Google drives a stunning ninety-three percent of global internet traffic with an impressive eighty-five billion visitors. Google’s search engine drives internet commerce. Quality content and superior customer experiences drive Google’s success. You may be wondering if AI generated content will rank in Google. The short answer is yes, for now, as long as it follows Google’s guidelines.

Google encourages businesses to create high-quality content and outstanding customer experiences with a proprietary and constantly evolving tool suite that evaluates and ranks websites. Millions of companies depend on earning a top ranking. The competition for top rankings is fierce.

Businesses aligned with Google’s mission study Google’s blogs and rating schema updates, and these businesses also work with ethical search optimization professionals (SEOs) to create quality content that meets (or exceeds) Google’s expectations. These “white hats” and their advisors invest time, effort, and money in creating great content and first-class customer experiences.

Ensuring Your SEO Content Strategy Aligns with Google’s Top-Quality Standards

However, some businesses create websites designed to “game” Google’s ranking system. Google constantly evolves its ranking system and algorithms to delist or punish bad websites and highlight quality ones. Over the years, these “black hats“ have developed a range of strategies to game Google’s ranking system.

Some of the more infamous methods are:

• Keyword & Cookie stuffing
• Spamming
• Content spinners
• Article spinners
• Cloaking
• Doorway pages
• Link farms
• Hidden text and links
• URL hijacking
• Sneaky affiliate links
• Creating fake reviews

All of which threaten Google’s core mission to be the world’s premier search website that provides the best customer experience and quality content.

Google has had a firm anti-spam policy since 2003, which included prohibitions against automated-generated content. Artificial intelligence-generated content was subject to this policy. The logic of this policy focused on several factors, including:

• Data training techniques that resulted in derivative work
• Content manipulation
• A focus on manipulating the rating system
• The lack of user focus
• The lack of human curation
• Excessive use of keywords
• Automated text generated by scraping, synonymizing, paraphrasing or obfuscation techniques
• Plagiarizing different websites

At the time, Google perceived artificially generated content as a potential source of low-quality content. 

Does AI-generated Content Affect Google Ranking?

Times change, especially with the introduction in November of 2022 of generative artificial intelligence models like Open AI’s ChatGPT produce increasingly high-quality personalized content. Google, in 2023 became more open-minded concerning artificial intelligence-generated content. While Google Search Essentials, in 2023, does not provide clear guidance on avoiding automatically generated content.

Google Essentials does make it clear that they will act against any spam they detect or illicit practices such as cloaking; doorways; hacked content; hidden texts and links; keyword stuffing, linked spam; machine-generated traffic; malware; misleading functionality; scraped content; sneaky redirects; auto-generated spam; copyright infringement; illegal personal information; fraud; and other tactics to manipulate search rankings.

Google’s loosening its restrictions on artificial intelligence provides an opportunity and a risk. Even for white hats, there is a temptation to use the new generative artificial intelligence programs to write high-profile content. The output of these programs is fast and quick. However, these programs do not produce original work. Their work product is derivative.

More importantly, such programs with similar prompts may result in almost identical work for your competitors. Successful leaders do not let convenience get in the way of winning. In the hyper-competitive world of online commerce, good original content is king. Good original content is the primary driver of Google’s website ranking and business. 

In summary, is AI generated content good for SEO? Yes, it can as long as it follows Search Engine Optimization best practices. Drawing from our wealth of experience in the digital marketing landscape, Infinite Web Designs can affirm that the most successful SEO strategies are those that marry the technological capabilities of AI with the very human skill of crafting relevant and high-quality content.

The future of SEO, then, is not about choosing between AI or human efforts, but effectively integrating both to deliver superior content that optimizes visibility while promoting a superior user experience. 

A best practice is to use generative artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT and other AI tools as research and writing assistant in creating content. Such programs can help you brainstorm, unearth new connections, overcome writer’s block, and explore new ideas. The AI content generator is the brush and the paint palette, not the artist.

Don’t let your ranking be endangered by low-quality AI content. At Infinite Web Designs, we embrace innovation thoughtfully, ensuring your SEO practices align with Google’s top-quality standards. Call us today: 203.307.5107

As a bonus, we’ve included a quick “Black Hat” glossary below:

• Cloaking: presenting different content or URLs to search engines and users
• Doorways: or doorway pages, creating low-quality content pages purely for search engines and users.
• Hacked content: Hacking content typically refers to material, articles, or resources related to hacking activities or cybersecurity. It can include tutorials, guides, tools, or discussions about hacking techniques, vulnerabilities, and ways to exploit them. However, it’s important to note that hacking for malicious purposes is illegal and unethical. 
• Keyword stuffing: overusing keyword on a webpage in an unnatural way in an attempt to manipulate search engines.
• Hidden text and links: Hiding links and text in a way that they can be seen by search engines but not by users.
• Linked spam: Refers to a type of spamming activity that involves the excessive posting of links to websites or web pages in various online platforms. The purpose of linked spam is usually to manipulate search engine rankings or drive traffic to specific websites for promotional or malicious reasons.
• Machine Generated Traffic: Machine-generated traffic refers to website visits, clicks, or interactions that are artificially generated by automated scripts or bots rather than real human users. This type of traffic is often used for various purposes, including:
  • Fraudulent activities
  • Click fraud
  • DDoS attacks
  • Scraping and data harvesting
  • Spamming and comment bots
• Malware: Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any software specifically designed to harm, exploit, or gain unauthorized access to computer systems, networks, or devices. Types of malware attacks:
  • Infecting systems
  • Stealing information
  • Ransom attacks
  • Botnets
  • Ad fraud
• Misleading functionality: Misleading functionality refers to a deceptive or dishonest practice in software or digital products where certain features, buttons, or functionalities are designed to mislead or trick users into taking actions they did not intend or understand. Examples of misleading functionality may include:
  • Dark Patterns
  • Hidden Charges
  • Misleading Permission
  • Fake Warnings
  • Bait-and-Switch
• Scraped content: Refers to information or data that has been automatically extracted, copied, or “scraped” from websites or digital sources using automated tools or bots. This practice involves using software scripts to navigate web pages, collect data, and store it for various purposes.
• Sneaky redirect: Also known as a deceptive redirect, is a manipulative technique used in web development where a website or webpage redirects users to a different page or website without their knowledge or explicit consent. The redirect often takes users to a destination they didn’t intend to visit, and it can be used for various deceptive purposes.
• Autogenerated spam: Refers to unsolicited and often irrelevant or low-quality content that is automatically generated by software, bots, or scripts without any human involvement. This type of spam is commonly used to flood websites, blogs, forums, and other online platforms with large volumes of content, usually for malicious purposes or to manipulate search engine rankings.

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