By William Wright, Direct Online Marketing
AI can be a tremendous help in generating content for many needs, including your website. Sites across the web, though, are being penalized for publishing material created solely by AI, without any editing by a person. That’s why it’s essential to add a human touch to all AI-generated content.
The introduction of AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity AI has led to organizations producing content for their websites with the help of these large language models. Blog posts, marketing copy, service pages, emails—all are being impacted in our new AI era.
Publishing AI-generated content without any review and revision by a real person is a perilous game to play with one’s online reputation.
Search engines like Google are cracking down. Pages with AI-generated content are steeply falling in search rankings and, in extreme cases, being de-indexed entirely. That essentially means Google turning a blind eye to your page and not even considering such a page for inclusion in search results.
Everybody and their brother now uses AI to help write content. There’s no going back. You may be left behind if you don’t adapt.
So how can you use AI tools without harming your online reputation?
Use AI to generate outlines and first drafts that are always fleshed out and edited by a real person.
As Google adapts to AI-generated content that has flooded the web since the introduction of ChatGPT, creating quality content is more important than ever. So go back to the basics. The surest path to better and sustained search rankings is to follow the principles of E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
Following E-E-A-T means acting like the expert you are about your business. It means writing original, engaging content that details your history of success and clearly explains your value proposition to prospective clients.
• Don’t post verbatim what an AI tool generates.
You may be putting out false information. The large language models behind AI tools are trained on text from all over the internet, not all of which is true. Plus, if you blindly post what AI gives you, you may be committing plagiarism. AI frequently provides factual information taken directly from authoritative sources, but it often does so without citing the source.
• Don’t keyword stuff.
You shouldn’t merely inject a particular word many times throughout your content in an attempt to get a page to rank for that word. Google’s algorithm is good at recognizing this tactic and will ding the page accordingly.
• Don’t let AI flatten your voice.
You have a unique voice. Your content should reflect that. Merely posting what AI produces can lead to bland content that doesn’t entice people to take action.
• Polish each sentence with human input.
Revise, edit, rephrase, change punctuation—do something to change each sentence so that you don’t publish anything to your site that is just a regurgitation of an AI tool.
• Regularly publish content.
Build a reputation in the mind of your clients (and in the view of Google’s search algorithm) that your site is an active, continual fountain of useful information.
• Include an author bio.
Attribute content on your website to the person who wrote it and demonstrate their expertise. The goal is to get your people recognized by name in Google’s mind as experts. So avoid putting a byline of just contributor or company name.
AI tools are a good place to start in brainstorming topics for new content; they are a poor place to finish and merely publish exactly what is generated.
Following these AI-writing DOs and avoiding the DON’Ts will put you on the right track. You’ll be implementing best practices that satisfy the E-E-A-T principles that matter to human readers and Google.
For more thoughts on how to grow your marketing success in today’s environment, contact DOM at https://www.directom.com or by calling 800.979.3177. Ask for a free strategic audit of your website or online advertising efforts.