Should You Use AI Copy for SEO? Here’s What You Need to Know

Fun fact: More than 80% of marketers worldwide use some form of artificial intelligence (AI) in their digital marketing efforts. The question for marketers like you is: should you use AI copy for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts?

The short answer is no. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use AI altogether for your SEO and content marketing efforts.

There are clever ways to use AI for content marketing and copywriting without negatively impacting your SEO. This blog post will discuss the following topics:

• What is AI-generated content?
• Should I use AI copy for SEO?
• How to use AI writing tools for SEO

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What is AI-generated content?

AI-generated content is any content created by AI using prompts from a human user. A prompt is the task description a human gives an AI to produce an output or content.

Some AI writing tools include:

• ChatGPT
• Jasper
• Copy.ai
• Rytr

Businesses with limited marketing budgets have taken advantage of these tools to generate copy for lower costs compared to hiring SEO professionals and copywriters. This may not be a good idea, as discussed in the next section.

What’s the Difference Between Generative AI vs. Predictive AI vs. Machine Learning?

Should I use AI copy for SEO?

The short answer is no, for various reasons:

• AI can’t create copy based on human experiences
• AI content isn’t unique and helpful
• AI content needs humans’ expertise to check for inaccurate, harmful or biased content, and plagiarism
• Intellectual property laws surrounding generative AI are not established

Let’s discuss each point below.

AI can’t create copy based on human experiences

While search engine giant Google won’t automatically penalize you for using AI-generated content, it underscored the importance of original, high-quality content to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs) in its guidance on AI content.

What is considered high-quality content, then? According to Google, it must showcase E-E-A-T:

• Expertise
• Experience
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

That said, AI-generated content may not help your SEO because it isn’t high-quality enough. Without expertise and experience, AI can’t create copy that sets your business apart from your competitors.

For example, let’s say you’re in the business of interior design, specializing in small home spaces and condo units. If you use an AI tool to write a blog post about storage solutions, it can generate a piece with sound advice based only on the content it was trained with.

However, AI cannot create content based on your interior designers’ unique experiences and expertise. This leads us to our next point.

AI content isn’t unique and ‘helpful’

As AI becomes ubiquitous, your competitors will also use this technology for SEO. If you use AI content as your final blog post, your content will look exactly like your competitors’, merely summarizing key points already available online.

This makes your content less valuable to your target audience and to search engines like Google, which rolled out the Helpful Content update in 2022. Google’s Helpful Content update is an algorithm change that aims to deliver search users more relevant and helpful information that answers their queries.

This algorithm change emphasizes the importance of demonstrating first-hand experience in your content, prompting you to ask yourself these questions:

• Are you mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value?
• Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise from having actually used a product or service or visiting a place)?

AI content lacks first-hand expertise, so you need to edit and add your input to an AI-generated copy to rank in SERPs.

AI content needs humans’ expertise to check for inaccurate, harmful or biased content, and plagiarism

AI may produce misleading or inaccurate information, so it still needs humans to check for accuracy. For one, ChatGPT is trained with information published from 2021 and older as of this writing, so it may not generate content with the latest information.

ChatGPT and other AI tools also encourage users to check for harmful and biased content, and provide feedback to avoid generating such pieces. AI-generated content is based on existing content from which it was trained, so it may put you at risk of plagiarism.

For these reasons, relying on AI alone to produce your website copy for your SEO efforts may put your business at risk for publishing incorrect or biased information, or plagiarizing someone else’s work.

Intellectual property laws surrounding generative AI are still being established

Because AI is a relatively new technology, regulations around its use still need to be finalized. In a way, AI creates some form of derivative work based on the content it has learned from.

While rules and regulations are still in the works, it’s best for businesses to use AI cautiously to avoid risking reputation damages in the future.

How to use AI writing tools for SEO

Keep in mind that AI tools are not meant to — and cannot — replace human creativity. AI is merely a tool that can help you streamline your process and assist your SEO team.

You must not use AI-generated copy as the final product you’ll publish on your website, as these pieces of content lack expertise and first-hand experience.

AI-generated copy might not help you rank in SERPs, but that’s not to say you can’t use AI for SEO copywriting. Is AI content good for SEO? Not without help, but there are ways to go about using AI for SEO safely:

• Use AI to suggest content ideas and create blog post outlines.
• Prompt your AI tool to generate a list of FAQs.
• Fact-check, edit, and add to AI-generated content.
• Use AI tools to proofread your copy before publishing.

You can also use AI SEO tools (or AI SEO services) to gather insights from your campaigns’ performance and improve your strategies.

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You won’t be automatically penalized for using AI for SEO. However, AI-generated content is typically low-quality and doesn’t offer new value to your audience. As a result, the AI-generated content won’t likely help your SEO.

What you can do instead is to use AI as a content marketing assistant. If you need help with your SEO efforts, you can turn to WebFX.

We’re a full-service digital marketing agency with over 28 years of experience in 200+ industries. We’ve delivered over $6 billion revenue for our clients. That’s the expertise that no AI can recreate.

We create results-driven SEO strategies backed by data and focused on growing our customers’ revenue. Our team is excited to learn about your business and SEO goals, and drive results that grow your bottom line.

Contact us online or call us at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our SEO services!