Navigating the Debate Around AI Content & Google Rankings

As an SEO, you’re always looking for creative ways to produce high-quality website content efficiently. Lately, you’ve been intrigued by Debate Around AI content creation tools like ChatGPT that can generate blog posts, product descriptions, and more in seconds. It seems like a game-changer.

But you have some concerns about using AI content, mainly:

Will Google punish my site if I use content generated by AI?
Should I explicitly label AI content to be transparent with search engines and visitors?

Let’s dive into the debate around AI content and how Google handles it. While the long-term impact remains uncertain, we’ll analyze the current best practices around using and optimizing AI content.

How Does Google Currently Treat AI Content?

The surge in AI content creation has sparked plenty of speculation about whether Google will penalize it. So far, Google has sent mixed signals, likely because they are still evaluating the technology and formulating policies.

Currently, there is no evidence Google is broadly demoting or banning AI content. As Google’s Danny Sullivan recently commented, “Using AI to generate content does not violate our guidelines.”

But that doesn’t necessarily mean all machine-generated content is treated equally by Google:

Low-quality, thin, or purely spammy AI content likely ranks poorly as it doesn’t satisfy Google’s standards for E-A-T (Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness). Unique, high-quality content still has an advantage.
Sites that suddenly shift to purely AI content with no human oversight may be viewed as suspect and potentially trying to “game” the system. Moderation is encouraged.
Heavily keyword-stuffed content solely aimed at ranking doesn’t perform as well, whether AI-generated or not. The focus is still on the human searcher.

So quality AI content that provides real value to visitors is likely treated similarly to human-written content by current Google standards.

But the situation remains fluid as Google learns more about these emerging tools.

Should You Label AI Content? The Pros and Cons

Since AI content is relatively new and untested, many have called for content generated using tools like ChatGPT to be explicitly labeled as such.

Pros

Promotes transparency and discloses the content production process to users. This builds user trust.
Gets ahead of any potential future penalties from Google for failing to disclose. Shows good faith.
Helps Google improve its understanding of AI content to refine ranking treatment.
Allows Google to detect AI content at scale to track its impact on search quality. Speeds policy development.

Cons

No current evidence labeling is needed. Could be premature optimization that overthinks the issue.
Potentially flags content to Google for increased scrutiny that may otherwise be treated neutrally.
Adds clutter to the user experience with technical disclaimers.
No consensus yet on best practices for labeling AI content. Lack of standards.

So whether to label AI content or not remains a tricky judgment call. Given the lack of penalties right now, some make the case to hold off while monitoring closely for any algorithm shifts. Others prefer to label proactively to get ahead of the issue.

How To Optimize AI Content For Search Rankings?

Unless Google issues firm guidance, optimizing AI content is largely similar to human-written pages. Here are some tips:

Focus on creating useful, one-of-a-kind content that solves searchers’ needs. Don’t just churn out generic, forgettable pages.
Supplement machine-generated base text with original analysis, images, examples, etc. to improve uniqueness.
Ensure proper grammar, sentence structure, and formatting. AI can make mistakes. Always polish the output.
Include natural links to internal and external authoritative resources. Citations lend credibility.
Monitor engagement metrics like dwell time. Refine content based on real user signals.
If labeling, do it in a natural way that adds value vs. distracts from the content.
Follow Google’s quality guidelines – EAT, fulfilling searcher intent, mobile-friendly, etc.