How Will AI-Generated Content Affect SEO?
How will AI-generated content affect Website Development and SEO?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for a while (and we don’t mean the muscle-bound Rock from movies like Jumanji and Black Adam), you’ve probably noticed a lot of scuttlebutt about content being generated by artificial intelligence. Much of this has been concentrated on ChatGPT because of its sophisticated algorithms, which seem to be threatening the careers of many writers, artists, and even fast food workers. The question that’s on the mind of every digital marketer is: how will AI-generated content affect website development and SEO?
The truth is that this technology is still in its infancy, so it’s difficult to say for certain. But today, we’re going to give it the old college try based on our experiences and research.
The Basics of AI-Writing Tools for Content in Website Development
Many people don’t think about it, but even keyword research tools like Google AdWords are a form of artificial intelligence. But last year, ChatGPT brought the technology into a new era of AI-generated content. It can create everything from blog posts and images to audio podcasts and the recipe for napalm (true story!).
This has opened up the option for companies to use AI to create both written and visual content as part of their website development. The idea is that this is a budget-friendly alternative to using professional marketers, writers, and artists. But the results have often proven to be mediocre at best—without proper editing, that is.
How Google Views the Use of AI-Generated Content
To be honest, Google has been a bit wishy-washy about its views on the use of AI-generated content. Less than two years ago, it was very clear that AI-generated content would basically be considered spam and would hurt a company’s search engine rankings.
Not too long ago, however, they seemed to have reversed course by stating that they were okay with the use of AI as long as the content was original. As the proliferation of AI increases, it’s anyone’s guess whether or not Google’s position will change once again. But right now, it seems that Google doesn’t care how content is created. All that matters is that high quality content is written that brings something new to the table, and answers popularly searched queries.
Is AI-Generated Content Good or Bad for SEO?
One of the big questions that companies have been asking is if AI-generated content is good or bad for SEO. Since this concept is relatively new, not enough testing has been done to give a solid answer either way. That being said, many companies and individuals have warned against its use.
Here are some common reasons why they’re concerned:
Negative Online Reputation
One of the biggest concerns to watch out for is getting a negative online reputation because of AI-generated content. This may occur because the content is inaccurate or badly written since it’s devoid of the “human touch.”
Inaccurate Information
It seems that every day we hear another story about AI-generated content creating an inaccurate piece of writing. In a recent situation, an attorney could face severe consequences because he used AI to write a brief that contained fictional cases. This kind of thing happens quite a bit. AI compiles data from the internet and often can’t identify and filter out wrong or fake information.
This is why it’s best to have a professional writer or SEO manager use AI and review any content. Taking this extra step will allow your content to be free of errors and inaccurate information.
Repeated Words and Phrases
In many instances of AI-written content, its artificiality is easily identified because of the use of repeated words and phrases. Very often, an article will start out okay but then start repeating itself, sometimes over and over. Not only is this unprofessional, it simply doesn’t sound good and could wind up hurting any company that posts such content without editing it first.
No Originality or Creativity
As it stands right now, AI is neither original nor creative. Although it may seem that way at times, everything generated by an AI — even one as sophisticated as ChatGPT — is an amalgamation that’s basically designed to mimic something original. Its ability to combine and recreate won’t be able to produce content that feels human for a very long time, if ever.
Built-In, Intentional Biases
It’s strange to think that artificial intelligence would be biased, but that’s exactly what we’ve been seeing. That’s because AI content tools have an intentional bias written into their code to be truthful, harmless, and helpful. While this bias may sound good on the surface, it prevents content from being written in any way that’s against the status quo.
Lack of Current Events
As of right now, AI tools don’t use information from current events when building content. In the case of ChatGPT, content is compiled from information on the internet up through 2021. Although that might be perfectly fine for the use of SEO in many cases, certain trending keywords may be missed. This could lead to incomplete or outdated information being included in your content.
Penalties Without Warning
Since Google has gone back and forth on its position on AI-generated content, there’s no guarantee that a company won’t be penalized in the future. Although it’s not likely that Google would punish a site using AI-assisted SEO. It could cause confusion amongst some businesses. Theoretically, a company could “miss the memo” and then start being punished for newly published AI content.
The Best Way to Use AI-Generated Articles and Content for Your SEO
As it stands right now, relying on AI-generated content is okay, as long as you don’t rely on what the software generates directly. Using AI is a great way to conduct keyword research and get a basic foundation for the direction your content should go.
For example, you can use AI to generate a title and subheadings for a new blog post. You can even choose to have it write the post. However, it is imperative that an SEO expert review the content to ensure the keywords are being used properly and that the content doesn’t sound… well… robotic.
AI should be used as a tool for enhancing content, not replacing your current SEO content development system.
How AI-Generated Content Will Be Used for Future SEO
Some companies and individuals may find it helpful to use AI for research tasks, as mentioned above. It could also be used as a problem-solving tool to assist with writer’s block.
This is most likely where the future of SEO will go: AI-generated content will prompt a certain level of thinking, at which point a human writer will actually write or edit the content. Much of this will likely be dictated by Google’s algorithms, and it remains to be seen exactly what that will look like.
Contact P3 Agency for Digital Marketing and Web Design in Clearwater
P3 Agency provides extensive digital marketing options and web design in Clearwater and the surrounding areas. We incorporate AI into our content and website development systems. We have been dedicated to keeping up with modern digital marketing tools to provide the best services to our clients.
If you have any questions about AI-generated content or would like a free marketing assessment, call our team at (727) 474-9064 today.