If you’re a web design agency, an online business, an SEO expert, a PR company, copywriter or journalist, over the past three months you’ve probably been asking yourself the million dollar question ‘Should I use AI to create website content?‘.
We asked Ben Williams from OutReachPro, a leading website monetisation company who create SEO content for link building and content marketing) to give us the low-down:
As technology continues to advance, businesses are constantly looking for ways to automate their processes and increase efficiency. One such area where automation is being considered is in the creation of website content. However, the question remains – should you use AI to write website content? While AI-generated content may seem like a quick and easy solution, the truth is that human-generated content is still the best option for SEO. Here’s why.
First and foremost, search engines are getting smarter at detecting AI-generated content. While the idea of using AI to churn out blog posts and website copy may seem appealing, the truth is that search engines are now more adept at detecting when content is generated by machines.
There is increasing talk of AI watermarks to prevent the internet becoming an ever expanding sea of auto-generated content. Even now, if search engines detect that your website is using AI-generated content, it can result in penalties and a lower search rankings. In fact, Google has explicitly stated that it penalises websites that use automated content generation.
Interestingly, as incredible as Chat GPT is, our staff members were able to easily detect which content had been produced by AI. They were presented with 20 pieces of content on similar subjects, ten of them having been written by AI. They each picked out all 10 AI pages.
It may be a small sample, and AI’s intelligence grows every day, but AI content is still rather formulaic. In the future, it’s almost beyond doubt that AI will be able to culture very human looking content (maybe even better than humans). However, right now, in this moment, there’s still ‘something wooden about it’.
Another factor to consider is the quality of the content itself. AI-generated content may be able to produce a large volume of content in a short amount of time. Although it often (currently) lacks the creativity and nuance that comes from human writing.
Human writers can better understand the tone, voice, and style of your brand and create content that speaks directly to your target audience. They can also inject their own unique perspective and expertise into their writing, which can help establish your website as a thought leader in your industry.
Moreover, human-generated content is more likely to engage your audience. Visitors to your website are more likely to stay longer and engage with your content when it is well-written, informative, and engaging. By contrast, AI-generated content can often come across as impersonal. This can turn off potential customers and hurt your website’s overall engagement metrics. Again, this will change in time, but the robots haven’t taken over just yet.
Beyond any ethical debate, there’s a sea of incredible copywriters and journalists out there, waiting to assist you with your content. You can continue to support them by exploiting their services. Check out the Directory of Journalists and Writers to hire brilliant writers at really competitive rates.
Remember that all AI content is generated from machine learning of what has previously been created by humans. It is definitely not the time for creativity to cease.
As mentioned above, finding a writer who can understand your brand voice, and can hit the right tone for your audience, is worth the extra time spent crafting something truly unique.
One of the big arguments for using AI to write website content is the time saving potential. Whilst it’s true that Chat GPT and Bard can spit out content in seconds, it’s worth asking if that time saving is worthwhile.
Even if you decide to use AI, to get the most out of it, you’ll need someone who understands content, brand, tone, etc, to instruct the chatbot. After the content has been spat out, then comes the time spent editing and perfecting the content.
If the content is not right, and requires heavy editing, or if it misses the mark completely, then the time savings quickly deminish. In addition, if it actually hurts your website’s SEO score, you’ll be paying for those time savings later down the line.
Human generated content creation doesn’t need to be as expensive as you might think. For example, Case Study Link showcases a pool of freelance content writers and journalists, all available to take on commissions. Since they are all professional writers and trained journalists, they can all deliver content at high speed, to tight deadlines, and at competitive rates. They will bid to deliver your content at the lowest price. Hence you can be sure to job is being done at the lowest rate.
Should I use AI to create website content? In conclusion, while AI-generated content may seem like a tempting option, the reality is that human-generated content is still the best choice for SEO today. This may change in the not so distant future, but search engines are also getting better at detecting automated content.
Human-generated content is more likely to be engaging, creative, and effective at establishing your brand as an authority in your industry. So, if you want to boost your SEO and connect with your target audience, it’s best to stick with human-generated content.
