AI Content Generators Vs. Human Content: What is Best for SEO in 2023

Most AI content generators claim to take the top-ranking content online and create ‘similar but unique’ content that converts. However, if you are similar but unique are you almost the same but not different? 

We’ve done the research to help you understand the uses of AI content generators for SEO and whether they can help or hinder your business visibility online.

What Google Thinks of AI Content Generators

If past comments and guidelines are anything to go by they are currently not a big fan of them! Google’s John Mueller referred to AI-generated content as ‘spam’. Google’s Search Essentials (formerly Google webmaster guidelines) categorically state that automatically generated content should be avoided. This means that if you use it, and Google discovers it (a very high chance) then your website could suffer a demotion in rankings due to penalties. 

That’s that then? Well, not exactly…

Discover Trending Topics

Google uses AI in its own search algorithms and in particular BERT and Rankbrain. Is it logical to think that SEO could actually be boosted by using AI? Yes and no. Using AI for content generation is currently a risky strategy that should be avoided in our view. However, for other parts of an SEO strategy such as discovering trending topics and content, you can save a lot of time and potentially money by using AI-Powered SEO software and it could help you discover what content Google is rewarding. That in itself is very powerful, and further enables a skilled manual approach to SEO.

Three main categories are covered in Google Search Essentials. This tool is used as a guide for all content creators who want their content to rank high in the search results.

Google’s Recommendations for Content:

• Create helpful content.
• Use keywords people would search for and place them in prominent areas, such as titles, headings, and alt text.
• Make links crawlable.
• Tell people about your site.
• Follow specific best practices for images, video, structured data, and JavaScript.
• Enhance how your site appears in search with rich snippets.
• If you have content you don’t want to be found in Google Search, block it from Google’s crawlers (with a noindex robots meta tag for example).

Does this mean AI content generators should not be used for SEO? There will be varying opinions on this but we think it’s a risky proposition that should be avoided for the purposes of creating unique content to aid SEO and search engine visibility. 

The important thing when creating any copy for an audience is that it’s helpful. You can make it more helpful by first understanding what the user/searcher wants to solve (the query). You can then optimise further by understanding the intent of the search and whether a user wants quick answers, an in-depth article, or a checkout page (they are ready to buy). AI claims to do this better than humans but the last thing Google wants is endless posts on the same topic that only differ slightly. As humans, we all have our own tastes, fashions, personalities, and idiosyncrasies. As a business promoting its service online, it is crucial to understand buyer persona, what makes your potential clients tick, and convey your brand message in its own unique way. Followers of your brand will expect a level of consistency, and if you randomly generate topics on AI just because they’re popular, they may not be true to your brand or in line with your following.

No for SEO But It Has Other Uses

One of the benefits we see with AI-generated content is for landing page copy. Having AI help understand the user query and answer all the questions relating to it could help your landing pages convert better and online it is easy to send some paid traffic to one human-created page and one AI-generated page to A/B test which performs best. 

AI Content for Social media 

We also see some benefits of using AI content generators for social media postings and ad performance. However, having some experience with these tools and copywriting will place you at a distinct advantage so you can further optimise and amend manually where necessary.

Quality Content Not Quantity

AI is in its relative infancy to create SEO-friendly copy and as such we say tread with caution or recommend not to use them for SEO copywriting. We’re speculating here, but for every builder of an AI copywriting tool, Google has already identified what is and will be trying its best to combat it. 

Unique content that resonates with your audience and their queries will win the day for SEO. It’s not all about keywords, but keywords and search terms still have relevance. AI tools enhance a manual content approach. The trouble with good content is, it can be time-consuming and expensive to produce if you don’t have the resources. However, 5 pieces of quality content are usually infinitely better than 100 pieces of spam or re-hashed content for SEO.

Why SEO Copywriting is Undervalued

There are millions (7.5 million approximately in 2023) of blogs published every day across all platforms. Not all of these get read in the first place and the ones that do can get shared and linked to across the web. A lot of companies underestimate manual skilled SEO copy because there isn’t a direct value attached to it (in comparison to a paid advert that results in a direct sale).  

Summary: AI Content Generators

For other content tasks, such as landing page copy or social media posts/advertising there is a use for these tools. However, practical and manual implementation on top will trump purely using AI at this stage. This is true for all of your content. Your brand will have a unique voice and tone that you want to get across consistently.  

Would you let AI post on your personal social media every day about how you’re feeling and what you want to portray to the world? The answer to this will help you decide whether your business is ready to adopt AI for content generation.

What do you want for your business? To be similar to others or unique in your tone and delivery?

Read More: The Best AI Content Generators