February 14, 2023
There has been a buzz in the tech world recently about including artificial intelligence in content creation. With the introduction of Google's AI chatbot Bard and OpenAI's ChatGPT, modern artificial intelligence is making headlines.
AI is making it simpler to create content, but it is yet unclear whether this will improve search engine rankings. Google, a leading search engine, remarked on the ongoing trend of AI in content.
Who, Why, and How in content
Google stated that it would continue to evaluate content using the three fundamental questions of who, why, and how. In the era of artificial intelligence, Google will only prioritise content that offers value and answers to search queries.
This three-question approach helps maintain a human touch in content creation. In a world where most of the tasks are automated with AI, it is crucial to maintain the human touch to ensure that the content remains meaningful and relevant to the end-user.
That's what Who, Why, and How symbolises
Who:
It's about finding out who the target audience is for your business and how the content is helping them. Every business should know before generating or writing content to rank on Google’s search engine.
Why:
Businesses need to understand why they are creating content and its main purpose. Content with an objective will rank high in Google's search results, as it is designed to impact the audience.
How:
It is important for businesses to know how the content will be created, distributed, and evaluated to ensure it is of high quality, accurate, and impactful for the target audience. The content generated by AI is not able to accomplish this intent.
By considering these three aspects, businesses can ensure content outperforms the algorithm to rank higher on the SERP (search engine result pages).
Google’s stance on AI-generated content
Google has been the torchbearer for the search engine industry, and it is nothing strange it impacts almost every online business. Google has always said that it favours content that addresses user needs over those created with a ranking in mind.
Google has consistently highlighted that content being prepared with the algorithm in mind is of less relevance. It has reaffirmed its guidelines for AI-generated content and emphasised the requirement for content that fulfils the user's purpose for visiting their search engine.
Just like every business, users have always remained a top priority for Google. For the same reason, the search engine giant will continue to support content written with a human touch to improve the user experience.
Google believes using AI in content should not kill human creativity, imagination, emotions, and empathy. This guideline focuses on the importance of engaging content that resonates with the relevant target audience.
Google on using AI-generated content
Google also said businesses and content creators could use AI to write better content as it can process creativity and advanced expressions, which is impossible with a human brain.
Many sectors can utilise AI to the fullest with their content needs. According to Google, automation has long been used to generate helpful content, such as sports scores, weather forecasts, and transcripts. In addition to giving accurate results, it saves businesses manpower for businesses.
Is AI content worth it?
Artificial intelligence is influencing every industry and becoming more popular in content creation, but it is essential to keep the human touch to ensure quality. Only manually written material makes it possible for businesses to provide value to users while keeping in mind their search intent.
If a business wants to connect with its existing users and reach more users with compelling content, choosing AI for content is not a great idea. Additionally, a business can benefit from choosing AI if it uses it to develop content innovatively to offer more context and information.
The real question is how Google will distinguish and determine whether the content is created using AI or Manually.
Moreover, whether the content is AI-based or not doesn't matter as long as it offers value to the users and fulfils their search intent on their platform.
FAQs on AI-generated content
Google also included all the vital information and important queries that can be asked about the AI content with the FAQ section. The following FAQs can help you understand its new guidelines:
- Is the use of AI content against Google search engine guidelines?
- Why isn't Google's search engine banning AI content?
- What measures will Google Search take to ensure low-quality AI content doesn't dominate search results?
- How will Google deal with AI material that can spread false information or deviate from the general agreement on critical problems?
- How can Google search detect if artificial intelligence is being used to influence results?
- Will AI content rank higher on SERPs?
- Should we use AI to generate content?
- Is it necessary to add author bylines to the content?
- Is there any need to add AI-generated content disclosure?
- Can I give credit to AI for writing the content?
Google does not limit the appropriate use of automation or artificial intelligence. A business that uses AI but matches user intent will get ranked. At the same time, if the content intends to manipulate the search results, Google will prohibit and mark the content as spam.
According to Google, the priority is user intention, and as long as automation is helping users with their queries, banning is impossible. And AI also helps create content in exciting and new ways that help users find desired results.
This is not a new challenge that Google is facing as, time and again, it prevents poor content from ranking higher. Google is constantly making improvements to prevent poor content from reaching the top, whether it is produced by AI or written by humans.
Whether the content is created by humans or artificial intelligence, this problem exists in all of it. Google’s system looks to surface quality content from reliable sources on critical topics. Reliability is utmost when the question is about critical importance, and Google only prefers trustworthy sources. It becomes even more important in vital industries like health, civic, and finance.
There are many systems like SpamBrain developed by Google to analyse patterns and signals to prevent spam content in search results.
AI-generated content will not give any special gains to the search results. If the content is worth the users' time and satisfies the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) parameter, it can rank higher in search.
It is not a great idea if a business is looking to rank higher just with AI-generated content. If businesses can create purposeful content with AI, they can consider it.
There are situations when readers think about who wrote this article or piece of content. It's a good idea to include bylines because they can enhance the content's value, help readers identify the author, and boost credibility. If the goal is to appear on the Google News section, bylines, and author information must be added.
The users can learn how the content is generated, which can be helpful. Although it is unnecessary, including it when required is a good approach.
Making it apparent that AI-generated content is beneficial, but adding human touch can be incredibly useful. Google recommends that giving AI the author byline is not the appropriate way.
