Can You Game the Search Rankings Using AI?

For years, copywriters had to spend countless hours researching, writing, and editing online content. So when AI writing tools came onto the scene, many professionals started using them to churn out content faster. After all, more content leads to better search engine rankings and website traffic, right? Well, not exactly. After recent Google updates, many sites have lost traffic. This has led many in the SEO space to ask: does Google penalize AI content? Surely the search giant wouldn’t do that, especially with its new AI overviews. But the truth is, using AI writing tools might land you in hot water.

What is AI Content?

AI content pertains to anything that wasn’t written by a human. This usually means it was written by a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT, PerplexityAI, Claude, etc. These writing tools spit out content in seconds, making them an attractive alternative to human writers. However, AI writing tools come with some faults.

Risk of Inaccurate Information

AI writing tools are notorious for providing false information, which can harm your business’ reputation. For example, Men’s Health magazine was recently caught using AI writing tools for an article entitled, “What Men Should Know About Low Testosterone.” It contained a lot of factual errors, which is especially concerning as the article revolved around health information.

Your business thrives on its reputation, so using AI writing tools that create occasional ‘hallucinations’ could be potentially harmful to sales.

Limited Emotional Intelligence

Your content needs to emotionally connect with a consumer to push them toward a purchase. That’s something AI writing tools can’t do. They don’t have the emotional intelligence, empathy, or understanding of human experience to evoke emotions. If you’re using AI content, you might be missing out on valuable sales.

Lack of Creativity and Originality

AI spits out the same information for every query, just with different wording. If you use AI written content for your website, that means yours has the same information as hundreds of other companies that are using AI, too. Google likely won’t see anything unique with the content you put out, and might not rank you very high in the search results — and your content won’t be differentiating you from your competitors. It’s best to have a human writer that takes a new, fresh angle on the subject.

Want to learn more about the nuances of using AI to write blogs for your website? Check out our in-depth guide here.

Can Google Detect AI Content?

Google has become increasingly adept at detecting AI-generated content. The organization uses various techniques to identify and flag machine-generated work, including natural language processing (NLP) algorithms that analyze the text for patterns and syntax common in computer-generated writing. But even though Google might be able to detect AI content, will it penalize you for it?

Does Google Penalize AI Content?

Many business owners and copywriters are wondering: does Google penalize AI content? The answer is yes and no. Google’s official stance is that it rewards high-quality content, no matter how it’s produced. If your content follows E-E-A-T guidelines, Google’s ranking systems are designed to serve up that information. However, if you’re using AI content with the primary purpose of manipulating search engine results rankings, your work will likely violate Google’s spam policies. This will result in less traffic to your site and ultimately, fewer sales.

Need Content That Converts? Turn to Ngage

Human-written content will always surpass what AI writing tools can offer. When you rely on humans to write your content, you’ll avoid issues with Google penalizations, and come out with work that can actually push a consumer towards a purchase.

At NgageContent, we have over a decade of experience creating work that appeases search engines and your target audience. Using our time-tested strategies, we can get you ranking for relevant keywords, leading to more traffic, leads, and sales for your business. Want to see what we’ve done for companies like yours? Check out our case studies here.

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If you’re ready to supercharge your business growth, contact us today.