AI-generated SEO content is the web’s latest trend, but what exactly are the pros and cons of using copy created by AI? And does Google penalize AI content?
Does AI content rank in Google?
Ever since AI-writing tools like ChatGPT began to amaze and disturb the web in equal measure, digital marketing experts and business owners alike have been asking themselves if AI content will rank well in search engines.
The short answer is yes, AI-generated content can rank on Google. But there are several caveats.
Google recently released a statement confirming its views on AI content, after much speculation and debate. Essentially, Google said it took no stance on the use of AI-generated content; instead, it focuses on the quality of content produced by any tool or technology.
The search engine encourages web publishers to create “helpful, reliable, people-first” content and promises to reward such content with higher rankings.
Anyone who’s used an AI writing tool may recognize one immediate cause for concern on this list: reliability.
Generally speaking, AI’s output can be inaccurate and, in some cases, completely false. AI technology uses sophisticated algorithms to emulate content that a human would write. But as of the current time, most tools don’t have any systems in place for checking that the text they write is actually correct.
Google also warns that auto-generating content for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings is against its spam guidelines. And yes, that means AI SEO content writing.
Essentially, if you’re using AI to bulk-generate content for the purpose of stuffing keywords or keyword phrases into a page in order to boost rankings, Google will almost certainly notice and respond accordingly.
Overall, it appears that AI technology is not facing an outright ban from Google’s search engine. But as always, if you’re using AI to generate content for SEO purposes, make sure you check it carefully for accuracy and ensure it adds value to the reader before publishing.
Is AI-generated content good for SEO?
AI tools can certainly be helpful when it comes to content optimization. By analyzing and understanding the content of a document, AI technology can detect keywords and phrases and suggest ways to improve readability for both humans and search engine bots.
However, it’s important to remember that automated tools are only meant to be used as an aid in creating content. They should not replace human input when it comes to producing quality SEO content.
Most AI tools on the market right now will lean towards keyword-stuffing when asked to include particular terms in an article. This is why it’s so important to review content created by AI tools with a human editor before publishing.
If you use AI as an assistant to help you improve the SEO of your content, it can speed up the process, improve your efficiency, and make sure you include all of the important keywords. But when it comes to putting together a well-written, informative article that also helps boost your search engine rankings, there’s no replacement for a human writer.
Disadvantages of AI content for SEO
We’ve already touched on a couple of the drawbacks of relying on AI software to write content for SEO purposes.
But it’s important to consider all the potential issues before using a tool for AI SEO writing. AI-generated content is a relatively new technology and, as such, is still largely unregulated.
It’s probable that guidelines, regulations, and laws around the use of AI content will start appearing in the next few years. Until then, it’s critical to stay aware of the risks and take steps to ensure you’re using AI in a way that is unlikely to damage your business or your reputation in the future.
Inaccurate and misleading content
As mentioned above, accuracy is a huge problem in most existing AI writing tools. All facts, data, references, and other factual information included in AI-generated content must be carefully checked and double-checked before being published.
Google is constantly striving to provide the best possible user experience for searchers, and being given incorrect information or made-up facts would definitely not meet that goal. Therefore, it’s critical to ensure that the content you put online is factually correct, or it runs the risk of being flagged and earning you a penalty.
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Unnatural language
Another issue with AI-generated content is its tendency to be overly keyword-dense, as well as its lack of natural language flow. This can make any content generated this way appear robotic and unreadable, which won’t do your search engine rankings any favors.
Google has previously issued several algorithm updates penalizing “over-optimization,” so don’t make the mistake of letting the AI take over. Content written for humans (and by humans) is always better for SEO than content written for search engines.
Potential plagiarism and duplicate content
AI-generated articles are often built from pieces of text that already exist online, which may put your website at risk of plagiarism or duplicate content penalties.
It’s also possible that two different people entering the same prompt into an AI tool could end up with nearly identical articles. This could spell disaster for your SEO if your site is the weaker and less authoritative of the two.
