We are seeing AI technology appear in more areas of our everyday lives.

Self-driving cars are getting more attention. Our phones can respond to text messages for us. Even auto-generated customer service responses seem like we’re talking to real human beings. How does this technology change the game when it comes to writing content for your website, blog, or even your ad copy? 

Google has always been very clear regarding its stance for using AI as it pertains to writing content, specifically in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) space — it doesn’t like it. Google has a history of penalizing websites with low-quality or auto-generated content, and as AI content has always fallen into both of these categories, it makes sense that Google would be against it.

However, more recently, things have changed. In today’s world of AI-generated content, the quality can now be very high. For marketers, this can offer a lot of benefits. As AI facilitates better content with relevant headlines and more advanced suggestions, a lot of writing tasks can be automated or sped up, which frees up time for other tasks and research. 

Where does Google stand on these improvements? 

Google’s position on AI has shifted over the last year or so. Google had never been a supporter of automatically generated content, but we can see a huge change in its stance from April of 2022 to now. Last April, Google guidelines recommended completely avoiding automatically generated content. Now those guidelines state that AI-generated content is OK to use as long as it is not intended to manipulate search engine rankings, which, let’s face it, is the first thing companies typically think about when thinking about SEO.

Long story short — AI no longer has to be avoided. Now, it’s the “spammy automatically-generated content” that should be avoided. This means that, as long as you are writing for your customer — and not for the search engines — you will likely meet Google’s guidelines.

That said, keep in mind that AI-written content can easily fall into the “spammy” category if one uses these kinds of tools ineffectively and to generate content without having the user in mind. 

These are Google’s current guidelines. They are definitely clear on what to avoid when using AI-generated content:

Spammy automatically generated (or "auto-generated") content is content that's been generated programmatically without producing anything original or adding sufficient value; instead, it's been generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users. Examples of spammy auto-generated content include:

• Text that makes no sense to the reader but contains search keywords
• Text translated by an automated tool without human review or curation before publishing
• Text generated through automated processes without regard for quality or user experience
• Text generated using automated synonymizing, paraphrasing, or obfuscation techniques
• Text generated from scraping feeds or search results
• Stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding sufficient value

Danny Sullivan, Google adviser, also made it clear back in November 2022 that it’s not against Google’s policy to use AI in order to generate content, as long as the output is written for people and not only for search engines.

Danny tweeted: “We haven’t said AI content is bad. We’ve said, pretty clearly, content written primarily for search engines rather than humans is the issue. That’s what we’re focused on. If someone fires up 100 humans to write content just to rank, or fires up a spinner, or an AI, same issue.”

He also noted: “I’m not sure if AI is how we would go about making titles, headlines or descriptions, but I do think it’s a great way to gather ideas or inspiration. We would strongly discourage blindly using AI as a means to ‘make your job easier.’” 

Does Google have the technology to detect if content is AI-generated? 

Here’s a related article that helps to answer that question: Can Google detect generated AI content? 

It seems like it may have been able to do this at one point in time, and maybe it still can to some extent, but as this technology advances and becomes more and more human-like, it is going to get increasingly harder for Google to detect.

Although, it seems like this may not be a problem Google cares too much about solving. At the end of the day, Google doesn’t care if the content is created by a human being or not, as long as it’s created for humans. Thankfully, Google has been very clear on how to achieve this, inviting you to keep in mind the following:

• Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
• Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
• Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
• After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they've learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
• Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they've had a satisfying experience?
• Are you keeping in mind our guidance for core updates and for product reviews?

If you focus on the above questions, you should be safe no matter what. 

Where does this leave us? 

Google’s stance on AI-generated content has very clearly shifted over the years. While Google used to consistently penalize those who used AI, this practice now seems to be a thing of the past. These days, it seems that the only AI that Google dislikes is the spammy, keyword-stuffed jargon that aims to please search engines more than people.

All in all, we aren’t against this technology by any means. It’s a great tool, but remember that it’s just that — a tool. It’s great to use for inspiration or ideas, but if you’re using it to rank in search and shortcut writing for real people, Google says you’re using it for the wrong reasons and you risk being penalized.

P.S. This article was not written by AI.

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About the authors: Carter Harkins and Taylor Hill are the authors of Blue Collar Proud: 10 Principles for Building a Kickass Business You Love and the owners of Spark Marketer, a "no bull" digital marketing company that’s been getting sh*t done for home service businesses across the nation for a decade. They’re trusted thought leaders in the industries they serve, which is why you’ll find them regularly speaking at service industry trade shows and conferences and writing for trade magazines. Tired of empty promises and ready for focused digital marketing and balls-to-the-wall dedication that gets your business seen? Visit www.sparkmarketer.com.