The Remarkable Pros and Cons of Using AI Content for SEO
Artificial intelligence (AI) content continues to gain popularity among content creators, and marketers as new AI tools enter the market.
Content writers must ensure that their content ranks in search engines, but are AI content assistants effective for search engine optimization (SEO)? It is a question that elicits an endless debate among those for and against AI content.
What is AI Content?
AI content generation means that a machine creates content for you. When you use an AI writing assistant, you can create quality content within minutes.
The tool can assist in creating different types of content, including blog posts, product descriptions, newsletters, social media posts, eBooks, and email marketing materials.
Other features included in practically every competitive AI writing tool on the market are:
- Generate content ideas,
- Check grammar and spelling, and
- Create images to support your content.
How AI Content Generation Works
When using AI writing software, you decide the type of content you want to generate and feed this information within the tool to produce personalized content.
As a user, you start by selecting the type of content (blog post, product description, etc.) and providing a brief description of the writing assignment with relevant background information.
You may also provide target keywords and specify a tone for the article.
The AI software will generate content for you to choose from within a few seconds. The tools use published information on the web, combined with your specific query, to craft original content.
Does AI Content Rank on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP)?
Although Google’s policy considers AI-generated content spam, it’s not easy for the web giant to accurately pinpoint AI content.
The content must be well-written and meet the user’s search intent for it to be considered valuable.
SEMrush set out to test whether AI content can rank in Google search results. They used AI to create several pages without further optimizing the content (other than link building). Surprisingly, AI-generated content achieved some notable rankings on Google.
If proper SEO practices are followed, it’s possible that AI content can perform even better.
Pros of AI Content Generation
Online marketers and content creators must ensure their content ranks on search engines. Optimized, well-written content is critical to producing the intended results. This is where AI can help you.
Some advantages of using AI content include the following:
- Writing efficiency
- Search engine optimization
- Cost-effectiveness
- Generate ideas to overcome writer’s block
- Produce content in multiple languages
1. Writing Efficiency
AI writing tools produce content at high speed and are significantly faster than humans.
If you struggle with meeting content deadlines, an AI writing assistant can help you scale your content generation pipeline and put those worries behind you.
AI text generators also help you meet the speed-to-market requirement for seasonal events or trending topics. You’ll be able to target your audience with topics that are still relevant by churning out articles faster.
2. Search Engine Optimization
AI content generators search through thousands of documents on the web to identify the required information. They use deep learning models to determine the best keywords for SEO.
A typical AI content generator also has SEO tools integrated into the software. These tools can be helpful with keyword research, generating meta titles, formatting, writing descriptions, etc.
The tools can also check for on-page optimization. After generating the content, AI can provide insights into the keyword density and frequency, related keyword phrases, content quality and length, and heading tags. Reports about competitors and other sites producing similar content are also available, which can be used to further improve your content’s relevance.
3. Cost-Effectiveness
AI writing tools typically have a monthly subscription fee. You can produce hundreds of articles with an unlimited plan without incurring extra costs. You can post such content immediately or store it in a content bank for uploading when necessary.
When using human writers, the cost of content production will always vary based on the following:
- The number of articles
- Length of the articles
- Relevant technical knowledge, etc.
The costs can be outrageously high if you produce hundreds of articles monthly.
4. Generate Ideas to Overcome Writer’s Block
Struggling to get started? Writer’s block can lead to frustration, especially when deadlines are fast approaching.
AI content writers can understand the context of what you have written so far and continue writing from where you stopped.
The software can also help you develop content outlines from your seed ideas. You only enter the topics, instructions, and any keywords you want to include.
Once you enter all the instructions, your AI content generator will provide the content. Some may even give you 4 to 5 options from which to choose.
5. Produce Content in Multiple Languages
The biggest win when selling products is to connect with your audience. AI tools can help you identify and write using the perfect language variations for a specific market.
For instance, Some words in American English are different from British English. If you wrote your article for an American market but want to sell the same product in a British market, there’s no need to rewrite it. AI writing software allows you to simply localize language features like spelling, grammar rules, dialect, and tone.
Cons of AI Content Creation
Before signing up with the latest trending software, it’s good to understand the drawbacks of using AI content and its associated impact on SEO.
Some drawbacks of using AI content are
- Lack of emotions
- Low creativity
- Issues with quality and plagiarism
- Lack of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T)
1. Lack Of Emotions
AI does not have emotional intelligence. Therefore, it cannot understand human nuances to produce engaging and shareable content. As a result, your audience may fail to connect with your content.
Engagement is an essential metric in content marketing. You will only know what your customers want if the post generates the required engagement. If it doesn’t, your content will fail to achieve its intended purpose.
AI-generated content may also drift out of context. You will need to counter-check every few paragraphs to ensure the content remains relevant and attractive to humans.
Using human writers can help you generate engaging content that will help you achieve your goals.
2. Low Creativity
AI writes content by sourcing information from previously written material online. It cannot create its opinions or generate content based on entirely new information. Thus, AI can produce outdated content.
AI is dependent on the models it was trained on. Some of those are outdated and missing new industry developments. For instance, Jasper’s base training was last completed in 2019.
3. Issues With Quality and Plagiarism
AI content may sometimes sound bland and can contain grammatical errors. These two factors will significantly impact the quality of your content and negatively affect your SEO efforts.
Search engines always look for quality content to show to users. They only index content that provides value to searchers.
Because some AI tools rephrase previously written content from the web, there is a risk of producing plagiarized content. It is against Google’s guidelines to select content from various web sources and combine them without adding value. It is always advisable to run your AI-written content through plagiarism checkers.
4. Lack of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
With countless side hustles and business websites on the internet, readers expect you to showcase your expertise when writing about a particular subject. They will trust you if you understand the topic and add real-life examples based on your experience.
Google includes expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness in its guidelines. Your content can rank highly if you show that you are an authority leader in a given field.
AI tools can write detailed and informative content but rank low on the E-A-T guidelines. Therefore, your users and Google may not trust your content.
How to Use AI Content Generators
While it may have flaws, AI content is still beneficial to your website. You only need to find a way to use it without overly relying on it. If done correctly, you will enjoy the benefits of AI content.
For your AI content, ensure you:
Conduct manual content reviews: Check the writing style to ensure it sounds human. Human nuance will help connect with your audience. Also, check for errors in sentence structure and grammar. Check that the stated facts are correct and edit as needed.
Finally, run plagiarism checks and ensure your content is unique.
Customize the content: Add your industry knowledge to the content to make it trustworthy. You can influence your audience’s decision-making if they trust you. Show them you understand the subject by adding your unique viewpoints and experiences.
Weigh Options With AI Content Generators
Content marketers must connect with their audience. It means they should employ emotional intelligence and create content for the end users. Your content creation strategy should focus on providing your target audience with valuable content that solves their problems.
Use AI writing tools to speed up your content generation cycle and get over writer’s block. Before you publish, verify that your content makes sense, and don’t forget to give it a human touch.
Author Bio
Ash & Pri are the founders of AshandPri.com, where they empower readers to make smart money decisions across all aspects of life.
They launched their business about blogging in late 2021 after immense success in their 30s, and then scaled it up so quickly that they started to generate a consistent income stream within the first few months.
Their expert financial tips and advice are featured on sites like MSN, GoBankingRates, Forbes, Apartment Therapy, and many others.
