The era of artificial intelligence is here, and I’m not talking about robots taking over like in the movie ‘I, Robot’ – though that might not be too far off. I’m referring to the AI technologies that are widely used on the Internet today. One of the most prominent AI services is Chat GPT from OpenAI. The latest version, GPT-4, was released in March 2023 and has been a game-changer, especially for website owners and SEO specialists.
To rank well in search engines, a website must meet numerous criteria, but the foundation is always content. Content needs to be unique, high-quality, plentiful, and regularly updated. This has traditionally been a labor-intensive and costly task. Over the past decade, professional copywriters were hired to create such content. However, hiring a good copywriter is just the first step. You also need to optimize the text effectively, which requires knowledge of SEO promotion.
With the advent of AI, many website owners might be tempted to stop spending money on SEO content creation. After all, why pay for content when AI is available? If you’re a copywriter or SEO specialist, you might wonder why bother with the effort when a program can do the job? So, the question is:
Does AI generated content rank in Google and can I use it on my website?
NO!
To understand why you shouldn’t rely on AI-generated content, let’s take a brief look at the history of content and its evolution.
When websites first became popular, there were very few ranking factors. I remember when you could simply use keywords to boost a site to the TOP of Google. You could even copy content from another site, paste it on your own, add keywords in the admin panel, and BOOM – your site ranked high for those keywords.
However, search engines quickly caught on to this manipulation, and everything changed. This was when the concept of having unique content emerged. Over time, filling a corresponding meta tag with keywords in general was considered a gross mistake in SEO. For search engines, it’s like a reminder of the days when people abused the system. If someone tries to do it again, they will face penalties for reviving those problematic practices.
Is AI content against Google guidelines?
So, content uniqueness. About 20 years ago, this concept emerged, and what’s changed since then? Nothing! Content must still be unique. Today, there’s also the concept of E-E-A-T content (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). This means that in addition to uniqueness, search engines now look for authoritative authorship. But that’s not our focus today. Uniqueness remains crucial, and ideally, content should be created from scratch, not through Command+C and Command+V (or Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V for Windows users).
Writing content completely off the top of your head is very challenging and often costly. This is how the concepts of copywriting and rewriting came into being. Copywriting involves creating completely new text based on other sources, which is the job of copywriters. Rewriting is the superficial editing of existing text.
For a long time, rewriting was an acceptable method for quickly generating content. Various plagiarism detection services existed, which showed less than 100% uniqueness, and Google tolerated it. Sites could take someone else’s content, make minor edits, and still rank well in search engines. However, those days are long gone, as you probably know.
Then came the era of copywriting. Content needed to be 100% unique, created from scratch. Once again, skillful people found ways to simplify content creation. One of the most popular methods was to take foreign articles and translate them into the desired language. This method guaranteed 100% uniqueness – exactly what Google wanted. However, this approach no longer works. Similarly, pulling articles from the web archive used to be a labor-intensive but effective strategy. But now, even this method fails because Google has become adept at analyzing content from all angles.
Now, let’s discuss content creation using AI namely Chat GPT. No matter what prompt you use, the chat GPT (or any other artificial intelligence) currently cannot produce truly unique content. As we’ve established, content uniqueness is paramount and it is Google Search’s guidelines about AI-generated content. In this article Google says that content should be unique no matter how it is written, that is even AI. However, today AI cannot create unique content and it turns out that AI-generated content against Google guidelines as always. 😂
ChatGPT functions like a sophisticated rewriter, sourcing information from several articles on a given topic and rephrasing it. While the resulting content may be well-written and readable, it won’t be unique. Additionally, most plagiarism detection services might show 100% uniqueness, but my advice is to use 1Text.com for checking plagiarism. It performs a deep analysis, making it as close to a Google-level check as possible.
If the content is written by an author who truly understands the subject and creates it entirely from scratch, this is ideal – it’s what all search engines prefer. Such content is inherently unique, and there’s no need for plagiarism checks. Content created from the mind is unique by default.
