Smarter SEO with Drupal: Harnessing AI for Better Results

AI is no longer on the horizon — it’s fully here, and reshaping nearly every corner of the digital world. It’s no longer news that with the right approach, AI tools can quietly and tirelessly simplify and streamline much of the work across various areas. Search Engine Optimization, with its many routine and repetitive tasks, is no exception.

Drupal embraced AI early and continues to prioritize it, which gives Drupal users access to powerful, cutting-edge AI capabilities. Drupal AI Initiative is in full swing, and we are happy to be on the list of AI Makers supporting these efforts.

In this article, we’ll explore how Drupal’s AI tools help you with common SEO tasks. They help keep your website polished and search-friendly, while letting you focus on the ideas and content that truly matter.

A glimpse of Drupal AI tools that can help with SEO (and more)

The AI module in Drupal

Today, at the heart of the AI landscape in Drupal is the AI module — a unified hub that brings together many earlier modules and AI capabilities under one roof. With it, you can connect to multiple AI providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, and more. It enables both interactive and automated AI features, from text editor integrations to behind-the-scenes workflows.

AI Assistants enable you to run prompts interactively, for example, within CKEditor, to generate or refine content.
With AI Automators, you can configure rules or triggers, so AI performs tasks automatically, such as generating alt text or translations.
AI Agents are able to orchestrate entire workflows with schedules and triggers, handling complex automation across providers.

Drupal AI makes it possible to achieve nearly any SEO-related goal with the right prompts (instructions to AI about what you want to achieve) and settings. However, you’ll need API keys from the chosen providers, which may be free or paid.

AI in Drupal CMS

The most advanced level of AI adoption is in Drupal CMS, a special version of Drupal tailored to non-tech users, because of robust AI features configured out of the box. Drupal’s founder, Dries Buytaert, discussed in different presentations, including his DrupalCon Vienna 2025 keynote.

However, you can also just install the AI module or other modules on a “traditional” Drupal website and fully benefit from the SEO tasks being taken care of.

More AI-related Drupal modules

The AI module is being actively developed by the Drupal team and is considered the central tool, so you might need no other tools. Still, there are a few other great modules around that might overlap with the AI module in certain functionality, presenting different ways to achieve your goals. Among them:

AI Image Alt Text. This module automatically generates accurate, descriptive alt text for images with the help of AI vision models. It is part of the AI module’s ecosystem. In Drupal CMS, it’s included out of the box with the main AI functionality.
Automatic Alternative Text. This module generates alt text for images using Microsoft Azure’s AI tools or Alttext.ai.
AI SEO Analyzer. It provides automated optimization suggestions in the text editing form. It belongs to the same AI module’s ecosystem.
Metatag AI. It automatically generates meta tags based on the content title and body and supports top AI platforms.
Augmentor AI. It can connect your Drupal website to a wide range of AI services for a variety of content-related goals.
OpenAI / ChatGPT Integration. This is one of the first AI modules that was designed specifically to integrate OpenAI and enhance multiple content tasks. It is still a standalone module, but its functionality has been moved to the AI module, so most new developments and additions are now happening there.
AI Interpolator. It was designed for creating all kinds of AI-driven workflows with a wide range of AI integrations. However, the module’s maintainers recommend using the AI module instead. Interpolator’s capabilities have been moved there and have been enhanced.

Using AI for SEO tasks in Drupal

AI-powered metadata generation

Metadata, especially page titles and meta descriptions, remains one of the strongest signals search engines use to understand and rank your content. A well-crafted title can boost visibility and click-through rates, and a clear, compelling meta description helps searchers decide whether your page is worth visiting. Keywords placed naturally throughout metadata also help reinforce topical relevance.

Writing optimized titles and descriptions for every single page is repetitive, easy to postpone, and often ends up rushed or forgotten entirely.

AI changes this dynamic completely. Drupal AI tools can generate metadata that is relevant, readable, and aligned with best SEO practices — tailored to your page’s content and tone. The process can be interactive (when you ask AI to create metadata for a specific content item), or automated (when it happens behind the scenes, which is especially beneficial for content-heavy sites). Editors can simply adjust or approve the suggestions. This saves a lot of time, and the cumulative SEO benefit is even greater.

