AI-generated content is everywhere, with tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity making it easier than ever to create articles, social media posts, and product descriptions. If you’re using AI for content creation, you may wonder: Does AI-generated text impact your SEO?
The short answer? Not necessarily, but it depends on how you use it.
Google has stated that AI-generated content isn’t bad for SEO and won’t impact your search rankings. Instead of focusing on whether content is written by a human or AI, Google prioritises helpful, high-quality, and original content that provides value to users. Using AI assistants to write authentic and valuable content can help you create content as a faster pace. However, following the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) framework is important, and AI-generated content may not be able to do it effectively.
That said, the way people are searching for content has shifted and people now use AI tools instead of search engines.
SEO Benefits of AI-Generated Content
- Faster Content Production: AI can accelerate the content creation process, enabling you to post more frequently. SEOwind published 116 articles in 30 days, and saw a 77% growth in total clicks and a 124% increase in impressions. That being said, they also carried out keyword research, analysed their content gap, added external and internal links, wrote descriptive alt text, edited content, and added product descriptions. Content Strategy takes a lot of work, and isn’t all AI!
- Idea Generation and Research: Struggling with writer’s block? AI is helpful for brainstorming, generating ideas, headlines, keywords, and outlines. AI is particularly useful when writing educational posts, such as ‘How To’ guides and comparison content.
- Consistency: AI can help you to maintain a consistent brand tone and message across content. Building your own GPT based on content you want to emulate the tone of can be helpfu in generating content that’s as close to how you would have written it, depending on the source of course!
SEO risks of ai-generated content
- Inaccuracy: ChatGPT can sometimes generate incorrect, unreliable or outdated information. Google will prioritize more relevant and accurate posts, impacting your search ranking, damaging your credibility, and misleading your audience. Always verify the facts – no one wants to be that website still talking about Windows XP!
- Lack of Originality: Consider how many people are asking ChatGPT the same questions, this content will quickly become repetitive. Especially as we a know the phrases and grammar preferences of AI-content (emdashes and “Discover…” are dead giveaways). SEO is about outranking other websites, so posting generic content won’t help you stand out. Instead, you’ll be penalized for low-quality and unoriginal content, resulting in lower rankings.
- Higher Bounce Rates: If AI-generated content lacks depth or personality, your content may appear thin and generic, leading to higher bounce rates and lower user engagement. People want new ideas, engaging topics, and helpful tips, which AI struggles to provide. Google prioritizes people-first content, meaning if your content doesn’t add value, it won’t be ranked highly. Remember, you’re a human writing content to other humans, we love to see you shine through!
Best practices for using AI in content creation
To ensure AI-generated content helps rather than harms your SEO, follow these best practices:
Edit Before Posting: Combine your unique and original experiences with AI’s efficiency to add authenticity to your content. AI works best as a tool to support human writers, not replace them! Give AI a strong prompt, let it create the first draft, and then refine it to align with your brand’s voice and perspective. Make sure you fact-check all AI-generated information to avoid inaccuracies that could damage trust.
Use Tools: Run your content through a plagiarism detector, such as ZeroGPT, to detect AI-generated content. This allows you to humanize your content before publishing, improving your SEO.
AI Analysis: Instead of using AI to write your content for you, implement AI in your data analysis strategy, monitor search trends, keywords and gaps in your current strategy. Then you can focus your time on creating articles that directly answer these gaps and questions. Focus on helpful, well-researched, and valuable content rather than just churning out content for content sake.
Does AI-Generated Content Hurt SEO?
AI-generated content doesn’t inherently hurt SEO, but using it lazily can. Google values high-quality, original, and helpful content; therefore, if you rely solely on AI-generated text without incorporating human insights, your rankings may suffer. Instead, treat AI as a tool to improve efficiency while maintaining a valuable, accurate, and user-focused approach.
How are you using AI for content creation? Share your thoughts in the comments!
