Is AI Content Bad for SEO? What You Need to Know

Aug, 2024

SEO content writer receives bad AI alert

by OppGen

Have your website’s search engine rankings tanked since you switched to using AI-generated content?

You’re not alone.

Thousands of AI adoptees have noticed a decline in website traffic and rankings after pivoting to AI content generation.

So, is AI content bad for SEO?

As any seasoned SEO agency or writer can tell you, the answer to that question isn’t as straightforward as you’d like.

TL;DR:

AI or automation tools are acceptable if not used primarily to manipulate search rankings.
High-quality content is rewarded, regardless of production method.
AI-generated content lacking value, structure, or originality may lead to deindexing.
AI-generated content doesn’t usually perform as well as human-written content, but it’s possible to create high-quality content using a mix of SEO and human touch.

AI Content for SEO: The Google Perspective
The Good: What AI SEO Content Gets Right
The Bad: Limitations of AI-Generated Content for SEO
So Can AI-Generated Content Hurt My Search Ranking?
How to Use AI Content for SEO: Creating Quality Content with AI
In Closing: Is AI Content Bad for SEO?

AI Content for SEO: The Google Perspective

First, let’s start with Google’s take on AI created content.

See below for Google’s recent algorithm updates around automated and AI generated content.

Google’s Notes on AI Content for SEO: Google allows the use of AI or automation tools as long as it is “not used to generate content primarily to manipulate search rankings.” Google rewards high-quality content, regardless of how content is produced. (1)
March 2024 Google Search Algorithm Update: Google’s March 2024 core update aimed to improve the user experience by providing more relevant and valuable search results. (2, 3)
The Impact of AI Content on Search Engine Rankings: Any website with AI-generated content that lacks value, is poorly structured, or is unoriginal may face deindexing. (4)

With Google also being in the race with AI in launching and updating their own AI model (Gemini)––they realized AI is like a superpower.

One that can be used responsibly, or overused to the detriment of search users.

The Good: What AI SEO Content Gets Right

But know this: all AI content isn’t bad for SEO.

It can be a massive augmentation tool for the existing skill set of SEO analysts, leaders, and writers.

Speeds Up the Content Creation Process: AI content generators can produce large volumes of content quickly, making it easier to scale your content marketing efforts.
Cost-Effectiveness: Using AI tools can help reduce the costs associated with hiring writers and editors.
Consistency: AI can maintain a consistent tone and style across all content, ensuring brand consistency.
Content Volume: AI can help fill content gaps and maintain a steady flow of fresh content, which is beneficial for keeping your site updated and relevant.
Data-Driven Insights: AI tools can analyze large datasets to identify trending topics and keywords, helping you create content that aligns with current search trends.

AI is a copilot that can help skilled SEO specialists and writers iterate, scale, and publish changes at rates that weren’t formerly possible.

However, if you’re using AI to try to make up for a lack of skills and experience––you’re at the highest risk of tanking your SEO.

The Bad: Limitations of AI-Generated Content for SEO

AI is powerful but still has a lot of limitations.

Skilled writers and experienced SEO technicians can use AI as a helpful copilot to enhance their skills and accelerate their production capacity.

Poor writers and inexperienced SEOs are going to get lackluster results, redundancies, and frankly––a lot of wasted time trying to get the AI to do what you want it to.

Here are some of the many limitations of current AI models:

Quality of Content: AI-written content lacks the nuance, creativity, and originality of human-written content. Search engines prioritize high-quality content, and AI may fall short in these areas.
Duplicate Content: AI can sometimes produce text that closely resembles existing content, leading to duplicate content issues. Search engines penalize sites with duplicate content, which can hurt your SEO.
Misinformation: It’s important to remember that AI can generate incorrect information or make something up. It’s up to writers and editors to fact-check AI-powered content and ensure the information is correct.
User Engagement: Content that feels too robotic or generic can negatively impact user engagement and experience, leading to higher bounce rates and lower dwell times.
Personalization for Your Audience: Generative AI cannot replace real storytelling, testimonials, and case studies. It can produce content that looks like these things but doesn’t have any actual merit behind it.
SEO Best Practices: AI tools might not always adhere to SEO best practices, such as keyword density, meta descriptions, and proper use of headers.

So if you thought you were going to replace your SEO analyst, writer, or even your agency with someone in your office with a ChatGPT account––you should think twice.

So Can AI-Generated Content Hurt My Search Ranking?

That’s an excellent question.

Now that you’ve got a clearer understanding of AI’s ability to scale and accelerate skilled SEOs and writers or how it can hurt inexperienced users, let’s look at what the data says.

Here’s the Data…

Generating content with AI can take nearly a quarter of the amount of time compared to human-written content (5)
Human-generated content performs 5.44 times better than AI content (5)
Human-written content ranks higher than content written by AI (6) 94.12% of the time (7)

How to Use AI Content for SEO: Creating Quality Content with AI

According to one survey, 12.3% of marketers use humans to write content.

This means 87.7% of those surveyed are using AI to create content or a combination of AI and humans. (7)

Using AI isn’t inherently bad or good for SEO.

Again, it scales with the existing SEO skills (or general marketing skills) you already have.

To create high-quality, helpful AI content, here are some tips you can follow:

Human Oversight: Always review and edit AI-generated content for quality and originality while sticking to SEO content writing best practices.
Enhance with Human Touch: Add human insights, personal anecdotes, and expert opinions to enrich AI-generated content.
SEO Integration: Use AI tools like ChatGPT in conjunction with SEO tools to optimize keywords, meta descriptions, and headers.
Monitor Performance: Continuously monitor SEO performance of AI content using analytics tools to identify areas for improvement and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Split Testing: If you’re curious in seeing the results for yourself, you could split test creating blogs that are entirely generated by AI, are partially written by AI, and are fully written by human writers.

Just like learning writing or SEO, learning how to operate an AI for quality results in these areas takes a lot of time and resources. And even with that, the AI outputs need a lot of optimizing, editing, and punching up.

In Closing: Is AI Content Bad for SEO?

Here’s the bottom line: AI can help scale SEO content creation, but data still shows that human-generated content performs better than content created by AI.

Less experience = poor content vs. experienced SEO = better AI content.

In either case, the content needs a human touch; it’s just that the more skilled SEO operator will get better results.

At OppGen, we know the power of AI can help people create great content for the web and boost SEO. It’s a matter of having the right digital marketing team that knows the current SEO landscape and how to integrate AI into it.

Is AI Content Bad for SEO?

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