Will Google Rank your AI written content? Or will it penalize it?

Of course, with the huge amount of AI-created content, the question of the day is: where does Google stand on this? Will Google let content written by Tools like ChatGPT or Jasper rank in search results?

I won’t leave you in suspense or make you read through paragraph after paragraph before I give you the answer:

No need to worry, Google will treat AI-created content the same as any other written or created from A to Z by humans.

In short, this means that if you use AI to create high-quality content, it will indeed rank highly in search engines.

And you can assume with Google updates that at some point generic, spammy content will be penalized. Or at least will rank low.

To expand on this, I explain the following points about Google’s attitude towards AI content

1. Google will rank AI created content in its Search Results
2. Can Google detect AI created content?
3. How will it treat spammy AI content
4. What does Google consider to be AI content of quality?
5. Further tips on how to create high quality AI content

Google will rank AI created content in its Search Results.

There was some ambiguity here and there as to what exactly Google thought about AI written content. But as of Wednesday, 8 February 2023, Google has released a crystal-clear statement about it:

   At Google, we’ve long believed in the power of AI to transform the ability to deliver helpful information. In this post, we’ll share more about how AI-generated content fits into our long-standing approach to show helpful content to people on Search.

Rewarding high-quality content, however it is produced

Google’s ranking systems aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates qualities of what we call E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. We share more about this in our How Search Works site.

Our focus on the quality of content, rather than how content is produced, is a useful guide that has helped us deliver reliable, high quality results to users for years. 

Read the full post here

So, as I wrote in my intro: Google will rank AI-created content in its search results. And treat it like content written/created by humans.

Quality and answering the question/need of your audience will come first in this as the most important factors.

At the moment, Google will not directly penalize spammy AI content either (although this may change over time). But does indicate that content whose primary “purpose of manipulating ranking in search results” is against its policy. 

So in short, high worthy content will rank high, bad content will rank low. And this principle is no different from what Google has been doing for years, since there has also been a stream of human-created content that tried to manipulate search results.

Can Google detect AI created Content?

The nuanced answer is: yes and no. Frustrating huh 😉 And let me explain with this: Google’s algorithms are already experienced in detecting the older AI versions, namely GPT1 and GPT2 (this is the machine on which AI tools are built). Tools like ChatGPT and Jasper use the latest version, GPT3. 

And Google is currently not perfect at sniffing out content created with that latest AI version.

As a result, many content creators now see their chance to flood the internet with AI-generated content whose quality is questionable.

Google tries to counter this by continuously adjusting its algorithms and using the SpamBrain method. This has been used before to find, for example, spammy and bought backlinks on websites.

How will it treat Spammy AI Content?

In short: basically exactly as it did with bad, spammy human-generated content: low rankings or even no listing at all in the search results.

Google will treat AI Content the same way: if your content offers quality and answers your audience’s question or need, then you have nothing to worry about. Then Google will not care whether it is created by an AI or human.

In all honesty, this is a bit too easy to say in my opinion. Because as you read in the paragraph above, Google cannot yet find and recognise all AI-generated content. It itself admits that it is playing a “cat and mouse game” with AI content creators and AI tools.

And as we are currently seeing, the internet is flooded with AI generated content. Many of the creators are benevolent and use it to increase their productivity, for example, but at the same time continue to offer quality. But there are also plenty of creators who take the easier route and don’t have quality in their minds.

What does Google consider AI Content of Quality?

A big reason why Google includes AI content in its search results is because it has come to realise its value.

Take, for instance, certain statistics and figures that are automatically updated using AI, such as weather reports and sports results. Or transcribing spoken words to written text, AI has greatly improved its quality. And as someone myself who did a little bit of transcribing on the side and hating it, I can see the value in this as well.

These are examples of AI content that Google sees as valuable.

To ensure that your AI content is quality according to Google, you only need to follow the E-E-A-T guidelines.

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. See this link for more info. In short, the bottom line is that your information in your content provides value, is true and is written/generated for humans and not search engines.

Further Tips on creating High quality AI content

The E-E-A-T guidelines already give you an idea of what your AI-generated content needs to meet to rank high in Google. But here are a few more tips you can take away:

• Always have the needs and questions of your audience in your mind. Can you offer the answer?
• Offer genuine value in your content
• Always factcheck AI generated content. Is the information factually true? And remember: AI tools aren’t infallible themselves. Some information may be outdated or just plain wrong
• Check your content for authenticity. Does it come across as genuine and humane? Or like a faulty chatbot? You can use apps like https://writer.com/ai-content-detector/ to help you with this and edit your content accordingly
• Keep using your own personal branding (or that of your staff) with your content. People will resonate more with seeing an actual human face underneath a piece of content. And won’t like it that much if they see ‘written by AI’ 
• AI can be excellent for improving your productivity, but still take your time to create quality piece of content. Such as a high ranking blog.
• Use AI Tools as a valuable extra asset, for instance when doing keyword research.

Conclusion

So basically, you can create as much AI content as you want and expect it to be included in search results.

As long as Google sees that you offer value and quality to your audience and you stick to the E-E-A-T guidelines.

And remember: Google itself is basically an AI Tool.