For those who don’t understand the concept of AI-generated text uniqueness, let’s clarify. While ChatGPT can produce text that passes plagiarism checks on popular Canadian services like Neuronwriter with 100% uniqueness, this doesn’t mean the text is unique to Google. That’s why it’s important to use a more thorough plagiarism checker, like the previously mentioned 1Text.com.
With the rise of AI, many services now check content for “humanness.” Based on my experience, Google has started considering this factor as well.
It’s okay if content contains traces of AI use, the main thing is that the humanity check shows that the content was created by a human. If the content is flagged as entirely AI-generated, it won’t work effectively for SEO. Moreover, it can hinder the results of promotion.
Poorly informed SEO specialists generate text using GPT chat, then use plagiarism services like Neuronwriter and see that the content is 100% unique. Next, they run the content through AI detection services and make minor edits to achieve a more human-like result. Friends, I have to disappoint you – this approach doesn’t work. Remember, the initial content is not unique, and services like Neuronwriter or similar cannot accurately determine the uniqueness of AI-generated content. While these services might indicate everything is fine, Google will not, and such content will not achieve high rankings.
To avoid getting bogged down with the complexities of content uniqueness, AI detection services, and other concerns, let’s focus on what kind of content is needed now and always will be:
Content should be written by people who know what they are writing about and have authority in their field. Only your head and lived experience should be the source for writing content.
However, when this isn’t feasible, copywriting with E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) principles is essential. There’s a direct contradiction in this “copywriting + E-E-A-T approach”, but when you can’t find a reputable author, there’s nothing else to do but dance with Google.😅
How to use chat GPT for content creation?
We’ve criticized GPT chat heavily, pointing out that AI-generated content is not unique and won’t rank highly on its own. But what, then, is the point of using GPT chat for content creation? It serves as an excellent helper. No one said you can’t use assistance.
If you start with original content that’s too short, you can ask GPT chat to expand it to a desired length, say 500 words. This way, the content will be unique.
There are many scenarios, especially with online stores, where you need similar descriptions for different pages. For example, I once worked on a site selling tires and needed to create about 100 similar articles, each with different tire parameters. These articles had to be unique, a very challenging task. GPT chat would be a great help in such cases.
Here are some more useful content creation features from GPT chat:
- Completing a paragraph or sentence: If you’re stuck, GPT chat can help you finish your thoughts.
- Providing facts or confirming your words with authoritative sources: You can ask GPT chat to support your statements with reliable references.
- Changing the style of the article: Whether you need to add humor or make the tone more serious, GPT chat can adapt the style to suit your needs.
- Rewriting content into regional slang: Ask for your content to be rewritten into acceptable slang for the region.
For example, English isn’t my native language, so I can’t naturally write in “Canadian” English. By asking GPT chat to do this, it can convert my rough English into an article that’s readable for North American readers.
For SEO, GPT chat is the perfect helper for creating meta tags. Fully AI-generated meta tags alone won’t rank your site highly, and we’re not just talking about uniqueness here. Crafting a truly attractive snippet with the correct placement of keywords requires a competent SEO optimizer. Using GPT chat without a solid understanding of SEO is like using a hadron collider with only a basic grasp of physics. The analogy may be exaggerated, but it makes the point clear.
Сan I use AI images on my website?
Content isn’t limited to text; it includes pictures as well. GPT-4 can create images, which raises the question:
Can I use chat GPT for image creation?
Absolutely!
Considering the direction in which search engines evaluate content, it’s likely that these images will eventually be recognized as not entirely unique. However, this is just one aspect of your content. If your text content is unique and written from scratch, a few “semi-unique images” generated by AI won’t detract from the overall quality.
For those without access to a graphic or web designer, GPT-4 for image creation is an ideal solution. You can take an existing picture from the Internet and ask GPT-4 to create something similar based on it. This will give you an image with 100% uniqueness. You can verify this using Google Images by performing a reverse image search. If Google doesn’t find any matches, your image is unique, which is sufficient for the time being.
For those who find all of this overwhelming, I recommend ordering promotion services from marketing agency Calgary like – Effortless Marketing. Why here? Well, for starters, I work here.😂More importantly, our team consists of true masters of their craft who can lead you to the desired results quickly and efficiently.
