Last Updated on: 10th February 2025, 06:00 pm
Mykola Lukashuk—founder and head of the digital marketing agency Marketing Link—has been working in SEO and PPC for over 11 years. He shared his thoughts on balancing work and personal life, the challenges SEO specialists will face in 2025, and the role of AI in organic website promotion.
There’s a belief that the beginning of the year is a bad period for marketers because clients are not ready to work, and advertising doesn’t perform well. Does this apply to your agency, or is everything running at full speed?
Things are different now compared to five years ago when nobody did anything for two weeks after New Year’s. We don’t experience that anymore. On the contrary, our clients actively order services they want to implement after the holidays, so work is in full swing.
In your opinion, what aspects of SEO should remain exclusively in human hands, and which tasks can be delegated to AI?
It depends on the specifics of the task. There’s a good saying: “A good script replaces a bad specialist.” Almost everything can be automated—the real question is whether it’s worth it. For instance, if automating a task takes 20 hours, but doing it manually takes just 30 minutes twice a year, then automation isn’t practical.
When it comes to content, humans should remain responsible for writing and structuring it. AI can assist with analysis, page comparisons, and spell-checking, but the final content should always go through human review.
Can artificial intelligence be used to generate meta tags, such as page titles for a site’s catalog?
Yes, but it depends on the task and the quality of the input data. For example, if a chatbot like GPT is provided not only with keywords but also with search frequency and other critical data, the results will be much better.
For e-commerce, this can be convenient. If a store has thousands of products, manually writing unique content may not be cost-effective. However, even in this case, it’s best to train the AI first—providing it with details about the store’s unique selling points, catalog structure, and other relevant factors.
Does the quality of AI-generated results depend on how well the task is formulated?
Yes, the quality improves significantly when the task is well-structured. For instance, if you simply ask AI to generate 200 meta tags for pages, it will deliver results, but they may be weak. AI might not consider keyword frequency, miss long-tail keywords, or fail to highlight the unique benefits of a product or service.
To get better results, you need to craft a precise prompt and prepare the input data—keywords, frequency, product details, etc. It’s also important to monitor the output, as AI can make mistakes or fail to complete the task. For example, instead of generating 200 meta tags, it might stop at 20 and start producing inaccurate or irrelevant content.
Is AI effective for keyword clustering?
Currently, AI does not provide high-quality results for keyword clustering. It can make basic mistakes, such as grouping irrelevant queries together or adding synonyms that no one actually searches for.
In SEO, clustering isn’t just about grouping words—it involves logic, structure, frequency, and relevance. AI is not yet capable of handling such tasks effectively. It can assist with basic categorization, but an experienced specialist is still needed to review and correct errors.
Does AI benefit experienced specialists more than beginners?
Yes, experienced specialists know how to correct AI’s mistakes. Beginners, on the other hand, might fully trust the output without realizing that it contains errors.
How is your agency adapting to AI-driven changes? What advice would you give to specialists just starting to work with these tools?
We have always focused on creating content for people, so adapting to AI changes wasn’t an issue for us. Google has simply introduced new criteria, such as evaluating uniqueness and AI-generated content. These are additional tools that help assess content quality.
For those new to AI tools, it’s important to see them as assistants rather than replacements for specialists. The first step is to identify repetitive tasks that can be automated. AI is particularly helpful for spell-checking, text analysis, and even some basic programming tasks.
Large datasets already exist on various websites, and the same applies to ChatGPT. It can retrieve information, suggest alternatives, and execute tasks on behalf of a person. However, there isn’t a single massive database with all the correct headlines or descriptions.
ChatGPT cannot scan a website or check link speeds. Instead, it’s more useful for simple tasks like recommending a WordPress plugin or verifying specific details.
Just like in hiring, if the workload exceeds what one person can handle, ChatGPT can serve as an extra “employee.” However, the quality of its work depends on how well the tasks are structured and reviewed. For instance, if you ask AI to gather SEO keywords, it’s best to set clear parameters to avoid generating excessive or irrelevant data that will require manual cleanup.
How does AI perform in PPC keyword selection?
At this stage, AI is not very useful for PPC keywords, as it may suggest terms with no actual search demand. If such keywords are added to a campaign, Google will classify them as low-volume, which negatively impacts campaign performance. That’s why we prioritize keyword frequency and efficiency.
Can AI generate titles and descriptions effectively?
Yes, ChatGPT can be helpful for this. For new websites with little content, it can generate headlines and descriptions. However, users must review them before publishing.
For example, if someone searches for “Dell laptop” and a regional term like “Dell notebook” is also common, AI may suggest these synonyms. In our tool (Note: Mykola refers to Yakiv Ads), we have a keyword collection feature that gathers data from different sources, considering frequency and synonyms to expand keyword lists.
Thus, ChatGPT is useful for assisting with headlines and descriptions, but its effectiveness in keyword research and complex queries is limited.
If given a complex prompt, it might apologize and continue making mistakes. That’s why precise task-setting and quality control are essential.
How do you balance family life and business?
It’s probably a bit easier for me since my wife is also a marketer, and we work in the same industry. However, like any entrepreneur, I don’t have a clear boundary between work and personal life.
Marketing isn’t a job where you can just close your laptop and say the workday is over. It’s a continuous process. Plus, dealing with different time zones adds to the challenges.
To avoid being constantly involved in every task, we have a team with clearly defined responsibilities—account managers, specialists, and so on. For example, I haven’t received unexpected calls or messages like “Why isn’t the ad working?” in years. This is thanks to well-established processes.
Each team member knows their tasks and executes them efficiently. For example, advertising campaigns follow structured optimization plans that run independently of external factors. The same applies to account managers—they receive information and relay it promptly.
Results are tracked automatically. If, for example, sales drop in a particular category, we immediately detect it and proactively inform the client. We highlight which product categories are underperforming or performing well and suggest appropriate solutions.
For strategic decisions—such as budget changes or campaign pauses—we coordinate with the client. For smaller tasks, such as adjusting targeting or modifying keywords, we implement changes quickly and report the results. This structured approach helps maintain a work-life balance.
Have you ever thought about leaving marketing or SEO?
At times, there were moments when I wanted to shift focus or expand into new areas. For example, we initially worked only with SEO, then added PPC advertising and social media targeting. Now, we are exploring related fields that are also interesting and have potential.
Marketing is closely connected to IT, which has always been within my area of interest. However, completely changing industries—such as moving into farming or something entirely different—was never on the table.
What advice would you give business owners on using AI for website promotion?
First, it’s crucial to understand the fundamentals of promotion. SEO includes technical optimization, content creation, and link building. You can’t just generate AI-written texts, post them randomly, and expect results. That approach stopped working years ago.
Second, there is no magic button for instant traffic. SEO is a systematic and ongoing process. You must consider the competition—if your competitors publish hundreds of backlinks each month while you only have a few dozen, you will fall behind.
AI can assist with specific tasks, such as creating a content plan, analyzing pages, or suggesting ways to improve site speed. However, without thorough verification, it can also cause harm.
