuse spam policy. The spam policies, updated August 28, 2026, define that as producing many pages with the main purpose of influencing search results. The policy applies no matter how the pages are made. Using generative AI to produce many pages that add no value for users is listed as an example.

Telling readers about AI

Google recommends saying how content was made when readers would reasonably wonder. In the European Union, a legal rule adds to that: the transparency obligations of the AI Act have applied since August 2, 2026. According to the European Commission, anyone who deploys an AI system must inform people when they see AI-generated content on matters of public interest that has not been through human review or editorial control. If you doubt whether one of your texts falls under this, ask a lawyer.

AI search features and Search Console

Google Search's AI Mode has been available in Dutch since October 8, 2025. Google's guide to generative AI features, announced May 15, 2026, says SEO still matters there, because those features rely on the regular ranking systems. According to the guide, you don't need to create an llms.txt file. You don't need to chop your content into small pieces or rewrite it specially for AI either.

On June 3, 2026, Google announced Search Console reports on visibility in generative AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. It has been rolling them out worldwide since late August 2026. If your site has few impressions in AI features, you may not see a report yet. The reports show which pages of your site appear in those features, with impressions broken down by country, device and date.

Frequently asked questions

Can you use ChatGPT for SEO content?

Yes. Google says appropriate use of AI is not against its guidelines, as long as you don't use it to manipulate search results. What counts is the quality of the text. Check what the model writes for accuracy and add your own knowledge.

Does Google detect AI text?

Google judges whether content is useful and reliable, regardless of how it was made. Producing many pages with no added value to influence search results falls under the scaled content abuse policy, even when humans write them. So write for the reader.

Can ChatGPT give you search volumes?

Don't expect reliable search volumes from it. An assistant has no access to your Search Console or to Google's data. Use Keyword Planner for estimates and Search Console for the queries your site already appears for.

How do you stop AI from writing false facts?

Supply the facts yourself and tell the model to use nothing else. State in the prompt that it must not add figures or sources. Then look up every claim at the source. A model predicts words and can write errors that sound convincing.

Can you paste customer data into an AI chatbot?

Better not to. In August 2024 the Dutch Data Protection Authority warned about data breaches caused by personal data entered into chatbots. Remove names and contact details from the text before you paste, and agree on rules within your company about what is and is not allowed.

Do you have to say a text was made with AI?

Google recommends it when readers would reasonably wonder. In the EU, transparency obligations for certain AI content have applied since August 2, 2026, such as texts on matters of public interest with no human review. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer.