What is Google's latest stand on AI generated content?

Read time: 3.5 minutes

If I got one dollar for every time I answered this question in the last 1year, I would have retired on a Seychelles beach already.

‘Will AI-generated content rank on Google?‘

With all honesty, when ChatGPT was launched for the public, I had no clue how to answer this question.

If you have followed me for some time now, you’d know I do not create content with the sole intent to get views. I create content on topics I am confident about and I have some experience in using them.

AI-generated content is still a new animal.

I have not come across any website that has gained ranking on the back of AI-generated content and is able to sustain it.

This may change in future as Google makes its stand clear on machine-generated content:

Garry Illyes a senior analyst at Google recently said this in Pubcon (Pubcon is a multi-track educational conference that highlights the future of technology. The conference features hundreds of the world's best technology speakers).

Google also said something along similar lines in January this year:

Google is known for being dynamic in its stand on multiple things when it comes to SEO.

But Garry’s statement is much clearer on AI-generated content.

In my opinion, AI tools are great for generating content ideas and generating a broad framework of the content you want to write, but I always push my team to edit the AI-generated content and make it more personalised towards the brand, product and human emotion you want to tap into.

This is Big for SEOs.

The internet will further be bombarded with AI-generated content and with Google’s generative AI response, SEOs will have to aim to appear in the Generative AI box to get consistent organic traffic.

Hence SEOs will have to make an effort to stand out in AI-generated content and will also use top-notch SEO best practices in order to rank in the Generative AI box.

The good news however is, that the results Google is showing in the Generative AI box are not necessarily pulled from the first or second-ranked website.

Have a look at the below example:

I searched for: ‘What are the benefits of watermelon‘

Here is what Generative AI response looked like:

If you notice the three websites on the right side of the screen are not the 1st, 2nd or 3rd ranked websites if I scroll down to organic listings.

The top-ranking website is nehealth which is not part of Generative AI results.

In fact, Cleverland ranks in 7th position, Good Housekeeping ranks in 5th and health(.)com ranks in 8th position.

This is a trend in almost every search I do.

The websites that write content in a conversational tone and follow the technical SEO best practices are taking the real estate on the Generative AI box.

Now, since Google has made its stand clear, SEOs will get more comfortable using AI-generated content.

I also feel that this doesn’t change anything in the life of an SEO.

They still have to follow the SEO best practices, they still have to do their research, and they still have to ensure their website is in great shape with respect to SEO friendliness.

Yes, the timelines of delivery may reduce as content writers are not needed to write the content from scratch hence the delivery timelines will reduce.

I have a strong feeling that websites that create content for various formats and will follow Google search essential guidelines will be the winners.

You have to create textual, video, and image-based content for Google to rank your webpage on a variety of searches. And the websites that will invest in creating comprehensive content pages with varied formats will be the winners.

So the takeaway for you with today’s newsletter is:

Use AI to generate SEO content but ensure it is written in a conversational tone with the right mix of keywords, it should follow your brand narrative, it should have your product placement with internal links, and use various formats.

That’s it for today, folks!

If you like today’s newsletter, here are some useful links for you:

E-book: Breaking down Marketing, a collection of my all-time most-read 25 newsletters: https://nas.io/apurv/mqvc

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Have an awesome Sunday ahead!

Cheers,

Apurv