Is AI-generated content harming my SEO results?

Luke Meredith

We all know that artificial intelligence (AI) is pretty much inescapable at the moment, and it’s likely that we’re nowhere near seeing the full scope of its uses in society.

One of AI’s most popular uses currently is generating ‘written’ content. From social media posts to CVs and even academic essays, many people who have utilised AI for something have used it to create text that would have been more laborious to write themselves. This, of course, includes online content for websites.

While producing quality web content may feel like a task you don’t have the time to do right, it’s worth remembering the entire point of it – to improve your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO), increase traffic to your website and generate leads for your business.

In this blog, we’re considering the effect AI-generated content can have on your website’s SEO, helping to give you an informed view on whether it’s a good idea to use it as a content creation tool.

Is AI content good for SEO?

Google is concerned with the framework of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) when determining how SEO-friendly online content is. This means it looks for content that is:

Helpful to readers
Demonstrates expertise
From an authoritative source
Highly trustworthy

Exactly what online content should contain to meet these frameworks will vary from website to website across different industries. For this reason, human-written content will almost always be best suited to meeting these demands, as AI-generated content is unlikely to demonstrate the same level of expertise, helpfulness and authority within your industry as a specialist like you can.

Can AI content harm SEO results?

If most or all of the blogs/articles on your website are AI-generated, there is a chance that Google may penalise your website, which can lead to a drop in search engine result page (SERP) rankings.

In order to figure out how well your website is performing in terms of SEO, the best place to start is by running an audit of your site’s content to see how it’s performing for your most important search terms. This can help you determine if any pages from your site need to be deleted or rewritten. Deleting pages without an audit, however, may risk damaging the internal linking structure and visibility of your site.

At Engage Web, we’re here to show you how to get the very best results from your websites. You can carry out a free SEO audit on your website today to help determine what improvements need making.

About
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Luke Meredith

Content Editor at Engage Web

At home in both the digital sector and the world of communications, Luke thrives on deadlines and has held roles in healthcare, retail and digital marketing, gaining a sound knowledge of a wide range of sectors. He’s a massive swot as well, holding a first-class degree in BA Communication and Media, and now uses his writing skills and keen editorial eye in his role as Content Editor here. Luke helps to oversee our clients’ content requirements, while also looking after a pool of freelance writers across three continents.

Is AI-generated content harming my SEO results?