Does AI Generated Content Hurt SEO?
With the rise of AI, many people are asking, can I use AI to write my blog posts, and will using AI generated content hurt my SEO?
As the creator of an AI blogging tool for Shopify, I frequently get asked if using AI generated content will negatively affect SEO for Shopify stores.
The answer to this question is complicated, but the short summary is that AI generated content does not inherently hurt your SEO. As long as you provide real value through your blog posts, it does not matter if they are AI generated.
What we know
Using Google’s official guidance on this, we know that SEO rewards high-quality content, regardless of how it was produced. This follows practically the same set of rules and logic under the hood as it did before AI generated content became huge, which all hinges on creating content on your website that meet’s the “EEAT” criteria (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). In detail, this means that your content should ideally:
- Demonstrate deep knowledge of the blog post topic (Expertise)
- Include real-world knowledge, personal input, anecdotes, or experiences (Experience)
- Come from an authoritative source, e.g. people link back to your content, and your content cites reputable sources (Authority)
- Is the content accurate, safe, and reliable? (Trustworthiness)
What does this mean for AI generated content?
As long as your AI generated content provides real value to the reader, as per the explained “EEAT” criteria, it will benefit your website’s SEO. The mistake that many people make though is using AI to generate low value content. For example, if you ask ChatGPT to just simply write you a blog post about “snowboards” with no other information, it will likely create a blog post that, while at face value looks good, provides no real value because it presents no new information or unique spin on the topic. This is where an AI blogging tool like our AI Blog Agent app can shine because it has features under the hood such as:
- Featuring your website, product collections, and products in your blog posts to add internal links and make the blog content unique to your store.
- Use your product descriptions and website content when writing the blog posts, for once again a unique twist on your AI generated writing that will be unique to your store.
- Optimised prompt engineering, such as requesting to include or exclude certain phrases or keywords, to create a more unique and readable blog post.
- The ability to customise the prompt and behaviour of the AI agent, to better suit your store and content strategy.
Does it matter for SEO if my content is human written?
Since Google gives SEO rankings to high-quality content, regardless of whether it is written by a human or AI, the answer is no. As long as your content is valuable and meet’s the EEAT criteria, as explained above, you will see SEO benefits, even if it’s AI generated. In saying that though, a human touch can help elevate the value from your AI generated blog post even further, more on that below.
How do I improve my AI generated content for SEO?
As we discussed above, simply asking ChatGPT or another LLM to write you a blog post with no further supplied information will produce a low quality blog post that will not perform well for SEO, but there are simple tricks to help turn your AI generated blogging into high value content that performs better in Google rankings, here are a few ideas:
- Add references to your own website or content: A personal touch to your blog posts will make your more unique, our app AI Blog Agent does this automatically for Shopify stores, by featuring products and other web pages from the website.
- Write in a unique voice for your brand: Instead of just letting your AI write your blog post in any format or tone, tell it what tone and formatting to use so that it best aligns with your branding and makes your content unique. You can even supply an example of your writing to the AI model to emulate.
- Add your own personal touches: Once your AI has generated a blog post for you, edit the blog post yourself and add your own personal anecdotes, experiences, or information.
- Avoid buzzwords: Certain keywords or topics will hurt your SEO if used (ironically for the same reasons I cannot list them on this blog post), optimise your AI prompt by asking the AI to avoid them.
- Fact check the AI content: Trustworthiness is important for SEO. If your blog post cites any facts, double check them yourself, and if possible add citation links to your blog post.
So in conclusion, AI generated content does not hurt your SEO as long as your create high value writing following the EEAT principles (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). If you are a Shopify merchant looking to create SEO-optimised articles that drive traffic to your Shopify store, consider taking a look at our AI autoblogging app, AI Blog Agent.
