August 23, 2023
AI and SEO in the same sentence. Ugh, not another one. We get it. Debates about AI seem to be getting worse since AI first became a thing. Besides, many people have taken very extreme sides in the argument. For some, it is a magic pill for all occasions, while others see it as an evil that can destroy all your previous SEO efforts (and maybe all of humanity while at it).
Of course, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, as always. AI can be a useful tool, but it really depends on how you utilise it – much like a knife or any other tool really. Still, even if you are all in support of using AI-generated content for SEO, chances are that the experience is nothing like you were led to expect. So, in this post we will be looking at how best to actually use AI content in 2024.
Remember when AI first broke the news, and everyone (well, almost) was using it to churn out tons of content? Like really a lot. While people have learned not to just publish the first thing their pet AI software spits out, marketers and bloggers are still looking for ways to use it to create web content on a massive scale. But let’s rewind a little to how it all began.
Generative content has always existed. Just look at what played out at the initial stages of the Internet's development, when offline sources, such as books or magazines, were first digitised. Many people simply took the path of least resistance: They took the books and magazines, copied or replaced some words with synonyms, rearranged something, and the result was unique content. This is how generative content is made.
Even your run-of-the-mill copywriters do the same thing today. Now, you have AI doing the same thing in a matter of seconds. A new tool has appeared, and we are seeing a massive wave of its use. But it’s one thing to spin content and another to have it rank, generate leads, and maybe even attract a backlink or two. You must promote it. But promotion and link-building are costly processes.
Sometimes, you have to pay for appropriate package to buy backlinks, but you must ensure your content is high-quality. Otherwise, people visiting your website will be disappointed and leave it right away. If that happens enough times, you will end up with high bounce rates, which will hurt your SEO ranking. This brings us to the next issue – the effects AI content for SEO has on your rankings.
Search engines don’t seem to care much about generative content. Their task is simple enough: fight low-quality spammy content that offers little to no value. If a person uses AI to create a useful, relevant article, why block it, rank it low, or delete it?
After all, indexing and ranking are based on different metrics, including how often you publish, who links to your web content, traffic rates, SM mentions, and a bunch more. From SEO history, it is obvious that Google only built its complex Panda and Penguin algorithms to spot and penalise low-quality sites that were ranking high due to excessive page re-optimisation and link juice manipulation.
Still, Google is not exactly silent about content generated by AI. The guidelines show that Google will always encourage the creation of high-quality content. The content must meet the standards of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Credibility, and Trustworthiness). And the only issue with AI is that if your content is fully AI-generated, it is nearly impossible to provide real value.
Just because you can still use AI to generate content does not mean that it’s all roses and peaches. So, here are two common problems that can crop up between search engines and generative content:
Here are some of the major cons that inevitably come up when AI content becomes the norm:
Again, the idea is not to ditch the tool completely but to learn how to bring a balance to the use of AI, especially in SEO project management. The Kanban Zone explains how you can manage SEO projects effectively to achieve your goals (whatever those are).
Since it is evident that AI is not going anywhere anytime soon, it makes no sense at all to try to fight this change. The best thing you can do is learn to make the most of these tools as you create content with AI. Here are a few steps to keep in mind.
The main thing in working with AI (and all areas of SEO content creation, really) is to set the objectives or goals as clearly as possible. When using artificial intelligence to create content, you want to avoid using vague words in your prompts – this will reduce the likelihood of getting strange results. Instead, it is better to add the details that the AI needs to consider when creating the text. For example, you can immediately state the purpose of the text and add examples or specifics.
You should not use jargon, technical terms, or complex structures in queries to AI. Don’t forget that AI is not a magician. It will use, among other things, the words you give it, so easy and dynamic text will not work with complex concepts. Also, you don’t want to use long winding sentences as prompts. Instead break it up with punctuation marks and keep it simple.
If you need a long content type (e.g., an article, a long read, a review), you should start by asking the chat to generate a text outline. Then, ask it to generate text for each plan item. It will help you set the right direction. You can then make needed adjustments for a cleaner end result.
At first, the AI might give you basic surface-level content and speak in general terms. To get really meaningful content material, you will need to dig even deeper. Ask leading questions, request for examples (lots of them). Writing at least one example in the request yourself is a good practice. It will give the AI additional context, making it more likely to give you exactly what you need.
It's probably too early to say for sure what the full impact and dangers of AI content will look like. For now, the most anyone can do is to pay attention to the quality of the content, not the fact that it was written by an AI tool. This way, your audience gets high-quality texts and images, and your web pages will be positively impacted by SEO.
