Since the rise of the machines, the debate around where AI-generated content fits into the Google and SEO equation has been fierce. Especially now that the quality of content produced by AI writers is getting better seemingly daily – at breakneck speeds.
Instead of having a blanket policy against all AI-generated content, Google has clarified its position on what types of content should be avoided in order to avoid penalties.
TL;DR
- Google’s focus has always been to put good content on the table – regardless if it’s created by humans or AI. This is the foundation of their helpful, reliable, people-first content policy.
- Google (still) suggests that writers follow their E-E-A-T guidelines. Content that is beneficial and people-oriented, while also displaying expertise, experience, reliability, and credibility.
- Manipulating rankings in search results through automation or artificial intelligence is a breach of Google’s anti-spam regulations.
Why punish AI-generated content in the first place?
As the most used search engine worldwide, Google has a long history of penalising low quality content.
And it’s easy to see why.
Since the dawn of SEO time, people have been trying to find a way to game the Google algorithm gods. When what the people want to see is content that adds value, and answers the question that they came searching for.
If content is unable to scratch that itch, why reward it?
Keyword stuffing and black hat SEO strategies are unhelpful to consumers because they are designed to manipulate search engine rankings, resulting in poor user experience. AI writers and content spinners helped enable these strategies. The results were low-quality content, or spammy content – leading to poor user experience.
The worst part – for a long time this worked. Content created this way could rank high in the search engine results page for a short period of time solely because the text contained relevant keywords with low competition.
Because of this, Google has always looked to punish websites that employ these strategies – introducing more and more measures and updates to make sure searchers are given the best possible results.
AI tides are shifting
So up to this point, it was logical that Google look down on AI-generated content – it had a reputation for producing both low-quality and unhelpful content.
That’s changed.
Since the release of GPT-3, the output quality of AI has skyrocketed. This is in large part due to the large number of trainable parameters it has, more than 10x the NLP (natural language programming) model in second place.
As a result, platforms like Mark and ChatGPT have improved their AI-generated content to the point where it’s very close to human-written content, and starting to replace more menial and repetitive writing tasks.
Google’s new stance
“At Google, we’ve long believed in the power of AI to transform the ability to deliver helpful information. In this post, we’ll share more about how AI-generated content fits into our long-standing approach to show helpful content to people on Search.”
This quote is taken directly from Google’s latest statement regarding AI created content.
This seems like a clear shift from the apocalyptic predictions coming out of the content creation community, but this is keeping in line what has always been important for Google.
The focus has always been on the quality of content, rather than how content is produced. Their ranking systems sole focus is to reward original, high-quality content that follows their E-E-A-T guidelines.
E-E-A-T standing for:
- Expertise – the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic
- Experience – the extent to which the content creator has the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic.
- Authoritativeness – the extent to which the content creator or the website is known as a go-to source for the topic.
- Trustworthiness – the extent to which the page is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable.
Google goes on to explain that “bad content” or content designed to manipulate search rankings, is not a problem unique to people abusing the power of AI. Humans have been capable of publishing poor quality content for as long has content has been around.
“For example, about 10 years ago, there were understandable concerns about a rise in mass-produced yet human-generated content. No one would have thought it reasonable for us to declare a ban on all human-generated content in response. Instead, it made more sense to improve our systems to reward quality content, as we did.”
How AI-generated content can be used for good, not evil.
AI-generated content isn’t the bad guy – it’s intention is to take repetitive or mundane tasks off your hands, getting rid of writer’s block, freeing up time and resources for more complex or creative work. Leading to increases in efficiency and productivity, and ultimately lead to better outcomes in all areas that writing can be optimised.
For example, today AI-powered content creation tools are used by millions to assist marketers and agencies in producing first drafts of articles, product descriptions, social media posts, ads, etc; at unheard of speeds.
AI-powered chatbots are handling routine customer service inquiries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues. AI-generated summaries of medical records help doctors quickly identify relevant information and make more informed treatment decisions.
Overall, the responsible and ethical use of AI-generated content can help us achieve our goals more effectively and efficiently, while also ensuring that humans remain in control of decision-making and ethical considerations.
How to create content that Google loves
Creating content that Google loves involves a combination of technical and creative elements. Here are a few tips to help you create content that will rank well in search engine results – regardless :
- Optimize your content with relevant keywords: By conducting keyword research and incorporating the most applicable terms into your writing, you can improve your search engine rankings.
- Use multiple long-tail keyword phrases: As search engines have become more sophisticated, they are now able to recognize related subtopics of a given keyword, resulting in more competition for shorter-tail keywords. To enhance your core keyword strategy, utilize longer phrases to rank for related terms. Make sure to incorporate these long-tail keyword phrases in your content, title tags, meta descriptions and URLs.
- Focus on relevance: Create content that is relevant to your audience and provides value in answering their search queries. Use your chosen keywords naturally within your content and its headlines.
- Make sure your content is high-quality, well-structured, and organized: Google looks for content that is well-written, easy to read, and includes relevant information about the topic. This includes formatting like H1, H2, and H3
- Include links to other pages on your website, as well as external sources: This helps Google recognize that your content is credible and authoritative.
- Make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices: Many users now access websites from their smartphones and tablets, so it’s important to make sure your website is easy to navigate on these devices.
- Utilize social media to spread the word about your website and its content: Sharing links to your website on social media can help increase visibility and drive more traffic to your site.
- Submit a sitemap to search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo: Sitemaps give search engines an overview of the structure of your website and help them crawl it more efficiently.
AI can help out with this process – everything from keyword research, SERP and SEO analysis, to landing page optimisation and content creation.
By combining AI-generated content and analysis, with strategic planning and a focus on creating value for your audience, You can be more effective in achieving your business objectives and having a successful digital marketing strategy.
With Google betting big on AI itself (looking at you Bard), it’s clear they are not going to ban AI content from search. Google will evaluate AI-generated content that meets its standards and reward it with a higher ranking. Even though AI can quickly and inexpensively produce a lot of content, Google’s search algorithms will still rank it alongside content created by humans if the content provides the goods to the people.
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