Artificial intelligence (AI) has made rapid inroads into the world of content creation and search engine optimization (SEO). AI-powered tools can now generate entire articles, product descriptions, and blog posts in seconds, enabling businesses to scale their content strategies quickly and cost-effectively.
But the critical question remains: will AI-generated content actually perform well in organic search and drive SEO results? Opinions are divided. Some marketers see AI as a powerful tool to augment human-written content and boost SERP rankings at scale. Others fear that search engines will penalize AI content as low-quality or spammy.
As an AI and SEO expert, I‘ve analyzed this issue in-depth. In this article, I‘ll share evidence-based insights on the benefits, risks, and best practices of leveraging AI-generated content for SEO.
The Rise of AI in Content Creation
First, let‘s look at some eye-opening statistics that highlight AI‘s growing prominence in content and SEO:
- 49% of companies use AI writing tools as of 2022, up from 12% in 2019 (Writer)
- 82% of marketers who use AI generate content 5X faster on average (Unbounce)
- AI adoption for content creation will grow 5X from 2021 to 2026 (Gartner)
- 69% of SEO practitioners believe AI will have a high impact on SEO in the next 3 years (ZoomInfo)
Interest in AI writing assistants has surged, with tools like Jasper.ai, Copy.ai, and Writesonic attracting huge venture funding rounds. But widespread adoption doesn‘t necessarily mean these AI-powered articles and blogs are ready for prime time when it comes to ranking on Page 1. Let‘s dive into the pros and cons.
Pros of AI Content for SEO
1. Rapid Content Production at Scale
The greatest potential upside of AI for SEO is the ability to produce optimized content at lightning speed and immense scale. With traditional content creation, an article that would take a skilled writer hours to research and draft can be generated by AI in seconds.
This accelerated content velocity empowers businesses to target long-tail keywords, publish on a broad range of topics, and build topical authority much faster than relying solely on human writers. Increasing your publishing cadence and content footprint expands opportunities to rank.
2. Cost Savings
High-quality SEO content is expensive to produce, whether you maintain an in-house writing team or hire freelancers. Fees for a single well-researched, 1,000+ word article often exceed $300-500.
While AI content platforms do charge a usage fee, the cost is significantly lower on a per-article basis. One AI content manager told me that his cost per content asset plummeted over 80% after switching from freelance writers to an AI writing tool.
3. Built-In SEO Optimization
Many AI content platforms have features designed specifically for SEO, such as automatic inclusion of target keywords, SEO-friendly headlines and formatting, meta description generation, and internal linking. Some, like Frase and CopySmith, even enable you to optimize content to match the top-ranking articles on Google for a given search query.
When each AI-generated article is pre-optimized for search engines, it can shorten the SEO learning curve and help content reach its organic traffic potential faster. In a survey by Unbounce, 74% of marketers said AI tools help them produce more effective SEO copy.
Cons and Risks of AI Content for SEO
1. Content Quality Shortcomings
The most serious issue with using AI content for SEO is quality. While AI language models have progressed rapidly, they still often fall short of human writers in several areas:
- Factual accuracy and consistency
- Coherence and logical flow
- Inclusion of original ideas and insights
- Compelling storytelling and emotional resonance
- Understanding of nuance and context
Publishing content with inaccuracies, shallow coverage of the topic, or awkward/unnatural phrasing provides a poor user experience. It‘s unlikely to build topical authority or earn engagement signals that boost search rankings over time.
Content quality is central to how Google and other search engines assess webpages. Google‘s Search Quality Rater Guidelines instruct raters to assign low scores to auto-generated pages that provide little value. And the helpful content update explicitly targeted sites creating content primarily for search engines vs. humans.
"Google‘s algorithms keep getting better at identifying and devaluing AI-generated content. I wouldn‘t feel comfortable relying on it at scale for important keywords and topics without heavy human curation."
– Lily Ray, Senior Director, SEO & Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital
2. Missing E-E-A-T Signals
The concept of E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) has been a pillar of Google‘s approach to surfacing high-quality content, especially on YMYL (your money, your life) topics. Google wants to reward content that demonstrates subject matter expertise, depth of knowledge, and firsthand experience.
By definition, AI-generated content lacks human E-E-A-T. There is no credentialed author, no citations of original research, and no unique insights drawn from real-world experience. As Google refines its natural language understanding capabilities, it will likely get better at detecting "thin" AI content that fails to match the E-E-A-T of human-written, expert-led articles.
3. Duplicate and Similar Content
Another pitfall of AI content is the potential for duplication and similarity with content on other sites. Many AI writing tools work by scraping relevant web pages on a topic and remixing/paraphrasing the content to generate new articles.
The resulting content may share substantial similarities with existing pages, triggering duplicate content issues. If Google discovers AI-generated content that overlaps heavily with articles elsewhere, it may omit it from search results or rank the original source instead.
"In one recent audit, we found that an agency used an AI tool to generate dozens of city-specific service pages. After analyzing them, we discovered that over 70% of the content was substantially similar across pages. Major red flag for duplication."