Uninspiring content that lacks creativity and flair
Great SEO content is about more than just keywords. The most successful articles online are written by talented writers who know how to tell a story and capture the attention of their audience.
These articles are rewarded with clicks, likes, shares, and links: all clear indicators to Google and other search engines that the content is important, authoritative, and valuable.
AI content, on the other hand, can often be dry and uninspiring. It may get the job done, but it won’t do anything to engage your audience or keep them coming back for more.
While AI-generated SEO content might achieve a decent ranking for a low-competition keyword, it won’t perform as well for more competitive phrases.
How to use AI content on your site without harming your SEO
An AI writing assistant can be a valuable tool when used correctly. AI can speed up your content production, offer optimization advice, and help you come up with new content ideas. But relying on pure AI-generated content for your website is a recipe for disaster.
Here are our top tips for ensuring that your use of AI content is helping rather than hindering your website’s search engine rankings:
- Always check content for accuracy and readability: Don’t just publish what the AI tool gives you. Make sure all facts and data are correct and double-check for grammar, spelling, and natural language flow.
- Don’t give AI writing tools your keywords: AI SEO content generators love to overstuff keywords. Instead, let the AI tool generate a first draft with basic prompts and then expand on and optimize it yourself.
- Add your own stories, ideas, and experiences: Humanize the content by adding a bit of your own personality. This makes it more engaging to read and more likely to be shared.
- Consider other uses of AI: AI can help you find powerful keywords, outline article structures, and suggest content ideas. These uses are far less risky than relying on it to generate full articles.
- Use AI to assist in writing meta titles and descriptions: One writing task that AI is already pretty good at is creating short snippets like meta titles and descriptions. This is an easy way to speed up your content production process and improve your SEO at the same time, although you’ll still need a human to proofread and edit them.
- Don’t let an AI tool write your entire website: AI tools are great as a writing assistant, but it’s easy to end up with generic, uninspiring content if you rely on them too much.
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Use AI for SEO with caution
AI content, when not monitored and edited by humans, can be detrimental to your website’s SEO. Without the expertise of a human writer, AI-generated content often lacks depth and accuracy, making it less engaging for readers and less appealing to search engines.
When used as intended (as an assistant, not a full automation tool), AI can be a valuable asset to any content strategy. But you’d be wise to stay aware of the risks and limitations of using AI-generated content. Using these tools to help you during the copywriting process, rather than using fully auto-generated content, will ensure that your SEO isn’t put at risk and instead is benefiting from the help of AI technology.
What is AI-generated content?
AI tools like ChatGPT and Jasper create content at the click of a button with a simple prompt or instruction such as “write a definition of artificial intelligence” or “list some reasons why AI is beneficial.”
This type of AI-generated content has seen a rapid rise in popularity and usage in recent years, due to the release of increasingly sophisticated tools. These AI writing assistants speed up content creation, allowing marketers to rapidly create web content, blog posts, social media messages, and other types of content, all without hiring a professional writer.
But AI content tools are not without their controversies. One of the biggest concerns at the moment is whether or not Google and other search engines can detect AI-generated content. And if so, will they penalize websites that use it?
How does AI-generated content work?
The process behind the creation of automated content is referred to as “natural language processing” (NLP). This involves algorithms analyzing natural language and seeking out patterns in texts. The software then uses this data to generate new and unique content automatically.
Most of the AI tools available today use a technology developed by OpenAI called GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3).
GPT-3 is OpenAI’s latest achievement and the most powerful AI language model to date, with over 175 billion parameters. GPT-3 is trained on internet datasets up to September 2021. In other words, it does not scrape the web in real time and has no knowledge of recent events.
Instead, the model was trained by being fed content such as blog posts, news articles, online discussion forums, and more. After learning to recognize patterns in these inputs, GPT-3 can generate text that is very similar to human-written content.
We all know how fast the world of technology moves, and GPT-4 is already almost ready for public release. While we don’t know the details yet, it’s expected that the new language model will be more advanced in several ways. However, the CEO of OpenAI has warned not to speculate about what these potential improvements may be.
AI-based content vs. professional content writers: who wins?
