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Google’s mission hasn’t changed since the start. The giant search engine invests a lot of its resources to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. That’s why search focuses on displaying only the most accurate, relevant, and high-quality content there is to its users.
Which begs the question: Can content written using AI tools rank on Google? The answer is Yes and No!
No because AI generated content that provides no value to users is against the search engine’s Webmaster Guidelines. According to Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller, content written by machines is considered “spam”.
AI-generated content would appear as if you’re just looking up synonyms or shuffling words around, or doing the same old translation tricks people used to do in the past decade.
And interestingly yes, an AI-generated content can still rank high up in the SERPs. Turns out Google’s algorithms can’t tell if content is written by AI or human as long as it’s well written and meets the search intent.
The use of AI is taking an upward trend towards improving both the quality and quantity of creating content. It is forecasted that between 2020 and 2027, AI will see a growth rate of 33.2%.
However, there are concerns about AI’s ability to master the subtle nuances of language or generate accurate and natural-sounding content. Many are curious to see how far the AI industry might progress, where it could go, and whether it will greatly benefit or disrupt their own business.
If this sounds like you, this post will help as it explores how AI can help create content for decent rankings on Google.
Excited? Let’s get into it!
AI-generated content is content that is created using artificial intelligence tools. Also known as natural language generation (NLG), an AI tool is a language-prediction model that uses deep learning to generate texts and images understandable to the human eye.
Keep in mind AI does not curate content out of thin air. Instead, it draws on other content already available on the topic at hand.
Therefore, for any AI application to produce human-ready prose, some input is needed, such as a topic or a paragraph of copy. The format of the content also needs to be outlined and fed as structured data points for software to begin writing.
There are many different ways that AI-generated content can be used today including publishing it on a website landing page, blog or even writing a speech.
No doubt AI is quickly becoming a vital tool for marketers and content writers looking to power their search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and results. Indeed, up to 80 percent of marketers that implement AI report quick and positive changes for their businesses.
But how do you use AI to supercharge your SEO and content marketing strategy? Here are a few tips to help you get started:
Google really has no problem with the origin of content. What it does have a problem with is thin content that provides little or no value to the user.
Fact is, Google may take actions on auto-gen content intended to manipulate search rankings as opposed to providing value. Examples of such content may include:
So, before you start adopting AI for your SEO, choose the appropriate software that has a track record for results. Lots of AI-powered tools for SEO exist but only a few are specialized in content.
For example, Jasper AI (formerly Jarvis) writing assistant is an excellent starting point. This application is designed to assess the SERP rankings of content topics and existing pages. Meaning it can provide data-backed recommendations on the best keywords to target for SEO.
There are many other AI writing tools that you might want to choose, including Frase, Rytr, Copysmyth, and Sassbook. No matter which AI tool you choose, make sure it’s a reliable and robust platform.
Essentially, a good AI writing tool should be able to give you helpful recommendations that will send your optimized content straight to the 1st page of search results.
A machine learning-based tool can not only help you sum up a page, but it can also serve as the first draft of your content. By summarizing the AI content, you can see the most important parts of your content. You can then use the summary to craft an outline or first draft to build on and improve from there.
When crafting content using AI, you first need to know the words that define your brand and how you want them portrayed in your copywriting efforts. It’s vital that you are deliberate and purposeful with every word you choose if you’re to create a distinct voice for your brand.
Remember, all content related to your company must have a consistent voice. If you're creating a copy for your website, writing marketing emails, or posting on social media, it should all sound like it came from the same place.
If you aren’t sure what defines your brand, start writing down the adjectives you would use to describe your company. Let the AI tool know your keywords so it’s properly guided when generating content for your business.
Apart from AI content-generating tools, other tools can help fine-tune your content. Once you generate the content, don’t forget to refine it using tools like Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and Hemingway App.
The idea is to ensure the final copy doesn’t have any careless typos, grammatical issues or is too hard to read. Finally, manually edit it to make sure it reads like it was written by a human being and not robots.
Now that you have good enough content and probably even already published it, what next? As with all other content types, you need to do a bit more to optimise your AI-generated content for Google.
A few crucial aspects to consider here include generating relevant, high-quality backlinks, improving your website overall user experience and keyword placement.
Let’s find out more below.
Backlinks are one of the most important factors for improving rankings on search engines. A backlink is any link from another website that points to your website. The more high-quality backlinks you build from relevant websites, the better your chances of ranking higher on Google.
Not a lot has changed about keyword guidelines since SEO became a thing. For example, it is still best practice to include them in your title tags, meta tags and image alt tags.
Where possible also, your primary keyword should appear within the first 100 words of your content. As a general rule of thumb, do not overuse keywords or Google may penalize your site for it.
For Google to index your website properly and efficiently, you need to have a solid website structure. For example, if your site is too complicated and has too many links, Google bots may have a harder time finding all the important pages, thereby causing your rankings to suffer.
If people don’t like coming or staying at your website, it could negatively affect your rankings in search results. The key indicators that Google uses to track this aspect include high bounce rates and low average session length.
These days, mobile-friendliness is an extremely important ranking factor because more people use mobile devices to browse the web than those on desktop. Make sure that your site provides mobile users with a great experience.
While AI technology continues to get hyped, there are limitations to it and its applications. In some cases, these limitations may prevent your content from ranking well on Google.
In this section, we take a look at some of the major limitations of AI when it comes to content output:
Machines don’t have feelings and they lack the emotional intelligence that humans use to make decisions. This restricts their ability to apply contextual awareness to specific situations.
This is because they only operate within boundaries set by humans. Ultimately, these systems are not able to process information beyond what has been programmed into them.
Creativity requires imagination, something AI machines are currently unable to possess. Any written content needs to have a human touch in order to engage the audiences.
AI is a tool — it does not have the human ability to reason and find solutions like a human does. Instead, this tech relies on humans to create rules that determine the outcome of specific situations. It means that the quality of AI output depends greatly on the quality of input given to it by humans.
Data is essential to training any AI software or machine learning algorithm. If data is low quality, AI will also be biased and deliver low-quality results. Data must be carefully selected and cleaned before it is used to train an AI system to ensure its accuracy and quality.
Humans are prone to making mistakes when programming AI systems. What this means is that some of the data they provide may not be complete or accurate in some cases.
When this happens, the final product that the AI creates may contain errors or otherwise fail to function as intended due to programming errors made by humans at the beginning of the process.
Ultimately, whether the articles you use on your website are written by AI or human, they should be optimised for search engines. While it's hard to predict the future of AI in terms of SEO, there are plenty of reasons to think that this technology has the potential to shake things up.
What will happen in 5 years? Ten years? Is Google RankBrain already affecting SEO today? Only time will tell, but we suggest keeping an open mind.
As always, if you need high-quality backlinks to improve your SEO results, Profit Engine is where it’s at. Get in touch with us now for a free SEO strategy consultation.Â
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