No consumer ever said, “Man, I’d love to read some robotic keyword-stuffed pages today!” If you’ve been listening to me talk about AI content in recent years, you’ll know how I feel about AI content for SEO. Since October of 2023 the Google Helpful Content Update has prioritized businesses that put people first. Perfectly optimized SEO content became crushed overnight. It quickly became evident the signal they were prioritizing… human interactions.
All those agencies that pushed “Vibe” AI content that didn’t put customers first are falling pretty silent today as their clients leave after those businesses were left with tanked search results. The SEO technical audits on the client sites are nasty, and I often have to inform companies that their content is largely not indexed at all, never mind actually ranking. Those agencies took the cheap route with AI content and thought about profits over clients. That never works!
Those long form content pieces nobody ever read, ya stop that! It’s killing your business and bottom line. It’s not indexing, ranking, or converting into customers. Less is more! Quiet confidence is definitely a thing and agencies writing blog posts for the sake of remaining relevant are a glaring red flag, run!
Google has recently said that if the content they thought was helpful wasn’t interacted well with in search results then it usually falls out of search results entirely! In other words, if your content is not hitting the mark in terms that people can identify with, it’s as good as gone!
So look, if you’re going to write with AI, then consider it as a useful tool where you gather and verify information the citations manually after. AI content itself isn’t against Google’s spam abuse policy but if the customer isn’t going to interact with it then don’t publish it! It’s got to be useful, get to the point, and be something they can actually interact with. Most queries people place into AI content produce the same output which means it’s probably not going to rank or index in many cases.
If you’re going to use AI content, then have a professional SEO copywriter and editor go through it. Someone who asks your client-facing staff really good questions about the kinds of the common concerns their customers have. Ensure your copywriter knows the customer base’s key concerns and pain points because that’s really what’s going to move the mark as far as what’s going to sell and be “helpful” interactions-wise in the eyes of Google. A good copyrighter really gets the audience, language of the audience, and can concisely convey that in the way that gets to the core of what they want immediately.
Helpful Content for Search Engines Is:
- Shareable and superior with unique perspective
- Meets the target audience’s exact needs
- Highly focused on the customer’s search question
- Answers the search query question early in content
- Does not deviate or go on tangents on related content
- Demonstrates expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness
- Is an overall positive good site user experience free of obstructions
- Free of keyword stuffed language
- Reads in Layman’s terms your target audience can identify with
Bottom line, if your readers have to go to another site after to learn more about what they actually are looking for your content failed. Case in point, Sky News AI content confused the Swedish Airline SAS with UK’s SAS Unit. Think about your customers, if your content is not relevant, helpful, engaging and accurate then don’t expect to profit from your site.
Helping Businesses Capture More Brand Awareness and Verified Sales Leads Since 2001.