AI-generated content is fast, cheap, and efficient. But it’s not the best option for every type of content.
Time
A skilled writer may take several hours to write a blog post or several days to research a topic thoroughly. AI tools can generate content much faster.
Cost
A professional writer may charge several hundred dollars for a single blog post or article. Many AI tools are relatively inexpensive, and some, like Chat GPT, are currently free.
Quality
Professional writers have a deep understanding of language and style, as well as in-depth knowledge of their areas of expertise. AI-generated content is not as detailed or accurate. It can be improved with human editing and review, but it does not match the quality of a skilled copywriter.
Uniqueness
AI-generated content may be technically created from scratch, but it’s not unusual for it to be extremely similar to other pieces of content on the web. Some users have reported instances of plagiarism when using AI tools. Professional writers, on the other hand, will always strive to create fresh, original content from a unique point of view.
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How to detect AI-generated content
Content created by AI may seem very similar to text written by a human at first glance. But there are a number of methods you can use to get a good idea if what you’re reading was written by a person or an algorithm.
Tools for detecting AI content
There are several tools now available that will scan content for signs of AI-generated text. These tools look for telltale patterns and language usage that indicate the text was written by an AI rather than a human.
Some examples of tools currently available include Originality.ai, Copyleaks’ AI Content Detector, and OpenAI’s own AI Text Classifier.
These tools are not yet 100% accurate, but they are improving all the time as algorithms become more advanced.
AI watermarking
Watermarking methods have also been discussed as a potential way to detect AI-generated content. These digital watermarks are still being developed, but they could eventually be used to identify AI-generated content with high accuracy.
Manual AI detection
As well as these automated tools, there are also ways to manually check for AI-generated content. None of these methods are foolproof. But if you know the signs to look for, you can usually get a feel for whether content was written by a human or an AI.
Repeating words and phrases
AI tools love patterns — both looking for them and creating them. So if you come across a piece of text that repeats words or phrases unusually often, or keeps repeating the same idea worded in a slightly different way, this is a red flag.
Unnatural or awkward phrasing
AI-generated content may be grammatically correct (sometimes it’s not!), but it often lacks the natural flow and rhythm of words written by a human. If a piece of text seems to have a slightly robotic tone to it, it’s usually a sign that there’s been some AI involvement.
Lack of detail
Content produced by AI writing tools tends to stick to the facts and is usually written in a straightforward style with little detail. If a piece of content lacks explanation or fails to address the issue in any real depth, then it could be AI-generated.
Incorrect facts or made-up data
AI tools can be trained to generate correct outputs based on certain inputs. But they are not infallible and may get some facts wrong or even invent quotes or statistics. If you’re suspicious about a particular piece of content, it’s worth doing some research to see if the facts check out.
Can Google detect AI-generated content?
Google’s algorithms and coding teams are some of the most advanced in the world, and the search engine is constantly being updated and upgraded with new capabilities.
So it’s probably safe to say that if there’s any way to detect AI-generated content, Google surely knows about it. However, the company has not made any public statements about this specifically.
For now, it’s best to assume that Google is fully aware if you’re publishing AI-generated content on your website, especially if you’re not editing it or making any attempt to personalize it.
While currently there’s been no definitive statement from Google to say they will penalize sites using AI content, they’re firm in their stance that all content should be unique and of high quality — both qualities that are often lacking in auto-generated web copy.
But how exactly does Google treat AI content? And how can you ensure your site won’t be penalized and that any potential risks of using AI tools are minimized?
Is AI content worth the risk?
Now you have a better idea of how exactly AI writing tools work and what Google thinks of AI-generated content, it’s time to decide whether it’s something you want to invest your time and money in.
AI-generated content offers some significant advantages for businesses, including lower costs, faster production times, and scalability. But any text written by AI should never be used without human proofreading and editing. Instead, it’s better to use it as a way of generating ideas and as an assistant for producing a rough first draft.
In the near future of digital content where countless billions of words are published each day, originality, creativity, and that elusive human touch are all going to be essential for success online.
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