– Miranda Miller, Senior Managing Editor at Search Engine Journal
Google‘s Evolving Stance on AI Content
What has Google said about whether using AI-generated content for SEO is acceptable? The answer has shifted over time as the technology matures.
In a 2022 Twitter exchange, Google‘s John Mueller stated that AI-generated content falls under Google‘s definition of auto-generated content intended to manipulate rankings, which is a violation of their Webmaster Guidelines.
However, in a later Search Off the Record podcast, Mueller clarified that Google‘s algorithms do not explicitly penalize content just because it is generated by AI. As long as the content is useful, meets user needs, and adds value, it is eligible to rank.
"AI or machine-written content is not against our guidelines. We treat it the same as human-written content. The key is providing value for users."
– John Mueller, Google Search Advocate
Google itself uses AI and natural language processing extensively in products like LaMDA, PaLM, and MUM to understand content and queries. So strict policies against all AI-generated content seem unlikely. What‘s far more likely is increased algorithmic scrutiny of quality and utility.
Comparative Research on AI vs. Human Content for SEO
Empirical research comparing the SEO performance of AI-generated vs. human-written content is still limited to date. But a few notable studies have attempted to quantify the differences.
A 2022 study by Scripted had their freelance writers and an AI tool create articles targeting the same keywords. After publishing both sets, they measured organic traffic and keyword rankings over a 6 month period. The results? Human-written articles generated 35% more organic traffic and ranked for over 600 keywords, while AI-generated posts ranked for zero keywords.
Similarly, Broda, a design agency, published an issue of their digital magazine using GPT-3 to generate the content. While readers found the GPT-3 content engaging, it failed to match the depth of insight, factual accuracy, and unique perspective provided by their usual human writers.
These findings suggest that, currently, human-written content maintains an edge over AI-generated content in trustworthiness, E-E-A-T signals, and nuanced coverage of the topic. But it‘s still early days. As generative language models evolve, the quality gap may narrow.
Best Practices for Using AI Content in SEO
So how should SEO practitioners approach leveraging AI content, given the benefits and risks? In my view, AI is best applied as a complement to human writers and SEO expertise – not a complete replacement. Here are some best practices:
- Use AI primarily to assist writers with research, outlines, and first drafts – not to publish raw AI content without manual editing
- Have subject matter experts review AI-generated text to validate facts, add original insights, and refine for accuracy and flow before publishing
- Monitor engagement signals like bounce rate/dwell time on AI content, and prioritize human-written content for your most important topics and pages
- Leverage AI for specific SEO assets like metadata, product descriptions, and short snippets vs. full-length blog posts or articles
- Avoid using AI content at massive scale without substantive value add and quality control
- Disclose your use of AI transparently to maintain trust – don‘t present it as 100% human-written
The Future of AI-Powered SEO
Looking ahead, AI‘s role in SEO and content will continue to expand and mature. Advances in generative AI models like GPT-4, LaMDA, and others will progressively boost the quality, coherence, and factual reliability of machine-generated text.
Emerging hybrid AI writing tools (e.g. ParagraphAI and SudoWrite) combine natural language models with semantic networks, knowledge base integration, and real-time fact-checking to ensure accuracy while maintaining output diversity. Human/AI collaborative interfaces will also evolve to facilitate dynamic interaction between human strategists and machine learning systems.
At the same time, search engines will enhance their capabilities in natural language understanding, sentiment analysis, and content quality assessment. Google Brain and DeepMind are continuously expanding the ability of machine learning models to evaluate the relevance, expertise, and utility of webpages for the searcher‘s intent.
In this scenario, high-caliber SEO content may become a synthesis of human and artificial intelligence – with human experience, creativity, and subject matter expertise guiding and reviewing AI outputs. Low-effort, fully automated content farms with little manual curation will likely face increasing obstacles to ranking.
Ultimately, it‘s not a battle between human vs. AI-generated content, but a symbiosis. SEO leaders will be those who can strategically leverage the unique powers of both people and AI to create valuable, compelling experiences for users and search engines alike. The future of SEO is a human + machine partnership.
Key Takeaways
- AI content usage for SEO is growing rapidly, with potential benefits in content production speed, costs, and search optimization
- However, risks include content quality issues, lack of E-E-A-T signals, and potential for duplication/similarity that may limit rankings
- Google has evolved its stance, clarifying that high-quality, valuable AI content aligns with its guidelines, but low-effort auto-generation does not
- Early research suggests human-written content still outperforms AI content for driving traffic and rankings, but further studies are needed
- Best practices for AI-powered SEO emphasize human/AI collaboration, with manual fact-checking, added insights, quality control, and transparency
- The future of SEO will likely fuse the optimal capabilities of human experts and AI language models to create high-performing content
As AI‘s impact on the world of search and content accelerates, SEO practitioners must stay at the forefront of understanding and adapting to this transformative technology. Finding the right balance in leveraging AI‘s strengths while upholding content quality and searcher experience will be pivotal to success.
One thing is certain: the next evolution of SEO will be defined by the convergence of human intelligence and artificial intelligence. Staying informed and strategically experimenting with AI content will be essential for ambitious brands and marketers. The future is unwritten, but it‘s sure to be fascinating. Get ready for the ride!
