Copywriting with AI: does it damage your SEO?

Content Marketing | SEO

Who remembers Blockbuster Video? 

For those of you who are younger than me, in the 1990s if you wanted to rent a movie you would have to go to a physical shop and browse physical copies of videos.

Of course, video rental stores are now a thing of the past, streaming has revolutionised not just how we watch movies but all types of media. I think streaming is much more convenient. 

So, does technology make everything better? What about in the world of copywriting for instance?

It probably hasn’t escaped your notice, but in the world of marketing, AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the shiny new toy. Promising high-quality content for a tiny cost and generated in seconds, AI tools are being touted as a potential replacement for content writers and copywriters.

Will AI replace copywriters the way Netflix has replaced Blockbuster? 

Here’s what we think:

What is AI copywriting?

In its simplest terms, AI copywriting is generating a piece of writing using an AI tool, not a human.

These days you get so many tools and programs dedicated to producing copy artificially:

• Jasper AI
• StrategAI (I must admit, I love that name),
• Copy.ai
• Anyword,
• Wordtune,
• Copysmith
• ChatGPT

Artificial Intelligence is not actually intelligent! It doesn’t have a “brain”, it’s not a living, thinking being. It’s machine learning software. It is still just scanning existing data and language and pulling it together for you.

At the end of the day, someone somewhere has had to design a database and write a programme that can access and mine commonly used words and phrases, associated with a particular search or concept (within a set of parameters), and then use that to set up a new topic.

Now that is still incredibly clever and I’m certainly not knocking it, I could never have come up with something so incredible, and there’s no denying that these algorithms are amazing…but they are not “creating” content.

What about AI and SEO…is it damaging?

There is no easy answer to this.

It’s been a bit back and forth with Google on AI depending on who at Google is doing the talking on any given day. 

Originally, Google maintained that AI-generated content still fell within the category of “automatically generated” content and was therefore against the guidelines and would be taken down (John Muller – Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst and Search Relations team lead at Google).

Not long after that, Danny Sullivan (their Public Search Liaison) said “If the primary purpose of the content is for users, it shouldn’t fall afoul of our guidelines”. He added, “If it’s the best and most helpful content, then ideally we should be showing it.” This is in line with the aims of the Helpful Content Update.

One of the aims of March 2024’s Core Update was to stop people abusing AI. Google deindexed sites that were producing content at scale to boost search ranking.

But, it seems the aim was to stop spammy, poor-quality content, rather than AI-generated content in general.

I think Google is going for a middle-ground approach. It seems to recognise that AI tools are here to stay, but want to preserve the quality of information that it surfaces on its results pages.

So, making sure your AI tools don’t damage your SEO will depend on how you use them.

How can AI be combined with the copywriting services of a human copywriter?

Well, there are several effective strategies.

1. Helping writer’s block

Probably the most useful ones arise when it comes to helping with those creative juices! Writer’s block is very real and sometimes getting a few ideas from AI can be a great way to start you off. 

2. Saving time on a first draft of a paragraph

Similarly, AI can be a good tool to deploy on a first draft. However, keep in mind what I mentioned above. AI can only scan what is already out there.

It can also “hallucinate” (e.g. produce false results). It also doesn’t know you and your business, so may create content that isn’t relevant to you. 

If you use AI to generate any content you need to edit it – heavily. Add opinions, examples from your life and additional thoughts to support what you’re saying.

3. Troubleshooting

AI is great for diagnosing problems. You can ask AI to spell check, check grammar, check translation work and do other tasks that require a “second set of eyes”.  

4. Drafting blog outlines

You can use AI tools to draft outlines of your blog article. You can then edit them to make sure they fit with your opinion on the topic and add any additional information. 

Things copywriters need to be aware of

1. Blandness

AI can only draw on information that is already available online. If you are writing for something pretty run of the mill like a mobile phone company or a new lipstick…bear in mind that you don’t just want to regurgitate the same old same old with a bit more make-up on (pardon the pun). This is where you are never going to beat the originality factor, that you get with a good old-fashioned flesh-and-blood person.

2. Lack of industry-specific knowledge

Again, because AI only draws on information already out there, it cannot add any industry-specific insights that a human may have. Only a human being working within an industry can really make new observations or spot emerging trends.

3. Lack of competitor analysis

Often when writing blog articles you are looking to create content that is better than that of your competitors. AI will not do this automatically. You will still have to look at the results that come up for the keyword you’re targeting and check your content is surpassing it in quality. 

Will AI replace content writers and copywriters?

If you’re using AI responsibly, then no, AI will not replace content writers and copywriters.

When you use the copywriting services of a real person you get so much more:

• fluidity of language
• history
• analogy
• idioms
• poetry
• cultural and social relevancy
• storytelling ability
• sarcasm
• subtlety
• nuance
• creative flair & depth
• audience differentiation

…and humour. It might be bad humour depending on the copywriter (yes, I know my puns aren’t great) but at least the possibility is there!

That’s not to say that the copywriting services of AI cannot be useful in COMBINATION with real, human copywriters. They very much can. In fact, this is where AI really comes into its own.

AI should be a tool, not a substitute

AI can be really helpful as a tool to support your content creation. 

But the more heavily involved it is in the creation of that content, the more likely you are to suffer a Google penalty. Whilst Google currently do not have the ability to identify AI-generated content en masse, I have no doubt they will eventually.

AI will never replace human copywriters – for a piece to be truly helpful it will always require personalisation and an expert’s input. 

How much you utilise it is down to you. No doubt, pasting ChatGPT-generated blog articles onto your website will result in a penalty. But, using AI to complement and support your copywriting endeavours will probably not… at the moment.