AI gets blamed for a lot of bad website content

That’s understandable. AI makes it ridiculously easy to create an article, service page, or even an entire website. Give it a few instructions, wait a few seconds and you’ve got 1,000 words ready to publish.

But is using AI content for SEO really the problem?

I don’t think so. Bad content was around long before ChatGPT. AI just made it easier to create more of it.

Local Business Websites Had Bad Content Before AI

Think about local business websites from five or ten years ago.

Plenty were stuffed with keywords. Some had nearly identical pages for every city they served. Others published articles that existed primarily because someone told the owner, “Google likes fresh content.”

And who wrote all of that?

People.

A human writer doesn’t automatically produce useful content any more than AI automatically produces bad content.

Would A Customer Actually Find This Helpful?

Suppose you own a plumbing company and publish an article called “10 Reasons Plumbing Is Important.”

A.I. could write it. A human could write it.

Either way, who is searching for that?

Now compare that with an article answering, “Why does my water heater keep running out of hot water?”

That’s an actual problem a potential customer might have.

Explain the common causes. Tell the reader what they can safely check themselves. Explain when it’s probably time to call a plumber.
Suddenly you have useful content.

Whether AI helped write the first draft isn’t the most important question.

How I work with AI for my St. George area SEO website

I use AI to help me write articles that you see on this site but…

• I have the article edited / rewritten by a human.
• Then I have an AI check for AI tells and remove any that are found.
• Then I edit the article (2nd human editing) by having it read to me while I make changes using what I hear.

There is more to this than just those three items, but you get the concept.

AI Can Make Bad Content Much Worse

There is one legitimate problem with AI content for SEO.
It removed the brakes.

Writing 30 mediocre articles used to take considerable time and money. Today, someone can generate them before lunch.

That’s where local businesses can get into trouble.

If you’re publishing articles simply because you think your website needs more content, AI makes it incredibly easy to fill your website with pages nobody needs.

More isn’t necessarily better.

Note: AI Shouldn’t Be The Expert, You Are

There is a difference between asking AI:

“Write me a 1,000-word article about hard water stains.”

versus a window cleaner telling AI:

“I’ve removed hard water stains from hundreds of windows in Southern Utah. Here are five things I’ve learned…”

Maybe We’re Asking The Wrong Question

Instead of asking, “Does Google like AI content?” try asking:

1. Would I publish this if a human had written it?
2. Does it answer a real customer’s question?
3. Is the information accurate? Does it include something specific to your business, customers or local area?
4. Does it say anything that isn’t already repeated on a thousand other websites?
5. Does it include something you’ve actually learned from doing the work?

If the answer is no, don’t publish it.

There’s nothing wrong with using AI to research ideas, organize what you know, or help create a first draft. A human still needs to decide whether that information is worth putting on the website.

AI content isn’t necessarily the problem. Publishing content nobody needs is.

Linkedin – Hrithik Kaul – SEO → AEO Specialist for SaaS

My hottest SEO tip to improve Google rankings:
Ask ChatGPT to write your complete website content.

Hear me out. Most people believe that AI content kills your rankings.

That’s not what I see, and it’s not what Google’s own guidance says either.

Google has never cared who (human or AI) typed the words, it cares whether the page adds something that wasn’t already on the internet.

Read the rest of the article by tapping here. 

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