You might already know that Drupal has the Metatag module for creating metadata. So why would you need AI for that? Metatag fills in titles, descriptions, and social tags using patterns (based on Drupal placeholder tokens like [node:title] or [node:summary]). This ensures consistency, but it can only generate rule-based output. But AI can replace that summary with a polished description written specifically for the page’s content, tone, and target keywords, and follow your instructions on how it should look.

One of the best approaches to AI-driven metatag generation was demoed by Marcus Johansson, the project lead of the AI module, in his video “Automagical metatags.” The above-mentioned Metatag and the Token modules are fully “in the game” — they work in tandem with the Metatag Automator in the AI module.

Basically, all you need is to write the prompts in the automator’s settings of a content type’s Metatag field, telling AI exactly how to create your meta tags and where to pull the content.

*Creating a prompt for the Metatag Automator in the Drupal AI module for generating metadata*

AI-driven alt text generation

Alt text (alternative text) is the short descriptive text that search engines read to understand what’s shown in an image. While originally created for accessibility — helping screen readers convey image meaning to visually impaired users — alt text has also become a critical SEO element. Search engines can’t “see” images, so well-written alt text gives them the context they need to index your visuals correctly and improve your page’s search visibility. You can learn more about alt text in Drupal in our full article.

Same as with metadata, writing alt text for every image on a busy Drupal website is time-consuming. This is where AI becomes incredibly valuable. Drupal AI tools can generate clear, context-aware alt text based on the image content, either on demand or automatically.

*Alt text for images in Drupal generated with the AI Image Alt Text module*

This keeps your SEO metadata consistent and boosts your image search ranking potential. It can be useful for article images, event and product photos, image-heavy landing pages, content imported from external sources, and more.

Editors remain in full control — AI suggestions can be accepted as is, edited, or replaced entirely. But the time saved adds up fast, especially on large sites where hundreds or thousands of images pass through editors’ hands.

The AI Image Alt Text module settings are part of the Drupal AI ecosystem in Drupal CMS. They include a built-in prompt for generating short, accurate alt text based on image content and language context. With the “Autogenerate on upload” option enabled, alt text can be created automatically as images are uploaded.

*A built-in prompt for generating alt text via AI Image Alt Text in Drupal CMS*

AI-based tag and taxonomy suggestions

Organizing content consistently is essential for SEO and site structure. AI can automatically suggest tags or taxonomy terms based on the content you’re writing, keeping your site well-organized without extra effort. It can maintain consistency across large sites, avoiding duplicate or conflicting terms.

Consistent tagging improves navigation, helps search engines understand site structure, and boosts internal linking opportunities.

*Content tag generation by ChatGPT via the Augmentor AI module*

More SEO goals that AI can help you with

Keyword targeting suggestions

As content is written or edited, AI can suggest relevant primary and secondary keywords based on context. This includes spotting missed opportunities and offering natural synonyms. The result is content that stays aligned with SEO goals with no need to manually scan for keyword density.

Content readability and structure scoring

Another area where AI helps is content structure and readability. It can review heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3), sentence length, tone consistency, and internal linking patterns, while flagging sections that may be hard to scan or over-optimized. The result is clearer, more balanced content that works better for both users and search engines.

Internal linking suggestions

AI can also analyze your existing content and recommend meaningful internal links between related pages. These suggestions help strengthen topic clusters, improve crawlability, and guide users to relevant content more naturally, without forcing links or creating artificial connections.

Final thoughts

AI opens a treasure trove of possibilities for enhancing your team’s SEO efforts. Success comes from clear goals, carefully crafted prompts, well-configured tools, and the right AI services. For the best outcomes, understanding how AI fits into your SEO workflows and seamless technical implementation go hand in hand.

Experience with Drupal, SEO, and AI together makes all the difference. When you’re exploring how to bring these ideas into a real project, a Drupal team can help shape an approach that’s practical, maintainable, and tailored to your site.