Is AI-generated content good or bad for SEO?

AI tools like ChatGPT have already begun to revolutionize industries. One of the most significant impacts it's having is on SEO. Creating headings, taglines, and whole articles can be done within minutes. But as Jay Acunzo put it on LinkedIn, 

"Using ChatGPT to produce whole articles for you is like buying McDonald's, throwing out the containers, and serving it on your nicest dinnerware to guests." 

AI-generated content has been touted as a way to save time and reduce business costs, but people believe it produces garbage content. Who's right? I think the answer is somewhere in the middle. So, let's look at AI-generated content's impact on SEO.

Is AI-generated content good?

On the one hand, AI-generated content can quickly provide businesses with a high volume of content, leading to increased website traffic and potentially improved SEO. Additionally, AI-generated content can help companies target specific keywords and phrases more efficiently.

On the other hand, AI-generated content may not be as valuable or engaging as content written by humans, potentially leading to a negative impact on SEO. Search engines, such as Google, prioritize high-quality content that provides value to users. Suppose AI-generated content lacks depth, relevance, and authenticity. In that case, search engines may not consider it valuable and rank it lower on SERPs.

Several studies have examined the impact of AI-generated content on SEO. A study conducted by MarketMuse analyzed over 20,000 articles and found that AI-generated content ranked higher on SERPs than human-written content for specific keywords. However, the study also found that human-written content outperformed AI-generated content in terms of engagement metrics, such as time on page.

Another study conducted by Fractl found that AI-generated content had lower engagement metrics and received fewer social shares than human-written content. The study also found that AI-generated content lacked originality and failed to provide unique insights or perspectives, which makes sense since AI isn't at a place of generating new thoughts or ideas. It's only regurgitating information that's already on the internet.

Does Google know when blog content is generated by AI?

Yes, Google can detect when content is generated by AI. Google uses advanced algorithms to analyze the quality of the content and determine its authenticity. While AI-generated content can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from content written by humans, Google's algorithms are designed to identify patterns that may indicate that the content was created using automated processes.

It is worth noting that Google doesn't necessarily penalize websites for using AI-generated content as long it's high-quality and provides value to users. However, businesses should be cautious about relying too heavily on AI-generated content.

Conclusion

In conclusion, posting AI-generated content can positively and negatively impact SEO. While AI-generated content can help businesses quickly produce a large volume of content and target specific keywords, it may not be as engaging or valuable as human-written content. As such, businesses should consider the pros and cons of AI-generated content before incorporating it into their SEO strategies. 

In my opinion, the best strategy would be a hybrid approach where a content creator leverages AI to structure and analyze their content based on SEO parameters but write individual sentences to incorporate their voice and tone to make the content engaging for their readers.