Prompts in ChatGPT – How to Create and Use for SEO?

Creating effective prompts requires knowledge and understanding of AI mechanisms. ChatGPT doesn’t “read between the lines” – it needs clear, specific instructions. That’s why it’s so important to formulate prompts in an orderly and unambiguous way. “It” will do exactly what you ask it to do – nothing less, nothing more.

1. Define the role – who should ChatGPT be?

One of the most effective ways to obtain valuable, expert answers is to clearly define the role the model should adopt. In practice, this means starting the prompt with a short introduction that specifies who ChatGPT should be for the given task. It’s like giving it a script and saying: “You are a senior full-stack developer fluent in JS.” Instead of randomly choosing a tone and scope of knowledge, ChatGPT starts thinking within the context of a specific role, industry, and area of responsibility.

2. Add context – the more, the better

We already mentioned context in the previous paragraph – it is just as important as defining the role ChatGPT is to play. Instead of expecting the model to “guess” what you mean, it’s better to specify exactly what you expect, who you are addressing, what the purpose of the publication is, and what information it should contain.

A real-life example – you communicate completely differently at work than when you hang out with close friends, or sit at Sunday dinner with your grandmother. In each of these situations, you adjust your tone and manner of speaking to the target group. Remember this when creating a prompt. If you provide detailed information, the model will choose the appropriate vocabulary and it will structure sentences to meet the needs and reach the specific target audience.

Writing a blog post? Provide the topic, target audience, text length, industry, tone of voice, and expected sources of inspiration. Also, add unique information about the company – name, nature of business, communication style. It is thanks to these details that the model will be able to create content that sounds natural, meets the reader’s needs, and achieves SEO goals.

3. Write in English, even if you are creating content in another language

While it is naturally tempting to write to ChatGPT in your native language, English is still the most reliable language for a model to fully understand the command. GPT models, even the latest ones, are trained mainly on English-language datasets. This means that they have a better understanding of the syntax, context and intentions conveyed in that language.

However, this does not mean that it is impossible to obtain correct and natural text in another language. On the contrary – it is enough to properly formulate the command, for example: ‘Write a blog post in Polish based on the following structure…’. With this approach, the model remains ‘in its comfort zone’ when it comes to understanding the prompt, and you still get the content in your language.

4. Format the prompt in Markdown – you’ll ensure clarity

If you care about answers that are orderly, understandable, and relevant, use Markdown to format your prompts. This makes the command readable, logically organized, and each part is clearly distinguished. In practice, this means that even very extensive instructions, containing many requirements or examples, will not be ignored or omitted by the model – each section will be treated with due attention.

For a GPT model, such a layout is a clear signal: “A new topic starts here,” “this is an example,” “these are input data.” Thanks to this, the AI knows which part to treat as an instruction and which as material for analysis or use.

5. Say what to do, not what to avoid – commands, not prohibitions

Instead of telling the model what not to do, tell it precisely what to do. Instead of writing “Don’t use exclamation marks,” formulate it as “End every sentence with a period.” Why is this so important?

Processing negation poses an additional cognitive load for language models. They must first understand what is forbidden and then actively avoid it. Positive instructions are direct, unambiguous, and indicate a clear path of action.

6. One prompt, one task

If a prompt resembles a washing machine instruction manual, ChatGPT often gets “lost.” Language models have certain attention limits, and with too many requests in one command, they start to selectively ignore some information. Therefore, it’s better to break down complex tasks into several short prompts within one conversation than to write one “all-encompassing” command.

By asking questions in stages, e.g., first requesting the text structure, then asking to elaborate on each paragraph, and finally for SEO optimization, you get better and more consistent answers. It works like programming a process – step by step, according to the workflow logic.

7. Ask for complete answers – “Give me the complete…”

If you want a complete answer, say so directly. Instead of: “Show me a sample of code,” write: “Give me the complete code with comments and explanation.” Such a command leaves no room for guesswork – the model knows it has to deliver a full solution, not a sketch or a fragment.

This way, you avoid situations where the model ends its response after two paragraphs, thinking “that’s enough.” A full answer = a full command.

8. When Chat “refuses,” use magic formulas

It happens that ChatGPT responds evasively or says it cannot perform the task. Sometimes it’s a matter of response length limit, other times it’s about a too general or risky query. In such moments, short but effective additions come to the rescue:

• Think step by step – prompts the model to logically break down the task into stages.
• Write a draft – encourages the AI to generate a draft version, even if the topic is difficult or sensitive.
• Be creative – activates a more creative response path. Perfect for writing slogans, product descriptions, or company names.

9. Don’t rely on ready-made prompt templates

You will certainly find thousands of ready-made prompts on the internet, which can indeed serve as a basis and a source of inspiration, but it’s not worth using them as golden standards. What worked a week ago may give completely different, worse results today.

Besides, every project, industry, target group, and content goal are unique. A ready-made prompt for a B2B marketing text will not work for a lifestyle article. Just because something worked for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you.

10. Delegate the creation of the prompt… to the AI itself!

Yes – you can ask ChatGPT how to create the perfect prompt for a given task. It’s a bit like asking a writer to write their own work instructions – but it works! This is a great option for beginners or in situations where you have an idea but don’t know how to put it into words. What’s more – there are also specialized tools for generating prompts, such as:

• Originality.AI Prompt Generator,
• Horyzont Prompt Generator,
• FLUX on Hugging Face.

11. Finally… Test and refine prompts

Creating the perfect prompt is rarely a matter of one try. Most often, the best results are achieved through an iterative method – you test, evaluate, improve, and so on.

• Ask the model to interpret the prompt, e.g.: “How do you understand this instruction?” – this allows you to check if the intention was understood correctly.

• Test the same prompt several times, observing changes in the answers. Sometimes one word more or less is enough to significantly affect the result.
• Change individual phrases or sentence structure – these are small corrections that often result in a significant improvement in quality.

Remember – it’s not you who has to adapt to the AI, but you who teaches the AI how to work with you. The better you understand the model’s operating mechanism, the more effective your commands will be.

Read also: How to Use ChatGPT to Improve Writing?

Not every prompt works the same way. That’s why various prompting techniques have been developed to better tailor communication with the model to our needs. Among them, we distinguish:

• Zero-shot prompting – this is the most basic form, where we simply ask a question or give a command without any prior examples. The model must understand and perform the task based solely on its training knowledge. It works well for simple tasks, like generating short texts or answering specific questions.
• One-shot prompting – involves providing the model with one example illustrating the expected format or style of response before asking the actual question. This single pattern helps the AI better understand the user’s context and intentions.
• Few-shot prompting – goes a step further, providing several (usually from 2 to 5) examples. This is particularly useful for more complex tasks or when we want to teach the model a specific format or niche style that it wouldn’t master based on a single example.
• Chain-of-thought prompting – encourages the model to “think out loud,” i.e., present its reasoning step by step before giving the final answer. Adding the phrase “Let’s think step by step” often prompts the model to break down the problem into its constituent parts, which increases the chance of a correct and logical answer, especially in tasks requiring inference or calculations.
• Prompt-chaining – this involves breaking down a complex task into a series of smaller, interconnected prompts. The output of one prompt becomes part of the input (context) for the next.
• Directional stimulus prompting – uses short cues or “directional stimuli” (e.g., words like “positive,” “negative,” “formal,” “informal”) within the prompt to subtly guide the model towards the desired tone, sentiment, or style of response.