Garbage in, Garbage out: Understanding Prompt Engineering | Friday SEO Tip

Today’s Friday SEO Tip is going to be short and sweet. I want to talk about prompt engineering. I will also share a few of my favorite large language models (LLM). 

What is the most important thing to remember when interacting with AI tools? Garbage in, garbage out. If you work in software, you’ve probably heard this phrase. In that context, it means you will get bad results if you put in bad code. 

This is also the principle behind using tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. See what I mean in the video above.

When you’re ready to up your prompt game, check out Google’s latest resource on the subject. The Prompting Guide 101 was designed as a quick-start handbook for effective prompts. While it’s tailored for those who work with Gemini, the strategies should improve the output you get from almost any standard LLM.  

At BSM, these tools have become integral to our operations. While we don’t rely solely on them, we use them daily—hourly, even!—to streamline our processes so we can do more for our clients faster. 

As for my favorite tools right now? I’ve been impressed with Claude and Perplexity lately. If you’re not getting what you want from other tools, check these out. They may be exactly what you’re looking for. 

Lastly, I want to share the latest video from Gary Illyes, an Analyst on the Google Search team. In the newest installment of “How Search Works,” Gary breaks down serving, which is how Google interprets user queries, sends them to the index, and ultimately ranks relevant pages based on various factors.