There is a lot of chatter if ChatGPT and AI written content is valuable enough to rank on Google. If so, this can be a fast-track to significant organic traffic for any website. However, anything that’s too good to be true, typically is. In this post we’re going to breakdown our stance derived from recent comments coming directly from Google.
What is ChatGPT and AI Content?
ChatGPT and AI Content is content written by an AI tool to live on a website. Through AI tools like ChatGPT, marketers can simply ask it to write a blog article on any topic. For example, in opening ChatGPT, within 45 seconds I could have a 750 word article on blogging best practices.
Since the inception of ChatGPT and Google Bard, marketers and business owners have been keen on understanding if automated content can be a quick ticket to boosting organic traffic on Google. If Google rewards ChatGPT content the same, any website can be on the path to significant rankings on Google.
What’s Google’s Stance on ChatGPT and AI Written Content?
No one really knows how the algorithm works, but it seems that Google is straddling a line. In my opinion, I believe Google will still rank AI written content and blogs, but won’t come at the same level, here’s why.
Within a X post, as cited by search engine roundtable, a website owner was asking John Mueller, Google’s SEO liaison, why its content wasn’t ranking well. Within the dialog, John quickly points out that the content posted on his website isn’t valuable and looks like a compilation of ChatGPT outputs.
What’s interesting is that, John Mueller, publicly called out that the content was AI driven. This makes me wonder if Google can identify AI written content, which could automatically discount the content. In my opinion, it seems that Google will discount auto generated content as it’s not coming from a unique point of view, rather regurgitating existing content without any additional value.
This delves into my next point in understanding how Google values content.
Quality Content is the Cornerstone of Ranking on Google
From another dialog coming directly from Google, in this case the Google Search Central YouTube Channel, they have a video that speaks about the quality of content. Within the dialog, the Google team states “quality affects pretty much everything that the Search systems do.”
From this nugget of information coming directly from Google, it’s very clear that the quality of content is the foundation to ranking on Google, and from the prior citation, Google does not value AI generated content the same as an article written by a human with unique perspective or research.
However, there is a small catch.
Google’s Updated Content Guidelines
Within Google’s updated content guidelines, they quietly updated the first paragraph. As spotted by Search Engine Land.
Prior it said, “..people see original, helpful content created by people, for people in search results.”
Now it just states created “for people in search results”, and removed “by people“.
This leads me to believe that Google doesn’t want to explicitly say that content written by AI isn’t valuable.
Where does that Net us Regarding Google’s Stance on AI?
I believe that Google had to update their quality guidelines to stay up to date that more and more content will be written by AI, but the foundational element that content has to provide great value.
While AI can provide helpful articles, it’s not unique given that it’s taken from multiple sources on the web, and with that, Google likely gives a strong discount to this content.
What should Marketers do as it Relates to Content?
Focus on the fundamentals of why you’re creating content. If you’re creating content just to rank, it won’t be valuable for the end user. Instead, to stay ahead of the competition, write content to provide real value, unique perspective and points of view.
In my opinion this is actually a great sign from the engines that quality, likely human written content, will be the content that prevails.
Additionally, this could be fantastic news for great content creators that study the written craft: journalists, english majors, etc. Great content that takes time to write and provides a unique perspective will be rewarded. Not only will the end user enjoy the content and engage with the site more-so, but Google will take note.
No one knows, except a small number of Google employees, if Google can automatically identify AI written content, but given their focus on quality and the resources the engine has, I believe that Google can suss out bad content, or re-worded AI generated content that doesn’t add anything of value.
Ways to Ensure you’re Providing Unique and Valuable Content
Below are a few ideas on how to provide this type of content, not all needs to be checked within each article, but here are a few.
Have it come from your own perspective in your own words
- No one wants to read an article / blog post with little human perspective.
Cite other sources that back up your content
- This is big, any great research paper will have citations of other sources to prove or disprove a specific point of view. If a point of view is just one sided, it’s hard to provide value.
Ensure the length of content is ideal to thoroughly answer the question
- Not every piece of content needs to be 1-2k words long. On another blog I have, the best piece of content from a ranking and organic perspective is only a few paragraphs. But it provides great value, provides references and users like it, which is why it’s ranking well.
Include the general SEO best practices
To provide valuable content, make sure you implement on-page SEO best practices to get the full organic value from each of your site’s pages. This includes headers, a meta description that is compelling and accurate of the article (meta descriptions are these ad copy for the article), include images (not just stock photos), image alt text, etc.
Lastly, ask yourself, is this content worthy of sharing with your peers? If so, it’s likely a great piece of content that users will value, and Google will reward. If it’s not worthy of sharing, don’t bother posting it on your website as it won’t provide a great experience and Google likely won’t rank this well.
If anyone is reading this article and is interested in quality human written content for your website to provide value to your users and also rank, contact us. We would love to support your effort.
